The Velvet Ribbon by Nadine Dorries

Author:Nadine Dorries [Dorries, Nadine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786697561
Publisher: Head of Zeus

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Bee and Mary Kate had worked all morning long without any kind of a break and Mary Kate had been surprised to discover that as she scrubbed the walls and dry-ironed the sheets, the pain she carried in her heart for Nicholas was numbed by the sustained effort. She had even caught herself almost singing as she lit the fire while Bee finished limewashing the back walls in that part of the cottage that Sarah had slept when she was a girl.

It was only when they stopped working and sat at the kitchen table to eat the lunch Bee had brought with her that Mary Kate felt the weight of sadness fall across her shoulders like an invisible cloak, pressing her down onto the chair. Sensing the sudden change, Bee strode across the cottage floor and flung the wooden door open. ‘We can catch the last of this sunshine before it disappears,’ she said.

Despite the wintery sun, the ocean before them remained grey and the white breakers looked as angry as the seagulls that screeched and hovered above them. The mountain was just in view to the side and its slopes, caught by the sun, reflected back a deep emerald green.

Mary Kate’s eyes filled with tears and her throat constricted. Unable to put the bread and cheese into her mouth, she nursed the mug of tea in her hands. How Nicholas would have loved to have sat there and viewed that perfect, unspoilt scene.

Bee placed her arms around her shoulders. ‘It will happen like this,’ she said as she dropped a kiss on her head. ‘Hours will pass and you’ll be amazed at how you forget, especially when you’re busy, and then you’ll be filled with the guilt, haunted by it, you will be, just because you’ve momentarily forgotten. But it happens the way God meant it to.’

She pulled out the chair next to Mary Kate and drew her hands inside her own. ‘Don’t feel guilty. Cry if you want to in these early days. Don’t try and do anything other than you do. Let it all out, because this is the way it has happened for every woman who has lost the man she loved, since the beginning of time, and nothing you try and do and nothing anyone says will make one bit of difference. The only thing that will help is the passage of time.’

Mary Kate flinched as she looked into her great-aunt’s eyes. Bee’s husband had drowned at sea when little Ciaran was just a baby. ‘Oh God, I am so sorry,’ she said. ‘You lost your husband too.’

Even so, Mary Kate didn’t think she could quite understand how she was feeling, because the love that she and Nicholas had shared had been all the deeper on account of their circumstances. In her heart she was sure that no one else could truly understand what she was going through.

Bee echoed her thoughts. ‘Aye, but that will mean nothing to you. Everyone’s grief is different. Your father has felt it too, but not one of us can help you through it.

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