We ate in the pub again, as neither of us wanted to wrestle with the influx of paying guests for the cooking facilities, and Neil was on his last night with us before heading home. Our two girls came over from Bangor, but just for the evening, and there was a very obvious bit of silent communication between them as they clocked our (bunk)house guest.

I had slipped back for a quiet talk with Maz on the way downhill, surprised at her surge of decisiveness.

“It’s simple, Mike. He’s our boy, and, well, I wasn’t exactly permitted much agency in that place, no power to make decisions. I did as I was told, or I got hurt. Simple as. Nothing at all will come out of this, most likely, but he gets to make choices when he can. We’re here for advice and picking up pieces, but he gets what I didn’t have”

“And how do you think it will go?”

“No real idea, but admit it: you’d love another guest to show Perth off to, ey?”

Leave it for now, Rhodes.

Enfys closed the menu.

“I know what they have by heart. What are you doing tomorrow, Uncle Mike?”

“Not sure, Enfys. I was thinking of the Slabs, but that’s all multi pitch, and there’s the descent. Maz and Ish are both competent, but trad stuff is about being sneaky, with runners and that”

“I can solve that. I’ve had a cancellation for tomorrow”

“Guiding?”

“Yes. Introduction to climbing, so there’s a fair few no-shows among the bookings”

“How much does that cost you?”

Alys laughed.

“My beloved here is far from stupid. Sliding scale fees, Mike, in advance. They tell us a month or more in advance that they can’t make it, we just keep a ten percent deposit. They do it less than a week before, we keep the lot”

Enfys turned to stare at her lover.

“We? I wasn’t aware you were helping with things like carrying gear on that slog up to the Cromlech!”

“Dearest wifey, all I will say is joint account, what’s yours is mine, and so on. Game, set and whatsits, and I will have the pork chops. Oh: if you are going out tomorrow, want to kip at your olds’ place? I can pick you up in the evening

“That would make sense, love. Maz, the Slabs are a lot higher than the paces you’ve already been, but the descent is a sod, because you have to go up almost as far again before you hit the descent path. There’s one bad step on it, a bulge with some very polished foot jams, but we can always lower Carolyn. What routes, Uncle Mike?”

“Cliché stuff, love. Hope and Charity will take a big chunk of the day. I’d like to do Tennis Shoe, but that finish is too big a reach for the little one. Nowhere safe to stand for combined tactics, unlike the Twin Cracks”

“Climbing, Dad? Now?”

“No, love. Tomorrow”

Ish looked up from his own menu perusal, or rather the discussion he was having with someone I was now subtitling as ‘his girlfriend’.

“Pardon me if I am getting suspicious, Dad, but what nasty little surprises are you cooking up?”

“None, really. The Twin Cracks are simply a very polished bit on a very good and popular route. First ascent was an on-sight by a woman, Maz”

I turned back to the lad.

“It’s a long route, son, over four hundred feet, and there’s one bit, a pocketed slab after the Twin Cracks, that needs a bit of thought about runner placement. Climbing’s straightforward, but I am….”

Once again, where had that come from?

“I am prioritising keeping all of my family, Ish”

That got through, as he simply nodded, wordless.

“Mr Rhodes?”

“Clara?”

“Nana gave me some money for you. to pay for meals and stuff. Do you… would you like it now?”

“How old ae you, love? Don’t worry; it’s not a trick question”

“I’m eighteen, coming up to nineteen”

“Then, once we’ve eaten, I know what Ish is like, and I am much the same. We will probably end up wanting some crisps or that. You keep it, and maybe you can spot us a cuppa tomorrow. There’s a little kiosk at the car park”

“Oh. You don’t want the money?”

“You’re a guest, love. Right: let’s have the food orders”

She turned out to be good company once we’d fought past the shyness, and once the subject of rugby came up, they were both away in a flow of conversation interspersed with a list of rugby union players Gemma had fancied and a detailed account of why ‘footy’ was superior to all other ball games.

“There’s catching, Clara. Got to be able to jump for that, get really high. It’s like something I want to try on the rock, yeah?”

Enfys nearly spat out her drink.

“Ish ? I remember what a nutter you were on the zip wires. Please promise me you will NOT be trying dynos tomorrow!”

I saw Maz twitch, and tried to match the power of her Mum-stare, but there could be no real contest. Clara, possibly sensing something divisive, chipped in with, “Where do you climb, Enfys?”

“Oh, everywhere, really, round here. Steph’n’Geoff introduced me to gritstone”

“JAMS! HAND AND FIST!”

“Yes, love. They also showed me winter climbing”

Alys snorted then, reaching across to wiggle her wife’s nose. Enfys sighed.

“Yeah, yeah. Collapsed snow hole in the Cairngorms; roof sort of collapsed my nose when it came down. Good partner; managed to dig us back out”

Clara was fascinated.

“And you still do it?”

