by K Leitch
‘Do you have any contact with your ex-husband Lucy, does he see Katy?’ Dom said.
Lucinda shook her head and went into her prepared story. ‘No…um he left us months ago…just walked out, I have no idea where he is and quite frankly I don’t want to know.’ She paused choosing her words, ‘there was another woman involved, I expect he’s with her…’
‘Oh I’m so sorry,’ Maggie put in, ‘it’s never easy is it?’
‘Anyway,’ Lucinda went on, ‘I decided I would get away and I just put a pin in a map, so to speak, and I ended up here. I had enough savings to last me for a short while but I always knew I would have to find work and preferably live-in work so when I saw your ad…well it seemed like the perfect job.’ Lucinda took a deep breath, ‘I love working with children and I think I’m good at it and from what I’ve seen Juke seems a lovely little boy and it would be so good for Katy to mix with other kids…’ she broke off realising that she had been rambling a bit and looked at Maggie and Dom nervously.
‘We are in the process of trying to adopt Juke,’ Dom began after sharing a look with Maggie, ‘and the one thing that he needs at the moment is stability and routine. That’s why we advertised for a nanny because although we try and make sure we’re always there for him…’
‘We both have such busy lives,’ Maggie interrupted, ‘and most of the time we’re having to rely on friends to pick him up from school and that’s just not good enough. But what I think Dom is trying to get at, is that we would need to know that you aren’t going to just decide one day that you want to move on again. Juke needs to be able to form an attachment with you, and know that you’ll be around…are you up for that Lucy?’
Lucinda nodded enthusiastically, ‘I don’t want to put Katy through all the upheaval of moving again believe me.’ She turned to Maggie, ‘I just want to settle down, and give her some security and hopefully become part of a family.’
Dom and Maggie shared a look, ‘Well, we need to have a bit of a chat if you don’t mind,’ Dom said getting up and jerking his head at Maggie in the direction of the kitchen.
‘Oh yes,’ Maggie said, ‘do you mind waiting in here for a few moments Lucy, we won’t be long.’ And she followed Dom out of the room.
Lucinda sat and silently prayed for the next ten minutes. This could be so perfect, what a beautiful place to bring up Katy and Dom and Maggie seemed so lovely. Particularly Dom with his kind dark eyes and gentle smile…oh God she must get this job, she simply must.
The door opened and Dom came back in, along with Juke who ran straight over to her and deposited a shapeless lump of dirty brown playdough with two feathers sticking out of it in her lap.
‘I didn’t do you a dinosaur,’ he said by way of explanation, ‘I did you a bird…it’s an eagle,’ he finished waiting for Lucy’s reaction.
‘Oh my, so it is,’ Lucy said holding up the squidgy mess, ‘thank you so much. I love eagles…I saw one once when I went high up into the mountains in Scotland.’
‘I’ve got some pictures in my book,’ Jukie said turning and running back out of the room, Maggie came in then holding a sleepy bewildered Katy who, as soon as she spotted her mum, held out her hands towards her.
‘I hope you don’t mind,’ Maggie said, ‘she woke up just as I was putting the kettle on and gave me such a lovely smile I couldn’t resist.’
‘Of course not,’ Lucy said, kissing the top of Katy’s head as the little girl snuggled into her. She looked back and forth at Maggie and Dom expectantly.
‘Well it’s a good thing she’s awake,’ Dom said with a smile, ‘now we can go and show you where you’ll be living.’
Lucinda clasped her hand over her mouth, ‘You mean I’ve got the job,’ she asked excitedly.
‘Welcome to the mad house Lucy,’ Maggie said, ‘I hope you’ll be happy here.’
Lucinda was overwhelmed with relief and had to hold back the hot tears that were burning at the back of her eyes. Someone was definitely watching over her…thank you God…she prayed silently as Maggie and Dom showed her the little apartment which was to be her new home. Juke followed them all about, chatting ten to the dozen to little Katy who was toddling on beside Lucy. The apartment wasn’t huge but it was bright and clean and above all it was safe…it was home.
CHAPTER 25
Flora heaved the heavy metal shopping basket up again and moved on to the next narrow aisle.
