Checking her watch, she left the laptop open on the bed, stripped, and walked through to the upstairs bathroom to get a shower. Twenty minutes later, she returned wearing a bath sheet and a smaller towel around her head. The bath sheet slipped as she stretched to remove the towel turban. She let it fall and sat in front of Alice’s old dressing table mirror to brush her shoulder length chestnut hair.
As she got up from the pink, padded stool, she noticed a blue light on her laptop. The screensaver had loaded, so she pressed a key to allow her to see her desktop. The blue light normally only came on for a Zoom or FaceTime meeting, or when she was recording a short video for one of the occasional podcasts that she was asked to appear in.
Puzzled, she checked the running programs, but nothing that required the camera was in use. Jessica closed the lid of the computer and opened it again. The light remained on so she restarted the laptop to find that the blue light had disappeared. Thinking she had rectified the error she got to her feet, and standing naked in the bedroom, began a stretching routine she had learned at the gym.
After ten minutes of exercise, Jess stopped the stretching, and flexing her shoulders in a circular motion, turned back towards the bed, only to find the blue light had come on again.
‘Dammit,’ she said to herself.
She could do without the laptop playing up. It wasn’t a new model by any stretch of the imagination but she had hoped it would see her though for another year or so. If it was beginning to develop faults it might be time to replace it. She couldn’t risk her precious new novel being irretrievably lost. Wrapping the big towel around her again, she picked up the laptop, walked down the stairs to the front room and dug out her portable, back-up hard disk from the drawer under the coffee table. She made copies of all the files she had added since her last backup, then sent the new notes she had made the previous evening to her wireless printer.
Satisfied that her data was now secure, Jess left the laptop on Alice’s old writing desk and went back upstairs to get ready for her evening out.
She chose a scooped neck, Shamrock green dress that hung just below the knee. Anything shorter than that could get her a ticking off from Martha. She still vividly remembered her twenty-first birthday party at the Old Bull, when she had turned up wearing a mini skirt and a sheer blouse and had been subjected to the most embarrassing lecture about modern day standards.
‘I can see what you had for breakfast, Jessica. Now, go back home and change before the rest of the guests arrive. We don’t want them thinking we’ve booked a stripper, do we?’
With the memory of her grandmother’s stinging rebuke still echoing around her head, she grabbed her shoulder bag, coat and car keys and stepped out of the house.
It was only a short drive to her mother’s terraced house on Burnett Road. Although the street lamps glowed dimly in the misty, autumn air, there were no lights showing through Nicola’s front window. After attempting, but failing to lift the rusted, lion’s-head door knocker, she rapped on one of the dirty, fan shaped, glass panes at the top of the door. After a full two minutes, her mother opened it with a gap just wide enough to peer through.
‘Ah, it’s you. That’s good, I thought it might be the old witch from the shop wanting me to do extra hours. Mandy hasn’t turned up for the evening shift, she texted me to say that she’s ill. She isn’t, she’s out with that new bloke of hers.’ Nicola opened the door and ushered her daughter inside. ‘Hurry, don’t let her know I’m home.’
Jess stepped quickly inside and Nicola shut the door behind her.
‘Is that why you’re sitting in the dark?’ she asked.
‘No, I’m out of electric,’ her mother replied. ‘I was going to get some this evening, but with Mandy not turning up, I decided not to go over there in case she insists that I work.’
‘Just tell her you’re going out with me,’ said Jess.
‘That wouldn’t stop her putting pressure on me to do Mandy’s shift,’ said Nicola. She grimaced. ‘I owe her a few hours for being late and for knocking off early when I felt ill the other day.’
‘Give me your electricity key and gas card, Mum,’ Jessica demanded. ‘I’ll go over and buy some credit for you.’
Five minutes later, Jessica was back with the fifty pounds on the electricity key and the same on the gas card. She looked on sadly as Nicola inserted them into the meters and the living room lights came on.
‘Mum, please let me know when you’re running low again. You can’t be without light and heating in winter.’
‘Jeanie Desmond has a fake card, or so she claims. She never seems to run out. I might ask her to get me one.’
