by Janey Fraser
‘Sarah!’ How wonderful! Just who she needed when life was crumbling down around her. She flung her arms around her. There was nothing like an old friend at times like this. ‘But I don’t get it! What are you doing here?’
‘I’ve brought someone.’ Sarah stepped to one side. Coming up the path with an overnight bag was a man. A tall, good-looking man with blond hair, just like the children. Swinging from his arm was Jack.
Her son grinned. ‘I saw Dad out of the window!’
‘DAD,’ yelled Daisy, who’d come running up to see what was going on. ‘You’ve arrived at last.’
Bobbie turned to Sarah with a what’s-going-on? look. ‘I rang to have a chat with you and got Rob instead,’ said her friend in a low voice. ‘I could tell something wasn’t right so I made him tell me. Then I persuaded him that he owed it to you and his kids – including the two you’re expecting – to join you.’
She nudged Bobbie just as Matthew came into the hall to find out what the commotion was about. ‘Besides, I thought it might be a good excuse to see a certain person again! Don’t you think?’
I LOVE MY MUM BECAUSE …
She smells nice.
She cooks great Pot Noodles.
She loves me more than anyone in the world.
She says I’m her favourite although I mustn’t tell the others.
She doesn’t charge interest.
She pays my phone bill.
She’s my mum.
With thanks to Corrywood Primary (see Mothers’ Day wall exhibition in class 1A)
Chapter 38
VANESSA
VANESSA WOKE EARLY on the Sunday morning, wondering for a moment where she was. Then she took in the elegant dressing table with the curved legs along with the line of oyster-coloured wardrobes with mirrored doors and remembered. Andy had put her and Sunshine in the main bedroom: her granddaughter was sleeping next to her, thumb in mouth as usual while the other little hand clutched the small clay flute.
Snoring loudly in a second huge bed on the far side of the room (did Pamela and Andy sleep separately when they were down here?) was Audrey. She had a teenage son but he was bunked up with all the other adolescents in the summer house. ‘I would have brought my husband,’ she had declared last night with a toss of the head, ‘but he’s still on the rig.’
She said this in a way designed to make it clear that she wasn’t on her own in life, as though there was still a stigma to it.
It was intriguing, thought Vanessa as she stretched out in bed, making sure she didn’t wake Sunshine, to match the people she’d got to know over the previous few weeks with their partners. Couples weren’t always what you expected. Take Mr and Mrs Perfect, who either ignored each other or snapped; even their kids fought tooth and nail.
Andy Gooding, too, was different from Pamela. More ordinary and laid-back than his posh, tense wife who had made Vanessa collect her cast-offs from home instead of actually coming to the shop.
Then there were Rob and Bobbie. She hadn’t been prepared for that rather good-looking man with very blond hair (just like his sister Pamela) and a serious look on his face. He hadn’t hugged his wife when he’d arrived, Vanessa had observed, merely given her a brush on the cheek. Nor had he swung the children into the air, as Brian did with Sunshine. Just sort of ruffled their hair as though they belonged to someone else.
Brian! The very thought made Vanessa lurch inside with emptiness. When it came to choosing between him and Sunshine, there was no contest. Yet she missed him so much! Missed his kisses; missed his cuddles; missed the touch of his hand on her breast. Automatically, her hand went up to the lump – which seemed to have got slightly bigger, unless that was her imagination.
It will be all right, he’d texted her last night after her message to say she and Sunshine had arrived safely in Devon. That was all they had now. Short texts and brief phone calls. She wouldn’t blame him if he dropped her. Not many men could cope with a secret relationship; not at their age. Yet there was a new message now, this morning. Miss you, it said simply. Followed by a kiss.
‘I miss you too,’ she whispered out loud. Sunshine stirred at the sound and Vanessa held her breath. She didn’t want her granddaughter to wake yet; she needed her sleep after all that running around yesterday. Besides, it also gave her time to think: to work out what on earth she was going to do about the social worker’s veiled threat.
‘No one will take Sunshine away from you. I won’t let them,’ Bobbie had said. Her friend had meant well but she knew – as did Bobbie – that there was nothing anyone could do about it. Even the very bright mother in Andy’s group, who turned out to be a family lawyer, had tightened her lips. ‘Come and see me when we’re back home and I’ll look into it,’ she’d promised when they spoke briefly after dinner. Vanessa had wanted to ask how much she’d charge but was too embarrassed.
