‘We’re invited to spend it with a friend of Elaine’s,’ he put in.
‘You’re going out?’ She looked quickly at me. ‘I would have thought you’d have liked your child to have Christmas in his own home,’ she said.
‘Oh, he will have,’ I told her. ‘Mary is my business partner. Until we moved in with Ian, Jamie and I lived with her. It’ll be like going home for him.’
‘I see. Well, as I haven’t met this – er – Jamie yet, how about asking your friend if she can squeeze one more in for Christmas?’
Realizing that I’d walked right into it I hardly dared glance at Ian.
‘It’s not for us to invite extra guests,’ he put in quickly. ‘We couldn’t impose.’
Amanda’s eyes were steely as she pressed another fish paste sandwich on him.
‘Well you won’t know if it’s an imposition until you ask, will you, darling? I don’t really think it’s your decision.’ She took up a pearl handled cake knife and began to attack the Swiss roll. ‘You know, darling, you really must try to lose the habit of speaking up for your girlfriends. I’m sure that’s why they all leave you in the end. You can be very domineering.’
Ian flushed. ‘No I’m not.’
‘Yes, you are.’ She looked at me. ‘They never stay with him for long, you know dear.’ Her eyes shot back to Ian. ‘What about that lovely girl you were seeing last year – what was her name? She tipped her head sideways like a predatory bird listening for a worm. ‘Petronella?’
‘Patricia,’ Ian mumbled, his cheeks still red.
‘Oh yes.’ She glanced at me. ‘Now she was a pretty girl; footloose and fancy free too. Quite a catch I would have thought. What on earth did you do to put her off, Ian?’
He swallowed hard, hanging on valiantly to his patience. ‘It wasn’t last year. It was two years ago. It wasn’t serious anyway. It was just a couple of dates.’
‘Mmm …’ Amanda shrugged. ‘You can make as many excuses as you like but I wouldn’t mind betting that she got tired of you bossing her about.’ She smiled at me. ‘Just you stand up for yourself, dear,’ she advised. ‘Men! They’ll walk all over you if you let them.’ She nibbled delicately at her cake. ‘Now – what were we saying? Ah yes, Christmas. I wouldn’t need putting up. I don’t mind if it’s only for the day. You can come and pick me up, Ian, and run me home later in the evening.’
‘You’re not planning to spend Christmas with Henry then?’ Ian ventured.
Amanda shot him a venomous look. ‘Clearly not! I’d have thought that much was obvious.’
‘Ian’s Aunt Janet will be joining us,’ I said.
‘Janet!’ Amanda glared at Ian. ‘You’ve asked her!’
‘We’re returning her hospitality,’ I said quickly, trying to pour oil on troubled waters. ‘She invited us to her house and prepared a wonderful spread—’ I stopped short, biting my tongue as I realized that I was making matters even worse.
‘Oh, I’m sure she did!’ Amanda said sharply. ‘Always one to get in first with the grovelling.’ She dabbed at the corners of her mouth then threw down her napkin. ‘Well now you can return my hospitality too, can’t you?’ She glared at me. ‘That’s if you consider my meagre spread good enough to call hospitality!’
‘Of course,’ I said, stumbling over my words. ‘Ian and I have had a lovely tea. Anyway, we came to see you, didn’t we, Ian?’
She stood up, making it abundantly clear that the visit was at an end. ‘Well now you have!’ She began to walk towards the door. ‘So if you’ll excuse me I’m feeling rather tired. It’s been nice meeting you, Alice; quite an – er entertainment. I only hope you last longer than Ian’s last paramour.’
Ian didn’t speak at all as we travelled down in the lift. It wasn’t until we were in the car that he gave vent to his anger.
‘Now perhaps you can see why I put off taking you to meet her,’ he said running a hand through his hair. ‘Alice! She really is impossible!’ He looked at me. ‘I’m so sorry darling.’
‘It was me who put my foot in it. There’s no need to apologize.’
‘There is! I’ve let you and Mary in for putting up with her on Christmas Day, not to mention Janet. How I’m going to break the news to her I don’t know.’
‘No, really, it was my fault. Anyway, it’s only for one day. Surely they can get along for a few hours.’
