Page 43 of Coming Home to Roseford Villas
It occurred to Leo that, apart from work, there was nothing, absolutely nothing, in his life any more. His family were still in Melbourne, he didn’t have a wife and he didn’t have a permanent base. His friends were all busy with families of their own, and there was no one in this country apart from Aunt Vi and Uncle Bryan, of course.
Which left him with a lot of time next week and nothing much to do with it. Perhaps he’d just cancel the leave and go back to work.God, how tragic, he thought. Andrew wouldn’t be happy, either, having made it clear that he thought Leo needed a break. Glancing at the clock, and with a sigh, he decided to get up. It was a bit early, but at least he’d miss the usual crush on the train if he left soon.
On the way to work, and with a seat on the train for once, he couldn’t resist checking Rightmove again. To his surprise, the ‘Under Offer’ banner had disappeared from the listing again. Refreshing his screen, he blinked and tried to suppress the surge of excitement he felt as he swiped the photos of Roseford Villas. Nope. It was back on the market, and as he looked at the price, he saw that it had dropped by twenty grand.
No. It was impossible. He tried to shut down that train of thought. He had a job here, and he had only a few months of experience of running a B&B. It was a stupid, irrational pipe dream. And yet… something about Roseford was calling to him, through the pages of that listing on Rightmove. Ever since he’d left, he’d felt as though he’d walked away from the bright colours of the summer into some grey, urban future, and, even though he’d put everything he could into his new job, deep down he knew it couldn’t last. The idea of Roseford had taken hold of him, and the seductive possibility of ‘What if…’ was running incessantly through his mind. He tried messaging Aunt Vi again,but, frustratingly, the was no signal on the Underground. It would have to wait until he was back street side. He shifted impatiently in his seat and couldn’t wait to get off the train when it finally arrived at his stop.
By lunchtime, Leo was pacing his office in agitation. He couldn’t concentrate on anything he wanted to. His head was too full of possibilities. He tried Aunt Vi’s mobile again, but it went directly to voicemail. The landline had rung and rung when he’d phoned it this morning, too. In one last-ditch attempt, he punched out the landline again, and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And then, just as he was about to end the call, and chuck his mobile out of the window, there was a click, and Aunt Vi’s familiar voice, Yorkshire with its trace of a West Country burr, came down the line.
‘Good morning, Roseford Villas. Violet Crosbie speaking, how can I help?’
‘Aunt Vi?’ Leo was surprised at the tremble in his voice, now that he’d finally got through.
‘Leo, my lovely, is that you? How wonderful to hear from you. How are you? How’s the new job?’
Leo opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly found that he couldn’t. Drawing a deep breath, fighting back the flood of relief that he’d finally got through to her, but not quite knowing what to tell her about what was on his mind, he blurted out, ‘Can I come and stay with you? There’s something I really need to talk to you about…’
51
Leo raced back to Somerset on the first train he could get. All he knew was that he had to get to Roseford as soon as he could. Something was calling him back there, and he couldn’t fight it. As the miles clocked up, he felt his sense of relief growing in proportion to his sense of nervousness. The further away he got from London, the lighter he felt. He knew it wasn’t rational: Aunt Vi had told him, practically ordered him not to rush, that his room would be ready for him whenever he arrived that evening, but Leo knew he just had to go. He’d returned to his flat and chucked as much in a bag as he’d the wherewithal to pack, grabbed a bottle of water and then locked up, wanting to put as much distance between himself and his current circumstances as he could. With his favourite Spotify playlist blaring from his AirPods, he eagerly looked out of the train’s window at the changing scenery, hungry for the first glimpse of the West Country.
The traffic gods were with the taxi driver who brought him from Taunton to Roseford, and thankfully there were no major hold-ups on route. Leo felt more than a frisson of excitementthat he’d soon be back in Roseford. As he drew closer to the village, he wondered how he could ever have decided to leave.
‘Leo!’ Aunt Vi met him at the front door with a smile and the warmest of hugs. ‘It’s so lovely to see you again, and so soon.’ Leo hugged her back, realising that this was the first physical contact he’d had, apart from handshakes, since he’d left Roseford. God, he’d missed being part of a family. As she led him through the door and into the hallway, he felt his throat constricting. He was home, he knew it.
‘Uncle Bryan’s in the living room,’ Vi said as they walked through. ‘Go and sit down and I’ll bring you a cuppa. Have you had tea?’
‘No, but I’m not hungry,’ Leo said. ‘I, er, just wanted to get here.’
Vi leaned forward and gave his arm a squeeze. ‘You silly boy,’ she chided, ‘rushing all this way. Did you think we’d have sold the place in the time it took you to get from London?’ She smiled again. ‘I’ll get you a sarnie to go with that cuppa.’
As Vi bustled off to the kitchen, Leo took a deep breath and pushed open the door to his aunt and uncle’s private living room. He assumed they didn’t have any guests in tonight, as the main part of the ground floor, with the residents’ lounge, the dining room and the small bar area, was in darkness.
‘Hello, Uncle Bryan,’ Leo said, clocking his uncle ensconced on the sofa, a mug in one hand and the TV remote in the other. Bryan pressed ‘Pause’, and the coverage of the England Men’s Football Euro qualifiers stopped, with Harry Kane in mid-pass.
‘All right, Leo,’ Bryan said, putting the remote down. ‘Good journey?’
‘Not bad.’ Leo took a seat in the armchair that was at a right angle to the sofa. ‘Trains ran on time. That helped.’
‘Your aunt getting you a cup of tea?’
‘Yeah.’
Leo tried to relax, but it was difficult after such a long journey. Bryan was a lovely man, but he wasn’t a talker, so instead of battling with small talk, which they both weren’t keen on, Leo asked about the football game.
‘They’re not doing badly tonight,’ Bryan replied. ‘A lot of them are graduates from Will Sutherland’s Under-19 team. Good lads. He taught them well when he was in charge.’
For a little while they discussed the merits of the current team, Bryan chipping in with some details about the former coach, Will Sutherland, whom Leo hadn’t met when he was in Roseford back in the summer, but whom he knew lived in Parson’s Grange, the modern mansion on the other side of the village. Will, ex-football manager turned pundit, was, by all accounts, a decent chap, and frequented the local pub often.
‘You might meet him—’ Uncle Bryan raised a speculative eyebrow ‘—if you decide that taking this place on is what you actually want to do.’
Leo’s heart sped up a little. ‘I hope so,’ he replied, which seemed to suffice as an answer to both remarks. He knew that Uncle Bryan was the more pragmatic of the two, and that, having turned them down once, Leo would need to give a lot of assurances that taking on Roseford Villas was something he was really serious about, and that he could actually afford to do. Bryan would take no prisoners in that regard, no matter how much he wanted to sell to Leo.
