is Gabriel there?’ she asked. She sounded jittery and nervous.
‘Sorry, he’s not in yet,’ said Marianne.
She looked out of the window into the gloom of a February evening. Gabriel was still out – the lambing season was getting going in earnest now, and he was very busy, working all hours helping deliver the new lambs. Marianne helped out when she could, but she couldn’t help Gabe in the evenings, so Dan or Gabriel’s dad often came out to lend a hand.
The twins were tucked up in bed, Steven was away at school, even their new pet lamb, Dolly, was asleep in her basket in the corner of the kitchen. It was likely to be several hours before Gabriel came in. Marianne felt lost and lonely and not in the mood to deal with Eve’s mum who could be very difficult and demanding.
‘Ah,’ said Joan, ‘have you any idea when he’s likely to be back?’
‘I’m afraid not,’ said Marianne, wondering why Joan was ringing them, it wasn’t as if they were often in touch. ‘Can I help at all?’
‘It’s about Eve …’
It would be. Eve had been part of the fabric of her relationship with Gabriel since day one. Marianne had met Gabriel just after Eve had left him, and she’d seen for herself the pain she’d caused him, particularly when she’d come back to Hope Christmas and tried to win custody of Steven. And more recently, when she’d come back to live in the area, and suggested Steven go to the choir school in Middleminster. It was what Steven wanted, but it had caused Gabriel considerable heartache.
And over the last couple of months since Eve had been ill again, Marianne knew he was worrying about her. He couldn’t help himself. Gabriel had spent so many years worrying about Eve, he still felt guilty when he thought she needed him. When was it ever not about Eve? Chiding herself for being uncharitable – Eve couldn’t help being ill, despite the problems it gave them – Marianne forced herself to say, ‘How is she? Gabriel said she’s doing really well.’
Gabriel had been taking Steven to see his mother at regular intervals, and even popped in to the hospital once or twice on his own. One of the many wonderful things about Gabriel was his kindness and consideration. Marianne knew that he still cared about his ex wife and worried about her when she was ill, but his kindness and consideration could also be bloody frustrating at times. Eve had left him, and it wasn’t Gabe’s fault that she was ill now. Marianne tried not to let it get to her, but sometimes, it grated that her husband was still so involved in his ex wife’s life.
‘Yes, she is,’ said Joan. ‘And they’re thinking of letting her come home.’
‘That’s wonderful,’ said Marianne, still curious as to what it had to do with them. Despite her frustrations about the way Eve’s problems impacted on them, Marianne was pleased Eve was better (as Joan must be too, the last few weeks must have been a nightmare), but it wasn’t really her problem. ‘So she’ll be coming back to stay with you, I presume?’
‘Ah, she would …’ the unspoken ‘but’ hovered between them.
Here it came, the real reason Joan was ringing.
‘Unfortunately, I’ve booked a cruise,’ said Joan, ‘and it’s not possible to cancel at this late stage …’
You selfish cow, thought Marianne, her sympathy for Joan dissipating instantly. Eve was Joan’s only child. No wonder she had rejection issues.
‘… so I was wondering … the thing is, Eve has nowhere to go. So could she …’
‘… come to us?’ said Marianne. The cheek of the woman! Not prepared to take responsibility for her sick daughter (whose illness she was probably to blame for – she’d given Eve a rackety dysfunctional childhood) and yet expecting her ex son-in-law to pick up the pieces.
‘It will only be temporary till she sorts herself out,’ said Joan persuasively. ‘She’ll hardly be in your way.’
Wanting to throttle the woman, Marianne gritted her teeth. ‘I can’t promise anything, Joan,’ she said, ‘I need to talk it through with Gabriel first.’
‘If you could let me know as soon as possible?’ Joan clearly didn’t have a clue that her call was unwelcome.
‘I’ll let you know when Gabe and I have had a discussion,’ said Marianne firmly, putting the phone down with a satisfying bang. Bloody woman. How dare she? But then, Eve couldn’t be left on her own. It wasn’t her fault she had a lousy mum.
And in her heart, she knew there wasn’t really any talking to Gabriel about it. Eve would be coming to stay and that was that.
Gabriel walked in at that moment, complaining about the cold. He stopped dead when he saw the look on Marianne’s face.
‘What?’ Gabriel asked.
‘That was Joan,’ said Marianne. ‘Eve’s coming out of hospital and she has nowhere to stay.’
Gabriel sat down with a thud.
‘Bugger,’ said Gabriel. ‘Can’t she stay with her mum?’
‘Joan’s going on a cruise apparently,’ said Marianne. ‘No doubt it would cramp her style.’
‘No doubt,’ said Gabriel drily. ‘Well we can’t have her. We’ve got enough on our plate. I’ll ring Joan back and say no.’
Marianne let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding. She’d been so sure Gabe would say yes straight away. She felt unkind, but Gabe was right, they did have enough to deal with.
But when Gabe spoke to Joan his resolve lasted all of five minutes. Marianne could hear from Gabe’s responses how insistent she was being.
‘And there really is no one else?’ he said eventually, pulling a face at Marianne.
‘… No of course I don’t want her to relapse,’ he added, which made Marianne’s blood boil, as if Gabe were responsible for Eve’s illness.
In the end, she saw him give a helpless little shrug and say, ‘Of course she can stay here.’
He put the phone down and turned to Marianne, who was looking at him in horror. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘but what else could I do?’
Cat was online researching recipes. She wondered what she was going to do now that A Shropshire Christmas wasn’t going to be filling the screens of the nation. After her latest long chat with Anna about it, they’d concluded she’d go ahead with the book any way as her publishers were still happy to be on board. In the meantime, Cat would pursue other avenues.
‘You could always try a reality TV show,’ suggested Anna.
It had been a joke when Marianne mentioned it, but to Cat’s horror, Anna was serious.
‘I’m sure Paige would love me to, but I don’t think so,’ said Cat with a snort. ‘Besides, I couldn’t leave the kids that long.’
It seemed to Cat sometimes, her kids needed her more the older they got. As well as Mel’s AS levels, which of course were a huge priority, James had GCSEs to contend with. Not
