Sunshine Over Wildflower Cottage (33 page)

‘She’s pissed,’ growled Linda, checking Enid for immediate signs of damage.

Enid’s eyes fluttered open but she couldn’t seem to focus.

‘Where are you, Freddie mate?’ Dino went to the bottom of the stairs and called for his grandson. When there was no answer, Iris scurried back outside to double-check that Freddie wasn’t there.

‘Bloody hell, Linda, come quick,’ cried Iris, ‘There’s something out here in the water.’

Linda was on her feet like a flash and running past her mother. She pushed her way through the plants and headed towards the pond, heart in her mouth, blood pounding in her ears. There at the base of the statue was Freddie, floating face down, arms resting on the water at either side of him.

She couldn’t remember jumping in, but she must have done because she was wet through when it was all over. Suddenly Dino was there too, helping pull their precious little Freddie out and laying him on the grass. Then Linda set to work.

Pulse. Check airways, sweep mouth, tilt to side. Some water comes out – not much. Angle neck, seal mouth with her own, blow.
He was so cold, so pale. She still couldn’t feel a pulse. She’d performed CPR on many patients in her life, but never had to pull one back from drowning.
This is my little boy. Commence chest compressions. Count to thirty. Check pulse. An ambulance siren. A pulse. Thank You God.
Freddie was retching, crying. He was alive.

Dino was talking to someone behind her. ‘She’s a matron at the hospital. If anyone could save him, she could.’

Iris’s voice. ‘She’s pissed on cheap gin and in charge of this boy on a daily basis. And no, I don’t know where his bloody mother is, but his father’s a decorated war hero serving his country. Now you tell me, officer, which side of the family would you give the babysitting to?’

The police were here as well, it seemed. Linda thought that a better person wouldn’t have relished her mother’s indiscretion, but today . . . sod it. Rebecca had gambled with her son’s life and nearly lost him because of it. No, Linda would have no compunction at all about using what had happened today as leverage if it would mean that Freddie was safe. Life wasn’t fair – as Rebecca so often said, and some words just came back to bite you on the bum.

Chapter 71

Stel had been feeling awful all day. The headache had been cured with two lots of ibuprofen and copious amounts of water but it couldn’t take away the shame of behaving as she had in front of Ian. She believed his recollection of events more than her own. There were too many holes and inconsistencies in her memory for it to be relied on. She promised herself that she would never let him see her like that again and set about the process of making amends. She cooked a one-pot chicken stew for their tea which she hoped he’d like. He returned home from work with a bunch of flowers cut from the hospice garden and a bottle of Lucozade. He’d given her a big kiss and told her that he hoped they could put the last day behind them because the last thing he wanted was for them to split up. He had worried himself stupid all day that she thought badly of him.

How could Stel have doubted such a considerate man?

*

Hugo rang at 5 p.m. just as Viv was refilling Wonk’s water trough. His call confirmed what she already knew, really. He said he would email her all the technical jargon but filled her in verbally on the main points. She’d tried to talk matter-of-factly, which she managed, until she put down the phone. Then she’d thrown her arms around the little grey donkey’s neck and she had cried because now it was all real and she had a choice to make. And whichever one she picked would hurt her.

*

That night Ian got into bed, said goodnight to Stel and rolled over.

‘No goodnight kiss?’ Stel had asked, blinking back tears of disappointment.

‘I’m not being funny, Stelly,’ he said over his shoulder, ‘but I don’t think I’d be able to raise a smile tonight. Being accused of rape doesn’t do much for the libido.’

He was asleep in minutes. It took Stel much longer than that.

Chapter 72

Viv wouldn’t have thought it would be possible to function as normally as she had on the Saturday.

She had seen to the animals, collected the eggs and done two loads of washing. She had walked Pilot up the hill, food shopped, conversed normally with Mrs Macy and complimented her on her new hat. She marvelled at her body’s ability to mask the activity sparking in her brain, but Ursula had picked up on her stress. She would not fly to Viv’s glove. Not even for a chunk of her favourite venison.

Viv felt like a Dalek, as though a different person was driving her outer shell with levers and buttons:
wash those plates, delete that spam from the mail file, talk politely to Mr Wayne about the nice weather we are having.
She was the same person she had been only one day before, but also she was very different because
she knew
now and there could be no undoing of that.

