Whispers of Love

by Whispers of Love (retail) (epub)

  ‘It’s an interesting idea but I’ve no spare money to put into a business, Dad,’ Stuart protested.

  ‘I’m not asking you to do that. I’ll remain as a sleeping partner, but it will be your business, and you’ll be responsible for the day-to-day running of it. I’m not completely useless, so you can draw on my services when you’re busy, or if you want to go on holiday, or if you simply want the odd day off.’

  It had worked exceptionally well. Kay liked Harvey Blakemore, and he liked her. In so many ways he was an older version of Stuart. He had the same robust build, the same grey eyes and square jaw. The main difference was his paunch and his grey hair.

  Kay and Stuart found a house only a few streets away from his father’s bungalow and were settled in well before Jill was born. Left to run her own life, look after Stuart, and bring up Jill had boosted Kay’s self-confidence. In many ways they’d been the happiest years of her life.

  Occasionally she would feel guilty about not seeing her aunt as often as she’d done before Jill had been born, but she knew that Christabel was working at the same practice as Mark and had a very busy life herself these days.

  Marlene’s letter niggled in the back of her mind for the rest of the day, and by the time Stuart came home that evening she was feeling on edge and apprehensive. She knew he thought they ought to go and was at a loss to understand her reluctance.

  Kay waited until Jill was in bed, and they were sitting down to their meal, before she said anything. When Stuart didn’t mention it she forced herself to do so.

  ‘We’ll go to Wallasey next Thursday, if that’s all right with you,’ she said abruptly.

  ‘Good! I’ll ask my father to cover for me. Do you want to make it a day trip?’

  She looked startled, her blue eyes wide with surprise. ‘I hadn’t really thought that far ahead,’ she admitted.

  ‘Well, we could stay in a hotel at New Brighton for a few days, if you think it would be too crowded at Christabel’s place. That would make it more enjoyable for us.’

  ‘I hardly think you should count on it being a holiday,’ she said tartly.

  ‘No, but it could be a pleasant break. Our Jill might enjoy meeting her little cousins.’

  ‘Well, yes, I suppose you’re right,’ Kay agreed thoughtfully. ‘Tommy must be about two and Tracy almost four now.

  ‘So they’re about the same age as Jill and that means they should all play together quite well while you and Marlene catch up on what’s been happening in your lives.’

  ‘And what are you going to do, spend time with Bill?’

  ‘You’ll have to wait and see, won’t you?’ Stuart grinned. ‘I know one thing; we won’t manage to get a word in once you and Marlene meet up.’

  ‘We mightn’t have anything in common after all this time.’ Kay grimaced.

  Arriving in Liverpool and driving through the Mersey Tunnel knowing that she was going to meet Marlene and her Aunt Lilian was like turning back the clock, Kay thought as they emerged in Wallasey and made their way to Rolleston Drive.

  As Stuart brought the car to a stop in the driveway, the front door opened and Aunt Christabel was there to welcome them. Christabel ushered them all inside and as she made drinks and plied them with biscuits, Jill followed her around, chattering happily.

  ‘It really is like being in a time warp,’ Kay murmured to Stuart. ‘I remember when I was little I behaved exactly the same as Jill is doing now; it’s almost as if she’s attached to her by an invisible cord!’

  ‘We’re meeting Lilian and Marlene and her family at the church in Liverpool,’ Aunt Christabel explained as soon as they’d finished their drinks. ‘I’ll get my coat and then we’ll be off. I understand that it’s quite a pleasant little ceremony. Not very long, either, so the children won’t be bored. Then we’ll all come back here and have a meal. I’ve left everything ready. The children can play out in the garden afterwards, if it keeps fine, or there’s plenty for them to do in the house.’

  ‘She’s planned it all down to the last detail,’ Kay giggled as they made their way outside. ‘I bet she’s even arranged for the sun to shine.’

  Stuart laughed. ‘Like someone else I know who never leaves anything to chance,’ he said mildly as he opened the rear door of the car and lifted Jill in.

  ‘I want Aunt Chrissy to sit in the back with me,’ Jill insisted as he fastened her into her special safety seat.