“Oh, yes. Anyway, favourite places to climb: I suspect that’s what you meant. Slate quarries. There are some amazing routes”

Alys lifted her wife’s hand to kiss it.

“One she spent ages on, with her Dad, with her name. Rainbow of Recalcitrance. Carolyn, ‘Enfys’ means ‘rainbow’ in Welsh. I made her take her ring off first, in case it got scratched”

Clara was still fascinated.

“Isn’t it all slippery? Slate?”

“Oh yes, and rain is a real problem, but it’s technique. Holds can be really sharp, so it’s about using the edges of your boots and being very precise. Oh, and runners can be impossible to place, so the quarries are one place where bolts are used, and yes, Ish, I know all about Aussie bolts. Why not the Bus Stop for one day, Uncle Mike, or Serengeti?”

I found myself barking laughter, but the others waited until I could talk rationally.

“Maz, Ish? One of you got that video?”

“Baby Ish!”

“Yes, Carolyn, that one. When we first went to our climbing club…”

We played the video a couple of times, as Clara made comments about muscles and how ‘sweet’ our boy was, and then I explained my humour.

“Just imagine if we had walked in with Carolyn here, after we spend some time on slate. ‘Ey, ey, ey, mate, how old’s littl’un? Six? What’s she climb at? SEVENTEEN?’ That, I think, is the Aussie equivalent of HVS, Enfys. Hard Very Severe, Clara. That’s about five grades above what you did yesterday. Maz?”

“Oh, memories stirred, darling. How quickly that place married us off”

“Ah, they were just a little early, my love”

“Darling, we just have to take our girl here to Espy”

“I have other plans, love”

“And they are?”

“Not for this year. Still doing the research. Anyway, Clara: tell us about you”

A bunbun in headlights, that girl.

“I… well…”

She gathered herself, as I began to regret my bluntness, then smiled around the group.

“I left home, sort of. Kicked out. Met a man, he, well, stupid thing to do. Not for tonight, okay? Ish knows the story”

So do I, love, so do I. Please take us past that part.

“Someone knew a social worker, lovely woman, and they knew Nana Deb, and she just walked into the police station, drove me back to the House, and that was, well, it was like a dream, yeah? And I met Diane as well, the first day. And, well, I know about you and her, so yeah. Right. We have friends there, and they’re such a mixture! I mean, Christmas is in a drag bar, and New Year’s Eve, um… Motorcycle place”

“Clara?”

“Yes, Mister Rhodes?”

“Do these people have things on the back of their jackets? Like coloured patches with a club name?”

She nodded rapidly.

“Yes! That’s them! They’re really kind”

That fitted exactly with Neil’s description of Debbie’s friends in Northumberland: a back-patch club. ‘Really kind’? As long as you were inside the camp looking out, to mangle a metaphor. It also explained an awful lot of Debbie’s approach to life. Move it on, Rhodes.

“But what do YOU do?”

“Oh, I’m at Cardiff Uni, doing English. I want to be a teacher. I was really worried, being in a home, and…”

She waved at her body, and Alys was the other one to reach out for her hand.

“The other girls, they were so good, especially Alicia and Tricia, got me through my GCSEs and then, for my A-levels, there was a woman, a writer, policeman’s wife, Paula she’s called, and she really, really helped. So I’m at Uni, but. Well, when I’m not there I like music”

I swooped.

“What sort?”

“Oh, all sorts, but in the House we get a LOT of folk, so, yes. And I paint”

Maz slipped in her own question.

“What medium, Clara?”

“Watercolour, mostly. I’d like to try oils, but they’re not really practical in a shared room. We have… Nana and Kim, they say it’s like Number Ten, with pictures of all the Prime Ministers up the stairs, so we have all sorts of photos there, like us in the mountains, or at rallies, and in our study room, Nana’s put up some of my paintings. Just landscapes. I don’t think I could do portraits”

She stopped abruptly, and I drew breath in admiration at what she had already achieved. My son just looked smug, as Clara blushed.

“Sorry. I don’t say much, most of the time, but when I do, I gush. What’s Espy?”

Maz explained that one, and the child in Clara gave a delighted squeal when my lover described the arrival of the little blue penguins.

“This is where you had the sea lions and stuff? Oh wow! You are SO lucky!”

Ish was using his own free hand to pull out his phone when Alys stopped him.

“Got my laptop in here, Ish. Clara, I spent my work experience year staying with Mike and Ish, so here are some better photos…”

In the end, Maz declared that we needed to get our own princess and her bear to bed, so we left the youngsters to it and headed off up the hill. To my surprise, Alys and Enfys joined us, with the latter suggesting that two other young folk might appreciate some time of their own.

They came in around an hour after us, and quietly slipped into their bags. They were in separate bags, but when I slipped out for a small hours visit to the loo, they were fast asleep, Ish spooned around his new girl and her hand on his arm.

Time to give them space.