Five Farthings by Susan Sallis

Author:Susan Sallis [Sallis, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

Ten

THE MORNING BECAME strangely routine after that. Jock left to see to the boys and then decide what to do about Jean. He was no longer frantic. I went through my usual sequence of fitting Watt into his chair and the chair into the car, wrapping myself up against the incessant drizzle, checking that I’d got a shopping list for Hartford’s, locking the house, going back to check I’d switched everything off . . . None of it bothered me. I still muttered to Matt that I must get something done about the garage door but I knew that garage doors were not high on my list of priorities. I was wearing some kind of insulation.

Mum and Bunny – yes, I was thinking of him as Bunny – were delighted to see me. The other children had gone home last night but Andrew had stayed on and they were finding him a bit much. To demonstrate the efficacy of his present to Lucy, he had tipped most of the contents of the bubble-bath bottle down one of Mum’s child-size lavatories, with the result that bubbles were oozing everywhere. Bunny had proved himself at least half a plumber and was using Mum’s floor mop not only to clear the bubbles but as a giant plunger. Mum told me later that he’d looked at the bubbles, then down at the gibbering and red-faced Andrew and commented, ‘Well, you proved your point, old man.’

I delivered Andrew to Stella, who had obviously made the most of her time off and just got out of bed. She was effusively grateful.

‘It’s been lovely,’ she said simply.

I said suddenly, ‘How about hiring the church hall and doing a Christmas party for Andrew and Lucy? They could run about and scream some of the time. And then eat, then we could organize a few games. Perhaps.’

‘Well . . . it sounds great. But they need a man, don’t they? My husband’s not here and you’re a widow. It might be really hard work.’

It was the first time anyone had referred to me as a widow without me cringing inside.

‘Let’s see what we can manage.’

I couldn’t ask Sam. But I felt – now – that Bunny would give a hand. And maybe Simon would have a go at disc-jockeying. And I hadn’t really registered that Stella Bearwood was on her own.

It was good to go back to Mum’s for lunch. Bunny had called in a plumber, who had met this kind of thing before. ‘Kids will be kids,’ he commented gloomily, surveying the mess. ‘Birthday parties, Christmas parties . . . they’re the very devil.’ It should have made me rethink my plan for Christmas but it did not.

Watt sat on Bunny’s knee and was fed. Mum said comfortably, ‘Ray is so good with children of all ages.’ And Lucy looked at him and said as if in congratulation, ‘Grandad was like that, too.’ Ray went pink with pleasure.

While Lucy ‘helped’ Mum to make some cakes and Watt had a sleep, I went to Hartford’s and stocked up.

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