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Linda with tears. Dino put his arms around his wife and pulled her into his shoulder.
    ‘I know, I know, but if I start playing hardball, she won’t come around at all. Bloss, you shouldn’t have shouted that.’
    ‘Well, it’s
not
fair,’ screeched Iris. ‘It was the sorriest day ever when Andy met her.’
    ‘Then we wouldn’t have Freddie at all now, would we, Bloss?’ Dino had always called Iris Blossom, which had shortened to Bloss over the years. Even though she was more triffid than delicate flower, the nickname had stuck. ‘She said that she’ll drive past on her way to Freddie’s swimming lesson so he can deliver my card. At least she’s bought one to give me. I can’t remember her doing that before.’
    ‘I’d better keep out of the way when she comes,’ snarled Iris. ‘Otherwise I might not be responsible for my actions.’
    None of them could understand what their strapping soldier son Andy Hewitt had seen in the older, streetwise Rebecca Pawson. She had a face that could have soured milk but still, they welcomed her into the family since Andy was a grown man after all. A huge flash wedding was hurriedly planned, Rebecca fell pregnant with Freddie then Andy got cold feet and asked for a delay. Rebecca took umbrage – and her newborn – and left him. In a right old financial mess, too. And she’d been punishing the whole Hewitt clan ever since. Rebecca had fought with claws extended, twisted facts and lied until the courts had decreed that the two-hour weekly access between Andy and his son, whenever Andy was home on leave, had to be under her supervision, unless she agreed that he was fit to have Freddie in his lone care. Andy could have fought harder and nastier, but for Freddie’s sake he did not want it on public record how much of a bitch his son’s mother really was – although Rebecca clearly didn’t share his consideration.
    Andy could have gone back to court but he didn’t have the thousands it would cost in solicitors’ fees. Iris would have given him the money gift-wrapped but Dino warned that if they lost, Rebecca would withdraw even the scrap of goodwill she dangled in front of them. They were all trapped under her control until the lad was old enough to make up his own mind.
    What worried them most was the way that Rebecca left three-year-old Freddie in the care of the elderly mother whose house she shared. Enid Pawson had never been noted for her reliability, plus she had an ornamental lake in her back garden. The combination of deep water and small boy terrified Linda. She was convinced that it was an accident waiting to happen. She couldn’t wait for the day when she could tell the Pawsons exactly what she thought of them. She would make Iris look like Shirley bloody Temple.
    ‘She’s not going to let Freddie come around for his birthday this month either, is she?’ said Linda mournfully. ‘Just an hour, so he can open his presents here and spend some time with us.’
    ‘It won’t always be like this, love,’ said Dino. ‘Freddie will grow up and come and see us when he wants.’
    Linda couldn’t help saying, in a low whisper she hoped Iris wouldn’t hear, ‘That might be too late though.’
    Then she felt fingers curl around her own and looked down to find Iris’s wrinkled hand there. Linda was a rock-hard matron, in charge of umpteen wards and staff, and whom many doctors deferred to, but suddenly she was whizzed back in time fifty years, feeling the comfort of that same hand, then smooth and plump and warm. She didn’t want to let it go, she didn’t want to go into that big scary school. Her mother was safe and familiar. Always there when she needed comfort, reassurance, an injection of maternal-strength. Iris was a spiky, loose-mouthed old bugger but she would never let anyone harm the ones she loved.
How dare Rebecca Pawson keep Freddie from her, more than any of us?
thought Linda with a sudden spurt of rage.
    Linda closed her eyes and sent a short