Harrie stroked her daughter’s hair, the silky strands so cool and comforting in her fingers.
‘It would be nice, wouldn’t it?’ she said. ‘But, we’d probably get bored after a while.’
‘No, we wouldn’t,’ Honor said earnestly.
Harrie took a sip of her hot chocolate, luxuriating in its creamy texture as she gazed around the room, taking in the beautiful curtains and comfy soft furnishings, the chunky, centuries-old furniture and the portraits of long-forgotten people hanging in gilded frames.
‘No,’ she said at last. ‘We wouldn’t, would we?’
Chapter 10
It was only eight in the morning and Audrey was already on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Everything was a mess. If she’d had any idea, she would have come home a lot sooner. Or perhaps she would never have left in the first place. That was the truth, wasn’t it? She’d been reluctant to leave her work even for her two best friends in the world.
Mike had done his best to hold the fort, but he had a job of his own to juggle too, so she couldn’t really expect him to take care of every little problem.
The main concern was staffing. They were two teachers down and the classes were in disarray, and, on top of that, there were unpaid bills and the landlord was threatening to throw them all out. What a homecoming, Audrey thought, trying to prioritise the long list of things she needed to do that day to prevent her world from imploding.
She lost track of the time as she busied herself around the office, only half aware that the noise of the traffic was building up outside as the commuter rush began. She was so totally consumed in her work.
It was as she was staring at her computer screen that she became aware of her vision beginning to blur. That was strange, she thought, because she was wearing her glasses. She blinked and a sudden light-headedness assailed her and her heart started to beat faster. She felt incredibly hot, and her breathing was coming thick and fast, as if she couldn’t quite get enough air into her lungs. She began to feel afraid and wondered if she should call out for somebody, but that was silly, wasn’t it? She was just sitting down at a desk. She wasn’t exerting herself. It wasn’t a particularly hot day and she had the window in the office open.
She tried to calm herself down with some deep breaths, thinking of what Lisa might advise.
In through the nose. Out through the mouth. Big, deep, settling breaths.
It wasn’t working. Her heart was still racing madly.
And then everything went black.
When Audrey’s eyes opened, everything seemed white. From black to white. And then she saw Mike standing beside her bed. Only it wasn’t her bed.
‘Where am I? What happened?’ The clichéd questions left her mouth before she had time to check them.
Mike expelled a loud sigh. ‘You’re awake. Thank goodness!’ He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘I’m not sure. What’s going on?’
‘Aud, you passed out. One of the students found you on the floor in the office at the school. God only knows how long you’d been like that. It’s lucky someone found you in time and called for an ambulance.’
Audrey shook her head. She had no recollection of hitting the floor or a student finding her or the ambulance. What had happened to her? For a moment, she couldn’t help wondering who it was who had found her and if they’d tried to administer mouth-to-mouth. Surreptitiously, she wiped her hand across her lips.
‘You’ve been overdoing things, Aud. Everybody told you.’ Mike gently squeezed her hands in his as he perched on the edge of the bed.
‘But I was only in the office for – what? An hour?’
‘Doesn’t matter. You’ve been stressed for months, haven’t you?’
‘No!’
Mike shook his head. ‘You’re heading for a heart attack.’
‘Nonsense.’
‘That’s what the doctor said.’
‘But I didn’t have one.’
‘But you nearly did and you might if you don’t slow down.’
‘That’s rubbish.’ Audrey was getting annoyed now. All this fuss over a little fainting spell.
‘I’ll go and get the doctor for you if you like and then he can tell you.’
‘No!’ she said in a panicked voice. ‘Don’t leave me.’
‘I won’t leave you.’
Audrey took a deep breath and then wished she hadn’t. She hated the smell of hospitals. She looked around, wondering if there was a clock and if she could get out of there and back to the school before classes finished for the day. There were a couple of teachers she wanted to see.
‘Don’t even think about it,’ Mike said.
‘What?’ she said innocently.
‘I can see you working out how soon you can get back to the school.’
‘I wasn’t!’
‘Love, I know you! I know what you’re thinking.’
Audrey considered this. If she was going to make it back to work, she was going to have to slip past her husband.
‘Shouldn’t you be at work?’ she asked.
‘Nice try,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘I’m not going anywhere. Not for a good long time.’
She sighed. ‘But there’s nothing wrong with me. It was just a little episode,’ she insisted. ‘I probably just need a few early nights and a glass of wine more often.’
‘Don’t joke about this,’ Mike said. ‘You need a hell of a lot more than that.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, you need to seriously slow down, Audrey. I’ve been telling you for weeks now. Months. I’ve been worried about you. I know this new school is important to you, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t tell you that you are important to me. And your health and well-being are certainly more important than some school.’
‘But it isn’t just any old school,’ she told him. ‘It’s my school.’
‘I know it is,’ Mike said, ‘but I don’t want it . . .’ He paused.
‘What?’ she asked, seeing the anxiety in his face and feeling a slight tremor in the hands that held hers.
‘I don’t want it being the death of you.’
Audrey almost gasped at the severity of his words. ‘Don’t be silly!’