  ‘I think Aunt Chrissy would sooner ride in front so that she can tell me which way to go,’ Stuart told her.

  ‘No,’ Jill told him stubbornly, ‘I want her in the back so that I can hold her hand.’

  The few days they stayed in Wallasey seemed to pass in a flash and without any unpleasant incidents. The children played well together; they were much of an age. Tracy and Tommy were both rather precocious. Tracy was petite and plump like her mother. She also had curly hair like Marlene’s, only it had a slight tinge of auburn in it; Tommy took after Bill and had the same thick brown hair; both of them had greyish-blue eyes like Marlene.

  The next day Bill and Stuart took the children across to Liverpool on the ferry boat leaving the four women to catch up with all their news about family, friends and children.

  It was late on Sunday afternoon when Kay and Stuart set off for home with Jill. They’d promised Bill and Marlene that they would visit them in London. Lilian, they were told, would not be returning to America, but would be living with them until she found a place of her own.

  ‘Well, it wasn’t so bad, was it?’ Stuart commented as they left Liverpool behind.

  ‘Aunty Chrissy said she was missing me and we haven’t been to see her for a long time so I asked her to come and stay with us,’ Jill piped up from the back of the car.

  Kay swivelled round in her seat. ‘You did what?’

  ‘I expect it is too far for her to travel all the way to Cookham,’ Stuart said quickly, placing a warning hand on Kay’s arm.

  ‘No, it’s not,’ Jill assured them. ‘She promised she would come.’

  ‘Yes, your daddy’s right, dear, it is a long way. I don’t know how she would manage the journey. We’ll come back again and see her sometime soon.’

  ‘No, she said she would come and stay with us,’ Jill repeated stubbornly, her blue eyes intense. ‘She said she would come in her car . . .’

  ‘Drive! Aunt Chrissy hasn’t got a car,’ Kay told her. ‘She can’t afford one these days.’

  ‘Yes, she has, and it’s a brand-new one,’ Jill insisted.

  ‘Mark bought Christabel a new car,’ Stuart whispered.

  ‘You’re making it up!’

  ‘No, I’m not.’

  In the days that followed Jill constantly asked when Aunt Chrissy would be arriving. Intrigued, Kay finally phoned to see if she really had meant what she’d said to Jill.

  ‘I’d love to come for a visit, Kay. I was waiting, though, for you to ask me. I didn’t think I could simply turn up on little Jill’s say-so,’ she chuckled. ‘I remember all too clearly how you invited one of your teacher’s to come to tea. You never said a word to me and when she turned up I was so surprised that I didn’t know what to do. I had nothing special in, and we all ended up eating peanut butter sandwiches, ice cream and tinned fruit.’

  Kay didn’t recall the incident, but she found herself smiling. On a sudden impulse, she suggested that Christabel should come that weekend and bring Mark Murray with her so that he could share the driving and she could see Christabel’s new car.

  ‘Good heavens, however did you know about that?’

  ‘Never tell Jill anything you don’t want to hear repeated over and over again,’ Kay warned her.

  ‘Dear me, like some other little girl I used to know. She never could keep a secret.’

  ‘I wonder if I should phone Marlene, and invite them as well,’ Kay said later that evening when she was telling Stuart that her aunt and Mark were both coming for the weekend.

  If they were all there as well, she reasoned
to herself, Aunt Christabel wouldn’t have a chance to bring up the subject of the will or press her for an answer.

  When she did phone Marlene, however, her cousin seemed to be rather reluctant. ‘I’d love to come and see you, Kay, but some other time, not while Aunt Chrissy is staying with you,’ Marlene told her. ‘I don’t want her taking over my life.’

  ‘What on earth are you talking about? Aunt Chrissy has changed; she’s mellowed with age.’

  ‘If you say so.’ Marlene laughed. ‘But watch out. I noticed the way your Jill was running round after her, exactly the same as my mum always said you used to do when you were small! Jill is such a replica of what you looked like at her age, apparently, that Mum said that seeing them together was like the rerun of an old film!’