Still, she’d do anything to keep Sunshine, whatever it cost, thought Vanessa as she tossed and turned in the early hours of the morning. Sell the shop if necessary. It was only leasehold (with less than a year before the lease expired) but she’d had various offers over the last year from bored Corrywood mothers who wanted to buy the ‘goodwill’. Frankly, she’d flog the clothes off her body to keep Sunshine. But it wasn’t just a question of finding money for a second legal opinion. It was finding a way of persuading the social workers that Sunshine was better off where she was: with a grandmother who had suspected recurring breast cancer.
Enough! Vanessa had learned the first time that the only way to cope was to be positive. Wasn’t that why she had thrown so much energy into her shop? Wasn’t that why she loved clothes so much? It was one of the few things that calmed her. Now, Vanessa found herself getting out of bed (she knew she wouldn’t get back to sleep anyway), padding across the soft, deep carpet and opening those inviting wardrobe doors in Pamela’s room to run her practised eye over the row after row of beautiful clothes that belonged to their absent hostess.
Clothes always told you so much about the owner … Heavens. These were icons! Real vintage stuff going back to the eighties. And they all had original designer labels on them. Imagine what they would be worth! If she wasn’t mistaken, they were samples; each one in a size eight. They must have been from Pamela’s modelling days. Must have been pretty successful, looking at this lot. Ossie Clark. Zandra Rhodes. David Emanuel. The names were endless. In a different league from the other clothes that Pamela had sold to her.
What kind of woman wore this? wondered Vanessa as she held a beautiful glittery emerald-green sequinned dress up against herself in the mirror. Was Pamela really the cold fish that Bobbie made her out to be? There was something about these clothes and the way they had been so carefully preserved in their polythene bags with heavy hangers that suggested a different kind of owner. A woman who had once been Someone. A woman, perhaps, who found it difficult to leave all that behind her, otherwise she would have got rid of this stuff. A woman who still yearned for the past.
Vanessa shivered. It was all very well Bobbie declaring that she was ‘just friends’ with Andy but she’d seen the man’s face when Rob had arrived last night and pecked his wife’s cheek. It was jealousy. Pure, utter jealousy. Bobbie might not have the hots for her sister-in-law’s husband but Andy Gooding sure as hell had the hots for her. She only hoped her friend didn’t make a big mistake. At times, Bobbie did some daft things: like that secretary business and leaving the children in the car alone.
Vanessa wasn’t too keen on her chum Sarah either. Not that she’d had a chance to get to know her. But Vanessa hadn’t warmed to those rather sharp features, which somehow seemed familiar.
‘Van Van!’
Hastily, she put back a slinky black dress, which she’d have loved to try on. Sunshine, who had been sound asleep a few minutes ago, had now leaped out of bed. (Why was it that kids could wake so easily?) ‘Can we go in the hot tub before breakfast?’ she demanded, slipping into the red swimming costume that Vanessa had dried last night.
‘Sure,’ she whispered brightly, glancing at Audrey, who was still breathing noisily. ‘Sounds like a great idea.’ Automatically, Vanessa put her hand to her chest. The uncertain side. The part that didn’t know if it was malignant or not. That was the other thing about having kids, something she’d forgotten after years of being on your own: however uncertain life was, or however much your heart was breaking inside, you had to pretend that everything was all right.
‘Go on, Van Van! You can do it!’
Sunshine was sitting on the edge of the hot tub, encouraging her on. It was a huge one, the kind where you could actually swim a width. If you could swim, that was. Vanessa had let her lessons slide recently with everything that had been going on but now her granddaughter seemed determined to make up for lost time.
‘Remember what the instructor told you? Kick your leg out at the same time as your arms!’
There was a dark chuckle from the side. ‘Keeping you on your toes, isn’t she?’
Vanessa pushed back her floral rubber cap. It was that bald-headed chap with tattoos down his neck; the one whom she’d spotted having an argument one night with Andy after parenting class. She didn’t like the look of him. His voice might sound jolly but there was a steeliness in his piggy eyes, and she didn’t care for the way he was standing there, arms folded, as though eyeing her up.
