There are a lot of nerves at the Saint Marie police station.
That very morning Richard has received a call from his mother explaining that his father has had a small accident with the lawn mower in the garden and the Inspector, noticing the concern in his mother's voice, has for once felt guilty for not calling them more often.
Missing an English spring has also added points to his need to check that his father is indeed well.
On his last visit, not long ago, Richard was in too much of a hurry to return to Saint Marie.
To this day he has not yet dared to inquire too deeply into his motives for doing so.
Camille, strangely reserved and slightly subdued, has tried to encourage him.
"Richard, I'm sure it's nothing. I'll take care of everything, don't worry."
Fidel, newly promoted to sergeant, comments:
"All of us will help her, sir. Although Camille is perfectly prepared to take your chair for a few days."
Fidel hopes it will indeed only be a few days.
Richard replies to Fidel with some acrimony.
"I'm not going to vacate that chair for long, Fidel. I'm still in charge."
Dwayne laughs at the Inspector's attitude. So does Camille. She now feels much calmer.
"Don't worry, Chief. Your chair will be waiting for you. No one will steal your seat!" Dwayne continues to laugh, as he puts a hand on Fidel's shoulder to let him see that he shouldn't worry about Richard's tone.
Fidel and Dwayne look at each other and have the same idea. That Camille is interested in the OCCUPANT of the chair, not the chair at the Inspector's desk.
Richard, slightly more relaxed finishes giving his instructions to a much calmer Camille.
"Relax, Richard - the bad thing about this whole situation is that I won't be able to attend the blind dates that Maman had planned to set me up for! I'll be too busy. For my sake and also for your sake you mustn't take too long to come back."
And she turns around to take her things from her table so she can put them on Richard's table.
Richard stares at her for a few seconds. For once he thought he saw a veiled threat in Camille's comment. Or perhaps a hopeful resolution?
Exasperated by a situation he's not going to be able to get out of his head for the entire trip to the UK, he hurries off to his shack to pack his meager luggage. He wants to carry only what is practically a carry-on bag. This time there will be no luggage to lose.
And the Inspector will be sure to keep Camille busy with messages and calls. Even if it costs him a kidney.
Of course Harry's care will take up a lot of those messages. He already knew that the lizard is one of his best friends.
Richard gets off the plane and, as on the previous trip, the first thing he notices is... the cold!
That disheartens and cheers him in equal parts.
He smiles. Surely at this moment Camille is receiving all the messages he prepared on the plane with extremely "urgent" matters.
With his tote bag for a cab outside the airport. Now a wonderful light rain is falling.
He is heading straight to his parents' house. Such as promised.
And, oddly enough, he misses them very much. If that accident had been more serious...
The cab ride again serves him to check out the almost imperceptible changes in what, to him, is the most wonderful city in the world.
With the permission of the humble and Caribbean Honoré, of course.
Arriving at his parents' house, Richard rings the doorbell and his mother, who is the one who opens the door for him, hugs him tightly and somewhat astonished.
"Richard, dear, it really wasn't that urgent. Your father is practically fine. But I'm so glad you're here."
He replies:
"I know, Mom. But on my previous trip I didn't have much time. I owed you. Both of you."
His mother, as she precedes him on the way to the living room where her husband, who doesn't yet know that his son is visiting again, is reading the newspaper with his left arm in a cast.
He looks up and, astonished, tries to get up quickly. Richard stops him and goes over to him. He hugs him and says:
"You didn't expect that, did you, Dad?"
His father looks at his wife and asks:
"Tell me I'm not dying, dear."
Richard's father comments. He begins to feel really worried - his son is hugging him!
She replies:
"Don't be silly. Aren't you glad to see your son?"
"Actually, yes. There must be something important behind all this. Or is it that you don't consider your job as Detective Inspector so important anymore?"
Richard thinks about Camille for a second.
"It's one of the most important things in my life, Dad. But my Sergeant is aware of it. She's very competent. I trust her completely. Plus, she keeps me constantly informed. She takes care of Harry too!"
His parents look at each other trying to hide their excitement. They detect a lot of "she's".
"It's good that someone on your team has a key to your house, dear, to your home. You never know if you might have an accident at night. Since she's so competent..." comments his mother as if it's not important.
Richard looks away. He has blushed slightly.
"She's not my maid, Mom. Actually we're all good friends at the station. There are only four of us!"
At that moment Richard's phone rings. He looks at it and notices Camille's message.
"Look how heavy you are - you still haven't given time for the station or even your house to burn down! Have a good time and enjoy the visit to your parents. Send them a big kiss from me and let me get to work. We'll have a toast to you tonight at La Kaz."
Richard smiles. Of course as Dwayne takes advantage of his shack being empty to bring one of his dates, if there's a fire hazard!
But hes sure Camille would be at the door to forbid him to do so, of course!
Richard's father clears his throat.
"Something important, Richard? Don't tell me you have to leave when you've just arrived..."
Richard looks up and replies reassuringly to his parents:
"No. She's just wanting me to pass it on and send you... well. You know how the French are. She sends both of you a kiss."
His mother looks at her husband and comments:
"I'm sure your father would love to receive it in person. We'll have to settle for that! Send her a very affectionate greeting from us. And, if possible..."
"Yes, Mom?"
His mother shakes her head. She can't tell him yet that she expects Camille to come to the UK in person. Not yet.
But it will all come.
Richard settled in at his parents' house. It would only be three or four days, but he would enjoy the English spring to the fullest. Of course he would miss a certain Caribbean aroma.
In fact he was hungry for that Caribbean aroma. He was famished.
