The Nothing Girl by Jodi Taylor

Author:Jodi Taylor [Taylor, Jodi]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Women's Fiction, Contemporary Women, Romance, Fantasy, Contemporary Fiction
ISBN: 9781783753994
Google: Zy6CoAEACAAJ
Amazon: B00KFKQE50
Publisher: Accent Press
Published: 2014-05-17T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Long, long seconds passed. I should do something. I should say something. The longer the silence lasted, the worse things would get. Neither of us was capable of speech. Thomas moved around to stand beside her, breathing gently into her hair. Calming and soothing.

I swallowed once or twice, and then, since she was still sobbing into her tea towel, got up and switched the kettle on. My legs felt wobbly. I was really out of my depth. Again. My first thoughts were to leave this for Russell to deal with, but that wouldn’t be a good idea.

‘Good thinking. Let’s see what she has to say first. She might just be referring to another catering accident.’

‘Russell’s mother died in a car crash, Thomas.’

‘Well, I can’t see her under the chassis tampering with the brakes, can you? Let’s listen and then decide what to do.’

I put a mug of tea in front of her, removed the tea towel, and substituted the kitchen roll.

We looked at each other for a while and then she began.

‘Dr Williams … haven’t seen him in a long time. Did he call me Lizzie Crisp?’

I nodded.

‘That was my business name.’ She smiled back into her past. ‘I’ll start at the beginning.’ She seemed quite calm now. Determined too. I cuddled my tea in both hands and listened.

‘Grahame and I met at junior school. We knew, both of us, almost from the moment we met. There was never anyone else. Childhood sweethearts.’

She smiled again, but it was a sad and bitter smile this time.

‘He was a mechanic – and a good one. He worked for a while in his uncle’s garage and then set up on his own. He did well, but he was always busy so I looked around for something to do.

‘I liked cooking. I was good at it, so when a friend asked me to cook for her dinner party I was thrilled. It was a success. Word got round. From being just something to keep me occupied, it went to being a neat little business. Grahame was happy, I was happy. Everything was going so well.’

She drank some more tea. I was beginning to have a horrible feeling. I’d wanted a life. I’d wanted the sort of life real people have. We should be careful what we wish for. Suddenly, I wanted to be back in my attic where I wouldn’t have to hear what happened to happy Lizzie Crisp and her childhood sweetheart Grahame.

She continued. ‘And when Alice was born, it was just the icing on the cake. She was beautiful. I dressed her in blue to match her eyes.’

She lost herself for a while and we waited patiently.

‘Grahame’s dad found us some premises where I could cook and there was a small shop-front as well. People could either select from the freezer and take it home, or bring in their own dishes, I’d fill them up, and they could pretend they’d cooked it themselves.

‘It went really well. Grahame was busy too. I really thought it was going to be a case of “and they all lived happily ever after”.

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