Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
The next morning, Kate called a family meeting as soon as they’d finished breakfast. Liam’s mouth formed a concerned ‘o’. Jen smiled, trying to encourage the worried look off his face, as she took the breakfast dishes to the sink.
‘This is just like old times,’ she said. ‘You know, Liam, Grandma was always keen on these meetings with us all around the table to discuss things. She was a manager at work, and a manager at home.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with that,’ said Kate briskly. ‘Sometimes things need to be discussed. Like now. Right,’ she said, peering over her glasses first at Jen, then Liam. ‘I call this meeting to order.’
Jen’s lips quirked in amusement. She winked at Liam’s pensive expression, and he gave a brief smile before returning his gaze to his grandmother. Jen reckoned Kate could do anything, and Liam would go along with it.
‘I have four items on my agenda for discussion. The first one is Liam.’
Liam opened his eyes wider but didn’t shift his gaze from Kate.
‘I think we’re all agreed,’ continued Kate in a mock formal fashion, ‘that Liam is our priority, and we need him to be happy, healthy and… educated. Sound all right so far, Liam?’
He nodded.
‘So, Liam, over to you. What do you think we can do to secure these priorities?’
Part of Jen wanted to intervene. Her mum was going too far.
She sincerely doubted that Liam would understand what her mother was talking about.
But another part told her to wait. Jen hadn’t done a brilliant job of these things so far, so she’d see what her mother could come up with.
She nodded encouragingly to Liam, who stared at his grandmother blankly.
‘OK,’ said Kate, ‘let’s take them one at a time. What makes you happy?’
Jen watched Liam fist his little hands as he summoned up his courage to respond. ‘Um, being here?’
Jen released a tense breath.
‘Good,’ said Kate. ‘Then here is where you’ll stay.’ She looked at Jen. ‘All in agreement say “aye”.’
‘Aye,’ they said in unison.
‘Anything else on the happiness front?’
Liam shook his head and visibly relaxed.
‘Right.’ Kate wrote a tick with a big flourish. ‘Let’s move on to health. Did you know, Liam, that up the coast from here there used to be a health camp for young children from the city?’
Liam shook his head. ‘A camp? With tents?’
‘It’s not the kind of place where you go and sleep in a tent with your family. It’s a place where children could get lots of fresh air, sunshine and good food. So how about we make sure you spend plenty of time on the beach, and in the garden, and eat lots of homemade food?’
He nodded enthusiastically this time and wriggled forward in his seat, placing his folded arms on the table, as if he’d decided to actively take a part in this meeting, now he understood he’d like the results.
A second tick was recorded.
‘Now, education.’ Kate took off her glasses, and Jen realised it had all been building up to this. ‘Your mother tells me she’s been homeschooling you for a while.’
‘Yes,’ he said with a frown.
‘And I’m sure that was the correct thing to do, and you’re a bright boy and you’re doing well. But—’
‘No school!’ He blinked, and it was all Jen could do not to put her arm around him and tell him he never had to go to school again.
But she and her mother had talked about it, and in the end Jen had reluctantly agreed.
Intellectually, she knew it was the right thing to do. And sooner rather than later.
‘And why is that?’ asked Kate patiently.
‘Because the big boys are mean and make me cry.’
Jen looked anxiously at Kate, and she could see by the pressed lips she was also trying to rein in her emotions.
‘How many pupils went to your old school, Liam?’
He shrugged and looked at Jen.
‘There were 40 children in his class, and the school had around 2,000 pupils in all.’
‘Right. Do you know how many pupils attend the local school? The one I showed you yesterday, which is round the corner?’
He shook his head.
‘Fifty children in total. And there’s nowhere any children can bully other children even if the teachers didn’t care.
And they do care at this school. I know, I help in the library most afternoons.
So I’d be there, near you. Now, neither your mother nor I are saying you have to go, but we’d like you to visit the school and see what you think. ’
Liam looked at Jen for support. She cleared her throat.
‘They have pets there, Liam, and a garden. It’s very different from the school in London. We could take a look around. I went to that school, and so did Lucy.’
‘So did you all.’ Kate sat back and smiled at Liam. ‘You can make lifelong friends at school. Of course there will be some not-so-good times, but there’ll also be some great times. And I’ll be at the library in the afternoons anytime you need to see me. What do you think?’
Liam looked from Kate to Jen and shrugged. ‘Don’t know.’
‘How about we go take a look? I think that’s a good strategy. It’s what we all do when we consider something. We need to look at something first before making a decision. That makes sense, doesn’t it?’
