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Authors: Minna Howard
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disappointment.
Alice couldn’t bear it. She
did
want to do it. It annoyed her that Douglas and Laura thought her too old or it was not suitable, whatever… for a grandmother to do. Her remark had perked up Johnny and she wouldn’t let him down by making him think she was only joking.
‘No,’ she said firmly, ‘I wasn’t teasing about paragliding and maybe…’ she avoided Laura’s eyes, ‘we’ll find a way to arrange something to do with paragliding when Laura and your father are there. We could watch it anyway. There’s no harm in that is there, Douglas?’ she confronted him.
‘Perhaps
watching
is all right,’ Douglas said doubtfully and Johnny’s smile made Alice feel she’d won a tiny victory, with Johnny anyway, Zara would take a little longer to get close to, she thought, but hopefully they’d get there in the end.
7
‘I’m glad now that I didn’t have children,’ Cecily said when she’d heard Alice’s description of the tea party. ‘I had twinges of regret after the war. But from my experience, listening to my friends with children, they sometimes do seem to be such a headache.’
Alice understood. Though she did not regret for one minute having her children, there had been a few – minor seeming now – gut-wrenching dramas at school and uni, but nothing so life changing as the muddles her daughters had got themselves involved in now.
‘You were a wonderful aunt though, Julian adored you, more than his own mother even.’
‘Ah, poor Sybil, she liked living such an ordered life, with her beautiful house and garden – an extension of the doll’s house she had as a child, where everything stayed just where she’d arranged it.’ Cecily’s eyes twinkled mischievously in her wrinkled face as she remembered her childhood. ‘Sometimes I used to get up in the middle of the night and cause havoc in that house. I was jealous of it, you see, but I hadn’t the patience to arrange it like she had.’
‘Cecily, how naughty, what happened?’ Alice laughed, remembering the difficult times she’d had with Julian’s mother. When she was first married and determined to do the right things, she’d suffered nights of anxiety about having the house spotless and tidy before her mother-in-law came. Julian would tease her, saying he’d always hated living in a museum, and it was her home and she must have it as she wanted it, as long as it was clean. He hated grubbiness and changed his clothes if ever there was a mark on them, but she didn’t mind that and felt she’d got off lightly, after all he could have taken after his mother and demanded a pristine house at all times.
‘I pretended I knew nothing about it and that it must have been the dolls or Beatrix Potter’s two bad mice. But I was fond of Sybil, she was wonderful when both my fiancés were killed, and I adored her children, especially Julian. And now I have you and your girls, I’m very lucky.’ Cecily smiled, ‘I have the luxury of children without the aggro.’
‘I suppose you do,’ Alice said, ‘and soon you’ll be a great-aunt.’
‘Heaven’s, I suppose I will.’ Cecily turned to Zarinda who’d just come into the room. ‘I shall have to stay alive a little longer to meet all these great-grandchildren, Zarinda, and hopefully go to Laura’s wedding, though what we’ll do about Evie, I don’t know.’
‘You’ll outlive us all,’ Zarinda said. ‘So you are to be a grandmother,’ she smiled at Alice.
‘Yes, in rather strange circumstances,’ Alice said. Zarinda took life as it came and never made uncomfortable remarks, but Alice had found it difficult to explain to some of her friends, especially the ones whose children had married in the conventional way to conventional people, that Evie would be a single mother and that the father was married and had various offspring scattered round East Anglia, and possibly further afield.
‘A child is a blessing however it comes,’ Zarinda said.
‘So true, and
Alice couldn’t bear it. She
did
want to do it. It annoyed her that Douglas and Laura thought her too old or it was not suitable, whatever… for a grandmother to do. Her remark had perked up Johnny and she wouldn’t let him down by making him think she was only joking.
‘No,’ she said firmly, ‘I wasn’t teasing about paragliding and maybe…’ she avoided Laura’s eyes, ‘we’ll find a way to arrange something to do with paragliding when Laura and your father are there. We could watch it anyway. There’s no harm in that is there, Douglas?’ she confronted him.
‘Perhaps
watching
is all right,’ Douglas said doubtfully and Johnny’s smile made Alice feel she’d won a tiny victory, with Johnny anyway, Zara would take a little longer to get close to, she thought, but hopefully they’d get there in the end.
7
‘I’m glad now that I didn’t have children,’ Cecily said when she’d heard Alice’s description of the tea party. ‘I had twinges of regret after the war. But from my experience, listening to my friends with children, they sometimes do seem to be such a headache.’
Alice understood. Though she did not regret for one minute having her children, there had been a few – minor seeming now – gut-wrenching dramas at school and uni, but nothing so life changing as the muddles her daughters had got themselves involved in now.
‘You were a wonderful aunt though, Julian adored you, more than his own mother even.’
‘Ah, poor Sybil, she liked living such an ordered life, with her beautiful house and garden – an extension of the doll’s house she had as a child, where everything stayed just where she’d arranged it.’ Cecily’s eyes twinkled mischievously in her wrinkled face as she remembered her childhood. ‘Sometimes I used to get up in the middle of the night and cause havoc in that house. I was jealous of it, you see, but I hadn’t the patience to arrange it like she had.’
‘Cecily, how naughty, what happened?’ Alice laughed, remembering the difficult times she’d had with Julian’s mother. When she was first married and determined to do the right things, she’d suffered nights of anxiety about having the house spotless and tidy before her mother-in-law came. Julian would tease her, saying he’d always hated living in a museum, and it was her home and she must have it as she wanted it, as long as it was clean. He hated grubbiness and changed his clothes if ever there was a mark on them, but she didn’t mind that and felt she’d got off lightly, after all he could have taken after his mother and demanded a pristine house at all times.
‘I pretended I knew nothing about it and that it must have been the dolls or Beatrix Potter’s two bad mice. But I was fond of Sybil, she was wonderful when both my fiancés were killed, and I adored her children, especially Julian. And now I have you and your girls, I’m very lucky.’ Cecily smiled, ‘I have the luxury of children without the aggro.’
‘I suppose you do,’ Alice said, ‘and soon you’ll be a great-aunt.’
‘Heaven’s, I suppose I will.’ Cecily turned to Zarinda who’d just come into the room. ‘I shall have to stay alive a little longer to meet all these great-grandchildren, Zarinda, and hopefully go to Laura’s wedding, though what we’ll do about Evie, I don’t know.’
‘You’ll outlive us all,’ Zarinda said. ‘So you are to be a grandmother,’ she smiled at Alice.
‘Yes, in rather strange circumstances,’ Alice said. Zarinda took life as it came and never made uncomfortable remarks, but Alice had found it difficult to explain to some of her friends, especially the ones whose children had married in the conventional way to conventional people, that Evie would be a single mother and that the father was married and had various offspring scattered round East Anglia, and possibly further afield.
‘A child is a blessing however it comes,’ Zarinda said.
‘So true, and
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