Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery
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Huckle flagged down a car, finally, and a very kind lady called Maggie let Polly sit in it whilst he rigged up the motorbike to pull Nan the Van out of the snowdrift. He parked her up carefully by the side of the road, with all the windows open, then thanked the woman.
‘Where are you going?’ she asked.
‘We have to get to the hospital in Plymouth,’ Huckle explained.
‘In that thing?’ she said, indicating the motorbike. She was a teacher, of the very nicest sort, and had a way of telling you what to do without beating around the bush. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Get in the car. I’ll take you.’
‘It’s a Mini,’ said Huckle. ‘I’m not sure it’ll do much better than —’
‘Get in,’ she said.
Neil flew in and sat on Polly’s lap. Maggie stared at him for a bit.
‘Ah,’ said Huckle.
‘Is he going to poo in the car?’ she asked, as they took to the cleared, gritted A road.
‘Can’t promise he won’t,’ said Huckle, grinning apologetically, and luckily, it turned out that Maggie had a soft spot for smiling young men.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Polly wanted to run straight to the private wing, but Huckle stopped and made her drink a strong coffee from the vending machine. Then he looked into her eyes.
‘Are you okay?’
‘Apart from the nine weird things that have happened today,’ said Polly. She gave herself a quick internal check. ‘I think I am,’ she said. She looked up at him. ‘Oh my, I must be the most bedraggled mess.’
‘If you’re thinking that, you must be on the mend,’ said Huckle.
‘That’s obviously a yes, then,’ said Polly, feeling her damp hair in dismay.
Huckle took her in his arms.
‘Oh Polly Waterford,’ he said. ‘You are lovely to me in every way.’
‘I just threw up,’ said Polly.
‘Yeah, okay, forget about that bit,’ said Huckle. ‘Because I don’t think you’re hearing what I’m trying to say to you.’
‘That you aren’t going to leave me any more because of not telling you about Kerensa?’
Huckle shook his head.
‘I wasn’t ever going to leave you,’ he said. ‘It’s just… you know. I’ve been cheated on in the past, and it was so hard. It hurt so much. And I thought I knew you so well, and I panicked. But you can’t… you can’t ever know another person. Not through and through. People have their reasons for things. And you can choose to love them for who they are, and, well, that’s the deal. That’s how it is. I understand why you did what you did. I’d rather you hadn’t… No. I wish the entire thing hadn’t happened.’
Polly nodded.
‘But I can live with it. I can.’
She laid her head on his shoulder and let out an enormous juddering sigh.
‘I love you so much,’ she said.
‘We’re going to have to love each other,’ said Huckle soberly. ‘Because we have to be there for Reuben and Kerensa. When they need us. Which I think starts now.’
Holding hands, and dreading what they were about to discover, they moved towards the lift, both of them trying not to dwell on the worst. That beautiful, innocent little baby. That something could be wrong with him, that something could have happened… it was horrifying. So unfair. So wrong, that a baby could be born to pain.
The lift took forever to arrive. Up in the private wing, the great displays of winter flowers in the corridors seemed to mock them, as did the balloons and gift baskets outside Kerensa’s door.
Polly and Huckle glanced at one another, squeezed hands tightly, and knocked.
Inside the room, things were eerily quiet. In fact, given that the room contained Reuben, Kerensa, Jackie, Merv, Rhonda and a brand-new baby, things were utterly, bizarrely quiet.
‘Hey,’ whispered Polly. ‘We came as soon as we could.’
‘Any trouble getting here?’ asked Merv, who was staring out at the heavy snowfall still coming down over the garden.
‘Neh,’ said Polly, deciding that now was not the time to explain. She turned towards the bed. The baby was lying peacefully asleep in his bassinet. Kerensa, white-faced, didn’t meet her eyes.
Reuben was pacing up and down.
‘Well,’ he said to Polly and Huckle. ‘Now you know.’
Polly went cold.
‘Yup, now it’s out. Now I’m going to be a laughing stock all over the world. Oh good. People laughing at Reuben Finkel. It doesn’t matter how much money I have or how well I do, I just can’t get away from it, can I, Pa?’
He spat the last part bitterly.
‘C’mon now, Reuben,’ said Merv, but Reuben shook him off.
‘It’s your fault,’ he said.
‘It’s nobody’s fault,’ said Merv. ‘Seriously, son.’
Polly was frozen to the spot. This wasn’t going to be nice.
‘All I wanted was for my son to be perfect. Is that too much to ask?’
Polly stared desperately at Kerensa. This couldn’t be all about Reuben, surely. He couldn’t just go on and on like this. There was a baby to think of. A mother to think of.
And then Kerensa did the most surprising thing.
She winked at Polly.
At first Polly thought – she was still feeling a little bleary – that she might have imagined it. But no. It was definitely there.
And was that a little colour stealing back into Kerensa’s face?
Huckle grasped the nettle.
‘Reuben, what’s up? What’s wrong with little Herschel?’
‘Um,’ said Kerensa. ‘Actually I think you’ll find that’s not his name.’
Huckle ignored her and stepped forward. ‘What is it, bro?’
Reuben looked up at him.
‘I can’t believe it,’ he said. ‘Seriously, dude. I can’t believe it.’
‘What?’
A nurse bustled in.
‘Oh look at you all,’ she said. ‘Listen, there’s lots that can be done, okay?’
‘Can you… show them?’ said Reuben.
‘Reuben,’ said Merv. ‘Is this necessary?’
‘Yeah,’ said Reuben. ‘Yeah, it is.’
Polly’s teeth were chattering. Actually chattering out loud.