Winfield Hall is more beautiful than he'd imagined it could be. The afternoon sunshine is golden on the walls, and his car has scattered blossom down the drive, like confetti over the windscreen. He loves the seasons of England and the memories they create. He idles on a bridge, by a gatehouse that looks larger than the apartment he once shared with Simone in New York. His past feels like a lifetime ago. He could almost thank Coltrane.
Spikings told him that he had got the promotion to Detective Inspector. It was news that he was able to share with his family before he waved them off at the airport. When Harry rang to check he was still coming to Winfield Hall, she was delighted too and now he wants to celebrate with her. Life is good. He's been waiting for the other shoe to drop for so long, it's taken him by surprise to finally be free of his nomadic existence.
"Morning Detective Inspector!" He's pleasantly surprised by a voice he recognises and turns to see Harry, wrapped up in a warm coat, with jeans tucked into walking boots, approaching the car with a golden labrador at her heels. She asks the dog to sit. "Her name is Lulu, she's a bit muddy. I was hoping we'd see you on the way back from our walk."
"She'll sit on your lap?" He asks, since there's nowhere else that the dog can go. It's a yes as the dog leaps onto her, and bestows a wet lick to Dempsey's ear.
"I wasn't expecting a kiss from your dog…" He laughs, looking at her properly. She's without any make-up and her hair clipped up. The spring sunshine has caught her skin. "You look beautiful, this place suits you."
"Thank you, you're a sight for sore eyes." She kisses the corner of his mouth. "Sorry that was a rubbish welcome…" She gesticulates to the wagging tail that's thumping the door and he shrugs, tells it was nice anyway. She instigated the kiss and it's made his heart thump a little louder.
"How are you?" Dempsey asks of her when they pull up outside the hall.
"Mollycoddled," She smiles and explains the meaning of the word, unknown to him, "I'm working again so I feel like a functioning human. I'm not ungrateful, it's just that I wanted to escape all this being waited on."
"People just wanna care for you." Dempsey observes as he makes a fuss of Lulu, "It's clearly working."
"Maybe I'm not used to it.." She confesses with a wry grin, "We've just bought the age down by three decades. Please don't say you have a hidden passion for jigsaws."
"I had a birthday last week, I'm getting old, maybe I should be into them." Dempsey swings his long legs from the car, grinning as she giggles. He grabs his bag from the boot, and a suit, zipped up in a bag. "I wasn't sure what to bring…"
Harry looks at her mud-covered jeans, "There's no ceremony here, but Freddy likes us to dress a little less muddy for dinner! Oh, Dwayne, get down, you're meant to be resting." She exclaims to a second, older black labrador which has appeared from the hall.
"Dwayne?" Dempsey mouths trying not to laugh. "Dwayne the dog?"
"Family legend will tell you I named him, I really can't remember. I'd been drinking an awful cocktail with Triple Sec at the time." She looks affectionally at the dog as it leans against Dempsey's legs adoring the fuss he's making of it.
Inside Freddy greets him warmly and shows him to a room that overlooks the gardens at the back of the house. Harry has wandered off to clean up and sort out a tray of tea with Abbot whom he assumes is the butler. He pauses to look around as Freddy chats about nothing much and Dempsey can't help admire the room he's been given.
"It does get a bit chilly I'm afraid, we've got lots of hot water bottles and you can have the fire lit." Freddy points to a huge grate.
"Sorry, I'm a bit blown away," Dempsey realises that he's been standing with his mouth open. "All this history, it's incredible. My family would love this."
"Harry said she'd met your aunt and sister's family." Freddy smiles, "She was very taken by them, particularly Emily."
"The feeling is mutual. The birthday cake she baked has gone down in our family history." Dempsey relaxes, moved that Freddy remembers the name of his neice.
"She made a cake?" Freddy enquires, "Well I never did! She hasn't baked for.. .well, since she married."
"Said it was from her mom's cook-book." Dempsey replies lightly.
Freddy nods, a little overcome for a moment but gathers himself together, "I should wish you a belated happy birthday and congratulate you on your promotion, son. I can't think of anything better than a dram of fine whisky. I daresay Harry's got tea but I'm a fan of a chaser any time." He winks and Dempsey sees that playful side that Harry has inherited.
Dempsey follows the older man downstairs, swallowing the emotion that rises in him. 'Son' didn't feel at all forced and he's looking forward to the days ahead. And a fine whiskey.
As dusk falls, he joins Harry for a walk. She's explaining who works at the hall. "There's really only Abbot and his wife who cooks for us when there are guests. Freddy would serve baked beans. There's a cleaner and a few gardeners who are contracted. The house is taking up too much money to employ them. Somehow Freddy has got to find the money to fix the roof, he's been doing in bits over the years. Occasionally he has businesses to stay and it's rather lucrative, or it was until someone tried to steal the jade collection. Spikings caught them."