‘I knew I should have waited till Billy could come with me,’ she thought irritably, ‘this lot is going to be almost impossible to carry home.’ She put the heavy basket down and stood looking at it trying to decide what she could do without.
‘Ere move along will ya…your blocking the whole bloody aisle,’ said an impatient voice behind her. Flora stood up and turned to see who it was. Her heart sank, it had to be her didn’t it…bloody Hilda Clegg. Flora had had many a run in with this woman, who had been one of the more aggressive mothers that Flora had had to deal with when she taught at Riddlestone High. Hilda’s daughter, Kimmy, had been the most precocious little madam, with a mouth like a sewer. Her mother wasn’t much better and had point blank refused to take any action against her daughter on the many occasions that Flora had had to complain about her behaviour.
‘Oh I might ‘ave known,’ Hilda said recognising her old foe, ‘get out of the way can’t ya…I’m in a hurry.’
‘If you would just wait a moment I’ll move,’ Flora said straightening up with the help of her walking stick. ‘But then patience never was your virtue was it Mrs Clegg?’ she added under her breath.
‘Whatcha say,’ Hilda said her voice rising angrily, ‘don’t you be mumbling stuff about me you old cow. Ha you don’t fucking change do ya…still the same snobby cow you ever was, thinking you’re so much better than the rest of us. Well you ain’t, look at ya in your scruffy old coat, where d’ya get that, off a skip…phew smell like piss it does, or maybe that’s you…’
Flora pulled herself up to her full height and turned on the woman. ‘Well at least I can speak proper English, and at least I can read…how’s Kimmy’s reading coming on eh Mrs Clegg?’ she finished with a nasty smirk before turning away to move on.
‘Don’t you fucking bring my Kimmy into this you hard faced old bitch,’ shouted Hilda, a small crowd had gathered at the end of the aisle now and were watching the altercation with interest.
Flora tried to walk away with dignity, but Hilda grabbed her by the arm and spun her round. ‘You fucking teachers, you were all the same, blaming my Kimmy for not being able to read…yeh well whose job was it to teach her eh? Fucking useless the lot of you, and then you try and blame the poor kids…well my Kimmy’s doing alright I’ll have you know…’
‘Oh really,’ said Flora with a sneer, ‘I heard she’d got herself knocked up by some old married man, who wouldn’t leave his wife…she still living with you is she?’
‘You nasty old cow,’ said Hilda bringing her face close to Flora’s, ‘you always was the most spiteful old woman Flora Metcalf, at least she had a man…not like you, you dried up old crone…’
Just then the store manager (who had been summoned by a very excited cashier) came over to them.
‘Ladies, ladies,’ he began, inserting himself between the two women. ‘Let’s not have any trouble shall we, why don’t you both come into my office to calm down…’
‘I’m going nowhere,’ Flora began turning her back on him and Hilda Clegg, ‘I’ll go and find somewhere else to shop…somewhere with a better class of people, I don’t need to be mixing with this sort of rubbish.’ And with that she shuffled as quickly as she could towards the exit.
‘Who you calling rubbish you filthy old cow,’ she heard Hilda shouting as she walked away, ‘yeh… well stay out of my sight Flora Metcalf,’ she heard as she left the shop, ‘next time I’ll knock your fucking block off, you ‘ere me?’
Flora was muttering furiously under her breath when she arrived back home, that horrible woman, what right had she to tal
k to her, a respected member of the community, in that awful common way. How dare she use that language towards her…but then what can you expect, no wonder the daughter was such a horror with a mother like that.
Billy was in the garden she noticed as she walked into the kitchen, she tapped on the window and called him in for a cup of tea.
She was still shaking and angry as she poured the tea and Billy noticed something was wrong. Since the night time bullying had stopped Ms Metcalf had been a lot happier, but today she was pursed lipped and silent as she drank her tea.
‘Are you angry Miss Metcalf?’ Billy asked anxiously a moment later. ‘I didn’t mean to knock your pots over…I did clean up all the mess though…’
Flora stopped him with a hand on his arm, ‘No Billy, you’ve said sorry for that already… it’s not anything you’ve done, I’ve just had a bit of an argument with someone that’s all…someone was really rude and disrespectful to me today in the supermarket.’
