Two Women (72 page)

‘It’s called
The End of the Year Show
, Gran.’

‘I’d have gone after him a few years ago, he’s lovely.’

‘That would cheer him up no end if he knew.’

Rosie’s voice was full of fun as she walked into the room.

Everyone looked at her. She was stunning.

Long blonde hair and deep blue eyes, she looked like a computer image of the perfect woman. She was training to be a nurse, and had set more than a few pulses racing. Alana, who was now a staff nurse, looked out for her. The two girls were very close.

But Rosie’s secret was the fact she was really unaware of how lovely she was; this was the worry that Susan had for her youngest daughter. But Rosie had her head screwed on and managed her life just fine.

Alana grinned as June shouted out, ‘This time it will be called
The End of the Millennium show
anyway.’

Rosie and Alana groaned.

June always had to have the last word.

‘Whatever you say, Gran.’

‘The BBC are linking up with the rest of the world. We’ll see this one in with the whole planet.’

June sounded pleased to be a part of something so big. Susan replaced her empty glass with a full one.

‘She’ll be asleep before it all starts and asleep when it’s all over,’ she predicted fondly. ‘Her and old Ivy.’

Ivy nodded. ‘Have you seen me teeth, Sue?’

‘You’ve got them in your mouth, love!’ Susan’s voice was loud.

‘Barry, help me unload the car, would you.’

He followed Geraldine from the house. Roselle was parking out on the road. She was with Danny, now her constant companion. They fitted together somehow, had a mutual respect and a deep love that transcended age and colour. They just were.

Roselle looked at the detached house, with its large in-and-out drive and sparkling windows. It was a far cry from Susan’s beginnings, but she deserved it if anyone did. It had come from the money from the newspaper stories and the book about her life.

They strolled up the drive together, easy in each other’s company.

The kitchen was baking hot and Susan opened the back door.

She felt a pair of hands push her out into the garden then grab her from behind. Cool lips touched the back of her neck.

‘Happy, are you, Susan? Now you’ve got them all around you again?’

She turned and slid into Peter’s arms.

‘It’s the second happiest night of me life.’

‘You deserve it, mate.’

He looked at her lovingly. Peter could never quite believe she was his wife. It was a dream come true for him. Whenever he looked at her he saw the girl he had gone to school with, the girl who’d barely known he was alive back then.

When he loved her in the night it was with a ferocious passion that belied his quiet daytime appearance. And Susan loved him back. She had never known she could feel that way. That someone touching you could bring so much happiness, so much pleasure. With Barry it had all been taking, taking what he wanted, and her letting him. She pushed him from her mind. He wasn’t going to ruin tonight.

He’d ruined enough of her life.

Peter had been a proper father to her children, and she would love him for that alone. She kissed him again, passionately.

‘You never let a chance slip by, do you, Susan?’

The voice was deeper now, but held the same affection for her.

‘Oh, Rhianna, you made it!’

She grinned.

‘You didn’t think I’d let the old crowd down tonight of all nights, did you?’ Rhianna breezed in and out of Susan’s life. It was how she was. But Susan had had a feeling she’d turn up tonight. It felt right somehow, that they were all together on this auspicious occasion.

‘Colin and his kids have just pulled up. His wife ain’t with him.’

Susan frowned. ‘They’ve separated again! Still, Geraldine will cheer him up!’

She heard Colin’s three daughters shouting with glee and June shouting back at them. They loved coming here though their mother thought Susan and her family were all common. The thought made Susan smile.

Silly cow that she was, all middle-class respectability and Blairism, Marks and Spencer’s clothing and mystic medicine.

Feng Shui had been turned into cockney rhyming slang for fuck me and one of Colin’s kids had picked up on it. Susan knew she had got the blame for that one as well. Yet without her Colin would still have been a no one, working for nothing. Her case had made him and he was grateful for that. They had all bonded after the appeal, kept together, stayed friends.

He smiled at her now.

‘You’ll be on the box tonight, Sue. They’re going over all the big stories of the century.’

She raised her eyebrows in annoyance.

‘I ain’t watching that crap, I’m having a bleeding party.’

He kissed her gently. She smelled of Chloë as she always did.

‘They’re noisy gits, your lot.’

Colin grinned. ‘Only when they’re round here, Sue. It’s the way you affect people.’

‘I get the blame for everything, me!’

 

Later that night as they toasted the new millennium Susan looked around at her family and friends. She saw them all as they had been, younger but less hopeful somehow.

She saw Ivy, smiling and grinning and not understanding what was going on around her, and was amazed once more at what extreme age could do for a person. Everyone liked Ivy now, and she was adored in her old people’s home. But they had not known her in her fighting days.

Susan saw her friends, all happy in their own ways, and glad to be here, glad to be with her.

She was Susan White now. A new person, a new woman in more ways than one. As she felt Peter grab her hand she was grateful that from the first time she had kissed him, she had been enveloped in the love and respect she had craved all her life. These feelings had grown stronger over the years. Nothing that had happened in the past could change what she had been given. Four happy children, a grandchild on the way and good friends. What more could she possibly want from this new century? She already had all she needed, all that she had craved as a little girl.

She felt Peter’s hand safe in hers and smiled at him happily, knowing that when they finally went to bed she wouldn’t be allowed to sleep for hours. Mind you, she couldn’t think of a better way to be.

The thought made her smile wider and looking at Roselle they locked eyes. Roselle raised her glass in a private toast, just for the two of them and Susan did the same. They had both been the victims of Barry in their own ways and the bond had grown stronger over the years. Joseph was in New York with his wife, and Roselle knew that since burying Ivan, and her son finding out the truth of his beginnings, there had been a rift. Well, it was his loss, though she knew Roselle didn’t quite see it that way. She felt the pain for her friend as though it was happening to her.

As Danny’s arm went around Roselle she smiled happily and Susan could relax once more and enjoy herself.

Geraldine, worse for wear and flirting with Colin, was sitting on the arm of June’s chair. Looking over at her mother, Susan screwed up her eyes with mirth. June had long ago been forgiven by her daughters.

‘I told you, everyone! I said she’d sleep through it, and she has!’

 
 
 

 
TWO WOMEN

 

 
MARTINA COLE

 
 
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