Viv picked up the knitted toy bee from her bedside table. She wished she had never opened the box and lifted it out. She wished she had never cut the seam when she felt the paper inside it. But she had made the decision to do so. And each of the choices that spun from that moment had been harder and bigger and more complicated than the last.

Chapter 73

‘Are you ready to go then?’ asked Ian.

Stel looked round from brushing her hair in the kitchen mirror. She checked the time on the wall clock. She didn’t usually set off to meet the Old Spice Girls until quarter past five. Why would she set off at quarter to?

‘Bit early,’ she replied.

‘It’s not. It starts in half an hour.’ Ian lifted his jacket from the back of a chair and put it on.

Stel was confused. ‘What does?’

Ian rolled his eyes. ‘The film.’

‘What?’

‘The film,’ he repeated the word but increased the volume. ‘I told you that I was taking you to the cinema.’

Stel couldn’t remember him mentioning it at all. Besides, she wouldn’t have agreed to go on a Sunday early evening. That was her Old Spice Girls slot.

‘When did you say that?’

Ian looked at her with open-mouthed disbelief. ‘Yesterday.’

‘I can’t,’ said Stel. ‘I’m going to Linda’s. I always go to Linda’s on Sunday. It’s set in stone.’

Ian laughed dryly. ‘You are joking. We could have gone yesterday but I thought you might need a rest after the . . . incident. You said we’d go today instead.’

Stel shook her head. ‘I didn’t. I wouldn’t have said that I’d go on a Sunday.’

‘Stel, trust me, you did. You really did. We had a whole conversation about it. You said you wanted to see that new Tom Hardy film – I said I’d take you tomorrow. You said great, you couldn’t wait, remember?’

‘I remember saying I wanted to see the new Tom Hardy film . . .’ Stel did. But she couldn’t recall them arranging anything. She was sure of it. Or was she?

‘So what are you saying?’ Ian’s hands-on-hips stance was one of clear annoyance.

‘Well, I’m going to Linda’s.’

Ian threw up his hands. ‘I honestly think you’re losing it, Stelly.’ He ripped his coat off and threw it across the kitchen. ‘Right, you fuck off to your friend’s then,’ he said with no veil drawn over his anger.

‘Ian, don’t be like that. I go there every Sun—’

‘I bend over backwards for you, Stelly. I bring you flowers, I clean your sick up, I forgive you when you gouge half my face off and then accuse me . . .’

Stel clamped her hands over her ears. She couldn’t bear to hear what a mess she was. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t remember,’ she said, tears threatening. ‘Look, we’ll go and watch the film. I’ll text Linda and tell her I don’t feel very well.’

‘I mean, who spends Sunday evenings with their friends every week?’ asked Ian with a mirthless laugh.

‘We’ve done it for years,’ said Stel, wiping her running nose. ‘We let off steam.’

Ian handed Stel a tissue and put his arms around her. ‘You shouldn’t have any steam to let off. I don’t want you to be stressed. And if you are, you can talk to me now, okay?’

He lifted up her chin, despite her protest. She didn’t want him to see her with red eyes and a snotty nose. He’d seen enough of her imperfections in the past few days, but he held her face firmly and stared fixedly at her as if she were beautiful.

Then he said, ‘Go and brush your teeth because they look a bit yellow and we’ll go.’ And he kissed the tip of her nose.

Chapter 74

In Linda’s party room, Gaynor was filling everyone in on the arrangements for the funeral. No one said it, but she looked happier than she had all year.

‘One o’clock at St Jude’s Church and then on to the crematorium. Then refreshments at the Farmer’s Arms. I’m expecting a good turn-out.’

‘You coming with us, Caro?’ said Linda. ‘There’s not a lot of parking at the church so we might as well go together. I’ve texted Stel and told her to be here for just after half-past twelve.’

‘Thanks, Linda. Did Stel say what was up with her exactly?’

‘She’d been sick and was going back to bed,’ replied Linda.

‘Probably be one of those twenty-four-hour bug things. There’s something going around,’ said Iris. ‘They do a good spread at the Farmer’s, Gaynor. That’ll have cost you a bob or two.’

‘Well, nothing but the best,’ said Gaynor, giving a sniff, although she didn’t feel like crying one bit. The knowledge that Mick missed her and had never stopped loving her would carry her through the rest of her life like a warm current of air. ‘He’s left me well provided for. House is paid off now and we had a couple of life insurance policies.
She
did all right as well. A bloody house and a fat bank account. And God knows what else.’

