Book Club Reads: 3-Book Collection: Yesterday’s Sun, The Sea Sisters, Someone to Watch Over Me. Amanda Brooke

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СКАЧАТЬ you look like someone who needs cheering up,’ Jocelyn told Holly. She had just arrived for their now usual Sunday brunch and could tell straight away that there was something on Holly’s mind.

      ‘I’m fine,’ Holly reassured Jocelyn with a weak smile. They were sitting at the kitchen table and Holly lifted a teacup to her mouth to hide her trembling and slightly bruised lips. Since Tom’s call, Holly had been nervously biting them to hold back the tears she refused to shed.

      ‘You’re not the least bit fine. These eyes may be old but they’re not blind,’ admonished Jocelyn. She picked up her shopping bag and took out a small cake box. ‘Still, there’s nothing that can’t be put right with a cupcake. Now what do you fancy, lemon or walnut?’

      ‘Tom might be losing his job,’ gulped Holly.

      ‘Oh, Holly, I’m sorry.’ Jocelyn put down the box and stood up, although the grimace on her face made it clear the manoeuvre was a huge struggle for the old lady. ‘Damn these aching joints,’ she muttered as she shuffled around the table to give Holly a hug.

      ‘Are you all right?’ Holly asked. It was now her turn to look concerned. She was so used to seeing Jocelyn as a strong warhorse that she found it easy to forget that she was an octogenarian.

      ‘Nothing a new pair of hips wouldn’t fix,’ smiled Jocelyn. ‘I remember the days I used to walk back and forth from here to the village two or three times a day. Now just walking from one end of the room wears me out.’

      ‘You should have said. I’ve got the car outside. I could have picked you up.’

      ‘I wasn’t born old and I refuse to give in to it. The day I stop getting from A to B under my own steam is the day I reach my final destination.’

      ‘Well, you sit right back down and I’ll get some plates for those cakes.’

      Jocelyn sank back into her chair with a relieved sigh. ‘So when will you find out about Tom?’

      ‘He’s back a week on Thursday and then he’s being hauled in to see the studio. He doesn’t know what they’re planning, but he’s not expecting it to be good news. Even if he does keep his job they’ll be piling more work on him.’ It was Holly’s turn to sink back into her chair with a deep sigh, only this sigh had the telltale signs of disappointment.

      ‘He sounds like a resourceful kind of fellow and from what I’ve seen of him on TV he’s gorgeous. I should imagine he could walk into any job he wanted. I’d give him a job,’ Jocelyn admitted with a wink.

      ‘Yes, I can imagine!’ laughed Holly. ‘And however comfortable he looks in front of the camera, he actually hates it. He’d rather do the legwork and let someone else take the credit on screen. But it’s not just the job security that worries me,’ confessed Holly.

      ‘Want to talk about it?’ Jocelyn asked.

      ‘We were about to start planning for a family. You have no idea how difficult it’s been for me to even contemplate becoming a mother and now, when I think I’m ready, everything is going wrong. I’m starting to wonder if it was meant to be.’ For someone Holly had known for less than two months, she was surprised at how easily she could talk to Jocelyn. There had been very few people in Holly’s life that she would have felt able to have this conversation with, and Jocelyn seemed to be filling a gap that had existed since childhood.

      ‘There’s still plenty of time. You’ll be a mum one day and you’ll be a good mum, I can feel it in my bones and, believe me, they speak to me a lot.’

      ‘Did you not think of having more children?’ asked Holly innocently. She was still struggling to find out more about Jocelyn’s former life.

      Jocelyn looked thoughtfully at Holly. ‘I married late, had a baby late. I was forty-one when I had Paul, but even if I had been younger, I don’t think another baby would have been a good idea. I wasn’t blessed with a husband like Tom. Harry was a bully and things just got worse when I had Paul. I think he was actually jealous of the affection I showed Paul, so his behaviour became even worse after the baby was born.’

      ‘I don’t suppose you saw motherhood as a blessing in your life then?’ Holly asked.

      ‘Oh, the complete opposite,’ replied Jocelyn, shaking her head. ‘Paul was the best thing that ever happened to me. Harry was an expert in mental torture. He isolated me from my friends and family and slowly but surely wore me down. If it hadn’t been for Paul, it could have been so much worse.’

      ‘What do you mean?’

      Jocelyn was looking over Holly’s shoulder towards the window and the garden beyond. There was a look of fear on her face as if her husband’s ghost would appear at the window. ‘Paul saved my life. By that, I mean it was because of Paul that I finally left Harry.

      I couldn’t build up the courage to leave for my own protection, but I could for my son, although it took some hard lessons before I realized that.’ Jocelyn’s voice had withered to a whisper and the age-worn wrinkles around her eyes seemed to cut deeper into her face. Her whole body shuddered, despite the warmth of the morning sun streaming through the window.

      ‘Are you all right?’ Holly asked.

      ‘I’m fine. I think someone just walked over my grave.’ Again, there was that furtive glance towards the window. ‘I’m sorry, Holly, it’s so hard to go back to that part of my life.’

      ‘No, it’s me who should apologize. I don’t think I quite realized how awful a time you had here. I’m so sorry,’ said Holly.

      ‘Don’t be sorry, be hopeful. Don’t give up on your dreams yet, Holly.’

      For a split second, Holly didn’t think about her dreams but her nightmares. ‘Perhaps I should be careful what I wish for,’ she said to Jocelyn. ‘Now, enough serious talk; these cakes aren’t going to eat themselves.’

      * * *

      ‘Belgian chocolates? You go to Belgium for six weeks and the best you can come up with is Belgian chocolates?’ growled Holly sleepily. She had been woken abruptly by Tom jumping onto the bed like an excited puppy and announcing that he was home. It was two-thirty in the morning.

      ‘But look at the wrapping!’ Tom replied loudly to make sure Holly was fully awake.

      Holly blinked her eyes, still trying to adjust to the painfully bright bedroom light that Tom had just switched on. Her heart was thudding in her chest, partly from the shock of the early morning wake-up and partly from the joy of Tom’s return. She looked at the large red chocolate box. ‘It’s not even wrapped,’ she complained.

      Tom undid the top buttons on his shirt and slipped the box inside. ‘How about now?’ He was kneeling with his legs on each side of Holly, pinning her down. He leant over and kissed the tip of her nose.

      ‘You smell,’ she teased. ‘It would be like peeling a clove of garlic.’

      ‘Peel away, Mrs Corrigan.’

      She kissed him, softly at first and then with a hunger that came from deep within. In her mind, she chased away the shadows of the past and more importantly the shadows of the future. Everything she needed was in the present. All she needed was Tom.

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