Restoring Grace (14 page)

‘
I told you!
She doesn't care! All she cares about is that
new bloke of
hers. It's so gross. They touch each other
all the time — in front of me.'

‘That is a
bit gross,' said Ellie.

Grace said nothing. She
was remembering how she and
Edward couldn't keep their hands off
each other when
they were first in love.
Demi would have found that gross,
too.

‘
OK, let's
ring her up, shall we? Do you want to or
shall I?’

Ellie could hear that
Grace was finding her new respon
sibilities taxing. 'How well do you
get on with Demi's mother?' she asked, finding herself wanting to protect
Grace, not for the first time.

‘Not all that well. She thinks I'm an idiot,'
said Grace. 'I suppose you can't blame her. I was responsible for Edward
leaving her. She's bound to hate me.'

‘
Honestly!' said Demi. 'She won't care!'

‘So you'll
ring her?' asked Grace.

‘
Oh, OK.' Demi got out a mobile from a pocket and pressed
a few keys. 'She's not in,' she said after a few moments.

‘Leave a message,' said Grace firmly. 'Tell her
it's very important that she rings you back as soon as possible. Now ring
Edward.’

Demi tried to hand Grace
the phone. 'You do it. I can't
bear that cow of a wife of his.'

‘
Haven't you got his mobile number?' asked
Grace.

‘
But I don't want to speak to him!' said Demi, rather
unreasonably, Ellie thought. 'You do it.' After she had produced a ringing
tone, she thrust the phone at Grace, who didn't want to speak to Edward either,
for all sorts of reasons, mostly because the sound of his voice still
affected her, but also because she'd never been
any good
at arguing with him. There was a tense silence.

‘
Hello?' said Grace eventually. 'Can I speak to
Edward please, it's Grace.’

Demi and Ellie watched as
Grace pushed bread crumbs
into little piles, bracing herself,
obviously waiting for
Edward to be brought
to the phone. 'Edward? It's me.
I've got Demi here.’

There was a pause while Edward responded to
this.

‘She just arrived. She wants to stay for a bit.'
Another
pause. 'We've left a message for her
to ring back, but she
hasn't.' Then Grace sighed, and handed the phone
to Demi. 'He wants to talk to you.'

‘Dad!' Demi's voice had an edge of hysteria to
it. 'I'm
not going home! I hate it there!
Mum hates me! Her bloke hates me! And as for those poxy children of his, why
can't
they stay with their own mother, where they're wanted?’

Ellie and Grace both
looked at their plates. Ellie started
following Grace's example and drew a palm tree in
crumbs.
They both felt they were intruding somewhat, hearing Demi and her father have
an almighty row.

‘I don't care about fucking A levels!' Demi
shouted.

Grace winced. She knew Demi would not have used
language like that if her father had been more than an
electronic presence. But she was crying when she handed
the phone
back to Grace. 'He's such a bastard!'

‘
Listen,
Edward,' Grace plunged in, not waiting to hear
Edward's side of the
story, which she knew anyway. 'Demi's quite upset about a lot of things. I know
college is important, but she says she hasn't been going in
anyway. At least she's safe here, and not sleeping
in some
student squat. Do you know
she's been spending time in
London with no one having a clue where she
is?’

While Edward responded to this, at length and with
feeling, Grace mouthed 'Sorry!' at Demi for
betraying her
secret, but indicated by more mime and mouthing that she
felt it would help Demi's case if Edward knew the whole story.

Grace didn't
say anything for a long time. Eventually she just lowered the phone and pressed
a button.

‘Did you get
cut off?' asked Demi.

‘
Well, we certainly weren't communicating,' said
Grace,
sounding tired.

‘
You mean you put the phone down on him?' asked Ellie.
'Respect, Grace!’

Grace was puzzled,
realising Edward had failed for
once to terrify her. Perhaps it was
something to do with Ellie's supportive presence. Whatever the reason, it felt
good, if a little strange. 'I would never have done that
when I was married to him, but I just suddenly
thought,
I don't have to be shouted at
or told off about things
which aren't remotely my fault or my
responsibility, any
more.' She smiled at
Demi. 'I'm really looking forward
to you living here! Why don't we go
and choose you a room?'

‘
Then we can
go to my - old house' - Ellie found a
lump
in her throat and swallowed it away - 'and see how
much stuff we can get
in the back of my car.'

‘We're going to steal furniture?' said Demi,
obviously much cheered by the prospect.

‘Not steal it,' said Ellie. 'Take it away. I
paid for it. Not that we'll get much in the car.'

‘We could go in my car,' said Grace. 'It's a
bit bigger than yours—' She stopped speaking as the phone rang. 'Oh no! That'll
be your mother, Demi.'

‘No, it won't. She doesn't know I'm here. I
just left a message for her to ring me.'

‘
Edward
knows you're here, and I put the phone down on him.' She picked up the
receiver, preparing to be thor
oughly
told off. Flynn's deep tones, with their subtle Irish
accent, were
strangely soothing.

‘I was wondering if I could bring the Rayburn
round
this afternoon instead. I've got
someone who can help me
now, but may not be available later on.’

