Every Mother's Son by Val Wood

Author:Val Wood [Wood, Val]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ebook Club, Historical, Family, Top 100 Chart, Fiction
ISBN: 9781473509504
Google: 7cX-AwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2014-11-05T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Melissa left Christopher sleeping in the chair and went out into the garden to wander around the rose beds. The new young gardener understood perfectly what she wanted and had recommended various types of sweet-smelling roses that lasted all summer long. She paused to breathe in one particular deep carmine rose with a fragrant scent. The previous year she had often gathered one or two blooms to take into the house, even though she knew they wouldn’t last so long as on the bush. But she didn’t pick them now; there were many buds still to open and she decided to wait.

She was uneasy, and had come outside to calm herself. The note from Thompson, which she had left on the side table next to Christopher’s chair, had disturbed her, and she wondered what Ellen Tuke wanted and why she should say it was a personal matter. Should I tell Christopher what I suspect? she thought. And yet if I am wrong about his former relationship with Ellen Tuke and the question mark over her son, would he be angry that I had distrusted him? Would our marriage suffer because of it?

She walked slowly back to the house and saw her husband with his back to the window, his head bent as if reading something. He’s found the letter, she thought, and was thankful that she had come outside. It will give him time to assimilate the contents, and I’ll know by his expression whether or not he is disturbed by them.

When she walked into the sitting room Christopher was pacing the floor, the note in his hand. ‘Have you seen this?’ he asked irritably. ‘If it’s not one thing it’s another.’

‘It’s from Thompson, isn’t it?’ she wavered. ‘Something he forgot to mention – about a fence? Not like him; he’s obviously not at all well.’

‘Not that!’ he said edgily. ‘That’s easily fixed.’ He waved the note about. ‘Ellen Tuke wants me to call on her. As if I haven’t enough to do without trailing down to Brough Haven! It will be nothing that Thompson couldn’t deal with, except that I’ve sent him home and told him to rest.’

Melissa felt a sense of relief. Christopher had nothing on his conscience after all. Ellen Tuke was merely an irritant to a man who had too much to do.

‘Can I help?’ she offered. ‘Shall I go to see her? I could tell her that you are very busy just now with Thompson being ill.’

He considered for a moment and then sat down. ‘No, that wouldn’t work. She seems to think that because she’s known me for so long she is owed my personal attention.’ He sighed. ‘I’ll go in a day or two. Blasted woman,’ he said beneath his breath.

When he did decide to visit it was three days later. He had attended to several things that Thompson would normally have dealt with, including sending a carpenter to fix the broken fence, and drafted out an advertisement for a bailiff or farm manager to go into local and national newspapers and farming magazines.

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