AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Well, this is a surprise,’ he manages. George is still on his lap.
‘We thought you’d like to see George on Father’s Day,’ says Rebecca. There’s a slight edge to her voice.
‘It’s grand,’ says Nelson. He gives his son a squeeze. George is now five and goes to school in Blackpool. Nelson had forgotten the solid weight of him. He squeezes harder. George says ‘Ow’ and scrambles away.
Nelson is left looking at Michelle. Her hair is longer and caught up on top of her head with strands escaping around her face. Nelson knows, from experience, that this apparently casual style takes a long time to achieve. Has Michelle dressed up for him? Suddenly he can smell her perfume. It makes his eyes water.
‘It was a good surprise, wasn’t it?’ says Rebecca. Her voice is softer now, possibly because she thinks he’s in tears.
‘Grand,’ says Nelson again.
‘I’ve brought my fire engine to show you,’ says George. Is it Nelson’s imagination or does George have a slight Lancastrian accent?
‘It’s nice to be in Norfolk again,’ says Michelle. Her accent, too, has started to re-emerge. When Nelson first joined Norfolk CID, people imitated his voice all the time. ‘Ee bah gum,’ etc, etc. The words southern people think northerners use. This had made Nelson cussedly determined to keep his Blackpool vowels, but they have definitely faded over the years.
Nelson has so many questions. How long is Michelle staying?Whereis she staying? He supposes in their marital home, which is still in both their names. Thank goodness Ruth and Katie didn’t come to the lunch. But even as he thinks this, he feels guilty.
‘The food’s delicious here,’ says Laura, with her eyes on her father.
‘Two plates each sounds a lot, though,’ says Michelle.
George produces his fire engine with a siren noise. Nelson’s head starts to throb.
Ruth’s brother Simon turns up at three, accompanied by his wife Cathy and their youngest son, Jack, who is home from university. Cathy is carrying a bunch of sunflowers, tastefully tied together with string. They were Ruth’s mother’s favourite flowers and Arthur often puts them on her grave. Does Cathy know this? Does Gloria? Nothing in her face suggests she does. She arranges them in a vase and puts it on the mantelpiece between Simon and Cathy’s wedding portrait and Ruth’s graduation picture.
They sit in the garden, still being Covid-safe, although Arthur now has a blanket over his knees. Kate tells Jack about the kittens and he asks his mother if they could have one.
‘No, thank you,’ says Cathy, ‘I’ve never liked pets.’
‘Anyway, you’re at university,’ says Simon to Jack. ‘George too. We’re the ones who’d have to look after it.’
‘I’d love one,’ says Gloria. ‘But Kezzie, Ambrose’s youngest, has asthma.’
Gloria has three granddaughters and two grandsons, but she also seems genuinely fond of George, Jack and Kate. She even tells Jack he’s looking handsome, which only a grandmother would do.
Cathy, surprisingly, asks Ruth about work so Ruth tells her about the proposed closure of her department. She didn’t expect anyone to be interested. Her family have always professed to find her job baffling although her mother was impressed when she got a book published. But there is general consternation.
‘How can they do that to you?’ says Simon. ‘You’re famous.’
‘Tell the TV people,’ says Gloria. ‘They’ll interview you about it.’ Gloria, rather to Ruth’s embarrassment, has watched every episode ofWomen Who Kill.
‘I did do an interview for local TV,’ says Ruth. ‘But I don’t think it’ll do any good. We are fighting, though. We’re having a rally next week.’
‘You need to put stuff on social media,’ says Jack.
‘I have,’ says Ruth. ‘Or rather one of my colleagues has. SaveUNNArch was trending last week.’
Jack is the only person to be impressed with this, although he joins the SaveUNNArch Twitter account and seems disappointed that they only have five thousand followers.
‘Five thousand and one now,’ Ruth tells him. She’s touched by her family’s concern.
Only Arthur has been quiet. Suddenly he says, ‘If your department closes, you could come back to London. Get a job at UCL. It would be nice to have you closer.’
‘Kate could go to my old school,’ says Jack. ‘If she likes drug dealing, that is.’
‘Jack!’ Cathy waves a shushing hand.
‘We have drugs in King’s Lynn too,’ says Kate, sounding rather offended. Ruth must talk to her about the school’s drug policies.