‘MUM! Don’t even think about it. With your luck the bloody thing would set off an alarm at the EDF engineer’s office.’ She looked around the untidy room. ‘Did you sort through your mail?’
Nicola picked up a thick pile of letters and handed them to Jessica. ‘I don’t know what they say, I daren’t look.’
Jess stuffed them into her shoulder bag. ‘I’ll sort them all out in the morning, but listen, Mum. You have to look after yourself better than this.’
‘No lectures, please, Jessica. I’ll get enough of those from my mother tonight.’
‘I wasn’t going to lecture you, Mum. I worry about you that’s all.’
‘If you’re that worried you could send a bit of money my way.’
Jessica sighed. ‘I may as well give it straight to the off licence and save you the bother of handing it over.’
Nicola sniffed. ‘If my circumstances were better, I might not feel the need for alcohol. It’s the only way I have of forgetting about how bad things are.’
Jess shook her head. ‘You start wallowing in self-pity when you drink. It makes it worse.’
Surprisingly, Nicola didn’t take offence. She pulled her best coat from a hook on the back of the front door and slipped it over the freshly ironed, floral print dress.
‘I’ve always liked you in that dress,’ said Jessica with a smile, pleased that her mother had at least made an effort. Her speech wasn’t slurred and her eyes looked relatively bright.
‘It’s the only decent thing I’ve got left,’ Nicola replied.
Jess patted her on the back. ‘Shall we have a girlie day out soon, do the sales? They seem to be on all year round.’
As Nicola smiled, it seemed to wipe away ten years of aging.
‘I’d like that,’ she said.
She was still an attractive woman, Jess thought. She could easily find another man if she wanted to. The problem was, she only had room in her heart for one man, and he had walked out a few years ago.
They arrived at the Café Blanc at six-fifty to find Martha and Marjorie waiting for them in the foyer. Martha glowered at them as they entered.
‘About time too. We’ve been here for twenty minutes; I was beginning to think you had called it off.’
‘Hello, Grandma. Hello, Aunt Marjorie.’ Jess smiled and stepped forward to offer a hug. Martha pushed her hands in front of her to stop any such attempt. Marjorie, who had already held her arms open to accept one, suddenly stepped back behind her sister as if for protection.
‘Twenty minutes,’ she tutted and shook her head.
Nicola undid her coat and stepped out from behind Jessica.
‘Hello, Mum,’ she said quietly.
Martha looked her up and down with a look of distaste.
‘I see you’re wearing that dress again. Still, it appears that you are relatively sober, so we shouldn’t be too critical.’
Jess bit her tongue as Nicola looked down at her feet.
‘Come on,’ she said, trying to sound as jovial as she could. ‘Let’s go in. Our table should be ready.’
She pushed open the spring-loaded, panelled door and held it while the others came though. A suited, bow-tied host stepped towards them; Jess smiled at him.
‘I booked a table for four. Griffiths.’
‘Ah yes,’ the host smiled and led them to a tab
le in a nook on the far side of the restaurant.
‘Are you trying to hide us away,’ snapped Martha looking around the room.
The host smiled. ‘No, Madam. Ms Griffith’s requested a more secluded table for a quiet family meal.’
Martha tightened her lips and waited for him to pull out her chair. To her annoyance, he didn’t.
‘The waitress will be with you shortly.’ He placed a menu and a wine list on the table in front of all four seats, then smiling again at Jessica, he walked back the way he had come.
Nicola picked up the wine list as soon as she was seated.
‘Don’t go ordering a bottle for yourself,’ said Martha curtly. ‘We don’t want any drunken dramas tonight.’ She looked around from the confines of the nook. ‘Isolated as we are.’
Jessica looked up as the waitress appeared.
‘White, red or pink?’
‘White,’ said Martha, ‘and don’t go spending a fortune on it.’
‘White,’ agreed Marjorie, who didn’t like white wine that much.
‘I prefer red, but I’ll go with white if that’s what everyone else wants,’ said Nicola.
Jessica, sitting next to her, patted her hand.
‘We’ll have a bottle of the house red and a bottle of the house white,’ she said.
Before the waitress could turn away, Marjorie piped up.
‘What’s pink?’
