Chapter 7 #2
‘It’s no problem. Go in and make yourself at home. Your mum’ll be down in a minute, so if you want to stick the kettle on while I grab your cases that’d be great.’
Jenna nodded gratefully and followed her daughters into the kitchen. Hallie already had a blissfully happy Carne on her lap, and Ada was peering out of the window, trying to catch a glimpse of the Humber through the hedgerow.
‘You’re here already!’ Alison came rushing into the room, all smiles on her slightly flushed face. ‘I was just putting some fresh flowers in your rooms. I’ve put new bedding on the beds – we really do need to get some single beds. Are you girls all right to share a double?’
Ada and Hallie assured her that they were, and it would be an adventure, before rushing over to give her hugs.
The kitchen descended into noisy chaos, as Carne yapped in excitement and the twins told their grandma all about the caravan they’d made from the Wendy house, and Mac brought the suitcases in and Alison tried to tell Jenna which rooms she’d given them.
‘Whoa!’ Mac said at last, when everyone finally calmed down. ‘That was a bit full on! Right, cup of tea for your mum, I think, and how do you two girls fancy some raspberry lemonade?’
The girls fancied it very much indeed. Jenna apologised about five times for forgetting to put the kettle on, although both her mum and Mac laughed it off and told her to stop saying she was sorry.
After a soothing drink, Alison and Jenna headed upstairs with the suitcases, leaving Mac to entertain the children while Jenna unpacked and put away their belongings.
‘Oh, Mum, this looks lovely,’ she said, gazing round the spare room in delight. ‘You’ve decorated!’
‘Yes. I couldn’t wait to get started,’ Alison admitted. ‘The bedrooms were the only rooms in the house that needed any attention. You know how awful Mac’s room was when I moved in!’
Jenna laughed, recalling how her mum had wrinkled her nose as she’d shown Jenna around Watersmeet for the first time.
It had been Mac’s family home and his room hadn’t really been touched since he was a teenager and went away to university.
He’d not returned to live in Kelsea Sands until early this year, and in the meantime his late mother had kept his room practically as a shrine to him.
Apart from a new bed there’d been nothing done there for over forty-four years, so it was no wonder Alison had immediately taken charge, ordering new furniture, curtains and carpet, and painting and wallpapering the room to make it fresh and homely.
It seemed she’d also gone to town on the spare rooms. Jenna’s, which overlooked the side garden and the Humber, was painted in a soft lemon, with a thick, pale blue carpet and pastel blue and lemon curtains.
Her mum had put a blue and white striped jug on the dressing table and filled it with yellow and white roses.
The twins’ room was at the back of the house with a clear view down the river towards Kels Point – ‘Yorkshire’s Land’s End’. It had been decorated in a soft pink and green scheme, and there were pink roses in a cream enamel jug on their dressing table.
‘Are the shepherd’s huts here?’ Jenna asked excitedly, spotting a flash of colour and what looked like three little chimneys over the roof of the long utility room at the back of the house. ‘When did they arrive?’
‘Wednesday,’ Mum told her. ‘Aren’t they lovely?
Well, on the outside anyway. Inside they’re completely empty except for the woodburning stoves.
Look at the little chimneys! So cute. The plumbers and builders will be working here next week, so I’m sorry but there might be a bit of a mess and noise.
We’ve got to get the shower and toilet block sorted, then it’s just waiting for the planning permission to come through. ’
Alison and Mac had decided to set up a sort of retreat at Watersmeet, where people could come to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
With no electricity, it really would be somewhere people could get away from it all.
Jenna knew her mum couldn’t wait to get started on furnishing and decorating the little huts.
Jenna sat on the bed and gazed out of the window at the water. It was soothing and wonderful, and she thought how amazing it must be to live in a house that boasted such fantastic views of the river, with the beach and the sea just a ten-minute walk away at the end of the lane.
‘This is such a beautiful house,’ she said. ‘I feel calmer already.’
She realised what she’d said the moment the words left her mouth and tried to change the subject immediately. ‘I might go and see Grandma and Grandad later. I may pop across after I’ve unpacked. If that’s all right with you?’
‘Of course, but Jenna, what do you mean, you feel calmer already? Why wouldn’t you be calm? Has something happened?’
‘It’s just a turn of phrase, Mum,’ Jenna said with a shrug. ‘You know what I mean.’