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Christabel breathed a sigh of relief as she closed the front door behind the last of her visitors and the silence wrapped round her like a comforting cloak. She also felt a twinge of guilt because, although their visit had gone extremely well, she had not told them about her own plans for the future.

  She had fully intended to tell them that she was marrying Mark while they were all gathered together because it would have been an ideal time to do so, but somehow there was never the right moment.

  Most of the talk had centred around Alex and all the things he had said or done and that had stirred up so many memories and reminded her how very much her life had been interwoven with his in the past.

  Perhaps if Mark had been there, standing at her side, holding her hand, or with his arm around her, giving her the back-up she felt she needed when she told them her news, it would have been different. Mark, though, had not been there; he’d had to attend a medical conference in Birmingham.

  Now they’d all left she regretted not having told them but of course it was too late. Actually Kay was the only person whose opinion really mattered. Christabel should have taken her to one side and told her because it was going to affect her and the details were too complicated to put in a letter or explain over the telephone.

  ‘There’s an old adage that says absence makes the heart grow fonder, so you should try it,’ Marlene sighed. ‘You don’t have to invite Aunt Chrissy to stay with you quite so often, Kay.’

  ‘I don’t, and she doesn’t come all that often!’

  ‘You most certainly do! Every time we want to come to visit you she’s staying with you for the weekend,’ Marlene said crossly.

  ‘So what does it matter if she is here? There’s room for you as well, isn’t there?’

  ‘Not on your life! I don’t want to spend a whole weekend under the same roof as Aunt Chrissy and neither does Bill. I’m surprised Stuart stands for it.’

  ‘He never complains. In fact, he quite likes her. They seem to get on very well.’

  ‘I doubt it! He probably only puts up with having her there for your sake; anyway, what about Jill?’

  ‘Jill loves her. She asked me the other day if we could adopt her as a Granny!’

  ‘I bet Aunt Chrissy put her up to it. She’s a cunning old bat! You know how she monopolised you when you were small. I hope you told Jill she wasn’t to call her Granny.’

  ‘I did, as a matter of fact, but I don’t think it has made a lot of difference. I heard Jill doing so the last time Aunt Christabel was here. She doesn’t do it when they know I’m around, so there’s not a lot I can do about it.’

  ‘Oh, can’t you indeed! I’d do something about it and pretty damn quick. Aunt Chrissy is an out and out fraud. And, what is more to the point, she’s trying to take over your life again.’

  ‘Oh, come off it, Marlene, she’s not all that bad,’ Kay protested mildly.

  ‘She is and you know it; anyway, I didn’t telephone to discuss Aunt Chrissy and her foibles,’ Marlene said sourly. ‘I phoned to ask if you would like to come to London and stay with us next weekend. It’s the première of Rock of Ages. Bill has been involved with all the promotional work and there will be quite a lavish celebration afterwards which all the stars will attend.’

  ‘Oh dear, it’s back to Aunt Chrissy again, I’m afraid,’ Kay said contritely.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘She and Mark are coming to visit us next weekend.’

  ‘Then put them off!’

  ‘She’ll be terribly hurt if I do that,’ Kay said apologetically. ‘I suppose we could bring her with us and they could stay with Aunt Lilian and help her look after the children when we go out.’

  ‘Oh, no, she’d probably insist on coming with us and I’m not risking that. I’ve got Bill’s business friends to consider. Can you imagine their reactions?’

  ‘Surely they’re all civilised and well mannered, aren’t they?’ Kay said tartly. ‘Anyway, some of them are pretty way out themselves in the way they dress and the things they say.’

  ‘That be as it may, Mark’s quite acceptable, but I have no intention of being ridiculed by any of them because of Aunt Chrissy’s autocratic behaviour. My God! Bill would never forgive me. Surely you can put her off.’

  ‘You’d better leave it with me then,’ Kay murmured. ‘I’ll see if I can think of some suitable excuse.’

  ‘Why bother with an excuse? Simply tell her that I have invited you for the weekend.’

  ‘And that your invitation doesn’t include them?’ Kay laughed.

  ‘Yes, do that if you want to. It won’t worry me. I hardly ever see her anyway. If you tell her that then she might realise that you have a life of your own and that you can’t always be at her beck and call any more than you can include her in everything you do.’

