Page 20 of Lessons in Life

‘Whenever has your mother given you tinned soup?’ Jayden laughed, pulling Lola’s dark curls affectionately.

‘She does, you know,’ Lola confided in Fabian’s direction as Jess ushered us to our seats around the tiny table. Tiny it might be, but it was beautifully set with a snow-white cloth and starched linen napkins, cut-glass water tumblers and Jess’s best wine glasses.

‘Don’t blame her.’ Fabian grinned. ‘I love Heinz tomato soup. I became absolutely addicted to it, always opening tins and heating them up on the one single gas ring we were allowed at school.’

‘A gas ring at school?’ Lola appeared puzzled. ‘Like a Bunsen burner in the chemistry lab they have at the high school? I love science,’ she went on. ‘I’m going to be a research scientist when I leave school and help find a cure for Granny’s porphyria. Especially ifIend up getting it.’

‘Lola, enough.’ Jess shook her head. ‘Stop wittering or you’ll have to leave the table. We’ve let you join us for dinner, so try and act like a grown-up.’

‘I am,’ Lola protested, passing round a warm, fragrant focaccia studded with baby tomatoes. ‘I’m discussing my future career and accepting that, one day, I could end up with what Granny’s got. Illnesses often skip a generation, my teacher said. We’re doing all about diseases in science at school,’ she added. ‘Did you know?—?’

‘Lola, can someone else get a word in?’ Sorrel snapped in some exasperation. She’d not touched the bowl of soup Jess had placed in front of her but, at a look from Mum, she lifted her spoon.

‘This is wonderful,’ Fabian said after one mouthful. ‘There’s fennel?’

‘Well spotted.’

‘And you roasted the tomatoes?’

‘Yep. Is there any other way?’

‘No.’

Jess grinned across at Fabian, both locked into the secret language of dedicated foodies while the rest of us simply enjoyed the delicious taste of the soup in front of us.

‘So, Fabian, what do you think?’ Sorrel had put down her spoon, her soup only half eaten.

‘I think this is miles better than Heinz.’ Fabian smiled across at Sorrel.

‘No! About Joel.’

‘Sorrel!’ I warned. ‘Come on, leave it out. Let Fabian enjoy his dinner. He’s a barrister, not a solicitor…’

‘Actually, there’s no reason I couldn’t take on a case like this.’

‘Really?’ Sorrel’s pretty face lit up.

‘There’s something called Direct Access Portal,’ Fabian said. ‘In simple terms, it allows members of the public – for instance, Joel – to instruct a barrister directly on their behalf. I could represent Joel either in the magistrates’ court or, if his case ends up in the Crown court…’

‘Fabian,’ I tutted. ‘Don’t get her hopes up. You left London because you’d had enough of it all.’

‘No, I left London because of the awful barrage of abuse I went through defending Rupert Henderson-Smith. And…’ Fabian smiled, aware that the rest of us were all concentrating on his words but going ahead anyway ‘…because I fell in love with some woman who fell off the West End stage and returned to Yorkshire with a crook leg.’

‘Howisyour knee these days, Robyn?’ Jayden placed his soup spoon in his empty bowl but reached for more bread, chewing contemplatively as he waited for an answer. ‘You must want to get back to the West End? You’re like me. Performing’s in your blood.’

‘That would be funny, wouldn’t it?’ Lola put in. ‘Aunty Robyn back in London and Fabian up here in Yorkshire. A sort of swap.’

‘I miss it terribly,’ I admitted. ‘My knee is so much better now. But, you know, I’m nearly thirty. I’ve had almost six months away from the theatre. I can’t see any director taking me on when there’s young, fit, talented kids like Sorrel here waiting – literally – in the wings.’

‘Don’t give up on your dreams,’ Jayden warned. ‘I can’t see you permanently back here in the sticks, Robyn. And teaching, for heaven’s sake? Howanyonecan spend even one day in school after the age of sixteen is beyond me.’ He physically shuddered at the thought. ‘I don’t think I went in much after fourteen, to be honest. You’re made for better things, Robyn. You’re talented. Come on, don’t give up. Your knee will get better and you’ll be back in London and on the stage again.’

‘…And right bang in the middle of the most amazing gardens you’ve ever seen, is this beautiful, classically styled building. I just stood and stared, couldn’t do anything else.’

‘Sorry, Mum, where’s this? This garden?’ I realised Mum was holding forth with great enthusiasm about something, everyone else around the table – except Jayden and me – totally engrossed as she waxed lyrical.

‘At the back of Hudson House.’

‘Oh, the care home?’ I frowned. ‘There’s a garden behind it?’

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