Liam nodded.
‘Agreed then?’
‘OK.’
‘Excellent.’ In went a third tick. ‘So that’s you sorted. Now, how about your mother?’
Jen opened her eyes in surprise as both Kate and Liam turned their serious gazes towards her. She felt about eight years old.
‘Do you think she’s sorted?’ Kate asked Liam, as if Jen weren’t there.
‘Yes! She’s going to wash up at Aunty Lucy’s.’
‘True. It will be good for her to mix with the community, like you will at school.’
Liam nodded again thoughtfully, apparently appreciating the comparison. ‘And she’s writing a book — I think?’
‘Ah, that is good news.’
‘I have writer’s block,’ said Jen defensively.
Kate frowned. ‘And how do you propose to unblock?’
Jen nibbled her lip. She felt as under attack as Liam must have felt. ‘Write?’ she ventured.
‘So that’s a plan,’ said Kate. She added another tick with a flourish. ‘I think that’s about it.’
Jen placed her hand on her mother’s. ‘Hold on a minute, you don’t escape this exercise.’
Liam giggled. ‘No, Grandma.’
‘What are you going to do?’ asked Jen.
‘About what?’ Kate replied indignantly.
‘This place for starters,’ said Jen. ‘You need to let us fix things. If you allow maintenance on the house to slide for much longer, none of us will have a home to live in.’
Kate jumped up. ‘That is my business.’ She turned to Liam with a smile. ‘Why don’t you check in the garden to see if those snails have stayed away from my seedlings?’
Liam didn’t need asking twice and was out of the door like a shot.
‘You can’t go on ignoring this stuff, whatever it is, that’s happening with the house, Mum. You need to deal with it.’
‘I am dealing with it as best I can. But how I’m expected to grapple with a problem that goes back nearly a century is beyond me.’
‘What? What do you mean it goes back a century?’
‘But what concerns me most,’ continued Kate, ignoring Jen’s question, ‘is that I don’t see you dealing with the possibility that your husband will turn up and take you and Liam away with him.’
‘I won’t go with Alistair. And if he wants Liam, I’ll fight him in the courts.’
‘He doesn’t sound like the kind of man who will take the legal route, if you get my drift. What if he simply comes here and takes him?’
Jen opened her mouth to speak, but no words emerged. Her thoughts were frozen by the horrific picture her mother had created in her mind. She shook her head and looked down at the table.
‘I’ll talk to Henry down the road about security cameras and lights,’ said Kate.
Jen looked up, horrified. ‘I can’t transform MacLeod’s Cottage into a fortress.’
‘Jenny, you have no choice. You have to face what’s coming. Now,’ she checked her watch, ‘I suggest you get going to the café. You don’t want to be late on your first day.’
‘But are you sure you’re going to be alright here with Liam all morning?’ asked Jen.
‘Jenny, please. If you keep on asking that, you’ll frighten Liam.
’ Her mother heaved a sigh. ‘He’s fine. I’m fine.
And together we’ll be absolutely fine. You’re working a four-hour shift, washing up to help your sister out while her dishwasher is on the blink.
Nothing untoward is going to happen in those four hours.
Neither with us, nor with you. Just go.’
‘OK.’
And she knew her mother was right. But why didn’t it feel right?
She glanced out at the garden where Liam was kneeling, gazing intently at newly sprouted seedlings, checking for snails.
Yes, she was one hundred per cent sure that Liam would be fine with her mother.
Truth was, she wasn’t so sure that nothing would happen to her.
She only hoped she got to stay in the kitchen.
That way, she wouldn’t be bumping into anyone who could ask questions about her past she really didn’t want to answer.
She banished the image of Sam as quickly as he came to mind.
‘Right,’ she said. ‘Bye then, Mum.’ She grabbed her backpack and went outside to say goodbye to Liam for one last time. Not that he noticed. He was too intent on inspecting a snail.
It was only after she’d retrieved her bike from the shed and had pedalled off that she realised her mother hadn’t answered her question about the house.
Trust her mother to have a meeting to sort them all out, only to miss herself out of the exercise.
But if she and Liam could face up to what was coming to them, then so could her mother.
A few minutes later, and an ominous repetitive thud made her stop. She’d got a flat tyre. Not surprising, seeing as the bike was so old. She pushed it the rest of the way. Karma, she thought. She’d always thought her mother had eyes in the back of her head.
‘You’re late!’ said Lucy, tossing Jen an apron.
Jen grimaced. ‘Sorry. Flat tyre.’