  Kay felt that Marlene was being very unfair about Aunt Chrissy and had no intention of being as outspoken as her cousin suggested. Tactfully, she explained to Aunt Chrissy that something had come up, and they would have to postpone her visit until the following weekend.

  To her embarrassment, Aunt Chrissy seemed to be well aware that it was because of the film première and guessed that they’d been invited to attend.

  ‘You really should tell the truth and not make silly excuses, Kay,’ she sighed. ‘It was the same when you were a child and growing up, you used to concoct the most elaborate stories to try and outwit me. It was such a waste of time because I always found out what the truth was in the end. I would have thought that by now you would have outgrown such petty behaviour. It sets a very bad example for Jill, you know.’

  ‘I was only trying to save your feelings, Aunt Christabel,’ Kay told her lamely.

  ‘Absolute rubbish! You should know by now that there’s no love lost between me and Marlene. I wouldn’t go to one of her flamboyant parties if she asked me. Actors and actresses, I’ve met them all and I despise most of them.’

  ‘As long as you understand, and you don’t mind putting your visit off until the following weekend . . .’

  ‘Of course I don’t mind, Kay,’ Christabel assured her. ‘Go and enjoy yourselves in London but remember, I would like to see you and Stuart soon because there is something of importance I want to tell you both.’

  ‘Can’t you tell me about it on the phone?’

  ‘No,’ Christabel hesitated. ‘I don’t really want to do that, dear. Next week will be fine. By the way,’ she added, ‘mind you tell Jill that you’re the one who has altered the arrangement, not me. I wouldn’t want her to think her Granny—’ she pulled herself up quickly, ‘her Aunt Chrissy had broken her promise about coming to see her.’

  The receiver at Christabel’s end went down before Kay could make any reply. I must ask Stuart to have a word with her about encouraging Jill to call her Granny, she thought as she replaced her own phone. As Marlene had pointed out, it was all very well to say it was harmless fun but it was probably best to nip it in the bud.

  The weekend in London was in such complete contrast to their usual lifestyle. Marlene’s two children, Tracy and Tommy, were always pleased to see Jill and once the three of them were together they were inseparable.

  �
�It’s almost as though we hadn’t got her with us,’ Kay commented as they set off for a top London restaurant with Marlene and Bill, leaving the children in Lilian’s care on the first evening of their stay.

  ‘All part of the service,’ Bill told Kay. ‘You get a built-in babysitter when you come to stay with us.’

  ‘Are you sure it’s not too much responsibility for Aunt Lilian having to look after all three of them?’

  ‘Not a bit of it,’ Marlene told her briskly. ‘Mum loves doing it. She says it keeps her young.’

  Kay said nothing but she thought Marlene’s comment was a long way from the truth. She had been shocked by her aunt’s appearance. She seemed to have shrunk to nothing since Uncle Alex had died, and she looked so thin and frail that Kay wondered if there was anything seriously wrong with her. When she finally found an opportunity to mention it to Marlene, her cousin shrugged.

  ‘Simply a matter of getting older,’ she said dismissively. ‘She is in her forties, you know, so what can you expect?’

  ‘Aunt Chrissy is older than your mother, yet she looks as fit as a fiddle!’

  ‘She’s only ever had herself to worry about, that’s probably why.’

  ‘Marlene, how can you say such a thing? She brought me up and kept house for Dad until he died,’ Kay defended.

  ‘Yes, I know all that, but she’s never had to keep a husband happy, or worry about making financial decisions or anything like that. Your father paid all the bills when you were growing up so she had no money worries. When he died she was able to stay on in his house and go on living in comfort on the money he left. Mum says that by rights that should be yours or it should have been shared out between you. Heaven knows, she could do with it now.’

  Kay felt taken aback that Marlene knew so much.

  ‘It was probably my dad’s way of compensating her for giving up her job and everything so that she could look after us all those years, and for bringing me up,’ she countered.

  ‘Is that really what you believe?’ Marlene looked sceptical. Her Cupid’s bow mouth tightened into a disapproving little knot, and her blue-grey eyes hardened into glassy pebbles.