‘That’s fine, Dad. I still think of it as grandmother’s sometimes.’
‘Yes. It’ll take a while for us all to get used to the fact she’s no longer here.’
‘You were saying something about Hanna.’
‘Yes. Hanna saw me outside the Boot’s cottage and asked if I needed any help. Obviously, I told her I was waiting for Vera and Rita, and she informed me that they’re at their nephew’s in Folkestone, today, but that they wouldn’t be back for two weeks, because they’re off to Southampton from there. He’s taking them on a cruise, apparently. Or they’re taking him. I’m not sure which, and neither was Hanna. We had a laugh about it. Those two old biddies aren’t what they seem, you know. I remember Mum often saying they would both go to Hell and that their so-called afternoon teas, were nothing but an excuse for drunkenness and debauchery. I always thought it was Mum being Mum. You know what she could be like. But your mum knows someone who’s in St Gabriel’s church choir, and she’s told Nikki some tales about Vera and Rita over the years that wouldmake your hair curl. Those two won’t get disabled badges. Theirs will say dissipated.’ He chuckled.
Molly sighed. ‘So we won’t get any answers until they return? I suppose it’s back to those boxes, bags, and cases, then?’
He gave her a sideways glance. ‘I’ve been thinking, sweetheart. And your mum and I had a long chat about it when we went to bed last night. Maybe it’s best to leave things be. I was going to say that this morning, but I thought if we could resolve it quickly, by asking the Boots, that would be fine. Trawling through a lot of old papers searching for goodness knows what, doesn’t seem like such a good idea now.’
‘But, Dad!’
‘Yes, yes. I know what you’re thinking. That there’s some dreadful family secret. Or some awful disease lurking in the family’s past. But, as your mum pointed out to me last night, if that were the case, we would’ve heard something about it long before now. I know we didn’t go to Mum’s that often, but Nikki and I knew most of the residents in the village and they knew us, long before you were born. And don’t forget, I grew up in that cottage, and lived there until I was twenty-five. Someone would’ve let something slip if this ‘condition’ the Boots mentioned was really something serious. Let’s go out somewhere nice for lunch today, and forget about Mum and her miserable attitude, and her mum’s so-called ‘condition’, and enjoy what we have.’
‘That’s easy for you and Mum, but I’m the one who seems to be a clone of grandmother. She made me feel like I had to be avoided at all costs, when she was alive. Perhaps it wasn’t just because she was a miserably unhappy person. Perhaps it was because she thought I’d inherited whatever her own mum had.’
‘You’re forgetting, sweetheart. Mum treated everyone like that. Even me. And you should’ve seen the way she behaved towards Nikki when they met. Mum couldn’t have made herfeelings about Nikki any clearer, if she had held up a bunch of garlic, and stuck a stake through Nikki’s heart. “That woman’s a vampire,” Mum said. “She’ll bleed you dry and then run off and leave you.” She was talking about my money, of course, not literally my blood. And until the day you were born, she wouldn’t have Nikki in the cottage. She only did so after that because Nikki refused to let you go there without her. And not because of anything sinister. Just because your mum didn’t like my mum either. Mum didn’t even come to our wedding. I’d say, compared to that, Mum made you feel fairly welcome.’
‘You’ve never told me that stuff about her and Mum before.’ Molly was genuinely shocked. It was evident grandmother didn’t like Nikki, but Molly hadn’t realised it had been that bad.
‘We felt it best not to tell you when Mum was alive. For all her awful ways, she did love you, you know. She loved me too. That was why I could never abandon her. I don’t think life had treated her well. I do know that she was at your great-grandmother’s beck and call until the day the woman died. Several people have told me that over the years. Not Mum, of course. She never talked about it. I often thought Mum was trapped in the past and she couldn’t break free. And that’s another reason why I think we should leave things be. At least until the Boots return. Because I know you’ll ask them, no matter what your mum and I say. But this is what your mum thinks, and having thought about it more this morning, and just now while sitting outside the Boots, I completely agree. The past is past, and that’s where it should stay. The present and the future are what’re important.’
