Chapter 8 #2
‘Oh yes,’ Gran said. ‘You can never underestimate how important kindness is, you know.’ She leaned forward.
‘That’s what drew me to your grandad, believe it or not.
He’s got his faults—’ As Grandad’s eyes widened in indignation she continued, ‘Well, I’m sorry, but you have!
But what I knew about your grandad was that he was kind, and you can’t put a price on that.
I’d courted a few lads before him, you know.
Proper Jack the Lads they were, an’ all.
Your grandad there, he asked me out a few times, but I wasn’t sure.
I’d had enough of stupid boys, to be honest, and what was to say he was any different? ’
‘So what changed your mind, Gran?’ Jenna asked, amused.
‘My irresistible good looks and suave sophistication,’ Grandad said, licking ginger cake crumbs from his fingers.
‘Ha! You’ve got to be joking!’ Gran laughed then turned back to Jenna. ‘I’ll tell you what it was, love. I’ll bet you don’t even remember this, Stan.’
‘Oh, I do,’ he said. ‘You’ve told me enough times. It was Mrs Hall’s shopping bag.’
‘Well I never,’ Gran said in surprise. ‘Fancy you remembering that! He’s right,’ she told Jenna. ‘I was sitting on the bench outside the church—’
‘Kissing and canoodling with that Jimmy Hilton,’ grumbled Grandad.
‘Talking with Jimmy Hilton,’ Gran said firmly, though not particularly convincingly, ‘and I noticed old Mrs Hall walking by the gate. And bless her, if her shopping bag didn’t give way and a dozen eggs dropped to the pavement.’
‘She’d bought them from Watersmeet,’ Grandad explained. ‘Did a lot of baking, did Mrs Hall. And the folks at Watersmeet – before Mac’s parents bought it – they had a lot of free-range hens and quite a nice little business selling the eggs.’
‘Jimmy Hilton,’ said Gran, shaking her head in disgust, ‘burst out laughing. Honest to God! There was poor Mrs Hall – eighty if she was a day – standing there in tears, trying to scoop up all those broken eggs, and this awful lad just found the whole thing funny.’
‘But Superman swooped to the rescue,’ Grandad said triumphantly.
‘Give over,’ Gran said, waving a hand at him impatiently.
‘You weren’t that amazing! Mind, I have to say I was impressed.
See, while Jimmy sat there laughing, I got up to see if I could help, and with that your grandad came running up and I watched him through the gate, crouching down to pick up any unbroken eggs and packing them in his pockets for her. He walked her home, didn’t you, Stan?’
‘She made me tea and gave me some of her apple pie,’ he said dreamily.
‘Your grandad went back to the farm and got her some more eggs out of his own money. I just remember thinking, how kind was that? Well, I looked at him, and I looked at Jimmy, and there was no contest. I thought, I’ll be all right with him.
He’ll look after me. The next time he asked me out – your grandad, I mean – I said yes straight away. ’
‘And the rest is history,’ Grandad said with a satisfied nod.
‘What a lovely story,’ Jenna said.
‘Mac’s the same. He was always a kind little boy,’ Gran said thoughtfully.
‘I remember him well. The other children made fun of him sometimes. I think he was bullied a fair bit. But what I remember about him was how he always looked out for the little ones. He was a Cub, you know, and then a Boy Scout, and he seemed to take it upon himself to watch over the younger children and make sure they were okay. I always noticed that, and I remember thinking, That one’s kind, just like my Stan. He’d be good for our Alison.’
‘They were kids!’ Grandad said. ‘You had them practically married off before they were ten.’
‘Don’t be daft.’ She shook her head. ‘It was just a thought, that’s all, and sadly Mac moved away to go to university and that was that.
Not,’ she added hastily, ‘that I was sorry when she married your dad, Jenna. He was a lovely man too, and our Alison picked wisely both times. Like I said, you can’t go wrong with a kind man. Well, I’m sure you know that already.’
Jenna thought it was probably a lesson she’d learned a little too late. She’d been attracted to Joel because he was fun and sexy and confident. Kindness hadn’t even been a consideration, and when she thought about it, she couldn’t say it was ever a quality she’d associate with him.