Unfortunately, the worst of Camille's prophecies came true. The electrical panel in Richard's shack exploded as she tried to set up a small fan while feeding Harry, who, ungrateful as always, refused to make an appearance when it wasn't the Inspector preparing his mixture of insects and mango.
But Camille was quick. And there was no serious damage, although unfortunately several important papers were burned. Seeing what they were, the deed to the Croydon house and some more, she knew Richard might get angry.
As he was.
Although she did manage to save two or three sheets of the deed. The ones Richard needed to order a duplicate.
Commissioner Patterson, studying the situation thoroughly, decided that it would be Camille who would have to travel to London so that the Inspector could settle the matter as soon as possible.
The registry needed originals, not copies.
In addition, Selwyn was disappointed when, on returning from the trip where Richard had to escort the woman arrested in the embezzlement case, it seemed that his favorite detective couple continued to behave as if they had no feelings for each other.
The Commissioner could not go on forever making excuses to the London Metropolitan Police to avoid having his Detective Inspector stolen.
A marriage would be the perfect solution.
He then spoke to Catherine on the phone and instructed the woman to stop blind dating (a danger, you never knew what could come out of such dates) for Camille.
"Be sure to convince her to put some warm clothes in the suitcase, dear Catherine. It's spring in London, but it's a cold, wet spring."
Catherine thought it's the ideal kind of spring for two people to settle in next to a warm fireplace.
It's been two days since their arrival and Richard still thinks that, while he's happy to be there with his parents, he misses...his team.
One more than others.
Regarding the blowing up of his electrical panel, he is not at all surprised. The strange thing is that it didn't happen sooner. Camille had promised him, before leaving on his trip, that the Commissioner would have an electrician fix it as soon as possible. That way, when Richard and Camille returned from London, the shack would be ready.
He would even paint it and everything. And, for once, the Inspector would be able to put in a good fan that wouldn't blow the shack apart!
There's a knock at the door and, as his mother is cooking and his father is not one hundred percent, Richard opens it to find a smiling and slightly chilled Camille Bordey.
"Camille! You needn't have bothered to come all this way. I could have gone to the hotel."
She kissed him on the cheek.
"I'm glad to see you too. Here's what I was able to salvage from the deeds and there's some more document I don't understand. By the way, Selwyn is taking over the station - he's driving Fidel and Dwayne crazy! Come to think of it, Richard, good thinking about going to the hotel room..."
"Richard, don't be rude and show your visitor in. She clearly needs a nice cup of tea."
Saved by the bell.
While everything in Honoré is getting back to normal, Richard and Camille are celebrating at a fast food restaurant in London the success of their Registry management.
"You know, Richard, I didn't realize about those little privileges we police officers have for certain matters. Have you noticed how the whole process has been speeded up?"
Richard watches as Camille eats her burger. They don't have that on the island of Saint Marie, but they do have something similar in Guadeloupe. It would be fine if they, from time to time, took a day to enjoy it.
"It's undeniable. I see you really like this kind of place."
Camille laughs.
Richard doesn't know which is more delicious, the sound of her laughter or the hamburger.
"It certainly is. By the way, you were right about one thing, the English spring can become very beautiful. Now I understand how you miss being able to enjoy all four seasons. At least now we can enjoy spring." She thinks about it and decides to ask him "You know, it seems strange to me that you would have such important papers in such an unsecure place in your shack, Richard."
The Inspector nods as he takes another bite of his hamburger.
He finishes tasting it and replies:
"I've been considering settling down in one place permanently for some time now, Camille. I'm getting on in age and I'm finding it less and less fun to be tossed around like a ping pong ball. I miss a home, something permanent."
Camille suddenly becomes serious. She even looks like she might have lost her appetite. But she is brave and decides to ask.
"That was before the fire in your shack. That's why you wanted to come back here again. Are you going to settle in Croydon again? That's why you wanted the deeds, isn't it?"
Richard looks at her in amazement.
"No, of course not! What I want is to sell the house I have here. I don't know what I'll do with the shack, whether I'll fix it up, extend it or simply tear it down and build another one bigger and safer. You see. I'm between two worlds: when I'm here, I miss the island of Saint Marie terribly... "
Richard looks at her and clarifies by looking at her:
"I miss my friends, some more than others. And when I'm in Saint Marie, I miss London, but... you... my friends, you're not here."
Camille reaches out and places her hand over Richard's.
"You don't know how glad I am to hear that. But that's not true, you have your parents here."
"I know, Camille. But I've been hearing things almost every day since I got here about how I should settle down, stay in one fixed place, all that. My mother keeps telling me that if I want to create a family, I must have a home. They created their own and they want the same for me."
Camille thinks and asks again:
"Are you sure?"
"My father says he's experienced enough to contradict my mother. And that, in case I hadn't heard, there are airplanes to travel from point a to point b. They support me, Camille."
Camille, without removing her hand from his, asks again:
"And what does Detective Inspector Richard Poole say?"
Richard looks at Camille's hand over his, perfect prophecy of a future marriage, and replies:
"He says that... he tells you, Camille, that if you are in those future projects, I would be the happiest man in the world. If I did, I would do it with you. When I came in from escorting Vicky Woodward I didn't quite work up the courage to tell you all this, but now I'm asking you."
Camille observes him, Richard-style raises an eyebrow and replies:
"I see my harassment and takedown is working, Richard. Of course I accept, but I have two conditions."
He asks in confusion.
"Conditions?"
Camille nods:
"The first is that I want to be present when you tell your parents as you will be present when I tell Maman."
"And the second?"
"I want to finish eating this hamburger! I need to get the strength to eat you!"
Richard is happy. He looks at her tenderly and thinks that he has never been anyone's exclusive main course before.