Cory glanced around at the remains of the barbecue and the general mess. Then she looked at Nick’s mother. Catherine did look tired. ‘Why don’t I make you a nice cup of tea and then Nick and I will clean up a bit while you put your feet up?’ she suggested quietly.
Catherine protested a little but not too much, which spoke volumes. Once she had fed all the dogs and cats—a major feat in itself as several were on special diets and two of the cats were diabetic—she went into the sitting room with her tea and Cory and Nick got to work.
Once they had loaded the dishwasher with the first lot of dirty dishes and utensils they set about restoring order in the garden. By the time they had cleaned the gas barbecue, sluiced down the tables and one or two of the chairs which were sticky with lemonade spilt by the children and put all the toys in the small outhouse Catherine used for that purpose, the second dishwasher load was purring away.
While Nick washed all the animals’ bowls in the deep stone sink in the utility room and put them away, Cory whipped over the surfaces in the kitchen and tidied up.
‘We make a good team.’ Everything finished, Nick came through to the kitchen and put his arms round her, nuzzling his face into her neck as she stood looking out of the kitchen window into the gathering twilight. A blackbird was singing at the bottom of the garden, and where the barbecue had stood before they’d wheeled it into the outhouse a flock of starlings were squabbling over tasty morsels. Nick was used to Sundays like this, times when all the family joined together and just enjoyed being with each other. Cory felt unbearably sad.
She turned into him, laying her head against his throat for a moment but not saying anything, and his arms tightened around her. They stood together in the quiet of the old house for some time before Cory stirred, her voice husky as she said, ‘We ought to go and leave your mother in peace.’ It was strange, but in all their passionate times she had never felt so close to him as she had for the last few minutes.
Catherine was dozing as they entered the sitting room, an array of dogs at her feet and a cat snoozing in her lap. ‘Don’t get up,’ Cory said, smiling. ‘We’ll see ourselves out.’ She bent over the back of the sofa and kissed the older woman’s cheek.
‘You’ll come again soon?’ Catherine asked. ‘Just the two of you for dinner so we can get to talk a little. The family en masse always turns into something like a chimpanzees’ tea party.’
Cory kept the smile in place with some effort as the sadness increased. She would have liked to come again and get to know this woman whom she felt instinctively she could have loved. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I’ve so enjoyed today.’ And she had, in a way.
Once they were in the car and on their way to Nick’s house to pick up their things, Nick said warmly, ‘That was nice of you, to suggest we stay and clear up. I appreciate it.’
‘It’s all right.’ A terrible consuming emptiness was filling her. He had said he wanted to talk and she knew what he would say. He wanted to know how she felt about them as a couple, where she saw them going, what she envisaged happening between them in the next weeks and months. And that was fair enough. He had a right to expect some answers from her after all these weeks.
‘Is anything wrong, Cory?’ He flashed her a concerned glance but she didn’t respond for a moment. ‘Cory?’
‘You…you said you wanted to talk about things earlier,’ she said flatly.
‘What? Oh, yes.’ His brow furrowed slightly. ‘But it doesn’t have to be today. We’re later leaving Mum’s than I expected and we’ve got the drive back to London. We can talk tomorrow.’
‘I’d rather it be tonight.’
‘You would?’ They were just approaching the lane leading to his house. ‘OK. Once we get in, why don’t you pull your things together and put them in the car while I make some coffee. We can talk then.’
She didn’t wait for him to open her door when the car pulled up in front of the house, jumping out with more speed than grace and nearly going flat on her back in the process. She saw