‘Eight hardbacks and eleven paperbacks,’ said the manager, as Harry walked into the office.
Chief Inspector Blakemore explained to him what had happened, before adding, ‘I won’t be charging the boy for shoplifting on this occasion, Mr Clifton, just issuing him with a caution. I’ll leave it to you to make sure, sir, that he doesn’t do anything as irresponsible again.’
‘Of course, chief inspector,’ said Harry. ‘I’m most grateful, and I’ll ask my publishers to replace the books immediately. And there will be no more pocket money for you, my boy, until every penny has been paid back,’ he added, turning to face Sebastian.
Sebastian bit his lip.
‘Thank you, Mr Clifton,’ said the manager, and added a little sheepishly, ‘I was wondering, sir, as you’re here, if you’d be kind enough to sign the rest of the stock?’
When Emma’s mother Elizabeth went into hospital for a checkup, she tried to reassure her daughter that there was nothing to worry about, and told her she wasn’t to tell Harry or the children because it would only make them anxious.
It certainly made Emma anxious and, as soon as she returned to Barrington Hall, she phoned Giles at the House of Commons, and then her sister in Cambridge. They both dropped everything and caught the next train to Bristol.
‘Let’s hope I’m not wasting your time,’ said Emma after she’d picked them up from Temple Meads.
‘Let’s hope you are wasting our time,’ Grace replied.
Giles appeared preoccupied and stared out of the window as they continued their journey to the hospital in silence.
Even before Mr Langbourne had closed the door to his office, Emma sensed the news wasn’t going to be good.
‘I wish there was an easy way to tell you this,’ the specialist said once they’d sat down, ‘but I’m afraid there isn’t. Dr Raeburn, who’s been your mother’s GP for several years, carried out a routine check-up, and when he got the results of his tests, he referred her to me in order that I could carry out a more detailed examination.’
Emma clenched her fists, something she used to do as a schoolgirl whenever she was nervous or in trouble.
‘Yesterday,’ continued Mr Langbourne, ‘I received the results from the clinical lab. They confirmed Dr Raeburn’s fears: your mother has breast cancer.’
‘Can she be cured?’ was Emma’s immediate response.
‘There is no cure at present for someone of her age,’ said Langbourne. ‘Scientists are hoping for a breakthrough at some time in the future, but I fear that won’t be soon enough for your mother.’
‘Is there anything we can do?’ asked Grace.
Emma leant across and took her sister’s hand.
‘During this time, she will need all the love and support you and the family can give her. Elizabeth is a remarkable woman, and after all she has been through, she deserves better. But she’s never once complained – not her style. She’s a typical Harvey.’
‘How long will she be with us?’ asked Emma.
‘I fear,’ said Langbourne, ‘that it will be a matter of weeks, rather than months.’
‘Then there’s something I have to tell her,’ said Giles, who hadn’t spoken until then.
The shoplifting incident, as it came to be known at St Bede’s, turned Sebastian from a bit of a loner into something of a folk hero, and boys who previously wouldn’t have bothered with him invited him to join their gangs. Harry began to believe this might be a turning point, but when he told Sebastian that his grandmother only had a few weeks to live, the boy crept back into his shell.
Jessica had begun her first term at Red Maids’. She worked far harder than Sebastian, but didn’t come top in any subject. The art mistress told Emma it was a pity that painting wasn’t a recognized subject, because Jessica had more talent at the age of eight than she herself had shown in her final year at college.
Emma decided not to repeat this conversation to Jessica but to allow the child to discover for herself just how talented she was in the fullness of time. Sebastian regularly told her she was a genius, but what did he know? He also thought Stanley Matthews was a genius.
A month later, Sebastian failed three of his mock papers, taken only weeks before the BGS entrance exams. Neither Harry nor Emma felt they could chastise him while he was so distressed about his grandmother’s condition. He would accompany Emma to the hospital every afternoon after she picked him up from school, climb on to his grandmother’s bed