imaginings – that it wasn’t easy to go to any one of them first. She wished Jamie was here so he could read this letter too, could know how joyful his existence had made his father, how it had released a young man from his prison, but of course he would read it, if he wanted to. She’d like to call him now, and tell him to come, but that must be her mother’s decision.
She looked up as the door opened and Callum came in with a tray of tea and biscuits. Her stomach rumbled reminding her that all she’d eaten during the past seventy-two hours was the croissant she’d had this morning and a snack bar when they’d stopped at a motorway services for fuel. How could she have forgotten about food when it was normally such a passion for her?
‘I thought you might be needing this,’ he said, carrying the tray to the coffee table.
‘Thanks.’ Joely was hardly able to wait, but as she tried to sit forward a burst of pain made her gasp.
‘You need to lie down,’ Callum told her quietly. ‘You’re still recovering from the fall and you look exhausted.’
‘I’ll be fine once I’ve had some tea,’ she assured him. She glanced at her mother and saw that Marianne hadn’t even registered Callum coming into the room. She was staring at the laptop screen either searching for the right words to help her continue her story, or so lost in her memories that her fingers had simply stopped trying to convey them.
Freda was already filling the cups, again as if she was the host, and after passing one to Callum to give to Joely she helped herself to another. The third was left on the tray for Callum to take to Marianne.
‘Thanks,’ Marianne murmured so softly it was as though she was afraid that any spoken word would interrupt the flow of those in her head.
Going back to Joely, Callum said, ‘Can you take any more painkillers yet?’
She nodded. ‘I think so. They’re in the kitchen.’
He came back with them and a glass of water and perched on the edge of the coffee table in front of her. As he fed her the pills he said, ‘I’m worried about you. What you’ve been through … Don’t underestimate it. You need to rest.’
‘I will, don’t worry.’ She allowed her eyes to meet his and felt a swell of emotion as he held her gaze in spite of her first thought going to Martha. When had he last been in touch with her? What had made him end the relationship? And why was she so close to tears?
Tiredness, she reminded herself, and perhaps some delayed shock.
Realizing Freda was watching them she picked up the second letter and passed it over. None of this was going Freda’s way, but at least she was hearing the truth from her brother so she could hardly refute it.
‘Andee rang,’ Callum said softly. ‘She’s tried contacting Edward, the nephew. It seems he’s skiing in Switzerland, but she’s left messages for him to call you or me asap.’
Joely nodded and drank some tea. ‘Did she say how her mother is?’
‘Apparently nothing to worry about.’
Feeling Andee’s relief, she said ‘That’s good.’ She looked at him again and was almost overwhelmed by a longing to go and lie down with him, to fall sleep in his arms and wake up to discover that all that had gone wrong between them was a dream. ‘Have you heard any more from Holly?’ she asked.
‘Only that she lost her bag but now she’s found it again.’
With a smile, Joely said, ‘Sounds like her.’
‘Your phone’s fully charged,’ he told her, ‘do you want it in here?’
Joely thought about it. ‘Not really,’ she replied. ‘If Edward calls I’d rather you took it to explain what’s happened.’
‘Sure. I’m making great inroads with my emails out there,’ and touching a finger to her cheek, he left.
After Joely had drunk the rest of her tea she gave herself a moment to feel its warmth combining with the painkillers to begin reviving her.
She looked over and saw that Freda was frowning deeply as she read David’s second letter, and her mother had begun to type again. Joely wondered what this was all leading to, if Freda would be able to accept that she’d got it wrong about Marianne, if the false narrative she’d constructed for herself was going to feel as though a main character had turned on her to take over the story