Alison sat on the bed beside her and took her hand. ‘Are you sure everything’s all right, love? I’m worried about you. You’ve seemed so tense lately, and you’ve lost so much weight.’
Jenna laughed. ‘You can talk!’
Alison tutted. ‘I needed to lose weight. You didn’t. There’s nothing on you! What is it? You can tell me anything, you know that. Is it – I mean – is everything all right with you and Joel?’
Jenna swallowed. ‘Everything’s fine. Well, as fine as it ever is.
You know what he’s like. Work, work, work!
He’s at a conference right now and I was thinking, why hang around at home all summer when he’s hardly going to be around, what with one thing and another?
So we talked it over – Joel and me – and we decided it made sense for me to bring the twins here. ’
Alison surveyed her with worried pale blue eyes. ‘Really? Joel wanted you to come here?’
‘Yes. He realised, as did I, that we hadn’t booked a holiday for the girls again, and you know what you said to me a while ago about them needing a holiday and it wasn’t fair and it would do us all good to have one.
Well, we realised you were right, but with his work commitments we knew it couldn’t be a family holiday as such, so Joel thought at least this way I’d get a break, and the girls would be with their extended family.
And you know how much they love it here. ’
Alison nodded as Jenna gabbled away, but she didn’t look any happier.
A thought crossed Jenna’s mind and she said anxiously, ‘I’m not going to dump them on you, Mum, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’ll be the one taking care of them. I won’t ask you to do anything and—’
‘Jenna, stop it! Of course that’s not what I’m worried about!’ Her mum put her arm around her and squeezed her shoulders. ‘I know we’ve had our differences in the past, love, but that’s behind us now.’
‘Because I took advantage of you and made you babysit every day,’ Jenna mumbled. ‘I really am sorry, Mum.’
Alison cupped Jenna’s chin and gazed solemnly at her.
‘Like I said, it’s all behind us. I don’t mind having the girls if you want to go out and have some time alone.
You’ve been working hard and you need a break.
They’ll be no bother here. It’s not like it was before when I was working at the petrol station and ferrying them here, there and everywhere.
They can amuse themselves here, and I won’t have to worry about getting to work on time, or picking them up from school, or how I’m going to travel twenty-four miles to visit my parents.
’ She laughed. ‘Not now I’m only living a five-minute walk from them. ’
‘You’re really happy here, aren’t you?’ Jenna said, a note of envy creeping into her voice.
She was pleased for her mother, of course, and felt that after everything Alison had been through, losing Jenna’s dad nearly ten years ago, she deserved this wonderful new life she’d found.
She just wished she could find that same contentment.
‘I’m very lucky,’ her mum said. ‘I never thought I’d find such happiness again. Not after what your poor dad went through and not really knowing what to do with myself afterwards. Finding Mac – it was so unexpected. And being here, back in Kelsea Sands, where I always felt most at home…’
‘And in Watersmeet, the most beautiful house in the village!’
Her mum laughed. ‘Yeah, that too! I count my blessings every day. But I still worry, Jenna. About you. About the twins. If there’s anything wrong, you only have to say. I’m a very good listener and I won’t judge.’
‘Mum, I promise you. Everything’s fine. Now, stop worrying and go downstairs to see those grandkids of yours, while I get the cases unpacked.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want me to help?’ Alison asked, as she stood.
‘Nope. I’ve got it under control. Give me twenty minutes or so and I’ll be downstairs to help control the hordes.’
‘Bless them, they’re so excited, aren’t they? Well, if you’re sure…’
‘I’m sure, Mum. Go! Everything’s fine.’
Bloody hell, how many times could she say it?
As Alison nodded and headed downstairs, Jenna wandered over to the window and gazed out at the river, which looked incredibly tranquil today in the late July sunshine.
Across the water lay the banks of Lincolnshire.
If she leaned out of the window and looked left, she could make out the curve of Kels Point, and to her right – far out of sight – was the foreshore and the Humber Bridge that stood just a half hour’s walk away from her own home.
She rested her elbows on the windowsill and breathed in the fresh air, trying to still her mind and quieten the little voice that kept reminding her that, this very evening, Joel would unlock that front door and be confronted with all his belongings bagged up in bin liners. How on earth would he react to that?
It didn’t matter. She wouldn’t be there to see it.
‘It’s fine, Mum,’ she whispered sadly. ‘Everything’s fine.’