Fresh Flesh by Stella Duffy

Author:Stella Duffy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Profile Books
Published: 1999-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-EIGHT

On the journey down to Carbis Bay, Patrick had decided he was going to have to stay in Lillian’s B&B if at all humanly possible. Saz thought this was a very dodgy idea to say the least, but Patrick had no intention of allowing her to dissuade him. They negotiated their way around the plethora of roundabouts and past the families spilling from the pavements into the road, all trooping home from the beach for a fish and chip tea, small children weighed down with sandy buckets and spades and salty water wings, exhausted parents weighed down with salty, sandy, sun-burned children.

Saz tried one last time. “Patrick, the woman who runs this place might not be your mother. We don’t know anything for definite. And even if Lillian Hope is your mother, there’s no guarantee she’s here right now. She might have gone away for summer herself.”

“It’s the height of the fucking season, Saz. If she’s not here right now then she’s a worse fucking landlady than she is a mother.”

“Yeah, OK, maybe – but I still don’t think we should just barge in there and confront her, for all you know, she might not want …”

Saz broke off abruptly as Patrick swerved dangerously close to the oncoming traffic in an attempt to avoid knocking down a little girl on a half-size bike, trailing behind her parents who each held a tiny baby in their arms.

“For fuck’s sake! What the hell do they think they’re doing? They bloody well shouldn’t be allowed to breed. Fucking morons! Christ, if they can’t keep their attention on one bloody kid, what the fuck are they doing having another two? Jesus fucking Christ!”

As Patrick honked the horn ferociously and screamed abuse at the startled parents, Saz decided she’d be better off keeping quiet herself. There was nothing she could do to calm Patrick’s seething nerves, and clearly any more discussion would only rile him further. She sat beside him, eyes glued to the map in front of her, quietly indicating left and right turnings, and hoping that the calm she was trying her best to pretend and to communicate to the man beside her would somehow get past his frazzled aura and help them both through the next hour or so.

Half an hour later they pulled up outside Lillian Hope’s B&B, and Saz sighed with relief at the “No Vacancy” sign in the front window. But Patrick made her go and ask anyway. At the very least, he reasoned, Lillian might open the door and he’d get a chance to look at her. Against her better judgement, Saz walked across the small lawn, bordered with a flourishing jungle of huge geraniums and lush begonias and, breathing hard herself, lifted a nervous hand to ring the doorbell. Moments later her heart plummeted at the sound of shuffling footsteps coming down the stairs and the door was opened. Of course, the woman answering the door might have been the cleaner, a housekeeper, Lillian’s assistant, Lillian’s best friend or even, appearances to the contrary, Lillian’s own mother.

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