Chapter 30
As she put the finishing touches to the last few sumptuous cushions, Mab thought about babies.
She’d never been a maternal sort of person.
She had always tried to avoid other people’s children, especially at the smelly nappy and dribbly stages.
George had been a nightmare. Mab well remembered his christening, and the endless screaming after the vicar had doused him with freezing cold water.
As chief godmother, Mab had been in charge of carrying the small, angry George around the church, ‘introducing him to the parishioners’.
George had not been impressed and had filled his nappy spectacularly in protest. The smell had been hideous.
Why then was the thought of life without her own child in it causing Mab so much pain?
Was it just that she’d always expected to change her mind about babies one day, or was this sudden maternal urge tied up with her feelings for Leo?
How could she break it to him that she was going to spend the next few months expanding to the size of a house and then donate her precious baby to a couple she hardly knew?
Leo was so good with George. It was unfair to keep leading him on when she couldn’t give him what he needed.
Even if Mab could deal with her new and demanding conscience, would Leo ever feel the same about her again?
What sort of woman gave her baby away, for pity’s sake?
Mab’s phone bleeped as she added the final beads to the last deep blue silk bolster. She glanced down and saw the word ‘Mum’ in the message box. Her eyebrows rose sharply as she read the brief text.
On way home get milk and bread for us and something for dinner Mum
Mab stared down at the bald sentence. How bloody self-centred could you get?
No ‘please’, no ‘hope you’re OK’, no love, not even a kiss.
Just a summons to bring shopping and an assumption that Mab had time to run around after them.
Her mother hadn’t been in touch the whole time she’d been away, apart from a brief reminder for Mab to buy more stocks of the hideously expensive cat food that Bernard preferred.
Mab seethed for a moment and then sent a text back before she could change her mind.
Sorry, no time for shopping today, busy setting up business, remember? Suggest you get dad to take you out for dinner and stop at shops for milk. Mab.
There, that would start a volcano of reproach, but who cared? So much for her hopes for a tender mother–daughter relationship. Mab would just have to sort out her life on her own. Her phone began to ring and, shaking slightly, she answered it.
‘Yes, that’s what I said, Mum. No, you didn’t get my message wrong.
Yes, I expect you are surprised at my tone.
Yes, I can tell you’re very disappointed in me, Mum, and let me tell you something for a change.
I don’t give a stuff what you think. I’m going now, to try to deal with the problems that my pregnancy’s caused.
And that was down to you too. We’ll talk when I’m ready. ’
Mab disconnected, took a deep breath and went to carry on turning over a new leaf. Leo was already unpacking boxes of books when Mab found him in the shop. He looked up as he heard Mab’s footsteps.
‘Are you busy, Leo?’ Mab pulled a face at the stupidity of this question, when they were all going to be busy from dawn till dusk for the next few days. ‘I mean, can you spare a moment?’
‘For you, pet, any amount of moments, but I reckon you know that already, don’t you?’
Mab blushed. She could see the warmth in his eyes, and wondered if it had always been there, or if he was only really letting her see his true feelings now that Sophie was out of the way. Mab took a deep breath. She would have to tell Leo the whole story.
‘I’m sorry about last night, I…’
‘You don’t need to be sorry. If you’re worrying about me and Sophie, it was all over long before we split up. I never felt anything like this for her.’
‘No, you have to listen, Leo, before you say anything else that you’ll probably want to take back later.’
‘I won’t want to take it back, I l—’
‘Stop! I’m pregnant with Edward Crabtree’s baby and I’m going to give it to the two of them to bring up as their own. Beattie can’t have children and they’re going to pay me expenses. Quite a lot of expenses.’
There was an awful silence. Leo’s mouth opened and shut a few times.
Mab looked at the floor and wished not only that the ground would swallow her up, but that Leo would magically forget about her and never have to face this sort of let-down again.
Her heart ached with love for him. She risked a glance at him.
‘Say something, Leo. I’m so, so sorry.’
His smile didn’t reach his eyes. ‘So that was why you kept running away? You had me fooled, Mab. I thought you were special.’
Mab sat down suddenly, wrapping her arms around her body. She felt frozen with sadness. She blinked to stop the tears falling; she’d cried over quite enough people lately.
Leo had begun pacing the room and as he passed the window, he saw a large white van pull up outside.
