Now, at the hospital, she had hold of Giles’s hand. He had a little backpack with him filled with his things from last night. He’d declared it the best sleepover ever – even though he didn’tgo on sleepovers yet – probably on account of the fact that he hadn’t done much sleeping at all. Instead, he’d got to watch a movie, come downstairs for a chat, a cuddle and two mugs of cocoa when he couldn’t settle. And he was up early enough this morning before they were due to visit the hospital that Nadia had made him pancakes.
‘Can I stay at yours again?’ he asked as they followed the rabbit warren of corridors in the hospital, only going wrong once. ‘I could have the bed next time. The sofa was nice though.’
‘Glad you think so.’
‘Don’t tell Mummy I didn’t clean my teeth again after the cocoa.’
She grinned. ‘I promise I won’t say a word.’
‘So can I?’ he prompted.
‘Come stay? If your mummy and daddy agree then of course.’
‘What about when we live in Switzerland? That’s too far for a sleepover. We won’t see you again.’
She stopped before they reached the ward and bobbed down on her haunches. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet you before today.’
‘You might forget me.’
‘Don’t worry, no danger of that. I’ve not stayed up drinking cocoa that late with anyone else; that’s your job now.’
‘Can we have marshmallows next time too?’
She made a hesitant expression. ‘Not sure, I’ll think about it.’ She reached up to tickle him under his chin. ‘You okay?’
He nodded, but he looked suddenly sad. And in true child fashion, he came right out with, ‘Daddy says you and Mummy have problems.’
That was one way of putting it.
Kids certainly made you think about what you wanted to say and how to say it. ‘We have had a few. But you know, Giles, the thing with problems is that sometimes you can work them out.’
He brightened at that and as Nadia buzzed outside the door to the ward and waited for a nurse to let them in, she started to believe in what she was saying.
And once she saw her sister, spoke to her, she’d know whether there was anything to salvage or whether they were better off carrying on with their separate lives.
As soon as Giles spotted his dad, he charged into his open arms.
Nadia handed Archie the key to the Airbnb and he pushed it into his pocket. She’d texted him a couple of times last night to assure him that everything was fine, Giles was behaving and she was coping, and he’d messaged back to say Monica had already perked up and was feeding the little one.
‘Take Giles in first,’ said Nadia.
Archie nodded, respecting her need to gather herself. ‘We’ll have about half an hour – most likely his attention span to sit beside a bed – and then we’ll leave you and Monica to talk.’
She wished she’d thought to grab a hot drink to bring up here, give her something to do while she was waiting because the time seem to drag terribly.
But then Giles was running towards her again, boasting about his little sister, laughing at her burps, talking about how she looked like him as a baby.
And Nadia’s heart had to catch up a bit with her legs as they took her towards the middle bay in a ward.
They took her to Monica.
24
Before Nadia left Switzerland for Dorset, she would’ve described Monica as rebellious, unwilling to bend for anyone else, intent on causing trouble. And yesterday, Nadia had barely registered anything about this woman who was family and who she hadn’t seen for twenty years.
Now, when she approached the bed and her sister dragged her gaze from the baby in her arms to the sister who’d left her decades ago, Nadia knew without her saying a word that she was different in more ways than she would ever be able to realise unless they talked properly. Somehow just by watching her sister with a baby showed Nadia that the passage of time had mellowed this woman and turned her into a different person.
And yet she still braced for Monica to let her down, for her sister to open her mouth, speak and for Nadia to realise nothing had changed at all.
