With All My Love by Patricia Scanlan

Author:Patricia Scanlan
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General, Fiction
ISBN: 9781471110795
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2013-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Oh Lord, Tessa thought, her heart sinking as she saw Terence coming out of Mrs Breen’s front garden with his lawnmower. She took a deep breath and fixed a smile on her face. She hadn’t seen him to talk to since that fraught meeting in her sitting room the previous year.

‘Terence, how are you?’ she greeted him politely. ‘Isn’t it great news about Valerie and the baby? Thank God it all went well for her. We’re going up to see them tomorrow. We’re hoping to have a christening party for the baby, and you and Carmel will be most welcome to come,’ she added magnanimously. She felt she had to invite him. It would be incredibly rude not to.

‘Hello, Tessa,’ Terence said coldly.

‘Have you gone up to see them yet? Jeff said Carmel had been up earlier today.’ Tessa knew she was prattling.

‘No, I haven’t,’ he said stiffly.

‘Oh!’ she said. ‘Well, of course, you were at work.’

‘Nor do I plan to,’ he added dourly. ‘When I said I was washing my hands of the whole affair, I meant it. And I won’t be coming to any party, thank you.’

‘Oh, Terence!’ Tessa exclaimed, dismayed. ‘What a shame to feel like that. You have a beautiful little grandchild.’

‘I’d far prefer to have a beautiful little grandchild in wedlock, but thanks to you, that didn’t happen.’ He thrust his jaw out aggressively and his eyes sparked with antagonism.

‘Carmel backed me up on that, Terence,’ Tessa said heatedly.

‘Well, the pair of you were very misguided, if you ask me,’ he said shortly, his anger evident in the thinning of his mouth and the hard glare he gave her.

‘But, Terence, there’s plenty of time for them to marry. They’re so young. Isn’t it better for them to be sure of their feelings for each other?’ she protested.

‘Better for him, you mean.’

‘Look, Terence, I stood up for my son. I’m a mother – that’s what a mother does. I didn’t want to see him adding one mistake to another,’ Tessa said crossly.

‘And I tried to stand up for my daughter, for all the good it did me. Do none of you see that?’ he said indignantly. ‘How would you feel if it was your daughter, Tessa? In that situation you’d do the same. You’d want to see her married. Wouldn’t you? Or if you were in Valerie’s position? Ask yourself, Tessa, how would you feel if it was you?’

It was me! She screamed silently. It was me!

For one awful moment she was sure she’d spoken the words aloud.

‘Ye see, you’ve no answer to that,’ he said triumphantly.

‘I’m sorry you feel like that,’ she said stiffly, and walked away. She struggled to compose herself but it was no use. Tears smarted her eyes and she hurried to the safety of her car, hoping that she would get to it before she was accosted by Nellie Andrews, a sharp-eyed, nosy busybody who ran the church committee. Nellie was bearing down fast but Tessa made it to the

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