by Hugh Fraser
The door opens and Claire is there. The beehive is gone and the hair is long and silky and feathered from a centre parting. She looks scared and starts to close the door.
I take a step forward, hold it open and say, ‘I just want Georgie.’
‘She’s with Mum.’
Even though she looks frightened, there’s a maturity and a determination in her face that I don’t recognise from before.
‘Let me in.’
‘I can’t.’
‘Why.’
‘Mum’s very ill and if she sees you, she …’
‘Then send Georgie down.’
‘Hang on,’ she says and goes upstairs. A moment later she comes down again.
‘She won’t.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Mum’s near the end and she won’t leave her.’
I know that unyielding side of Georgie when she’s resolved to do something.
I say, ‘Is she eating?’
‘Yes.’
‘Properly?’
‘She’s a lot better.’
‘Did you get her from the hospital?’
‘We didn’t even know she was there. She just turned up a couple of nights ago. We hadn’t seen her since she went to Cambridge.’
‘Tell her I’m back and Graham’s waiting for her at home.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Will your mum be going into hospital?’
‘She wants to die in her own bed.’
I look at the tears gathering in Claire’s eyes and I know she’s not only crying for her mother.
I say, ‘Thanks for letting me know where she was.’
‘I knew you’d be worried.’
She goes to say something more, but I turn and walk to my car.
As I drive home, I pass the end of our old street. The tenements have been knocked down and replaced with new council flats. I think back on how close Claire and I once were and what dangerous times we grew up in together all those years ago. I want to give my love to Maureen and tell Claire she’s forgiven, but I know that we have to leave it in the past and go on. I drive away and turn the corner, and I don’t look back.
Hugh Fraser is best known for playing Captain Hastings in Agatha Christie’s ‘Poirot’ and the Duke of Wellington in ‘Sharpe’. His films include Patriot Games, 101 Dalmatians, The Draughtsman’s Contract and Clint Eastwood’s Firefox. In the theatre he has appeared in Teeth’n’Smiles at the Royal Court and Wyndhams and in several roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
He has also narrated many of Agatha Christie’s novels as audio books. Harm is his first novel.
You can follow Hugh on Twitter @realhughfraser
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