‘I don’t blame you,’ said Blanche. ‘This is a little bit of heaven, isn’t it? Who’d want the outside world intruding?’ She looked around her, smiling at what she saw. ‘Sofia only wondered if they might come over a little later than you’d agreed. Not by much, probably just an hour or so. The consultant treating Henry will be on the ward later and they want to catch him for a chat if they can. I said I was sure you wouldn’t mind.’ She pursed her lips. ‘I also want to apologise. I’d forgotten that it’s the anniversary of your husband’s death today, but I should have realised you wanted some quiet time by yourself. Mim has just reminded me. She didn’t need any help with her hair at all.’
Peg smiled. Bless you, Mim. ‘Yes, I suspected as much.’ She stopped to pick up a skeletal leaf from the ground, every vein and capillary held together by the slightest of threads, like the finest lace. She held it out for Blanche to see.
‘It’s beautiful,’ she replied. ‘How lucky you are to have this on your doorstep. It couldn’t be any closer.’
‘I’mverylucky,’ replied Peg, nodding. ‘The chance to buy the woodland came up some years ago and so my husband bought it for us. Well, for me. He gave it to me for our wedding anniversary.’
‘Wow…’
Peg laughed. ‘Yes, it did make buying each other presents quite difficult after that. Nothing could ever top this.’
Blanche was studying her face. ‘You must have been very much in love.’
‘We were. I still am…’ she replied. ‘Isn’t that exactly what grief is? Love with nowhere to go.’
‘I’ve never heard it expressed like that,’ said Blanche. ‘But how true, and how lovely.’
Peg stared up into the branches of the trees above. Branches which she had seen through spring, summer, autumn and winter over countless years. Every inch of this woodland was hers, its roots almost a part of her, she felt sorootedto them.
‘So many of my memories about Julian are tied up in this wood. There’s a tree here where we carved our names, and those of the girls. It’s going to make leaving here very hard indeed.’
‘Leave?’ said Blanche. ‘But why on earth would you want to do that?’ She stared at Peg for a moment, a confused look on her face and, as the silence lengthened, Peg saw the exact moment when understanding reached her. ‘Ah…Mim…’
Peg nodded.
‘This fall was the second she’s had this year. Last time it was just bumps and bruises, and she did that by falling off a crate she was standing on to paint her garden fence. This time she was up a ladder sorting out her cobwebs and now she’s broken her wrist. It isn’t Mim’s balance that’s to blame, not fully anyway, but more the problem that she doesn’t realise she’s not the age to be doing these things, not without help anyway. She had pneumonia last year too, which frightened the life out of her, and me, and I’m worried that, as relatively fit as she is now, that could all change very quickly.’
‘But she’s staying with you for now. Would that not be an option, longer-term?’
Peg shook her head. ‘Much as I’d like that, Mim loves her house as much as I love mine. She only came back with me out of practicality – I have a series of illustrated articles to write and all my notes and sketches are here. Plus, it’s Christmas…We usually spend it apart, and this year I just couldn’t bear to be away. Possibly because, deep down, I knew it might be my last.’ Her eye was caught by a robin bobbing about on a holly bush and she watched it for a moment. ‘I don’t want to limit Mim’s independence but she needs someone to keep a slightly closer eye on her now, and that someone is me. I can’t do that when I’m over two hours away.’
‘Getting old is a tangled ball of difficult decisions and horrible emotions. I don’t recommend it at all.’
‘You can’t be much older than me,’ said Peg. ‘But you’re absolutely right. I promised Mim she could stay in her own home, right to the end, whenever that is. Hopefully not for years yet, but I will not deny her that chance, not if I can possibly help it. I have a lot more of my life ahead of me than she does, and there can be other houses for me. Mim doesn’t have that luxury.’
Blanche laid a gentle arm on Peg’s sleeve. ‘She’s lucky to have you.’
Peg smiled. ‘I’m very lucky to have her.’ She shivered, suddenly aware of how cold it was. ‘We ought to get back,’ she said. ‘Sofia and Adam will be here before we know it.’
‘Put me on potato-peeling duty,’ said Blanche. ‘I can do that in my sleep.’
Peg turned her thoughts away from both the past and the future. It was time to concentrate on the present. ‘You’re on,’ she said with a grin.
They had hardly been in the house ten minutes when there was a knock at the back door. Sofia and Adam would be ages yet, and Peg threw Blanche a curious look as she crossed the kitchento open it. The two people standing there were the very last ones she expected to see.
‘Surprise!’
Peg stared at her daughters, their faces wreathed in smiles, their hands full of luggage. ‘You’re meant to be in France!’
Izzy dropped her bag and rushed into Peg’s waiting arms. ‘I know, but we couldn’t bear the thought of you being on your own over Christmas again. We would have been home yesterday but our flight got delayed. Merry Christmas, Mum!’
From behind Peg came an amused voice. ‘I’ll peel a few more spuds,’ said Blanche.
15
Peg still couldn’t believe that her girls were home, and her face was beginning to ache from smiling so hard. She gave Phoebe another squeeze, drawing back to look at her.
‘But your holiday,’ she said. ‘Won’t you lose all your money?’
