Unforgettable (Gloria Cook) - By Gloria Cook Page 0,34
your optimism, Mum. Let’s see what happens when Guy talks to him.’
So sure was Fiona of her belief in Aidan that she rallied her hopes. She was actually singing while she trotted along to the bathroom. She liked everything about Sunny Corner, its light and fresh location, the house’s gentle countrified style, the sheltered peaceful garden. The plumbing worked perfectly, which had not been the case in her former more modern home, and the porcelain bath with its big brass taps was comfort and luxury. After she had run a few inches of warm soothing water she threw in a handful of rose-scented crystals from a packet Verity had given her. She had spoken little to her hosts’ modish, sometimes sad, but more often confident niece and resolved to get to know Verity better. She was quite a few years younger than Fiona and something of a ‘princess’ type, but Verity was on the same footing, being without her man, and she would be a good friend to have. She heard Eloise begin to whimper in the next room, Finn’s room, and a layer of deadened skin was peeled back from Fiona’s heart as she felt a tug of need to go to her baby, yet she couldn’t manage to make her feet work to do so. Her little girl was waking up and in need of a nappy change, a feed and to be dressed for the day. She whispered very softly, ‘Eloise, don’t cry . . .’
Then she heard Dorrie’s familiar light tread mounting the stairs and going in to see Eloise. ‘Hello, darling,’ Dorrie cooed. ‘Ready to come downstairs with me and Corky?’
As Fiona heard Dorrie carrying her baby downstairs away from her she felt a stinging surge of jealousy. People, especially those in this lovely house, were so kind and only God knew how she would have coped without them, but they were behaving as if she had no place in her baby’s life. But of course, that was her own doing, something she couldn’t help, and these same kind people understood and were arranging things to give her lots of peace and quiet to help her to recover from the last traumatic months.
Every now and then Dorrie or Nurse Rumford would encourage her to hold Eloise when she was beautifully wrapped in a shawl and sleeping soundly, and Fiona’s only reaction was to touch Eloise’s tiny face or delicate fingers. Yet, just now, she had felt the urge to go to her baby. That was a good sign. She was moving forward at last. Yesterday, while reclining in Sunny Corner’s garden, she had accepted that her old life was gone and she was thankful for it. Without the same conditions and situations to come back to Aidan would not fall back into his old ways, always plotting how to make fast money. He had brought himself down and Fiona was glad about that too; he would no longer be able to swagger about, always wanting to be seen as the best, the top dog. The hardships of prison life might make him see how futile his old ways were, and how much he’d once had and lost. Surely he wouldn’t want to risk all that again. This dreadful downfall might be the best thing to have happened. Aidan would be proud of Finn’s sterling efforts and hard work.
Looking into a mirror on the bathroom wall Fiona winced at her grey wasted reflection. ‘The state of me!’ she gasped, horrified, seeing the reality of how her months of hopelessness had rendered her. ‘Aidan wouldn’t be proud of me looking like this. I’ve let him down.’ Her husband had fallen in love with her for her classical beauty and flair, showing his pride in how she had run his house and her hostess skills by flourishing expensive gifts. She was an excellent cook, something she had enjoyed even when struggling with the rationing.
She couldn’t go on moping and letting her looks keep sliding downhill; she must change for Aidan’s sake. He was a man who required a lot of love-making and he had made much of her feminine curves, but he couldn’t be expected to desire her if she looked like a skinny drab. Aidan had eyes for beautiful women, and Fiona had overlooked his affairs. All she asked was that he always came back to her. By the description she had heard of the local women Fiona had little to worry about in regard to Aidan’s