Heart of Glass by Dana James

Author:Dana James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2020-12-14T15:03:38+00:00

Chapter Seven

The sleeves of Elsie’s old grey cardigan were pushed up almost to her elbows. Her hands were mottled red and purple in the cold air as she shook out a small rug a few paces from her open front door

Beneath the heavy grey cardigan, which she never buttoned, over a plain blue blouse, she wore a sleeveless wrap-around cotton overall, so old the pattern of tiny red flowers had faded to pink and was barely discernible. Thick stockings encased what could be seen of her legs beneath her favourite brown tweed skirt, and her feet were pushed into fawn carpet slippers with buttons and pom-poms on the front.

‘You haven’t left nothing out in the back yard, have you, my bird?’

Shelley looked up from locking her front door. ‘No, why?’

‘Be raining by lunchtime,’ Elsie announced.

Shelley tilted her head, observing the thick blanket of low grey cloud. A sharp-edged breeze was blowing straight up the river, creaming the tops off lumpy waves the colour of slate. The tide was two hours into the ebb, but the water, held in the river by the east wind, still slapped midway up the quay wall.

‘The forecast looked quite good,’ Shelley said. ‘They promised sunny periods later this morning.’ Even as she spoke, a ray of pale, watery sunlight forced its way through a break in the cloud. As they both looked towards it the gap closed again, shutting off the beam, and the greyness seemed even more sombre.

‘False promises, my bird.’ Elsie was derisive and the words echoed in Shelley’s head. ‘They never get it right for us down here. There’s a nasty bit of weather coming. None of the fishermen have gone out this morning. It don’t look too bad in here. But he’ll be ten times worse out there –’ she gestured towards the harbour mouth ‘– a bad wind for us, the southeaster is.’

Shelley shivered and turned up the collar of her coral-coloured padded jacket. ‘I hope you’re wrong, Elsie.’ Bad weather meant no customers and it had already been a disastrous week for her from a sales point of view. In fact, taken all round, it had been one of the worst weeks she had ever experienced.

The old woman shuffled back to her front door. ‘Wish I was, my handsome.’ But her tone said she knew she wasn’t. ‘Here, do you know where Mr Trelawney is to? Only he’s supposed to be sending this here builder to do my wall, but he never said what day.’

Shelley shook her head, not trusting herself to speak.

‘You know he bought the big house across the water?’ Elsie pointed, but did not wait for a reply. ‘Well, Rosie Thomas was telling me she heard he’s doing some handsome job over there. Spending thousands he is. Be some lovely place when he’ve finished. ‘He’ve put in a handsome new kitchen, and they solar panels for the central heating. And he got one of they fizzy baths. Great round thing it is.’ She looked at Shelley expectantly, waiting for her reaction to this news.

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