‘Who?’ Billy asked, ‘Why, what had you done?’
‘Nothing,’ Flora exclaimed, ‘that was just it I had done nothing at all, but she just started shouting abuse at me as if I was nothing…me nothing!’ she said again her eyes welling up. ‘There was no need…no need at all. And all those people looking at me…oh the shame of it…some people just don’t know how to behave. Oh I’m sorry Billy, you don’t need to hear my problems…’
‘I won’t let anyone be nasty to you Miss Metcalf,’ Billy said with a concerned look. ‘Who was it?’ he asked again.
‘Oh…don’t you be worrying about me Billy, I’ll get over it. Anyway I told that Hilda Clegg what I thought of her and her stupid daughter,’ she added with a sly look at Billy, ‘so let’s not talk about it anymore. Now I’ve got some of that banana cake still left if you fancy a slice…’
Billy ate some cake and drank his tea, as Ms Metcalf rambled on about what she was planning on planting later in the season. But he just couldn’t get the image of that awful Hilda Clegg being rude and spiteful to his friend in the middle of the supermarket. She shouldn’t have behaved like that, she really shouldn’t.
CHAPTER 26 - TRACY
‘Yes well that’s not really what we at Bulge-busters recommend Hayley dear,’ Gloria Spicer said with a condescending smile, to the enormously overweight woman balancing on the scales next to her. ‘You are really meant to make up your points with healthy eating, fresh fruits, and vegetables, things like that…yes I know pork scratchings suggest that they are a meat product but really dear, the clues in the name… “Porky’s”… you get my drift,’ she said with raised eyebrows and pursed lips as she handed the unfortunate Hayley her card with “4lbs on” written in large letters and underlined in red.
Hayley shuffled off the scales and headed in the direction of the “slimming products table” in the hope of finding a huge bar of chocolate that contained only 40 calories.
Tracy was up next, she had been to the loo twice, removed all her jewellery (including her hair clips which probably weighed at least 2lbs), her coat, shoes and cardigan. She was now shivering in a sleeveless vest and leggings as she gingerly stepped onto the scales.
Gloria Spicer was the scariest woman Tracy had ever encountered. Having once lost over ten stone herself, (although she had obviously put eight of it back on since), she seemed to take it almost as a personal insult if her poor unfortunate slimmer’s didn’t lose weight every week. Tracy had done well for the first two weeks losing 6 and 3lbs respectively, but unfortunately this week she was pretty sure she hadn’t done so well. There had been that evening when Simon had brought home a bag of chips, all hot and smelling of vinegar…well come on that was just too much of a temptation, no one would have been able to resist that surely. And then she’d had to work late and consequently Simon had suggested that they order a take-away, and yes maybe pizza wasn’t the best choice and ok, extra cheesy garlic bread had been a bit over the top…but she was only bloody human after all…oh well here goes.
‘That’s two pounds on Tracy,’ Gloria announced to the whole room, ‘someone’s obviously been a bit of a gutsy pig this week hasn’t she?’ she added, looking Tracy up and down in disgust. ‘You’ll never get rid of those bingo wings dear if you keep filling your face…’
‘Oh but I only had…’ Tracy began but Gloria cut her short.
‘It’s all about self-control dear,’ she said patronisingly, ‘as I’ve told you over and over. When I lost all my weight…’ she went on flinging an enormous arm out in a dramatic fashion, ‘I forced myself to ignore the terrible pangs of hunger…if I felt hungry I would sing, or recite poetry anything to keep my mind off how hungry I was.’ She turned to Tracy who was trying to slope away quietly. ‘And look at me now, a shadow of my former self…’
‘Quite a big shadow,’ Tracy thought savagely, ‘with a huge bottom.’
‘Next time you feel hungry Tracy,’ Gloria went on blissfully oblivious to Tracy’s rather bitchy thoughts, ‘don’t reach for a cake or a bun…sing or dance or recite poetry, and before you know it you’ll be a slim as me.’
Tracy nodded and took her card which now had a vivid red mark on the front and moved away from the weigh-in table, as she did so she caught the terrified expression on the face of the next girl up (who was standing in only her bra and knickers) and gave her a sympathetic smile.
