Grace by Patricia Dixon

Author:Patricia Dixon [Dixon, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781912986507
Publisher: Bombshell Books: an imprint of Bloodhound Books
Published: 2019-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

Heidi had the heaviest heart, a tetchy husband and two very subdued children sitting in the back of the car and had tried all sorts to jolly them along. She’d sang ‘Jingle Bells’ (twice) and every single Christmas song she could remember the words to, along with thinking up exciting, fun-packed things that they could do in Lincoln during the next three days. In truth, all Heidi wanted to do was get through the visit to Gordon and Vera’s without World War Three breaking out and then skedaddle, just as soon as Christmas Day was over with. To make matters worse, she was truly envious of her brother who it seemed would be spending Christmas with their mum after all.

They’d attempted to put their arrival off until Christmas Eve, but owing to the fact that today was Vera’s sixtieth birthday, they’d been guilted into arriving earlier so they could join in her celebrations. Now, they would be arriving just before Sunday lunch and the only thing that softened the blow was being treated to a slap up meal by the Lambe seniors. Some of Vera’s friends from the church would also be there along with Elliot’s aunts and uncles but despite her rumbling tummy, Heidi was dreading it. From what she’d been told, it appeared that Skye and Finn would be the only children there, so an arduously long, boring afternoon of best table manners and listening to their monotonous yakking was on the cards for all of them.

Skye adored her Grandma Grace and all the things they did together on the run up to Christmas. It was part of the tradition, getting into the spirit of things and building up the excitement before the big day. Heidi knew that hers, as with most children, liked routine and familiarity and her mother provided all this in bucketfuls, for all of them, totally selflessly and in equal measure. Perhaps that’s why Heidi was so resentful towards Vera and Gordon. A huge, barbed wire ball of it was stored inside her, unhelpfully laced with thinly veiled disdain and anger, that to date, she had managed to bottle up. The crux of it was that Heidi felt bitter and dismayed at the way her in-laws not only treated both their sons, but their grandchildren too.

Elliot and Nathan had once described in great, depressing detail their unhappy childhoods. Mostly, it had been confined and determined by strict rules, the book of God and parents who should, according to Heidi, have kept their legs crossed and avoided parenthood altogether. They were cold, unloving, and puritanical and had sucked all the joy out of their offsprings’ formative years. By the time they were teenagers, Elliot had begun to rebel whereas Nathan chose the path of least resistance and stayed in his room for the duration. His lack of confidence was in stark contrast to the irreverent and rebellious streak shown by his elder sibling.

It seemed that Elliot was so used to having, not only his liberty,

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