‘Stop thinking about her now,’ said Caro. ‘Mick was coming back to you. We all knew he would in the end. He had a mid-life crisis and regretted it. You’d have got over it and had many happy years together.’

‘You should go to one of them mediums,’ said Iris, spraying egg mayo on her lap. ‘Mick might send you a message.’

‘They’re all rubbish, Mum,’ scoffed Linda. ‘I don’t believe in any of that psychic bollocks.’

‘You can laugh but Joan Fleetwood went to see one when her Judd passed over because she couldn’t find his wallet. Pat Morrison in Horcroft, she’s called. And he came through for her.’

Linda rolled her eyes. ‘And did he say where his wallet was?’

‘No, but he said she should buy a new fridge freezer.’

Caro coughed to cover up her involuntary giggle. Linda threw up her hands in exasperation. ‘And?’

Iris looked at her as if she were daft. ‘And what? That’s it. She bought a fridge freezer.’

‘What about the bloody wallet?’ said Linda impatiently.

Iris shrugged. ‘I don’t know, I forgot to ask her.’

‘You’d have thought that if he’d taken all the trouble to come through, he’d have had something more relevant to say, wouldn’t you?’ said Caro, trying not to laugh.

‘As it happens, Pat Morrison’s nephew dealt in electrics, so he got her a really good deal.’

The penny dropped for everyone but Iris.

‘Charlatan,’ said Linda. ‘See what I mean? Out to fool people.’

‘I don’t think I’ll bother with a medium, I think I’ll catch up with Mick when I see him,’ said Gaynor. One day they’d be together again, she knew. He’d be waiting for her and she wouldn’t have to spend eternity by herself. She’d been comforted by that more than anyone could ever know. Obviously, when they met at the Pearly Gates she’d give him what-for first and get it out of the way. Then they could go furniture shopping and she wouldn’t pick anything he didn’t like.

‘He’ll have a good send-off tomorrow, Gaynor love,’ said Iris, with a warm smile. ‘That’s all you can do for him now.’

‘Talking of psychic stuff, what about you with your super-intuitive powers then, Linda?’ said Caro with a grin. ‘Hero of the hour or what? How is Freddie?’

Linda puffed out her cheeks. ‘I never want another day in my life like that, I can tell you. Freddie’s fine, thank goodness. They kept him in hospital for the night but we’ve got him now. He’s watching TV with his grandad. Social services were going to place him in temporary care but I said over my dead blumming body. Rebecca kicked up a proper stink about that, but she cocked up when she admitted knowing her mother had a drink problem. She said there was no one else who could look after Freddie whilst she went to work. Well, there was – us – and social services weren’t very happy that she “demonstrated a lack of regard for her child’s best interests”, as they put it. Rebecca was more concerned with hurting us than she was with protecting her own child and that came across loud and clear to them.’ She gave such a deep exhalation of breath, it seemed to have been dragged up from her toes. ‘It’s wrong, you know, how grandparents have no rights. Our boy almost had to die for us to be able to spend time with him.’

‘What about long term, Linda?’ asked Caro.

‘Well, social services are keeping their eye on us to make sure Freddie hasn’t gone from the frying pan into the fire and there will need to be a full assessment of the whole family situation. When Andy comes back next month, he won’t be lying down for her like he did when they split up, I can tell you that for nothing. We’re not after taking the lad away from his mother but she could do with some help and we can give it to her. With any luck she might learn to defrost that bloody face of hers as well.’

‘I’m surprised you haven’t had the local rag sniffing round.’

‘Oh I have,’ chuckled Linda. ‘But I don’t think it’s fair on Freddie to have this splashed all over the papers. Ooh’ – she did a little dance and rubbed her hands together – ‘I could eat him. Those big blue eyes.’

‘She might not believe in the supernatural, but she had a message that day,’ Iris insisted, stabbing her finger upwards. ‘Sure as God is up there.’

‘It was intuition, Mum. Or coincidence, or just plain and simple luck,’ Linda replied with a shiver. ‘Whatever it was, I thank it. What if I’d have ignored it? What if I hadn’t looked through the window and seen Enid on the floor and we’d gone back home because we presumed they were out? I couldn’t sleep on Friday for what-ifs.’

Iris wouldn’t have that it was chance. ‘I bet you your father had something to do with it. He had psychic leanings, I know he did. He used to feel things when we were in bed.’