‘Oh, bugger! What brilliant timing. No time to talk now, even if I wanted to. The men are here to do the plumbing ready for the jacuzzi. I’ll go and let them in.
I’d like you to be somewhere else for a while, if you don’t mind? ’
The words rolled round Mab’s head. Even if I wanted to.
So that was it. Her one big chance to be with someone like Leo; someone who made her pulse pound, her heart flip and her whole body ache with longing, and she’d lost it.
Mab got up and headed for her room, just as the two men clattered into the shop carrying armfuls of tools and equipment.
Ashley had been in the same class all through primary school with Kev and Stan, and Mab remembered the ginger-haired, freckled little villain who had been at the heart of every fight.
Though her haze of misery, Mab recalled Ashley’s crowning achievement at St Chad’s, which was setting fire to the rabbit hutches, fortunately having first freed the rabbits.
He was against caged animals, apparently.
‘Hi, Mabs, you OK, sweetheart?’ said Ashley, giving Mab’s bottom a friendly pat as he passed her.
He noticed Leo’s glare, and grinned to himself.
‘Great place you’ve got here. We ain’t put one of these tubs in for quite a while.
Good job we were free, we’ll get the plumbing installed by teatime, with a bit of luck, and the whole thing’ll be done by tomorrow night. Cash in hand, you said, didn’t you?’
The two men were setting up their stall as Ashley spoke.
The other man was also pint-sized with a shock of red hair, and Mab stopped in her tracks, her own problems forgotten as it dawned on her what was happening here.
This must be Ashley’s little brother, who had been even more of a wild card.
Mab began to have serious misgivings about this job.
‘You’re never Jamie, are you?’ she said, watching the two men getting to work.
The second man nodded, winking at Mab as he took out a ferocious-looking piece of machinery.
‘Erm, what’s that for?’ asked Mab. She had another flashback, to the time when Jamie and Ashley had managed to get the school closed for two days, after an incident with a blocked toilet and a fire extinguisher.
‘Oh, you’d be surprised what that little treasure can do, Mabsy, it can cut through anything, and bore holes like there’s no tomorrow. It’s our latest bit of kit, ain’t it, Jim?’
Jamie nodded silently, he had never been much of a talker, Mab remembered, but more one for sudden bursts of unpredictable action.
What had Kev been thinking of, getting these two clowns to do the job?
She glanced at Leo, who seemed equally on edge at the prospect of the job ahead, but was studiously avoiding looking at her.
‘Have you guys had much experience of plumbing and suchlike?’ he asked, as the two men got down onto the floor and began to prise up the lovely old floorboards. ‘Only, it’s just that we need to open this shop very soon, and we can’t risk any… er… delays.’
‘Don’t you worry about us, mate, we’re safe as houses, aren’t we, Jim? Just make us a brew, two sugars if you don’t mind, and if there’s any biscuits, we won’t say no.’
Mab looked at Leo again, got no response, so set off upstairs to the kitchen.
If he wasn’t going to speak to her, she couldn’t do any more down here.
To her relief, Mab started to feel angry.
Surely if Leo’s feelings were anything like she’d imagined, he could have given her more of a chance to explain herself?
But, come to think of it, what else could she have said in her defence?
As Mab came into the kitchen, Jess was pulling a tray of beautifully risen scones out of the oven.
‘I heard the blokes arrive, shall I make them a cuppa?’ she asked. ‘And they might like to try one of these herby cheese scones to go with it?’
‘Humph,’ said Mab. ‘Don’t hold them up too much, Jess. The sooner they’re done and out of here, the better.’
‘What’s up? It’s only Ashley and Jamie, isn’t it? They’ve got a nice little business going now, down in Maybury. All the old ladies swear by them, they work fast, and don’t charge that much. Don’t you like them, honey?’
Mab sighed. ‘Guess we haven’t got much choice at such short notice. I expect they’ll be OK… what the…’
A piercing shriek filled the room, coming from downstairs, and Mab and Jess rushed to the stairwell.
They jostled down the stairs followed by George, who had been laminating menus but thought this sounded much more interesting.
A sight of devastation met their eyes as they crashed into the shop.
Water was everywhere. The floor was awash and a huge jet was spraying the room generously.
‘Turn the water off, you fuckwits!’ shouted Jess.