‘Rosé,’ said Jessica, ‘would you like to try some?’
‘She’ll have the same as me,’ said Martha, giving her younger sister a glare.
‘Do you have those miniature bottles of rosé?’ asked Jessica.
The waitress nodded. ‘Yes but,’ she leaned forwards to whisper. ‘They cost the same as a half-bottle, you’re better off getting one of those.’
‘Just the small one for now,’ replied Jessica. She smiled across the table to her great aunt. ‘We can always get a half bottle if you like it.’
Martha shook her head. ‘Money to burn.’
Marjorie got to her feet and smoothed down her plaid, smock dress, then sat down again. She looked around excitedly. ‘It’s been ages since we’ve been out in the evening, hasn’t it, Martha?’
‘It has,’ replied Martha, looking directly at Jess. ‘But there is a good reason for that.’
Jessica blew out her cheeks and let the air out slowly.
‘All right, Grandma. I was hoping to get through the meal before the conversation turned to money, but as it has, let’s get started. What, exactly, do you expect me to do?’
Martha, snorted.
‘Expect? I expect nothing, Jessica, but I hoped that you’d be sympathetic to my…’ she looked sideways at Marjorie, ‘to our, plight.’
‘I could use a bit of help, too, as you know,’ added Nicola.
Martha glared at her daughter.
‘You’ve been at it already have you, trying to undermine us? I thought we had an agree—’ She cut herself off mid-sentence.
Jessica tried to make light of it and gave a little laugh. ‘So, you were all set to gang up on me, were you?’
‘It seemed to be the sensible approach,’ said Martha, staring hard at Nicola.
‘Well, whatever approach you decided on, the answer is still the same, Grandma. I can’t access the money in the trust fund without the agreement of two, third party trustees, and they will make their decisions on Nana’s instructions, and those instructions state, that no money of substance is to be handed over to any of her daughters or granddaughters. I couldn’t do it if I wanted to.’ Jess held out her hands palms up.
‘There is always a way.’ Martha leaned across the table towards Jessica. ‘We just have to find it.’
Jess bit her lip, and waited to speak until the waitress had finished pouring the wine. Nicola drained half her glass in one go, while Marjorie took a tentative sip of the rosé.
‘Ooh, I say. That is gorgeous,’ she said, and took another, larger, sip.
‘I think we’ll take the half bottle too,’ Jess said.
‘And I’ll have a gin and tonic, double measures,’ added Nicola quickly.
When the waitress had gone, Jess sipped her own drink and looked across at Martha with a serious look on her face.
‘Right, Grandma. It’s like this. I get a certain amount from the estate every year. I have to pay tax on it, but I can supplement it with any earnings I make from my writing, so, as I don’t have to pay rent anymore, I’m a lot better off than I used to be.’
‘That goes without saying,’ replied Martha. ‘Listen, Jessica, we don’t want your money, we want our share of the estate, or at least some of it.’
‘I can’t do that, Grandma,’ said Jess firmly. ‘But!’ she held up her hand to request silence, ‘if it’s a holiday you need, then I might be able to give you the money for that from my annual allowance.’
‘I wasn’t thinking of a weekend in Rhyl,’ said Martha, testily.
‘Nor was I,’ replied Jessica. ‘I think I can get you two on a reasonably priced cruise in January if you’d like that.’
Marjorie lurched forwards almost knocking her wine glass over.
‘A cruise? Where to? How long? Will I need a new hat?’
Martha looked suspiciously at her granddaughter.
‘It’s a start, I suppose. But you’re not buying us off that cheaply.’
‘A cruise,’ Marjorie whispered as the waitress returned with the extra drinks and asked if they were ready to order.
They decided to skip the starter. Martha ordered Dover Sole for herself and Marjorie, while Jess went for a vegetarian pasta dish. Nicola took a deep pull on her gin and ordered the same as Jessica.
‘Better put something inside to soak it up,’ she said.
They ate the meal in silence. Nicola just picking at hers. After a few minutes, she looked over her shoulder towards the bar, then announced she needed to visit the toilet.
