The Man With The Umbrella

- 45 -

Amelia and Viola arrived at Sussex's train station with a gulp of freshness from the air. Handing Viola her ticket, the girls swiped them and the gates allowed the to pass through.

Maggie and Reginald Watson stood beside a snug little café, waiting patiently for the arrival of their daughter and grandchild. Margaret was quick to pat her husbands side and point to the two young figures approaching them, wheeling their individual suitcases along.

Reginald's aged face softened by a stance as he approached his youngest daughter and practically picked her up to spin her around whilst holding her head close. Amelia squealed out a laugh whilst holding her dad tightly as he spun her around before placing her back on her feet.

Pulling away, he engulfed his oldest granddaughter and did the same theatrics as he had previously done with his daughter. "Hi, daddy." Amelia smiled in delight before hugging her mother and burying her face into mummy Watsons neck. "Hi, mother." She muttered against her. "Hello, darling." She smiled.

"Right, let me take your bags." Reginald clapped his hands together before picking the suitcases up in each arm and walking out of the train station with the three girls following.

Amelia pulled her bobble around her hair a little tighter as the wind picked up before sitting in the back of the car with Viola. As soon as Reginald reversed out of the car park, Maggie had already began to turn the radio on as background noise.

Conversation was very fluent between the four. The grandmother asked Viola about college whilst the father was congratulating Amelia over her most recent win of a case in court.

Considering that the roads were packed and chock-a-block, time seemed to fly just as Amelia recognised the road before the car pulled into the garage of one of the childhood homes she ever had the pleasure to grow up in.

Unbuckling seatbelts and stepping out of the car, Viola walked ahead with her grandfather into the house whilst Amelia weaved her arm around her mothers and approached inside.

It was as if nothing changed but at the same time, everything did. Pictures of memories still hung around the house to add the tone of vibrancy and Amelia recognised that her parents still owned furniture that was in the home from when she was a child.

She couldn't help but smile brightly at the home of a feeling she deeply missed. It was everything she was once homesick for but now she felt homesick for being away from London, being away from Mycroft Holmes.

Shaking her thoughts astray, Amelia fell unceremoniously onto the green cushioned sofa with a head tilted up, breathing in a deep breath of the home.

"So, how was the service on the trains?" The Watson mother asked. "It was alright. It was quiet. I think we were the only ones on the car." Amelia answered. "Do you mean carriage?" Reginald asked. "No, they're called cars." Viola corrected.

***

Reginald, Viola and Amelia sat around the wooden table, patiently waiting for Maggie to plate up the food for tea time. "Are you sure I can't help, mum?" Amelia asked politely. "No, no. You've had a busy day travelling. Relax, love." She answered before balancing four plates full of roast through.

Distributing the plates, Margaret sat at the head of the table and placed her palms together. Amelia rolled her eyes and gestured for her daughter to follow what her grandmother and grandfather were doing.

Praying.

"Father, we thank you for the food that we are about to receive and for the nourishment of our bodies and bless the hands that prepared it. Amen." Margaret vocally prayed with Reginald saying his amen and Amelia and Viola hesitantly following.