Grace took a longing look
at Ellie and Demi and
realised she would not be able to
join them. 'That would be fine.' She pulled herself together. 'I mean, thank
you very much.’

*

When Ellie
and Demi set off in her 2CV, having first put
the
back seat down, they both felt a sense of excitement.

‘
So, tell me about your friend. Was she a best
best friend,
or just a best friend?'

‘
Best best,'
said Demi. 'We did everything together and,
while she was around, living at home was just about bear
able. We
plan to go travelling together for our gap years, though.'

‘
Good idea.
You could meet somewhere like Hong
Kong and go back-packing.'

‘That sounds great!'

‘Having us around will be quite different for
Grace, won't it? I mean she's led quite a quiet life up to now, hasn't she?’

Demi shrugged. 'Dad used
to have friends to stay quite
a bit. They had dinner parties,
stuff like that.'

‘
Oh.' Ellie was surprised. 'Did Grace do the cooking?'
Demi shook her head. 'Nah - Dad did, or they
got
caterers in.'

‘
And did she enjoy them, do you think?'

‘
Dunno
really.' Aware that she was being unhelpful and
not meaning to be -
after all, Ellie didn't seem to be the
obstacle
she'd appeared to be - Demi went on, 'She never
complained. But she
didn't seem to be having a brilliant
time.'
Demi frowned. 'She was always nice to me, though,
took my side when Dad got heavy. That's why I
wanted
to stay with her.' She suddenly grinned. 'He didn't like
being called "Dad". He preferred
"Daddy" or even
"Father". I remember once him having
a go at me about
it and Grace saying he
couldn't expect me to use such an
old-fashioned expression, and
certainly not in public.'

‘
So, she
wasn't bullied by him then?' A second after
the words were out of her
mouth Ellie realised she
shouldn't have been
talking to Demi about her father like
that,
but she decided she didn't care. She needed to know
these things.

‘
Dad
doesn't do bullying. He just expects his own way.
Grace went along with
him most of the time, but if she didn't agree, she just kind of ignored him.
They didn't
argue or anything. Not like
when he lived with my mum.’

Ellie nodded. 'I see.'

‘So tell me about us taking the furniture. Will
your boyfriend be there?’

Ellie took advantage of a
road junction to glance at her
watch. 'I shouldn't think so, but
you can't be sure.' She
couldn't decide if
she wanted to see him or not. Supposing
she fell in love with him all
over again? She pushed this scenario firmly to the back of her mind. She
couldn't afford to think like that. 'The most important thing is to
get the futon,' she said to Demi, 'but we should be
able
to get that in the back if we
take the base apart. And there
are
some bits and pieces in the kitchen I'd quite like. My
mum bought me a
food processor for Christmas; I'm not leaving that behind.'

‘But supposing your boyfriend is there? Will
there be trouble?’

Ellie could hear the
mixture of anxiety and excitement
in Demi's voice. 'Well, I hope it
doesn't turn into a scene from
EastEnders,'
she
said, trying to sound reassuring. 'I don't think Rick will mind my leaving him
because he
doesn't want the baby and he
knows he can get someone
else to cook and clean up for him. But he might
be a bit pissed off about the bed.'

‘Right. I can't decide if I want him to be
there or not. When did you last see him?'

‘
I don't
know. Early last week? Listen, if you're nervous,
you can stay in the
car.'

‘
No, no. I'll come in. I'm
sure you shouldn't move furni
ture if you're pregnant.’

Ellie sighed. 'And I'm sure
you're right. I just hope
the baby doesn't
know what I was doing before I knew
I was pregnant!' She frowned
suddenly. 'You don't think
I'm taking
advantage of Grace, do you? I mean, I can
see how you might think that.
We haven't known each other long.’

Demi shook her head. 'I
think it's nice for Grace to have
a mate, someone
like you who's more her own age. Dad's
friends are all ancient, and some of the women were dead
patronising.’

Ellie was silent, imagining Grace in that huge
house,
being patronised by Edward's smart,
sophisticated
friends. Edward must
have been some man for her to put
up with that.

‘
She never
says anything bad about Dad, though,' said
Demi. 'Not like Mum. She's
very loyal.’

Ellie shuddered. 'We must look after her!’

Demi giggled. 'I expect she's thinking the same
about you and me. We're both homeless and you're pregnant. She probably thinks
she's looking after us.'

‘We'll be a team. We'll look out for each
other.' She frowned suddenly. 'I hope you're allowed to stay. You're fun!’

Demi felt herself
blushing. She hadn't felt fun for ages.

Rick's van was parked outside the house when
they
arrived and there was nowhere else near
where Ellie could
park.

‘
Bugger!'
she said, not sure if she was annoyed because
Rick was there, or because
she couldn't park outside. 'Now we'll have to carry the futon for miles.'

‘But will there be a row?' demanded Demi, still
undecided if she wanted one or not.

‘
I don't
know. Let's find somewhere to park and we
can find out.'

‘
I suppose it's better if we can sneak up on
him,' said
Demi after Ellie had found a
spot in the next street. 'And then, while he's not looking, we can drag the
futon down
the stairs and run off down the street with it.’