Jessica watched as she made her way to the bar. After a quick word at the counter, she visited the lady’s room, then returned to the bar where she tipped back a glassful of clear liquid before walking back to her seat. The waitress appeared a few minutes later with another glass of gin. Martha, who hadn’t seen her at the bar, noticed the refill.
‘Steady on. We aren’t on a hen night you know.’
Nicola curled up her lip. ‘Stop telling me what I can and can’t do, Mother. I’m a big girl now.’
‘Then bloody well act like one,’ snapped Martha.
Nicola picked up her glass and raised a toast. ‘To our Jessica. Who holds all of our futures in her beautifully manicured hands.’
‘Don’t, Mum.’ Jessica reached out towards Nicola.
‘Don’t what?’ Nicola drained the gin and reached for the wine bottle.
‘Don’t be like that, Mum. You know I’ll look after you if I can.’
Nicola poured the wine unsteadily, spilling some of it onto the tablecloth. She picked up the glass and took a mouthful.
‘Like filling my meter with gas?’
‘If that’s what you need, then yes.’
‘Have you been stupid enough to give her money? You know what she’ll do with it,’ said Martha.
Marjorie poured herself another glass of rosé and took a big gulp. ‘She’ll pour it down the drain,’ she giggled to herself. ‘We know what Nicola does with money, don’t we, Martha?’
Martha gave her a look. ‘Easy with that stuff or you’ll end up like her.’ She nodded across the table towards Nicola.
‘Grandma, Mum, stop it,’ Jessica pleaded.
Martha put her knife and fork side by side on the plate and dabbed at her mouth with a linen napkin.
‘I’m warning you, Jessica. Don’t give her money.’
‘I’m going to try to work out a financial plan for her,’ said Jessica. ‘The first thing is to get her out of that awful house; it’s damp, it’s dirty and she deserves to be somewhere a lot nicer than that.’
Martha shrugged. ‘Where? She wouldn’
t pay the rent wherever you put her.’
Jessica thought for a moment.
‘Well, the farm used to own a few cottages that were let to the labourers. They belong to the trust now. I can have a look to see if any of those are empty or if the tenant lease is coming up for renewal.’
‘Oh, isn’t that just dandy!’ spat Martha. ‘The old soak gets to live rent free for the rest of her life and all I get is a bloody boat trip.’
Marjorie waved her glass in the air. ‘A bloody boat trip,’ she echoed.
‘It’s a bit more than a boat trip, it’s a three-week cruise,’ said Jessica quietly.
‘Semantics,’ replied Martha.
‘I had an idea of how we could get you some money the other night,’ said Jessica.
Martha’s ears pricked up.
‘Well?’
‘I thought… Well, why don’t you release some equity from your house?’
‘MORTGAGE IT!’ Martha was furious. ‘Do you know how long it took me to pay off the last one?’
‘I gave you some money to help, didn’t I?’ slurred Marjorie.
‘Shut up!’ Martha shouted, red faced.
Jessica tried to calm the situation.
‘It was only an idea, Grandma. The money is no good to you after you’re gone. I just thought you might want some of it now.’
‘What I want,’ Martha banged the table with her hand. ‘Is what I’m owed. My birth right. My share of the farm.’
‘I can’t give you that,’ said Jess quietly.
Martha’s face became a deeper shade of red. ‘Young Lady, I—’
Before she could vent, they were interrupted by a loud, male voice coming from the restaurant floor.
‘Jessica. My darling daughter. How wonderful it is to see you.’
Jessica closed her eyes as the voice got nearer.
‘I heard you were having a celebration. Fancy not inviting your old dad.’
When Jessica looked up, he was standing at her shoulder. He threw his arms around her and leaned in so that his mouth was next to her ear.
‘Jess, I need some money and I need it quickly,’ he hissed.
Chapter 16
‘Hello, Dad.’
As her father pulled back from his embrace, Jessica looked him over. Physically, he had changed a little since she’d seen him last, some four years ago. His face was thinner, his hair a little greyer and he had definitely lost weight. His clothes seemed to hang on him and the stubble on his cheeks along with the deep bags under his eyes gave him a haunted look.
The Legacy: Trouble Comes Disguised As Family (Unspoken Book 2) Page 10
