āJust for tonight.ā Noahās fawn-brown eyes pleaded.
Rose could see his father in them. He used to employ the same tactic and got his way far too often. Her nine-year-old son had quickly adopted the strategy to get her committed to any short-term arrangement before she found herself unable to refuse the inevitable appeals to extend whatever it was she hadnāt wanted to do in the first place. āOnce you get that tent set up, youāll want us to be in there all weekend.ā
Noah looked affronted. āJust tonight. Honest to God.ā
Rose tried not to smirk. āIāve told you not to say that.ā
She knew she was about to give in. Even though she was full of nduja pizza and had drunk two glasses of red wine. Even though it was April and the evenings were still cold.
āIsnāt this like camping already though?ā She gestured around the lounge.
Noah cast his eyes about the cardboard boxes stacked around them. āNo,ā he stated categorically, shaking his head and pulling a comically long face for emphasis.
She was only playing for time. Rose wouldnāt refuse him, but not because her discipline was lax. She was stricter with Noah than most of the others in her parentsā group, but he hadnāt complained the whole time theyād been in moving limbo. She and Noah had both said their goodbyes to the house weeks ago but the people buying had had issues with their sale. The agent had suggested putting it back on the market, but Rose had said theyād wait.
It was a kindness to say the house theyād lived in for seven years was a fixer-upper. Built in 1902, what the property lacked in solid foundations it made up for in runaway damp. Previously a guest house, the rooms had been converted but each of the doors still had a different key. Theyād turned one into Lucasās pottery studio but that had been redundant long before the house went up for sale.
Everything else was now packed up and ready to go. Thirty-four boxes. Coincidentally, one for every year of her life. Was that all it amounted to? It had taken three months of viewings before sheād had a solitary, significantly lower offer from a foster couple who needed four bedrooms. But Rose really didnāt want to let them down.
It was their third week of eating on a flat packing case. Noah had loved it to begin with and would have quite happily had junk food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But with the couch gone, their everyday furniture and oven already in a storage facility near their new address and the pair of them now having to sleep on folding beds, the fun of living in a maze of taped-up boxes had seriously started to fray. Plus, Noah had just spent his Saturday helping her fill the last boxes, carrying them from the cellar and setting them in the hallway. How could she say no?
āI really donāt want to sleep outside.ā
āIām not asking you to. Iāll be fine on my own.ā
āYou said that before, but you only lasted half an hour.ā
āI was only young then,ā he countered, mortified.
Rose chuckled inwardly. That had been less than two years ago. She eyed the remaining slices of sourdough pizza in the box on top of the packing case. āYou havenāt finished your dinner.ā
Noah didnāt respond. He knew it was a stalling tactic and waited for her gaze to return to his.
āItās going to get cold out there,ā she warned.
āIāll wear a jumper over my pjs.ā
āThe tentās still got a hole in it.ā
āItās not raining.ā
āItās forecast though.ā
āI wonāt sleep under the hole.ā
āItāll be dark.ā
āIāve got my penlight.ā
Heād been inseparable from the gadget since Lucas had bought it for him two Christmases ago. Rose sighed. If she let him sleep outside, she would end up out in the cold too. She picked up her glass of red and took a sip as if considering her answer, even though it was a foregone conclusion.
Noah replicated her sigh, rested his elbow on the low packing case and then put his face in his hand so his face wrinkled up. The left side of his light auburn hair jutted as it always did, like heād just been sleeping on it. No matter what she did, it never seemed to flatten. She tied her identical but longer hair up into a ponytail and he regarded her expectantly.
Their Edwardian house with its rotting parquet floors was on its own at the edge of Hampton Forest. Sheād always felt isolated there, but Lucas had enjoyed the seclusion for his work. He hadnāt seemed quite as keen on its remoteness after the attempted break-in. That had rattled them both but theyād managed to keep it a secret from Noah. That was nearly three years ago but now that Lucas was absent, the episode had taken on a new implication for a mother alone with her child. She told herself it was a one-off event, that lightning was unlikely to strike twice, but it made her doubly vigilant when it came to security. Sheād looked into getting an alarm system fitted but the cost for the old property was eye-watering. Their new place was on the third floor of a residential block. Only days to go now before they got in there. Was she being hyper cautious? The rear lawn was secure and surrounded by tall red-brick walls, but she still felt uncomfortable with the idea of her son out there in the dark. Their nearest neighbours were a drive away and beyond the tall back wall was nothing but dense forest. Sheād fought with Lucas about letting Noah play there. Hampton Forest was private land used for deer and pheasant shoots so sheād used that as an excuse to keep her son away from it. Lucas said there was no harm out of season but, particularly after the attempted break-in, Rose felt nervous about who could be lurking in the trees. She and Lucas argued about leisure time for Noah. Rose didnāt like tents and camping and preferred parks and hotels, but her husband loved their new bucolic lifestyle. Since Lucas hadnāt been around, she hadnāt done anything like that with Noah. She knew he missed it and felt guilty she couldnāt do some of the outdoorsy things he wanted. Also, where they were moving didnāt even have a balcony. Shouldnāt they make the most of this before they had to leave?
āSoā¦ā
Rose swallowed the last of the wine in her glass and knew she was heading for a third. It had already relaxed her but she needed it today. Today was an anniversary. A date that only Rose observed. But now sheād have to sleep with one eye on the window.
āIāll move my bed there so I can keep watch.ā She nodded to the double glazing theyād had installed that overlooked the lawn.
āIāll be OK on my own,ā he said, aggrieved.
But it wasnāt dark yet.
āSo, I can pitch the tent?ā There was that entreating look of his fatherās again. Its familiarity used to be an anchor for her but now his presence was a dead weight dragging her down to anxiety.
āUnder the tree.ā It was halfway up the lawn. He wouldnāt be too far from the back door.
āOK.ā He knew when to submit.
āGo and get it set up before I ch...
