Unforgettable (Gloria Cook) - By Gloria Cook Page 0,33
also taken photos of Eloise. Worried about her still haggard looks, Fiona was sending a snap of herself taken soon after she had met Aidan, as a vivacious teen besotted and adoring of him. Finn had adamantly refused to have his photo taken.
‘Please, Finn, do it for me. Your father will be proud to see the muscles you’ve developed while working on Merrivale. I’ve written to him all about the renovations and changes under way, and how good the locals have been to us, that most of them have welcomed us against all the odds. It will make him feel like it’s his home to come out to. When he finishes reading all my letters he will feel he knows Dorrie, Greg and Verity.’
Finn had just arrived back at Sunny Corner after eight hours’ work with Greg, sanding and varnishing floors. He was dusty and dirty and smelled strongly of the clear varnish they had used. He’d reported that Hector Evans had been digging over some of the back garden and Denny Vercoe had sawn the felled branches into logs.
Fiona had tried to be patient with Finn, for she could see he was weary and his limbs were aching and he only wanted to clean up and spend some time with Eloise. Later he would stroll down to The Orchards and spend an hour or so with his new friend Sam Lawry. Fiona was heartened at how quickly Finn had made a friend of his own age and had fitted into Nanviscoe life. He had even attended a meeting about some proposed new building.
‘I’ve told you a hundred times I don’t want anything to do with him ever again. He’s no good. He’ll certainly be interested in Miss Verity,’ Finn had bit back. ‘He’s always made a beeline for attractive young women.’
‘What does that mean?’ Fiona had wailed, slipping into the depression that was always a ready companion to her.
‘Wake up, Mum, what do you think it means? He’s shunned us completely since he was sent down. He didn’t respond to the news of Eloise’s birth, he doesn’t care about her. He’s probably only agreed to see Guy to tell him to tell you to get it into your head that he’s finished with his family.’
Fiona had put her hands over her ears. ‘Don’t say that! You don’t really know how Aidan’s feeling. I think he’s ashamed of everything and can’t bear to face us. He probably thinks we’d be better off without him.’
‘That last part is true. Without him around coming up with scams and schemes – and face it, Mum, get-rich schemes are all he ever talked about – we’ll have the chance of making a life for ourselves in the cottage. Can’t you see how lucky we are, having Guy and Mrs R and the others putting themselves out for us? How many people left in the lurch get that sort of help? I’ll get a proper job, I’ll find something, I’ll work like a navvy to support us and pay rent to Guy, and then we can work on repaying all these people’s kindness. My father doesn’t want the responsibility of his new baby but Eloise is your responsibility, Mum. You’ve got to stop thinking about yourself and what you’ve lost and get well and start taking care of your baby. The three of us have been given a fresh start and you’re the one who needs to pull her weight to give us the best chance for it to work.’
‘You’re wrong about your father, Finn, you’ll see,’ Fiona had confronted him angrily, and then purposefully put on a wan expression begging for understanding. ‘I’m sorry things have been so hard for you. I am grateful to you and to everyone else. I’m sure when Aidan sees what everyone has done for us he will be grateful too and it will give him the impetus to change his ways and settle down quietly with us. I’m not totally blind to his faults. I know about his other women, but he’s a very handsome man and floozies always throw themselves at successful men. I believe prison will change him for the better. He’s been too ambitious in the past but after suffering all the deprivations of prison life he’ll come out with the right frame of mind to make a fresh start with us. I wish you would write to him, Finn. Any man would hate to know his son is against him.’