Chapter59
‘They could have flattened the earth down.’ Skye looked down at the new grave, still not quite believing that her Granny Bligh had slept with a Catholic priest, and that here lay her grandfather.
‘It will flatten with time,’ Estelle said, noticing the temporary wooden cross that had a small brass plaque with just the wordsReverend Matthew Nesbittand his dates of birth and death on it.
‘I wonder if anyone will be ordering a proper headstone for him?’ Star said, pulling her scarf tighter around her in the cold. ‘I was rather hoping that there might still be some cards or wreaths on here so we could have a snoop.’
‘Steren, I don’t want to know anything about Matthew’s family.’ Estelle was firm in her delivery. ‘I found out online that his parents had died, and he was an only child, so … let’s leave it that way, shall we? For me, doing that honours his memory and also honours my promise to him.’
‘I agree, and Kara does too.’
Star noticed the look of relief that spread across her mother’s face.
‘I thought Kara might meet us up here today?’ Estelle quizzed.
‘We’re coming up together on Christmas Eve – just the two of us. She had a last-minute Christmas order in forCrowsbridge Hall today, and being honest I think she wanted to visit on her own, in peace.’
Estelle nodded in understanding.
‘I do want to tell Auntie Flo though,’ Star told her mum. ‘My bond is so great with her that I can’t not.’
Estelle Bligh sighed. ‘If we are to be one close family, which I want us to be now, then she should know. It would be lovely to spend some time with her, now I’m not hiding behind my addictions or lies. There is so much I have yet to learn about my mother, and Flo, for that matter, while there is still time.’
Star asked gently, ‘How are you getting on with your support group, Mum?’
‘It’s bloody hard breaking the habits of so many years, but now I’ve gone through the first really tough bit, I’m strangely beginning to enjoy it. One day at a time and all that, but at the moment sobriety is suiting me. I’ve even come off my benefits, and whilst I wait for my clairvoyant readings to pick up – don’t faint – I’ve got a job two days a week working in the health shop in Penrigan.’
Skye giggled. ‘The health shop, Granny? You’ll be stopping smoking soon.’
‘I’m contemplating patches, but contemplation is as far as I’ve got.’ Estelle kissed her granddaughter on the forehead.
‘Good,’ the young girl said seriously. ‘I like having the new you around.’
Estelle felt so moved that for a moment she couldn’t speak.
‘And around I shall be, for you two and the new little baby Bligh who will be coming in just a couple of months.’
‘Have you had any feelings or seen whether it’s a boy or a girl?’ Skye asked.
‘Nooo.’Estelle dragged on the word and then, shutting hereyes tightly, she intoned, ‘I see a man with two names. On the pier. Steren, it is your time now.’
Skye took both her mum’s and gran’s hand. ‘Come on, you witches. Goodbye, Grandad Nesbitt,’ she acknowledged the grave in front of them. ‘Maybe I should become a nun, to keep these two on the straight and narrow, what do you reckon?’
