Survivor by Lesley Pearse

Author:Lesley Pearse
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780241961544
Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: 2014-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

19

Mariette had to ask for directions three times to Willow Road before she finally found it. She had expected it to be right by Hampstead tube station, but it was a good ten-minute walk away.

But she didn’t mind the walk; it was sunny, the Hampstead air was a great deal fresher than in Bow, there were very few bomb sites, and it was nice to see gardens bright with daffodils and lots of trees. There had been an air raid last night, and she and Joan had gone to the shelter. An old man with them was constantly scratching himself, and by the time the all-clear went, around two in the morning, she found herself scratching too, convinced she’d caught whatever was troubling him.

On examining herself this morning in daylight, she couldn’t see anything on her skin, so it probably was ‘all in the mind’, as Joan had claimed. She thought she must grow to be more like Joan, laugh at such things, stop being so fussy about nasty smells and dirt, and try to think of the strangers she met in shelters as potential friends, not treat them with suspicion.

Number eleven Willow Road was a pretty, double-fronted house with a high, neatly trimmed privet hedge which grew in an arch over the tall wrought-iron gate. Henry must have seen her from the window as he opened the front door even before she rang the bell.

‘You found me then,’ he said with a wide smile. ‘I thought afterwards I should have given you directions.’

He took her through to a large kitchen at the back of the house, overlooking a well-kept garden, and introduced her to his wife, Doreen.

‘I’m so glad you felt able to come today,’ she said as she shook Mariette’s hand. ‘You have been through so much, and Henry tells me Noah’s stepson added to it by being very unpleasant.’

Mariette had expected Henry’s wife to be elegant and possibly chilly, but she couldn’t have been more wrong. She looked very motherly, around fifty or so, plump, with her greying hair fixed up into an untidy bun. She wore a hand-knitted jumper and a tweed skirt, and the apron over the top had been washed so often that it was hard to discern a pattern.

‘He was even more unpleasant as I was leaving. But I think I left him with some food for thought, along with all the washing-up to do.’ Mariette grinned, liking Doreen on sight. ‘But I did feel distraught as I walked away from the house. I had so many wonderful times with Noah, Lisette and Rose, I loved them so much, and I don’t understand why Jean-Philippe was so nasty to me.’

‘Noah had problems with him from the age of about twelve. The boy was insolent, he purposely damaged things of Noah’s and did everything he could to create a wedge between Noah and Lisette,’ Henry said. ‘Noah asked me for advice because our son, Douglas, is the same age. It was my opinion that Noah had tried too hard with the lad when he and Lisette were first married.

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