‘I’m not being silly.’ He looked at her and she recognised that look. It was the one reserved for when he was being earnest. Her darling Mike. He let her get away with so much. She steamrollered her way over him sometimes to get her own way, she knew that, but she also knew when not to push her luck with him and now was one of those times.
‘I know it’s hard,’ he began, ‘but I need you to listen to me. You’ve got to stop working.’
‘What do you mean, stop?’
‘I’ve spoken to the doctor and he says you need complete rest.’
Audrey shook her head.
‘Slowing down just isn’t going to be enough,’ Mike went on. ‘You’ve got to have a real break.’
Words of protest tumbled around Audrey’s mind in a chaos of confusion. ‘But I’ll die if I don’t work.’
Mike shook his head. ‘No, you won’t, but there’s a jolly good chance that you might if you don’t stop working.’
‘No, no,’ she said. ‘I’m . . . I’m in my forties – that’s the prime time for a woman, isn’t it? I’m still young. Ish. And I feel great. Honestly, I really do.’
‘Can I just point out to you that you’re in a hospital bed?’ Mike said gently.
‘Yes, but it’s not serious!’
‘You could have had a heart attack.’
‘But I didn’t.’
‘You’re heading that way. Your blood pressure’s off the scale, your sleep is shot to pieces and you’re not eating properly.’
Audrey’s mouth gaped open at that.
‘Don’t deny it. You’ve been eating on the run since you started that school. I haven’t seen you sit down to a proper meal for ages.’
‘I was eating proper meals at the prior
y. Ask Harrie and Lisa.’
Mike lowered his head as if in despair. ‘You need to listen to me, Aud, please. This is serious. You’ve been so focused on your new business that you’ve simply forgotten to take care of yourself. It’s easily done. The doctor says you’re not the first and you won’t be the last person to put work before everything else, but I can’t let you do that anymore. You’re killing yourself.’ He gently picked her hands up again and stroked them in the comforting way that he knew she liked.
‘This is what we’re going to do,’ he told her. ‘You’re going to stay here for as long as you need to and then you’re coming home with me, where you’re going to do precisely nothing.’
Audrey looked up at him and, for the first time in a long time, she found that she was crying.
‘Hey, hey!’ he whispered, snuggling up next to her on the bed. ‘It’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay. I’m going to take the very best care of you, all right?’
She nodded through her tears. She felt ridiculous for crying, but she felt so very vulnerable, lying helpless in the hospital bed, unable to remember exactly how she got there. She’d always been so in control of her life, feeling that she had boundless energy and that she was capable of anything, and it came as a shock to her to realise that she did, indeed, have limitations. Her will was strong, but she now knew that it couldn’t completely override the needs of her body, and that she had to start paying it more attention before it was too late.
Lisa was missing Audrey more than she could have guessed. They might have had their differences, but Lisa wished with all her heart that her friend was still there. Of course, it was lovely to see Harrie so happy with her daughter, and she was being very sweet in trying to include Lisa in their conversations, but she still couldn’t help feeling like a spare part. It was only the second day of Audrey’s absence, but Harrie and Honor still hadn’t caught up, it seemed. Right now, Lisa was half listening to their conversation about somebody in their home town called Lionel who was going out with a woman called Jacqueline. The story didn’t seem very funny to Lisa, but Harrie and Honor couldn’t stop laughing. Was there anything worse, Lisa thought, than being unable to take part in an apparently hilarious conversation?
And then there’d been the times when she’d come into room to find them engaged in some deeply serious conversation in low voices. They’d look up, seemingly startled by her presence, as if anxious that she might have overheard them. But then Harrie would plaster a huge smile across her face and encourage Lisa to join them. Lisa didn’t take well to being the odd one out. It wasn’t what she wanted from her summer holiday.
She was just about to give them some privacy and leave the room when Harrie’s mobile rang.
‘What?’ she said a moment later. ‘No! How is she?’
Lisa frowned at the serious expression on Harrie’s face.
‘Okay,’ Harrie went on. ‘Keep us updated, won’t you? And send her our love.’ She hung up.
‘What is it?’ Lisa asked.
‘That was Mike.’
‘Is everything all right?’
‘Not exactly. Audrey was rushed to hospital.’
‘What?’
‘She collapsed at work.’
‘Oh, my god!’
‘She’s at home now and Mike’s taken some time off work to look after her. But she needs complete rest.’
‘She should come back here,’ Lisa declared and, for once, she wasn’t just thinking about herself. ‘This is the best place for her, isn’t it? I mean, it’s so peaceful and quiet.’
‘I think Mike wants to keep an eye on her,’ Harrie said. ‘You saw how she’d practically set up an office in her bedroom here when she’d promised him she wouldn’t be working at all.’
Lisa nodded. That was true enough. ‘Should we go and see her?’
‘I’m not sure Mike would want that.’
‘Well, he can’t keep her all to himself. We’re her best friends and, if she’s not well, she needs us there with her.’
Honor glanced at her mother and Harrie cleared her throat. ‘I think Mike probably knows best.’
Lisa swallowed hard, feeling that Harrie wasn’t telling her everything. She hated that feeling of being locked out and she definitely felt it with Harrie and Honor right now.