Tracy had promised to look in on Carla on her way home from the slimming club, the girls had been trying to pop in at least once a day to make sure their friend was okay.
Maggie’s car was parked outside when she got there and sure enough the two girls were sitting at the old pine kitchen table when she went inside.
Carla seemed okay most of the time, but Tracy had found her crumpled in a ball on her kitchen floor just a couple of days ago. She had reeked of alcohol and had hardly been able to stand when Tracy tried to get her up into a chair. Unfortunately for Carla, James had called in not long before Tracy had got there, he’d taken one look at the situation before telling Rosie and Harry to pack a bag and had taken them back to his mother’s with him.
That was probably not a bad thing, Carla seemed completely unable to take care of them at the moment…well let’s face it Carla wasn’t even taking care of herself at the moment.
DCI John Tavener had been and visited yesterday. Carla had gone back to work last week, but on her second day back had fallen asleep at her desk, after having drunk a small bottle of vodka that had been in her desk drawer. Frank had driven her home and then had gone to have a word with the DCI.
She had been given paid leave until she sorted herself out, which, once again, was no bad thing, she did need the time. But to Tracy’s mind it was as if all the things in Carla’s life which made her life full and meaningful i.e. her family and her job, had been taken away from her…no wonder she was falling apart, poor darling.
‘I have just been completely humbled and humiliated in front of a room full of women,’ Tracy announced as she walked into Carla’s kitchen.
Maggie smiled, ‘Just been to Bulge-busters have you?’ she asked, ‘Poor Berta came home in tears last week, that old dragon told her “let’s face it Berta my dear, even if you were to lose another two stone, you’re never going to be an oil painting are you”. I wanted to go round and knock her onto her fat arse…how she ever got that job I’ll never know she has all the people skills of an angry skunk…and as much charisma…’ she broke off smiling as Carla burst out laughing at her rant.
‘Well she annihilated poor Hayley… you know Hayley, Carla… fake hair, big lips…arse the size of Wembley stadium. The poor girl was in tears wolfing down an extra-large Mars Bar when I passed her in the car park.’
‘Oh poor Hayley,’ Carla said smiling, ‘no matter how much she loses she always puts twice as much back on again…she’s been keeping the slimming industry afloat single-handedly most of her life.’ She got up and put the kettle on, ‘Tea Tracy…is that allowed on your diet?’
Tracy grimaced, ‘Yes…but
no sugar please love…I might try one of those bickies though, they look yummy.’
Maggie and Carla shared a smile behind Tracy’s back as she pulled out a chair and sat down.
‘I was just telling Carla about our wonderful new nanny,’ Maggie said, ‘I don’t know how we managed before she showed up, she’s even managed to get Jukie to eat some vegetables which I have never been able to do. Even Berta loves her which is really saying something, I came home the other evening and they were both giggling like school girls over some bloke on the telly…it was almost surreal.’
Tracy laughed, ‘Blimey, she must be good. Berta still just snorts at me if ever I run into her.’
‘Yes well I don’t think she’s ever got over that photo incident, she still mutters on about it now and again…’
‘What was this?’ Carla asked coming back with Tracy’s tea.
‘Oh I don’t think I even told you about it,’ Maggie said with a smile, ‘it was nothing really, but obviously Berta thought different. Tracy was over one day a few months back now, I can’t think why…but anyway she was messing about with her new phone which had a state of the art camera on it, and taking a few shots you know when…’
Tracy took up the story, ‘I just happened to spot Berta fast asleep on one of the chairs in the garden, oh my God Carla…’ she broke off laughing, ‘she looked so funny she was completely out of it, you know properly snoring, with her skirt rucked up and her legs akimbo…well I couldn’t resist, it had to be done, I took a couple of pickys…’
‘Well that wasn’t too bad,’ Maggie continued, ‘I mean, we had a right laugh but we never intended for anyone else to see them, unfortunately…’
‘Unfortunately,’ Tracy interrupted again, ‘Simon had also taken some pictures on my phone earlier in the day for the local paper. About some fund raising thing his company was involved with and somehow or other the bloody picture only ended up in the gazette…page three would you believe!’