‘I wouldn’t bet on it. I don’t know how I’m going to face Janet.’ He let out his frustration with an exasperated growl. ‘Urhh! Calling you a glorified cook!’
‘There’s nothing wrong with being a cook.’
‘And all that about her being undomesticated and living in hotels,’ he went on. ‘Her theatrical career amounted to no more than playing second leads in weekly rep in godforsaken holes at the back of beyond and as for hotels! Grubby back street digs was all she was used to.’
‘What about all those photographs of her showbusiness friends?’
‘She’s never even met half of them. It’s all a front. She’s been boasting about her career in the theatre for so long I swear she half believes it herself.’
‘I think that’s quite sad.’
He looked at me. ‘Sad – Amanda? Never!’
We were still sitting in the car park and I looked up at the apartment block. ‘She must have had some quite well paid jobs during her stage career to be able to afford a flat like that for her retirement,’ I said.
‘She doesn’t pay for it,’ Ian said. ‘You heard her talk about Henry, her “gentleman friend” as she calls him. He pays the rent, presumably in return for her company at those cosy dinners she mentioned. The mind boggles at what else.’
‘I see. She’s not tempted to marry him then?’
‘Marriage has never been on Amanda’s agenda.’
‘But I would have thought that at her age she’d be thinking about security.’
‘She probably thinks I’m her security,’ Ian said bitterly. ‘Not that I owe her anything. She only acknowledges our relationship when it suits her.’
I slipped my hand through his arm. ‘Don’t let her get to you, darling.’ Suddenly I asked mischievously, ‘By the way, why have you never mentioned the glamorous Petronella?’
Ian sighed. ‘Trust her to bring that up. It was ages ago – water under the bridge, and her name was Patricia, as she knows quite well. She was a girl I dated a few times, nothing serious.’
‘Serious enough to take her to meet your mother,’ I teased.
‘Amanda is only my mother through some ghastly biological error,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘That title belongs to Janet and always will. And I never took Pat to meet her. We ran into her once in the street, that was all,’ he said. ‘Even now I cringe with embarrassment every time I remember it!’ He looked at me. ‘I’d have told you about Pat if it had been any big deal. You do believe that. Don’t you?’
‘Of course I do.’ I reached up to kiss him. ‘I’m only teasing. Of course you had relationships before we met just as I did. Haven’t I got Jamie to prove it? All that matters is that we have each other now.’
He pulled me close. ‘You’re right. Nothing can touch us, can it?’ We sat for a moment, his arm warm around me and my head on his shoulder.
‘We don’t spend nearly enough time together,’ he said suddenly. ‘We should try to get away for a few days – just the two of us.’
I knew what he meant. In all the time we had known one another we’d hardly spent any time alone. I knew he loved Jamie almost as much as I did but getting away together would be nice even if it were only for a long weekend.
‘It’s not the best time of year,’ I said.
He looked down at me. ‘How about after Christmas? Maybe we could have a few days in the Cotswolds or somewhere.’
‘That sounds wonderful,’ I told him. ‘Maybe we could do it after the New Year bookings have quietened down.’
‘Do you think Mary would have Jamie?’
‘I’m sure she’d jump at the cha
nce.’
He hugged me close. ‘It’ll be something to look forward to,’ he said. ‘Something to get us through the Christmas Day fiasco.’
I laughed. ‘Don’t meet trouble halfway!’
He switched on the ignition and started the car. ‘Believe me, where Amanda’s concerned trouble rushes to meet you like a hungry lion!’
Mary took the news that we were to have an extra guest for Christmas Day in her stride. She and I were going to do the cooking and we were used to catering for large numbers. Six was a mere nothing. Janet, on the other hand, was a different matter. We went to see her the weekend after our visit to Amanda and Ian broke the news that she was to have the company of her sister on Christmas Day. As he had expected, her face fell.
‘Oh, Ian.’
‘I know, he said quickly. ‘But you know what she’s like. She wouldn’t take no for an answer.’
Janet sighed. ‘Oh well, I suppose I’ll just have to try and make the best of it.’ She looked at me. ‘You must think I’m awful, but Amanda really isn’t the easiest person to get along with even though she’s my sister.’