‘I’ll be out in the garden if you need me,’ Lisa told them, leaving the kitchen quickly.
It felt good to be outside. It was warm, but there were just enough wispy white clouds around to ensure that the sun’s rays were more gentle than they had been recently. Lisa had already been out in the garden that morning, performing her sun salutation and having a quiet meditation amongst the herbs. As ever, yoga was her escape, her salvation, and she returned to the mat, which she had left out on the lawn.
Sitting herself down, she crossed her legs and placed her hands on her knees, her thumb and forefinger touching lightly as she practised her breathing, the gentle cycles calming her mind and body.
After a few moments of this, she started her physical practice and how good it felt! She was happy Lisa once again, the disappointments of the world forgotten as she bent and stretched and breathed.
‘What’s that?’ a male voice suddenly asked from somewhere behind her. It was Alfie. She could see him from between her legs. Typical that he should approach her when her bottom was saluting the sky.
‘It’s downward dog,’ she stated, pushing herself into an upright and slightly less revealing stance.
‘Nice,’ he said. ‘I mean – it looks like a nice stretch.’
‘It is,’ she told him, thinking how easy it would be to flirt with him, but refusing to do so.
He nodded and then rolled his shoulders.
‘You feeling tight?’ she asked him.
‘Pretty much.’
She walked behind him and reached up to feel his neck and shoulders.
‘God, you really are,’ she said. ‘Come on – get on the mat.’
Like before, Alfie removed his boots and socks before stepping onto Lisa’s mat. Lisa stood in front of him, her feet embracing the coolness of the grass. She then took him through a series of simple stretches, adjusting his movements slightly so that he got the best results. He was tall and strongly built, just as a rugby player should be, but it was obvious that the sport had done his body no favours at all and that he was now paying the price for his passion.
‘Better?’ she asked him when they came to the end of their practice.
He rolled his shoulders again and stretched his neck.
‘Feels pretty good to me, thanks.’
‘We could do a short breathing exercise to calm down if you like, but I expect you’ll want to be getting back to your gardening.’
‘I’d love to.’
‘You would?’
‘Got plenty of time for the garden with these long days.’
‘Okay,’ Lisa said, her eyes meeting his brilliant blue ones.
She showed him how to sit and watched as he winced, encouraging him to kneel instead. They then closed their eyes and she led him through a series of breathing techniques. It felt strange to be in such close proximity with a stranger while she was going through what she felt was an intimate routine. But it was a good sort of strange because she knew that she was sharing something really special with somebody who would truly benefit from it.
‘And wriggle your toes and fingers and slowly blink your eyes open,’ she said at last.
Alfie took a long deep breath and sighed it out.
‘Good?’
He nodded, a satisfied smile on his face. ‘I’m going to have to take this up.’
‘You do mean yoga, don’t you? And not taking up the fact that an old woman is distracting you from your duties as gardener.’
He frowned. ‘You’re not an old woman.’
Lisa got up from the grass and Alfie stood up from her mat.
‘I’m forty-six,’ she told him, not quite sure why she felt the need to.
‘I�
��m twenty-four.’ He shrugged. ‘Have you been to the Golden Swan in the village?’ he asked as he bent to put his socks and boots on.
‘No. Not yet.’
‘It’s a nice pub. Good pints.’
‘I don’t drink pints. Not since my student days anyway.’
Alfie nodded. ‘Would you like to come out for a drink with me?’
Lisa hesitated, but then she thought of her holiday companions. There was Audrey, who was now with Mike, and Harrie, who now had Honor. She was just Lisa. On her own.
‘Yes,’ she said, surprising herself with her alacrity.
Alfie grinned. ‘Great! I can pick you up at eight tonight—’
‘It’s okay. I’ll meet you there.’
‘Oh, I see.’
‘What?’
‘You don’t want your pals here at the priory seeing me picking you up.’
‘That’s not it at all!’ Lisa protested. ‘I just like being independent.’
‘Oh, right. So, if you decide you don’t like my company, you can leave immediately.’
She gave a tiny smile. ‘Something like that.’
‘Fair enough,’ he said. ‘But you’re going to like it.’
‘What?’
‘My company.’
‘You’re very sure of yourself.’
He flashed her a smile. ‘I’ll see you there.’
Harrie was worried about Lisa. She was worried about Audrey too, but at least she could be sure that Mike was taking good care of her. But she hadn’t seen Lisa for a good few hours now and she’d searched the garden for her too. She’d found her yoga mat rolled up in the herb garden, but there’d been no sign of her. Where could she have gone?
Harrie went back into the priory to make a start on dinner and, ten minutes later, Lisa waltzed in.
‘Hey! I was getting worried about you!’
Lisa looked surprised. ‘Really? I didn’t think you’d notice if I was here or not.’
Harrie sighed. ‘Oh, Lisa – of course I’d notice.’ She addressed her friend with great caution, knowing she could be a drama queen when feeling hurt.
Lisa slunk around the kitchen for a moment and Harrie instinctively knew that she was fishing for an apology and, because she was in a giving vein, she gave her one.
One Last Summer Page 13