Read Online Second Chance by Sian James - Free Book Online Page B

‘It’s wonderful of you to come,’ I said, ‘I’m so pleased to see you.’ Tears were running down my cheeks, slowly, one at a time – in a way I can never manage on stage.
    â€˜We’ve brought a bottle of whisky,’ Rhydian said. ‘We didn’t think Auntie’d have anything much in the house. Let me go and see if I can find some glasses.’
    â€˜I wanted to bring flowers,’ Grace said.
    â€˜You needn’t have brought anything. I just want company. I’m so glad you came. How long can you stay? I think I’m having a nervous breakdown.’
    Grace took her coat off and smiled at me. ‘No, you’re not. Having a nervous breakdown isn’t as easy as you think. I’m always planning to have one but I never manage it. When you have all the work of a farm and three small boys it’s the perfect answer – the only way to get some attention it seems to me – but it only happens to other people. You’re just grieving after your mother and feeling lonely all by yourself up here. Your mother was a lovely woman, it’s no wonder you’re feeling cast down... Hurry up with that whisky, Rhydian. Are you doing the dishes out there, or what?’
    Rhydian came in with three large whiskies. ‘Anyone want some water?’
    â€˜Rhydian, you’re so changed,’ I said. ‘You used to be so wild-looking, so rough. I used to think you three boys were like the Doone brothers. I was terrified of you all.’
    â€˜You’ve changed, too. You used to be skinny and... well, rather plain. Of course, we’ve seen you on the telly now and again, so I was ready for the change.’
    â€˜Rather plain? Iestyn wrote to me once, asking me to go to the pictures with him. He said I was very pretty.’
    â€˜Iestyn has always been a ladies’ man,’ Grace said. ‘Different from this one.’
    â€˜I’m just a farmer,’ Rhydian said, smiling ruefully in my direction. ‘Turned fifty, losing my hair, the farm losing money, three children and another on the way. Well, here’s to us, the three of us. And all our problems.’
    For a while we drank in silence. I glanced at him again. Over fifty? Losing his hair? He looked pretty good to me.
    â€˜What about Iestyn?’ I asked. ‘A geography teacher. What else?’
    â€˜Deputy Head now,’ Rhydian said. ‘Put on a lot of weight. Important.’
    â€˜Married, divorced, married again,’ Grace added. ‘His second wife’s very hoity-toity. Madeleine. No children, up to now.’
    â€˜Grace thinks all English people are stuck-up.’
    â€˜No, I don’t. Yorkshire people can be quite homely. We do bed and breakfast now, Kate, and we get a lot of people from Yorkshire and, on the whole, they’re quite decent. Quite like us.’
    â€˜And Bleddyn? He’s still at Oxford?’
    â€˜No, he decided to take up teaching as well. I mean, in an ordinary school. I think he’d come to a dead end with his research. He gave it up, anyway. Head of Maths now in a Comprehensive in the East End.’
    â€˜He’s never married,’ Grace said, ‘but he used to live with another of these dons when he was at Oxford – quite a long-term affair – and he’s got a lovely daughter. She’s about twenty now and going in for nursing. Siwan. Siwan Grace actually. She comes to stay with us quite often. The boys worship her. Anyway, what about you? Still with the same chap? Paul something? I remember your mother mentioning a Paul.’
    â€˜Yes, I’m still with him. But it’s not permanent.’
    What made me say that? It was the first time I had, though the thought had occurred to me from time to time. The tears welled up again, rolling slowly down my face, one after the other.
    â€˜This one could cry for Wales,’ Rhydian told his wife. ‘I’ll never forget what she was like