‘I gathered that. But you’ve done so much for her. When she had Ian for instance; what would she have done without you?’
‘She would have had him adopted,’ Janet said.
‘She wouldn’t have gone through with it once she’d seen him,’ I told her. ‘I know I couldn’t when Jamie was born.’
‘Amanda would,’ Janet said. ‘Back then she wouldn’t allow anything to get in the way of her stage career.’
I was about to ask about Ian’s father – whether Amanda had ever given him any say in what happened to his son, then I remembered how I had kept Chris in the dark. It may have been for different reasons but it came down to the same thing in the end. Was I no better than Amanda? I shuddered at the thought.
Mary had made the house look wonderful for Christmas. All the downstairs rooms were decorated with evergreens and a big Christmas tree stood in the hall decked with red and gold; tiny pinpoint lights twinkling among the branches.
Ian, Jamie and I were to stay with her over the holiday in our old rooms. When Mary had first invited Janet she had declined, saying that she would need to be at home because of Brownie.
‘Bring him too,’ Mary had suggested. ‘I know Jamie would love to have him. He’s never stopped talking about your dog ever since the day he came to have tea with you.’
The three of us arrived on Christmas Eve and it was well after ten before we managed to persuaded Jamie to go to bed.
‘Are you going to hang your stocking up?’ I asked as I tucked him in. He gave me a pitying look.
‘Mum! I’m nearly nine. I don’t do that kind of stuff any more.’
‘I see. Does that mean you don’t want any presents?’
He grinned. ‘I never said that.’
‘Thought not.’ I ruffled his hair. ‘Okay, where shall I ask Santa to put them then.’
‘Oh, Mum!’
‘What?’
‘There isn’t any Santa. Everybody knows that.’
I feigned shocked surprise. ‘There isn’t? Oh dear, it looks like Christmas won’t be happening this year then, doesn’t it?’
‘Well….’ He sat up in bed and looked at me thoughtfully. ‘I suppose I could be wrong.’
‘You think so?’
‘Daniel still believes in him.’
‘Then I suggest you do too,’ I said. ‘Just for one more year. Better to be on the safe side than to wake up to no presents, eh?’
‘But you buy them – don’t you?’
‘Whatever gave you that idea?’
‘D’you think I’ll get a bike?’
I pushed him back against the pillows and tucked him in again. ‘I think you should go to sleep then it’ll soon be morning and you’ll find out,’ I laughed, kissing his forehead. ‘Night night.’
‘’Night, Mum.’
As I switched the light out I wondered how much longer Jamie and I would keep up this yearly pretence. He was growing up so fast that I was no longer aware of who was humouring whom. Would Ian and I have a child of our own? I wondered. Only time would tell.
Ian went to fetch his Aunt Janet first on Christmas morning. Jamie begged to go too so that he could sit in the back of the car with Brownie on the way back. We’d decided to wait until after lunch to open our presents, although Jamie had already had his bike and ridden it round the garden a few times with Ian holding onto the back of the saddle.
Mary and Janet hit it off on sight. I’d always known they were on the same wavelength. And Brownie won Mary’s heart right away with his cute ways and melting brown eyes. Jamie had bought him a new bowl and he was soon tucking into biscuits out of it in a corner of the kitchen.
Mary suggested that Janet sit by the living room fire with a magazine while she and I got to work preparing the vegetables. Predictably, she wouldn’t hear of it.
‘Oh, can’t I help?’ she asked. ‘Sitting around reading magazines really isn’t my thing. Besides, I’d rather have your company.’
So when the time came for him to go and collect his mother, Ian left the three of us in the kitchen happily preparing the Christmas dinner.
‘I was going to ask Jamie to come with me,’ he said ruefully, looking out of the window to where Jamie was throwing a ball for Brownie in the garden. ‘But it seems he’s otherwise engaged.’
When he’d gone Janet looked at Mary. ‘Have you met Amanda yet?’ Mary shook her head. ‘Well all I can say is that I hope she’s on her best behaviour,’ she warned. ‘She’s got a vicious tongue. My advice is to try and ignore her little barbed remarks.’
