A Summer Promise Read Online Free PDF Page A

get to the parlour somehow, ’cos you’re right, my leg should be kept up.’
    Between Maddy and the stick Gran was soon established on the sofa with a large enamel mug of tea on a small stool by her side. She was still pale, and Maddy realised that she was reluctant to leave her. In normal circumstances Gran would have told her to fetch her knitting or some other homely task which would not tax her strength, but today she simply asked in a small voice if Maddy could bring down a blanket and pillow from her bed before she left the house.
    As she ran up the stairs to fetch the required items Maddy wondered whether she ought to call the doctor. Normally Gran scoffed when Maddy mentioned any sort of outside help, reminding her granddaughter that they had no money to spare for such things, but today, her mood softened by her injury, Maddy thought that she might agree to a visit from Dr Carlton. He was a small, sharp little man whom Maddy had known for years, but when she went back down to the parlour and suggested they might ask him to pop in the idea seemed to give Gran back some of her strength. She had been settling the blanket around her legs but at Maddy’s words she looked up, giving a snort of disgust.
    ‘What’s a sprained ankle?’ she asked derisively. ‘He’ll maybe charge me five shillings just to look at it and tell me what I already know, that I mustn’t try to walk until the swelling goes down. If it doesn’t clear up in a day or so . . . but it will, such things always do. And in the meantime, I’ve got a good little granddaughter who’ll take care of me and see I don’t starve.’
    Maddy sighed. She would have liked to ignore Gran’s wishes and ask the doctor to call anyway, but she knew this might make for ill feeling, whereas at the moment Gran actually seemed to appreciate that Maddy did her best. She decided to leave things as they were for the time being, but when she would have closed the parlour door her grandmother stopped her.
    ‘Don’t shut the door; the kitchen’s where folk expect to find me and I need to keep an eye on you,’ she said. ‘Tell you what, I’ll make you a bargain. If you’ll promise not to leave me I’ll promise to use my stick to help me to walk, not to slap legs. Is that fair?’
    ‘Gran, I wouldn’t leave you. Where would I go?’ Maddy asked, totally astonished. ‘When there’s only two of you, you depend on each other. And if I don’t get those plums soon I’ll be late for the market. We’re running very low on tea; shall I buy two ounces of that with the money?’
    Gran agreed, and suggested that Maddy might see if the change would run to a bag of sugar since they had used the last of their stock. ‘And anything else you fancy with what’s left over. You’re a good girl, Maddy Hebditch,’ she added in a frail voice, quite unlike her own. ‘You won’t be long?’
    Maddy promised to be as quick as she could, and very soon she was at the market place and slipping into her usual position. Alice was helping her to display the eggs and plums to their best advantage when Mrs Grundy came over from the next stall. ‘Eh up, flower,’ she said jovially, peering into Maddy’s basket. ‘They look champion. How’s your gran?’
    Maddy hesitated. She knew Gran liked to give the impression that she was still as capable and businesslike as she had always been, but she knew most of the people at the market must have guessed the truth. She was beginning to say that everything was fine when Alice cut in. ‘Her gran’s had a fall; slipped whilst cooking. She’s awfully old, you know – I’ve never met her, but from what Maddy tells me I should think she must be at least a hundred.’
    There was general laughter but Mrs Grundy shook her head at Alice. ‘Aha, you young ’uns are all alike; you think anyone who b’ain’t young must be old as hills,’ she said sagely. She wagged a finger at Maddy. ‘A fall’s nasty even if you b’ain’t a hundred. You