‘What do you propose we do, then?’ he asked Nina.
Chapter Forty-Six
Nina launched into explaining what she thought they should do. She could, of course, go ahead and do it all herself, but after the events of yesterday and seeing for herself the state Hilary was in, Nina was determined that Keith had to play his part. She had stayed until late last night with Hilary and cooked them supper – she’d unearthed a ready-made lasagna in the freezer – tidied the kitchen and loaded and unloaded the washing machine, as well as insisted that Hilary have a relaxing bath while Nina put fresh bedlinen on her bed. In Nina’s experience, a bath followed by getting into a clean and perfectly made bed always made one feel better.
‘Firstly,’ she said, and fixing Keith with a steady gaze, ‘we need to contact Hilary’s sister Lindsay, as she’s the most practical of the bunch. I’d suggest leaving the rest of her family out of it for now.’
Keith shook his head. ‘I don’t think for one minute Hilary is going to like Lindsay knowing what she’s been up to. And what if Lindsay tells the rest of the family?’
‘She won’t do that, not when we stress the importance of keeping it strictly amongst ourselves. I thought perhaps you could speak to Lindsay.’
Keith nodded, but to Nina’s eye he didn’t look convinced. ‘What then?’ he asked.
‘We encourage Hilary to seek professional help.’
‘She won’t do it,’ he said emphatically. ‘I repeatedly suggested that we both did that, and she flatly refused even to consider grief counselling.’
‘That was then,’ Nina said firmly, having anticipated this rebuttal from Keith. ‘Now that Hilary knows her dirty little secret is out, her words not mine, she accepts that she can’t go on as she is. Again, those were her words, not mine.’
‘If she’s reached that conclusion herself, why do I have to be involved?’
Nina was disappointed in her father-in-law’s apparent readiness to absolve himself from the situation.
‘Keith,’ she said as patiently as she could, ‘if you’d seen Hilary yesterday, you’d know how just desperate the situation is and that we have to support her, she can’t do this alone.’
‘Okay,’ he said, ‘so how do we convince Hilary to seek professional help?’
‘We all sit down together and show her that we genuinely care about her and want to see her well again. We also need to give her something to care about and to think about, other than what she’s lost. Because at the moment, that’s all she can think of. She’s lost everything that mattered to her, her son, the hope of a grandchild and … ’ she paused, ‘and you. We’ve all taken from her and now we need to give her something to make up for that.’
Keith looked puzzled. ‘Such as?’
She told him what she had in mind and his immediate reaction was to dismiss the idea out of hand, saying there wasn’t a chance in hell of Hilary going along with it. But ignoring his pessimism, Nina asked if he had anything better to suggest. He didn’t. ‘In that case,’ she said, ‘I’m going to do some research and make it happen.’
Over on the countertop where her mobile was charging, it buzzed and then buzzed again.
‘Feel free to answer it,’ Keith said. ‘I don’t mind.’
‘It’s okay,’ she said, ‘it can keep.’ Some telepathic sense – or more likely just plain old-fashioned hope, the giddy kind that made you want to believe you were constantly in another person’s thoughts – convinced her it was Jakob. If it was, she wasn’t going to reply now, she wanted to do that when she was alone.
Something must have given her away as Keith said, ‘Would that be Jakob by any chance?’
‘Now why would you think that?’ she said.
‘Just a feeling,’ he said blandly. ‘And that you’re blushing very prettily, and you suddenly look decidedly on edge. Not that it’s any of my business,’ he added.
Inwardly annoyed with herself for being so transparent, but wanting to show how at ease she was, she rose smoothly from her seat and went over to her mobile.
‘You’re right,’ she said airily, ‘it is Jakob.’
‘Does he often contact you on a Sunday?’ Keith enquired.
‘You know how it is with work,’ she said with a shrug, ‘I’m never off duty.’
‘Nor is Jakob by the looks of things,’ remarked Keith with more than a hint of archness to his voice.
With her back to him, she put the phone down, but not before reading the message and looking at the accompanying photo. It was of Jakob, and he appeared to be immersed in a lake against a dramatic backdrop of snow-covered fir trees.
First proper snow in Tromsø and wishing you were here with me!he’d written.
