crowd. They led him astray and that’s how he ended up in prison.’
‘I’d like to see him, but I’m not allowed,’ John muttered.
‘I know and it’s disgraceful! You should tell your mother that you have every right to visit your father if you want to.’
‘That’s enough, Dolly!’ Bernie chipped in, sounding annoyed. ‘You know Kevin gave instructions that he didn’t want John to see him while he’s in prison.’
‘Did he? But I don’t remember that!’ she cried, pulling at her hair. ‘Why can’t I remember? What’s wrong with me?’
‘There’s nothing wrong with you, Dolly. You get a bit confused now and then, that’s all.’
John was nervous of his gran’s behaviour, but as his granddad took a bottle of pills and shook one on to his palm, he said calmly, ‘It’s all right, John, don’t look so worried. Your gran’s a bit under the weather, but she’ll be better soon.’
Dolly took the pill without argument, and shortly after John saw a familiar distance in his gran’s manner.
‘Why don’t you come and give me a hand in the back garden?’ his granddad suggested. ‘Leave your gran to rest for a while.’
This was something John loved to do, and when his gran nodded, her smile sweet, he flung on his coat again. It was chilly outside, but soon the two of them were so absorbed that they hardly noticed, John learning more and more about the plants and fauna.
‘See that?’ his granddad said, pointing to the bird table. ‘It’s a chaffinch.’
‘And there’s a blue tit.’ John shared his granddad’s love of birds.
‘I could hear a woodpecker in the woods yesterday, but though I got my binoculars, I couldn’t spot it.’
‘I remember the first time I saw one. It was bigger than I expected,’ John said as he eyed the dense woods that started where the back garden ended. They stood quietly for a while, watching the various small birds that came to feast on the seeds and nuts his granddad put out, then they went back to work on the garden.
When they were called in to lunch, John saw that his gran had rallied a little. Later when it was time to leave, his gran hugged him and kissed him on the cheek, leaving him to wonder what was really wrong with her.
Chapter Two
Pearl was sitting beside Derek in the car as he drove her to see Bessie Penfold. She didn’t like going to Battersea, and rarely went. It was a place that held so many bad memories, but Bessie was special to her, a woman who had taken her in when she had fled from her first husband, Kevin Dolby, and his terrifying mother.
She saw that nothing much had changed. The stalls still lined the High Street with the costermongers shouting out their wares, and as Derek looked for somewhere to park he said, ‘While you’re visiting Bessie, I’ll go to see my gran.’
‘All right,’ she agreed. Derek had lost his mother when he was still a child and it had been his gran, Connie Lewis, who raised him. Connie didn’t like her, but Pearl felt she deserved the old woman’s anger. She had been going out with Derek, had agreed to marry him, but then been mad enough to fall for Kevin Dolby. She’d been such an innocent at the time, unworldly, and had been helpless to stop what happened. When she had found that she was pregnant she had married Kevin and they had moved in with his parents, but Pearl had been so ashamed of herself for breaking Derek’s heart.
When Kevin went to prison, it took several years before her divorce was granted, and during that time Derek came back into her life. Then, when he’d asked her to marry him, she had gladly agreed.
‘I’ll stop off to buy Gran some of her favourite sweets,’ Derek said.
‘I still can’t believe she agreed to go into an old people’s home.’
‘Even my gran had the sense to see that with her hands and knees riddled with arthritis, she was no longer capable of looking after herself.’
‘We’ve been married for nearly ten years, but she’s never softened towards me. I don’t suppose it helped that you gave up the tenancy on her house.’
‘I knew you wouldn’t agree to live in Battersea again and, anyway, it’s just as small as your mother’s cottage.’
‘I don’t want John to hear the truth about Kevin, but he’d soon find out if we moved back here,’ Pearl pointed out, thankful that Derek had been happy to move to Winchester.
‘Here we are,’ Derek said as he found a space and pulled into the kerb.
Pearl smiled at him fondly. Derek was nine years older than her, with fair hair, pale blue eyes and a face battered by years of boxing. The antithesis of Kevin, he couldn’t be described as handsome, but with his innate kindness and the love he showered on both her and John, Pearl thanked God for the day she had become his wife.
With the engine still running, Derek said, ‘Right, love, I’ll see you later.’
‘To give us time to prepare my mother’s birthday treat, we’ve got to get back to Winchester by three at the latest,’ Pearl pointed out.
‘I know, but that gives us about an hour and a half.’
‘Don’t leave it any longer than that before you pick me up again,’ Pearl urged, leaning across to kiss Derek on the cheek.
‘I won’t,’ he replied.
As Derek drove off, Pearl walked the short distance to Bessie’s shop, which was set in a tall, terraced building, the two floors above providing ample living accommodation.
When Pearl entered the shop she saw that it had hardly altered from when she had lived with Bessie and worked there, making improvements that had increased trade. There were racks of second-hand clothes, and a few long trestle tables almost buckling under the weight of old china and other stuff. There were a few pieces of battered furniture for sale too, and every spare surface was piled with old books. Pearl wrinkled her nose at the musty smell, but at least everything looked as tidy as possible.
Lucy Sanderson was standing behind the counter, a lovely young woman who had been through hell. She had lost both parents in a fire, but had somehow managed to get on with her life. Then more tragedy followed when her husband died in a traffic accident before Clive, their only child, was born. It had almost broken Lucy, but for her baby’s sake she had somehow battled on. Clive was seven years old now, and as far as Pearl knew there had never been another man in Lucy’s life. She took in sewing alterations to make ends meet, along with her earnings when working part time for Bessie.
‘Hello, Lucy,’ Pearl said. ‘How is Bessie?’
‘Her chest seems really bad and she insisted that I ring you.’
‘She’s probably got bronchitis again,’ Pearl said, thinking that despite it looking a bit washed out and home made, Lucy looked nice in a floor-length, high-necked, Laura-Ashley-style floral dress. Her hair was a halo of frizzy blonde Afro curls, the result of a home perm, yet they framed her pretty, delicate features and the style suited her.
‘I
