doll, and he certainly lapped up the attention he received and doted as much back on her. For Agnes it was quite nauseating to witness the way they would snuggle close together, she smoothing a tender hand down the side of his face, him simpering back at her. To her it wasn’t natural that two people should be entirely caught up with one another, so much so that if one died she had a feeling the other wouldn’t last long.
What she couldn’t understand either was the way Mrs Thomas hardly ever left the house, except to go to the beauty parlour, clothes shopping, to the library once a week to collect books for them both, and once a month on a Wednesday out for a couple of hours – though where she went, Agnes had no idea. They loved their garden, which was looked after by a man who came in three times a week, and in fine weather would sit together in the shade of the oak tree reading their books, and in winter wrap up warm and link arms, taking slow strolls around the grounds. Apart from that, neither of the Thomases seemed interested at all in the outside world. This holiday they were taking had come as a great surprise to Agnes as during her time with them they had never travelled before. The concern about Mr Thomas’s health must be serious then. To her knowledge they had no friends and made no effort whatsoever to make any. After they’d moved in fifteen years ago, when Agnes had first started employment with them, she had witnessed neighbours round about soon getting the message that any invitations they made to the Thomases would not be taken up, and they’d certainly receive none back. It seemed to Agnes that they were content in their own little world together and neither needed nor welcomed anyone else into it, not even their own daughter.
She was sincerely sorry about the fact that the young woman’s marriage had been called off. From what she had glimpsed of Neil when she had answered the door to him, he seemed a very personable sort and Cait herself was clearly besotted with him. However had she managed to explain the reason why he was never invited inside the house, except for once when she had persuaded her parents to allow her to introduce her future husband to them? Agnes had been present, serving the tea, and was struck by the lack of interest the Thomases showed in their daughter’s fiancé or in the wedding plans. But from the little she had observed of the way Cait was with Neil, Agnes herself hadn’t been surprised that he had called off the wedding. She had never come across a man except for Samuel Thomas who seemed to thrive on having his life organised for him by a woman. She had desperately wanted to take Cait aside and warn her that she could lose her intended through her suffocating behaviour towards him, but she had not dared to do so for the sake of her job.
What was really making Agnes’s blood boil now was the glaring truth that the Thomases had never had any intention of attending their daughter’s wedding. Holidays abroad took a lot of planning so organising this trip must have started many weeks or even months ago. It was apparent from Cait’s reaction this morning that she’d had no idea of this state of affairs. If the wedding hadn’t been called off, she would have gone off to work this morning, excited at the prospect of her wedding in a few days’ time, only to come home tonight to discover her parents gone. What kind of selfish, thoughtless people acted so despicably to their own child? And if their actions weren’t terrible enough, Mrs Thomas herself had been closeted in her bedroom early this morning, making telephone calls, and Agnes had become aware what they were about when Nerys finally emerged and instructed her to box up the wedding gown and bridesmaids’ dresses plus the accessories. She had fetched them from Cait’s room while she’d still been asleep this morning, ready for collection by a delivery man for return to the suppliers, Nerys obviously meaning to recoup the money she had laid out for them.
And as if that wasn’t enough for the young girl to be coping with, the Thomases were still expecting her to leave home and make her own way in the world! Agnes