‘You could say that,’ she replied out of courtesy.
‘Time to get out, if you don’t mind me saying.’ He coughed and then spat on the ground. ‘I’ve been sent down here to round up the troops. We’ve got some of that role play to get through.’
Vanessa got herself to the side. ‘Right then. Thanks.’
The man was still standing there, looking. She hadn’t seen him with a wife at dinner last night, only a skinny kid with the same pointed ears as his dad.
‘Don’t stare! It’s rude!’ Sunshine’s angry little voice took her by surprise but it seemed to amuse the man.
‘You’re an outspoken little thing, aren’t you? Is that why your mum is at parenting school?’
‘She’s not my mum. She’s my Van Van.’
The man scratched his neck. ‘Is she now? Well, we’ll have to be entering her for the glamorous-granny competition, won’t we?’
Sleazebag! Vanessa was about to make a cutting comment when there was the sound of a bell ringing from the house. ‘We’re about to start,’ someone called out.
The man made to move away, thank goodness. ‘See you later then.’
Not if she had anything to do with it, he wouldn’t! Certainly not alone, anyway.
‘I don’t like him,’ said Sunshine quietly as they quickly got dressed in the changing hut, which was bigger than her kitchen. ‘He’s like the men who told off Mummy.’
Vanessa’s mouth went dry. ‘What men?’
‘The men who talked in loud voices.’
‘What happened after that?’ breathed Vanessa.
The child shrugged. ‘She said she had to go away and that I had to be a good girl.’
Vanessa could hardly breathe. ‘Did this have anything to do with Mummy’s scar?’
A look of fear flitted over her face. ‘I can’t tell anyone. Mummy said I mustn’t.’
‘There you are!’ The mother from the other group who always wore gym stuff and wanted everything done ‘right now’ was marching in, without so much as a knock on the hut door. ‘We can’t start without you and everyone’s waiting. Do hurry up!’
Vanessa couldn’t concentrate on the role play. Sunshine had just been on the verge of telling her something that she instinctively knew was important, and then that stupid woman had ruined it. When she had tried to find out more, Sunshine had just said she couldn’t remember. Vanessa could have screamed with frustration.
‘It’s our turn! It’s our turn!’ Sunshine was jumping up and down.
‘Not quite yet, I’m afraid!’ Intellectual Mum was checking her list. ‘It’s Daisy and her mother.’
Bobbie stood up. She was wearing, Vanessa noticed, the soft blue floaty top she’d pressed on the young woman last week. Perfect, she’d told her, for hiding your bump and yet looking good at the same time. ‘Actually, I’d like to suggest my husband does it instead.’
Good on you, girl, whispered Vanessa as Rob went into the circle, looking extremely uncomfortable. Intellectual Mum gave her a steely look before returning her attention to Rob. ‘I’d like you to pretend that you are Jack and that you want some sweets from the checkout counter. Jack, you’re pretending to be Dad. It’s your job to explain that he can’t have it. Got it?’
‘Er, Dad,’ ventured Rob awkwardly. ‘I’d like these sweets.’
‘You need to say it louder!’ It was Daisy, calling out from the side. ‘And you’ve got to scream and shout.’
Rob looked terrified. ‘ER, I’D LIKE THESE SWEETS.’
‘You’ve got to throw yourself on the ground and hit it with your fists, Dad!’ sniggered Jack.
Vanessa almost felt sorry for the man. But then Rob whipped off his jacket (very formal for a casual weekend) and got down on all fours, and started throwing his head up and down and yelling. ‘I WANT SOME SWEETS! I WANT SOME SWEETS!’
There was a burst of clapping until Intellectual Mum silenced it. ‘All right, Jack. It’s your turn.’
‘YOU CAN’T HAVE ANY! THEY’RE BAD FOR YOU!’
‘BUT I WANT THEM.’
‘I’M NOT GOING TO TELL YOU AGAIN! STOP RIGHT NOW OR I’LL TELL YOUR DAD WHEN HE COMES HOME.’
‘YOU CAN’T. HE’S IN THE STATES FOR THREE WEEKS. AND HE’S TOO EXHAUSTED WHEN HE GETS BACK TO BE THE BAD PARENT.’