In fact, she was pretty sure that he’d have been like Jimmy Hilton, laughing at old Mrs Hall and her broken eggs, or one of the children who’d bullied Mac at school. It wasn’t a comfortable thought.
‘What are your plans for the summer then?’ Grandad asked, changing the subject, to Jenna’s relief.
‘I’ve not really made any plans,’ she admitted.
‘This was very much a last-minute thing. I just decided it wasn’t fair on the twins to be stuck at home with me when they could be here in the fresh air, playing on the beach, being with Mac’s animals, and getting to mix with their family.
We don’t see nearly enough of any of you. ’
‘It will be good to have them around,’ Gran agreed. ‘I hope they don’t get bored, though. There’s not a lot here for them, is there? No shops or amusements – although there’s that little play park halfway to the beach. It’s got swings and a slide and a roundabout. I suppose that’s something.’
‘You should take them to Millensea,’ Grandad suggested. ‘Plenty of amusements there. Mind you, it’ll cost you a fortune. You want to do what I used to do and pretend the machines were broken.’
‘Like our Alison ever fell for that!’ Gran gave him a scornful look. ‘It was me who ended up giving her the money, you know. Mind you, I always got it back off him. I’ll give him one thing, he was never stingy with the housekeeping, and I could always wrap him round my finger if I needed more.’
‘You’re not wrong. I remember once giving you the money for the quarterly phone bill three times in a month!’
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she said indignantly.
‘Hmm.’ Grandad gave her a meaningful look and popped another chocolate in his mouth.
Jenna stayed at Sanderlings for a couple of hours, feeling cocooned in the warmth of the loving bond between her grandparents.
She listened to their endless banter, interspersed with genuine words of affection, drank three cups of tea, surrendered to Grandad’s plea for her to eat one of his chocolates, watched a little bit of television with them, and promised faithfully to bring the twins along within the next day or two.
She left, soundly hugged by both, and with a feeling of contentment and something that felt suspiciously like happiness.
Waving goodbye, she headed back up the road, noticing that a few couples were now sitting on the picnic benches outside the pub, nursing drinks and chatting easily to each other.
Through the open windows of the bar, she could hear the noisy conversation and occasional bursts of laughter.
There was a sense of wellbeing in the air, and she realised she hadn’t felt so relaxed in what seemed like forever.
In her pocket, her phone beeped. Probably her mum asking if everything was okay or telling her that the twins were safely settled in bed.
It was the first time she hadn’t immediately wondered if it was Joel. The first time her stomach hadn’t lurched with shock and trepidation. She smiled at the realisation and took her phone out to read the message.
It was from Joel.
Where the hell are you?
That was it. Nothing else. Jenna’s smile vanished and her spirits sank as she crossed the road to lean on the railings, gazing out over the muddy foreshore and the river beyond.
Why did he have to spoil things? She’d almost, almost forgotten that he’d be at their house collecting his belongings.
Somehow, with her grandparents chattering on, she’d managed to push it to the back of her mind.
Now it was all there at the forefront of her thoughts again.
She shivered, despite the warmth of the evening, and tried to focus on the gentle flow of the water as it made its unhurried way to the North Sea.
The phone rang, making her jump.
He was calling her? After all the times he’d ignored her calls, he was actually bothering to contact her at last? She could guess why.
‘Don’t you answer your texts?’ was his friendly greeting.
‘Give me a chance. I was busy,’ she defended herself. ‘Anyway, you can talk! How many of my texts have you ignored?’
‘Where are you?’ he demanded, ignoring her yet again. ‘I’m standing in our hallway, and I’m surrounded by black bin bags full of my clothes. What the hell do you think you’re playing at? Where are our suitcases?’
‘Here with me,’ she said, trying to sound calm, even though her heart was hammering in her chest. ‘I didn’t have room for my things and the twins’ things if I gave you a suitcase, so you’ll have to make do with the bin bags. Sorry.’
Not sorry.
‘What do you need suitcases for?’ His tone changed to one of suspicion. ‘Where are you?’
