Lost & Found by Kitty Neale

Author:Kitty Neale
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 0100-12-31T22:00:00+00:00

Mavis undressed slowly, worn out after seeing to dinner, clearing up, and then getting the children to bed. She’d been upset to see the red marks on James, the tell-tale signs that he’d been more than just smacked. For a while she had lain beside her son, cuddling him, loving him fiercely. It was her fault that James had been punished so harshly, and though doing everything she could to keep her mother-in-law happy, sometimes it just seemed impossible and Edith would go out of her way to complain, to antagonise Alec. Mavis knew that to protect James, she had to try harder to placate her mother-in-law, but it was so difficult to keep the children quiet all the time.

When the children were both asleep she had gone back downstairs, Alec insisting as always that they sat in his mother’s room to watch television until ten o’clock. It was then Mavis’s task to sort her mother-in-law out for the night. It wasn’t easy, the woman virtually bedridden now, and her constant chiding didn’t help.

Mavis did the best she could, washed her, helped her onto the commode, but she dreaded what would happen when Edith could no longer manage even this small task. At six in the morning she would have to be up, Edith waiting to use the commode again, but there had been times lately when she had gone downstairs to find that it was too late and the sheets were wet.

Alec was already in bed, waiting as usual, his eyes avid as she climbed in beside him. There was rarely a night when he didn’t demand her body, but nowadays, knowing as always she’d be left unsatisfied, reaching out for something that was never there, she was just thankful when it was over quickly.

‘Did you get my mother settled?’

‘Yes, she’s fine.’

‘Good,’ he said.

‘Did you have to punish James so harshly?’

‘I was angry, and that was your fault. In future, I don’t want to find my mother in pain.’

She felt the sting of tears again. James was rarely naughty these days and didn’t deserve to suffer because of her. Thankfully it had been a long time since Alec had punished the boy so harshly, but once again Mavis knew she’d have to try harder, work harder to keep her mother-in-law happy and James safe.

As Alec’s hands moved across her body, Mavis closed her eyes, trying to lose herself in the memory of her dream. Despite the passing of time it still came to haunt her and was always the same. Someone, a man, reaching out for her, yet she still couldn’t see his face.

‘Who are you?’ she asked inwardly, yearning to find out and wishing that, instead of just a dream, there really was someone to take her away from her wretched life.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.