Dempsey looks at the view as they walk up a rise behind the house, "What was it like growing up here?" He can't imagine the wonder of waking up to freedom and fresh air.
"Lonely." He's surprised by Harry's answer. "The village is five miles over there, nobody bothered to walk here and at school it was difficult. I'm the posh girl, apparently loaded with cash when the house was, and still does gobble up every penny. I was as hard as nails and had to behave. I find it hard to trust because of that I guess. It was almost easier when I went to a girls' school. I longed for the company of a brother or sister."
"That sounds very ungrateful. It wasn't all bad, I mean look at the place." She pauses, "Very different to your childhood."
Dempsey thinks back to Brooklyn as he looks across the lawns, towards a stable block bathed in the sunset glow. It feels like a world away. "It was noisy growing up, dangerous too. I was in gangs because I had to be, to protect my family. Did some dealing and got picked up by the police, I decided right then that I'd train to be on the right side of the law. Here I am."
"Here you are indeed. I'm sure that your story, like mine, isn't that simple." She knows that it's not.
"We've got years to talk about that." He tells her.
To his delight, she pulls on the lapels of his coat and draws him into a kiss. When they finally part, she beams at him, "I've been wanting to do that since you arrived."
"Harry…" Dempsey mutters her name as he pulls her closer. "You know I'm falling for you don'tcha?"
He's thrown by her finger on his lips and instead of seeing blissful happiness, Harry looks agitated, "Please don't." She slips like water from his hands.
"Tell me what I've done wrong." He never gets this emotional but he can't decide if he wants to yell or cry. He does neither.
She stops walking and stands before him, her voice breaking, "I want you to tell me when I'm free from him, when he divorces me, when I can say it back to you."
"Okay…" He thinks he gets it, he's really trying to understand. She huddles into arms and he rests his chin on the top of her head. There's an ungrateful, selfish side of him that wants to encourage her to let her past go, to be with him. He'd be a liar if she or anyone had asked if he had endless patience. The kisses are stoking and teasing him, and he dreams of her in his bed. He holds back a sigh and the urge to run his hands inside her coat and over her body.
Dempsey is grateful when dinner arrives. Harry had said a quiet apology and he'd said there was no need but the air hung heavy still between them when he had met her on the hallway between their rooms. She was dressed in a red dress and stole his breath. Taking his arm, she told him he was handsome with a soft smile, a gentle peace offering.
Dinner is completely different to how he expected it to be. He had assumed waiter service and a dining room but they're congregated in the warmth of room just off the kitchen with a scrubbed table-top and a fire blazing in a grate. Harry brings over bowls of food and introduces him to a few family friends including her cousin, Douglas and his mother, a lively woman with dark eyes who seemed to spot everything. He likes her immediately, reminding him of his own parent. He made a careful note of the names as Harry made sure everyone had food before helping herself from where she next to him.
Freddy raises a glass and taps on it with his knife, "To Harry, thank you for cooking our meal.
She looks embarrassed, "Mrs Abbot made the bread, I've just cobbled together the rest." Dempsey agrees with Freddy. The steaming risotto looks gorgeous and so is she, sat beside him.
"And to Mrs A too!" Freddy nods to Abbot and the table raise their glasses. Abbot tips his head with a smile and leaves the family to their gathering, shooing the dogs who follow him out.
Dempsey is content to listen, and answer any questions about his world when they were passed his way. Freddy and Douglas admitted to a renewed interest in basketball, with Douglas extending an invite to an Arsenal game and a baptism into English football.
The smile on Harry's face doesn't quite reach her eyes throughout the meal and she's watchful. Freddy keeping a gentle eye on her. Dempsey can see the love between father and daughter, and gets a sense of how Robert had broken this tight family unit, when they were at their most vulnerable. As if Freddy can read his mind, the older man distracts him by asking about his own siblings and Dempsey is pleased to chat, and he is delighted when Harry joins in, a soft look on her face when they talk about Emily.
"Excuse me, Detective Inspector Dempsey… Lord Winfield." Abbot tries to be discrete as he returns unexpectedly after Harry has surprised them with dessert. "There's a phone call for you, someone called Chas. He said it's extremely urgent and can't wait."
Dempsey puts his napkin down and apologies to everyone, the chatter has died and they look up in concern. Chas would never interrupt if it wasn't important. He feels Harry's eyes on him as he leaves and a cold feeling of dread. There are only a few criminals who would cause Chas to interrupt him on his leave.