She could still feel the sharp pain as Audrey had dug her in the ribs with her elbow.Do you see that?
Jenny had seen it. Everyone had seen it. Even Martin had raised a questioning eyebrow in her direction. And then the pair of them had disappeared.
And so far this morning there had been no sign of them.
Jamie ate a mince pie, the pastry crumbling onto the table. “Maybe they will have a big summer wedding. Compensate for your eldest eloping. I’m kidding. We both know Becky would hate a big wedding.”
“Wedding? Even if they are really together, dating is a long way from marriage. Jamie, you’re not seriously eating mince pies for breakfast?”
“No. This is an early morning snack.” Jamie pulled two more from the tin and sealed the lid again. “What do you mean, if they’re together?”
“Nothing. I just wasn’t sure how serious it is, that’s all. Don’t eat any more. I’m making a big Christmas Eve breakfast.” Some things never changed, she thought, and one of those things was how much her children could eat.
“Have you ever known me to refuse breakfast?” He glanced up as the door opened. “Morning, Granny.”
And that, Jenny thought, was the end of her quiet conversation with Jamie.
“Did you sleep well? Is anyone else awake?” She pulled out a chair for her mother. “Any sign of Rosie or Becky?”
“I’m the only one up. Your dad is still asleep, so I left him. I thought maybe a lie-in might help him structure his thoughts for his book. No sign of Rosie or Declan, and after what I witnessed last night I don’t suppose we’ll be seeing Becky and Will any time soon.”
“What did you see, Granny? Share.” Jamie stood up and made his grandmother a cup of tea.
“They were kissing. I didn’t know it was possible for two people to kiss for that long without coming up for air. Thank you, dear.” She patted Jamie’s arm gratefully as he put the tea in front of her.
“Did they know you were there?” Could the kiss have been a performance?
“They were still kissing when the bedroom door shut behind them, so even if it began that way it didn’t end that way. They definitely weren’t thinking about me.”
Jamie sneaked another mince pie. “How do you know what happened once the door closed?”
“I might have paused outside their door as I was passing. Not for long of course. Just long enough to confirm that they were still kissing.”
Jamie choked on the mince pie and Jenny thumped him on the back and then fetched him a glass of water.
She sent her mother a silencing look without any real hope that it would silence her. There were some things that were better off not voiced, but her mother had yet to discover that. She was one of those people who thought plain speaking was a virtue, a conviction Jenny had never shared. Sometimes she found herself holding her breath, willing her mother not to speak her mind.
“That’s enough, Mum. Unless you were looking through the keyhole, I don’t see how you could have drawn that conclusion.”
“There are other ways of determining what is happening behind a closed door. Sounds, for a start.”
“You’re saying you had your ear pressed to Becky’s door?”
“No. I just stood close, that’s all. If they’d been doing it for my benefit they would have been laughing or whispering the moment the door was closed. At the very least there would have been conversation. There wasn’t. Which confirmed that I was wrong in my suspicions.”
Jamie finished the water. His eyes were watering but Jennywasn’t sure if that was the coughing or the attempts to contain his laughter.
“Suspicions?”
“I thought for a short time yesterday that Becky and Will were faking their romance. But I was wrong.”
Jenny wondered if her mother had been listening outside her and Martin’s bedroom door. From now on she was going to communicate in written notes when her mother was staying.
“What made you think that?”
“Remember that time Becky covered for Rosie when she spilled blackcurrant juice on the sofa? She had the same look on her face yesterday when she announced that she was with Will. I thought to myselfblackcurrant juice.”
Jamie scooped up all the crumbs he’d dropped. “Do you speculate about all of us?”