Mary laughed. ‘It’s Christmas,’ she said. ‘She’s sure to be in a good mood. Besides, once we’ve all got a few drinks down us I’m sure we’ll all be the greatest of pals.’
Janet shot me a rueful look. ‘Mmm, well I hope you’re right.’
By the time Ian arrived with Amanda preparations for the meal were well under way; the turkey sending out a mouth-watering aroma and the pudding bubbling away happily whilst piles of vegetables stood ready in bowls waiting to be cooked.
Under her fur coat Amanda was dressed in a floating pale blue creation, her hair swept up in gloriously contrived disarray. She kissed the air an inch away from Janet’s cheek and was royally gracious as Ian introduced her to Mary.
‘How do you do. I’ve heard so much about you and your lovely sandwich business,’ she said, extending the scarlet fingertips.
Mary took the barb on the chin whilst Janet turned away to hide a smile. Just at that moment Jamie opened the back door, letting in an exuberant Brownie who rushed straight at Amanda and jumped up at her in a doggy welcome. She let out a piercing shriek.
‘Oh, my God! Get the wretched creature off me.’ She glared at Janet, brushing frantically at Brownie’s paw marks. ‘Why on earth did you have to bring your filthy animal with you?’ she complained. ‘Not everyone wants to live in a zoo!’
Janet grabbed a roll of paper towels and gave it to Jamie. ‘Take Brownie outside and wipe his paws for me, will you, Jamie?’ she said quietly. She turned to Amanda. ‘Just leave the marks alone, Amanda. They’ll brush off easily when they’re dry.’
But Amanda continued to fuss with her dress. ‘It’s all right for you,’ she said glaring at her sister. ‘Not all of us go around wearing baggy casuals all the time. Some of us prefer to dress for the occasion.’
Mary stepped forward. ‘There now, I’m sure there’s no real harm done. Suppose we all go into the living room and have a sherry?’ she said. She looked at Ian. ‘Will you do the honours?’
I hung back, opening the back door and looking for Jamie who was standing under the window clutching Brownie in his arms.
‘Is that lady still cross?’ he asked. ‘I didn’t do it on purpose.’
‘No, it wasn’t your fault,’ I said. ‘Come in, you’ll catch cold standing out here.’
As I closed the door behind him he look
ed up at me indignantly. ‘Brownie isn’t a filthy animal, is he, Mum?’
‘No, of course he isn’t but it might be as well to leave him in the kitchen just for the time being.’
Mary had pulled out all the stops to make Christmas dinner a success, laying the table in the dining room with a pristine white cloth and scarlet napkins. In the centre she’d created a festive centrepiece with holly and tall red candles. All the food was cooked to perfection and everyone enjoyed it apart from Amanda. To begin with she refused the prawn cocktail starter because she claimed she was allergic to shellfish. Mary apologized for not having checked and conjured up some home-made soup. When it came to the main course Amanda declined the turkey because she said she had once eaten undercooked turkey and suffered horrendous food poisoning. She took one sip of her wine and wrinkled her nose, pointedly pushing her glass away. When it came to the pudding she announced that she could not tolerate dried fruit. Mary, who had been up and down from the table all through the meal, jumped up once again and returned from the kitchen with a platter of cheese and biscuits. I could see both Ian and Janet quietly fuming.
After the meal I offered to make coffee and escaped gratefully to the kitchen whilst the others repaired to the living room. After a moment Jamie appeared and tugged at my sleeve.
‘Mum, can I stay out here in the kitchen with Brownie?’ he begged. ‘He’ll be lonely all by himself.’
Reluctantly I agreed. I had hoped we would all spend the afternoon together but it was the lesser of two evils. The atmosphere between Ian, his aunt and his mother was beginning to sizzle. It was clearly not going to be much fun for a child.
In the kitchen I made Brownie his own version of a Christmas dinner and Jamie settled down to watch him enjoy it while I returned to the living room with the tray of coffee.
I poured and handed round the coffee and we all sipped in silence for a few minutes. I could see by Janet’s face that she could hardly contain her anger and after a few tense moments she turned to her sister.
Too Late to Paint the Roses Page 8