There was a gasp. Was Rob being funny? Or simply stating the truth?
‘I GIVE UP!’ retorted Jack. ‘HOW AM I GOING TO MANAGE WHEN I HAVE FOUR KIDS INSTEAD OF TWO?’
Oh my God! Bobbie was going beetroot red, poor thing. Everyone was staring; from their expressions, no one else had known she was pregnant – let alone expecting twins!
Rob was sitting back on his haunches now, staring at his wife as though no one else was there. ‘We’ll all have to make some changes,’ he said in a quiet voice. Then he looked up at the audience and gave a small bow. ‘Now do you think I could have some chocolate, please? I feel as though I deserve it.’
There was a loud burst of clapping, followed by a wolf whistle. It was Sarah, Bobbie’s friend, who was sitting rather close to Matthew, that nice widower. NO! Vanessa could hardly believe it. Sarah was wearing a jacket. THE suede jacket! It was HER! Vanessa recognised her now from the fête. She’d been wearing it just before Sunshine had nearly been run over.
‘A customer took it off,’ Bobbie had said when the jacket had originally gone missing. ‘I must have sold it by mistake.’
But it hadn’t been a mistake – she must have sold it to her friend. After all, hadn’t Bobbie borrowed an outfit to wear to her husband’s office that time? And hadn’t she lied to the secretary, claiming to be doing a market-research survey? Like child, like mother! Look at Jack, who had eaten that chocolate egg in the supermarket. And Daisy who had stolen Sunshine’s flute.
‘Bobbie—’ she began.
But her voice was drowned by Andy’s voice from the door. ‘Vanessa! There’s someone at the door to see you!’
To see her? To see her? Something leaped inside her breast. A hope that she hadn’t allowed herself to entertain but which she had been dreaming of. Her daughter! Miraculously returned. Explaining that she’d been kidnapped or taken away but had managed to escape. Brigid, who had come back at last to reclaim her daughter so she couldn’t be swallowed up into the care system after all.
‘Brian?’ Astonished, she stared at the kindly faced man in front of her with those clear-framed wire specs, rather large nose and wispy grey hair which had, she knew, been combed carefully over the bald patch. By his side sat Bingo, although you could hardly see him. Sunshine had already charged through and had her arms around him, covering him with little kisses.
‘You shouldn’t have come,’ she whispered. ‘It’s not allowed. How did you know where I was, anyway?’
‘I’m afraid I texted your friend Bobbie: you gave me her number for an emergency before, remember?’ He looked rather shamefaced.
‘Bobbie had a word with me too and explained the situation.’ Andy’s voice was warm and welcoming. ‘Surely no one can object to your friend staying just for the day? Not if we’re all here. Besides, there’s enough lunch to feed an army. Come on in and have a bite.’
Sunshine was already leading Bingo off into the kitchen to give him a bowl of water. Vanessa was left next to Brian, alone in the hall. ‘I can go if you want,’ he said quietly.
‘No.’ Vanessa was torn. ‘It’s just that I’m worried, that’s all. Someone at the fête reported me to social services. I don’t know who it was. Supposing they’re here?’
‘So what? Like Andy said, we’re in a crowd, aren’t we? It’s not as though I’m staying overnight.’ Then he drew her to him. ‘I’ve missed you, lass. I can’t tell you how much.’
It was so lovely to be kissed! So warm and exciting and comforting, all at the same time. She could have gone on for ever if it weren’t for the fact that she needed to check up on Sunshine – and that the doorbell was ringing.
‘Another unexpected guest?’ joked Brian as she opened the door.
Good heavens! Vanessa stared at the two women in front of her. One was an older version of the first but there was no mistaking the resemblance. Mother and daughter! Both had the same sleek golden looks with immaculately cut blonde bobs and the same distinctive way of carrying themselves. As for their clothes, they bore the hallmark of elegant simplicity: the type which came at a price.
Instantly, Vanessa thought of the clothes in the wardrobe and recognised the client who wouldn’t be seen in a second-hand shop.
‘Hi,’ she said apprehensively, addressing the younger woman. ‘Nice to see you again, Pamela.’
Meet the mother-in-law from hell!