Peg exchanged a complicit smile with her daughter and laid the packet on the table.
When both her daughters were settled, Peg drew in a steadying breath, marshalling her thoughts.
‘Was Mim still asleep when you came down, Izzy?’
‘Well, she was snoring, so I guess so.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘Is it her you want to talk to us about? I can shut the kitchen door, just in case.’
Peg nodded. Given that Izzy had just walked in at the exact momenthername was mentioned, it was probably wise. She didn’t want to cause any upset.
Phoebe leaned forward. ‘Why the skulduggery? I don’t get it.’
‘I just wondered if you thought Mim was okay, that’s all.’
‘Aside from the broken wrist, you mean?’ Phoebe looked from one to the other, her face blank. ‘It’s made her more crotchety than usual,’ she added. ‘But in that lovely Mim way which makes us all smile. But otherwise I think she’s okay.’
‘I don’t,’ said Izzy. ‘She’s scared. She might make out she’s cross about the plaster cast and the way it limits what she can do, but only because it lends weight to her argument that she’s fit and able. Why do you think she was up a ladder in the first place?’
Phoebe stared at her sister. ‘To get the cobwebs down?’
Izzy tutted softly, shaking her head in amusement at her sister’s lack of insight. ‘That was the outward action, yes, but what she was really doing was proving to herself that she’s still capable of such things, that her age isn’t catching up with her. It’s classic denial.’
Peg winced inwardly at her daughter’s astute observation. It made her wonder what Izzy had deduced abouther…
‘Oh…’ said Phoebe. ‘A bit like what you do, Mum. Pretending you like the peace and quiet when we’re not here, yet secretly loving all the chaos we bring with us.’
Peg smiled, found out. ‘Something like that, yes. But I am concerned about Mim. She made light of her pneumonia last year, but it knocked her for six. Being made to face your own mortality is horrible. I know howIfeel, imagine what it must be like if you’re in your eighties. And now, with this latest tumble, she’s becoming spooked, I know she is.’
‘So what are you saying?’ asked Phoebe. ‘That you think she needs someone to look after her?’
Peg pulled a face. ‘Maybe not look after her – I don’t think that’s necessary just yet – but I do think I need to keep more of an eye on her than I have in the past. And that’s not so easy to do from here.’
‘She’s here now though,’ added Izzy, scrutinising Peg’s face.
‘Yes, and I had a heck of a job getting her to come back with me from the hospital. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was almost Christmas, I don’t think she would have come. That, and my laying on my work commitments with a trowel.’
‘But if she’s agreed to stay…’ Phoebe reached for a biscuit.
‘She’s agreed to stay,for the time being. And knowing how impatient Mim can be, that gives me a couple of weeks at best. She won’t get the cast off her wrist for another four or five weeks yet, and I’ll try to persuade her to stay for that length of time, but you know how she is about her house, she’ll hate being away from it.’
‘But she’ll never manage on her own at home,’ said Izzy. ‘It’s her right wrist that’s broken.’
‘Which might be my only saving grace…So I wondered whether you two girls might encourage her to stay here as well. If we’re all saying the same thing, she’s much more likely to listen.’
‘Of course we will,’ said Izzy. ‘But that isn’t what you want to talk to us about, is it? Or not all of it, I’m guessing.’
Peg took a deep breath. Izzy had always had the ability to read her, even when she was a small child.
‘What I want to do is enable Mim’s independence, not limit it. But I can’t do that when I’m two hours away. So longer-term…I think I need to move closer.’
‘Move?’ The alarm was stark in Phoebe’s voice. ‘But you can’t do that, Mum, we…’ She stared at her sister as if begging her to intercede.
Peg held up her hand.
‘Believe me, it’s the last thing I want to do,’ she said. ‘But I’ve always promised Mim that I would do my damnedest to ensure she could stay in her own house, right to the end. She’s not going in a home, and although she’s far from needing that level of care at the moment, it’s something I need to consider going forward. The last few days in particular have made me realise how life can turn on a sixpence, and the relative good health that Mim enjoys now might all change tomorrow. And I have to be ready when it does. I owe her that much. She’s all the family I have aside from you two, and you know how much of a difference she made when your dad died. I don’t think we would have coped without her.’
Both girls were quiet for a moment, Phoebe’s head bent, the uneaten biscuit still in her hand.
‘This is how you feel about us, isn’t it?’ she said after a moment. ‘Why you’re always saying that you don’t want to be a burden to us when you’re older.’ There were tears in Phoebe’s eyes. ‘But you’d never be that, Mum. You don’t feel that way about Mim, so why should we feel it about you?’