Jenna hesitated, half tempted to tell him she was lying on a beach in the South of France with some hot and hunky man, but common sense told her it wouldn’t take him long to figure out the truth. ‘The twins and I are staying with Mum and Mac at Watersmeet.’
‘For how long?’
‘For the summer,’ she said. ‘Is there a problem?’
‘I’ll say there’s a problem! How dare you take the girls away without asking my permission? I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.’
‘You’ve got to be joking! It’s not like I’ve snatched their passports and smuggled them out of the country. They’re in Kelsea Sands, Joel, not Monaco. It’s a few miles away. Well, from our house anyway. I have no idea how far it is from wherever you’re staying.’
He didn’t bite. ‘That’s not the point! You can’t just take my children away from me.’
‘Bit dramatic, Joel, considering you just upped and left without even saying goodbye to them. I’ve taken them to stay at my mum’s for the summer so they get some fresh air and a paddle in the sea. If you have a problem with that, talk to a solicitor.’
She winced suddenly, realising she might have given him an opening to talk about divorce. He didn’t take it, though.
‘Of all the places to take them! I can just imagine how much your mother’s loving this, dripping poison into their ears, making them hate me.’
‘My mum’s got better things to do with her time than talk about you,’ Jenna said with dignity. ‘We haven’t even discussed you. Your name just doesn’t come up in conversation.’
He seemed a bit put out by that, as there was a long silence. At last he spluttered, ‘Well, I don’t see why you have to be there all summer. I think two weeks is long enough.’
‘What you think doesn’t really matter, does it?’
‘They’re my children too, Jenna!’
‘Yes, they are, Joel. Well remembered. Bit late but you got there in the end.’
‘Then you wonder why our marriage is on the rocks,’ he said bitterly. ‘Right, I have to go. Things to do. I’ll expect you home within a fortnight, shall I? I deserve time with my own daughters, you know. It’s not all about you.’
‘You know where they are,’ she said, trying to stop trembling.
‘We’ll be here until the end of the summer holidays, so if you want to speak to them, you’d better phone, or make arrangements to come to Kelsea Sands.
Please give notice. You wouldn’t want to come all the way here to find us out enjoying ourselves somewhere, would you? ’
The phone went dead and Jenna shoved it back in her pocket, then gripped the railings tightly, fighting back tears.
Not a word of apology. Not a word of comfort, or sadness, or – or kindness.
Just accusations and bullying. Like he didn’t care about her feelings at all.
Because he doesn’t. He never did.
She straightened, not wanting to listen to the truth, not ready to fully accept it.
She felt sick and drained and wondered what to do with herself.
She wasn’t ready to go back to Watersmeet.
She couldn’t face Mum and Mac. Her mum would know something had upset her.
She had an uncanny ability to sense these things.
Jenna turned and gazed at the solid pub opposite.
The North Star, with its whitewashed walls and tiled roof, had three sash windows on the first floor and three large, square bay windows on the ground floor.
A blue-painted front door separated two of the bays from the other one, but no one ever used it.
Everyone walked round the side of the pub and entered that way.
She wasn’t sure why. It was just what everyone did.
Joel had once said it was a dead-end pub in the middle of nowhere, but Jenna remembered from her childhood that it was the beating heart of this community, with beautiful views of the most stunning sunsets she’d ever seen.
She remembered sitting at a window table with her family one evening as they celebrated some special occasion or other.
She recalled her dad giving her a gentle nudge as he urged her to look out of the window, and when she’d turned her head, she’d seen the sky streaked with amber and purple and peach, and the river rippling with liquid gold on the horizon.
Jenna blinked away tears, feeling a sudden longing for her dad that almost took her breath away.
She missed him so much. If only he were here now, he would make everything all right.
But he wasn’t, and she had to get on with her life somehow.
Find a way to get through the pain, one moment at a time.
Within the welcoming walls of The North Star, people were laughing and talking, having fun.
And if she walked through that door, people would be too busy to notice her, or to guess that she’d just taken yet another savage blow to her self-esteem and to her heart.
She could sneak in and sit in a corner somewhere.
Gather her thoughts. Settle her nerves before she went back to Watersmeet.
She might even treat herself to a drink. A strong one.
God knows, she really needed it.