The Silenced Wife by Collette Heather

Author:Collette Heather [Heather, Collette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B077WDZWJS
Published: 2018-02-27T22:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

Becky had chosen to be with me and Aaron tonight. My mum had been crestfallen and tight-lipped until the time came when Becky and I had got in the car to drive over here.

Even though we weren’t officially moving in today, it felt as if we were. It felt like a huge milestone in my life. I had packed a small holdall for me and Becky, inside which was a change of clothes, and a few toys.

Becky seemed to be perfectly at ease, doing an eight-piece jigsaw puzzle of a Disney princess on the large, oak table that ran down the centre of the kitchen. It was six o’clock, and the guests were due to arrive at seven-thirty, with a view to dinner being served at nine, the plan being that Becky would long be asleep by then. Somehow, I had my doubts that she would be.

I leaned against the counter top and watched as Aaron prepared the salad. ‘You really are the perfect man – I can’t believe that you cook, too.’

He laughed easily, glancing up at me as he chopped the sundried tomatoes on the wooden chopping board. ‘I’d hardly class making a salad as cooking.’

I smiled at him. ‘We’re not just eating salad, tonight.’

‘Yes, well, not even I can bugger up steak; they have to be the easiest thing in the world to rustle up, especially when it’s Filet mignon. That stuff is so tender it practically cooks itself. And even an inept fool like me can boil a few new potatoes and bung in a bit of butter and parsley.’

I glanced across the room at Becky, marvelling at what a self-efficient little thing she was. More often than not, she was quite happy chuntering away to herself, doing her colouring, or, in this case, agonizing over a jigsaw puzzle.

‘What time does she normally go to bed?’ Aaron asked.

‘Seven at the latest. But she might be too excited to go down that early tonight.’

‘It doesn’t matter. Well, obviously it matters if she doesn’t get her beauty sleep, but I just meant it doesn’t matter from my point of view. I’m sure she’ll charm the socks off our guests if they get to meet her.’

‘Do they have children?’

‘Rupert and Camilla have two grown-up children, I believe. Two sons. I think one of them has just produced. Gary and Linda never had children.’

‘Remind me again who’s who? I’d hate to get their names wrong and their job titles muddled. I just want to get them straight in my mind.’

‘Oh, don’t worry about that, there’s nothing formal about this dinner. This is just my pre-resignation resignation, if you catch my drift. They’re only here in Cornwall for work anyway, discussing business with the Royal Cornwall hospital. The McMillans, as in Rupert and Camilla, are in their sixties – you’ll easily tell them apart from Gary and Linda Flint, who are only forty. Rupert is the Chief Executive for West London Hospitals NHS Trust, and he’s the one I have to put out the feelers to for handing in my resignation.

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