Be Careful What You Hear Read Online Free PDF Page A

of
trust.’
    I nodded.
Sophie was making sense. What good would it do to talk to James
about it, if I had already made up my mind that there was really
nothing to worry about?
    ‘And for the
record, I don’t think you are slipping back, Georgina.’ She
placed a comforting hand on my arm.
    ‘Thank you,’ I
smiled. ‘So what do you suggest I do?’
    ‘Try to forget
about last night. And try and get some rest. I know it’s hard, with
the little princess there to tend to, but if you’re falling asleep
downstairs on the sofa like that so early in the evening, then you
really need more sleep.’
    I laughed. ‘I
wish.’
    ‘Don’t become
like Michael,’ she warned. ‘If you don’t respect the need for
sleep, then you’re asking for big trouble – your body might just
decide to do something that you don’t really want it to.’
    ‘He’s still got
the insomnia?’
    ‘Oh yes. He’s
hardly slept for weeks. Mostly he sits downstairs, watching night
time television. Goodness knows what he watches when I’m
asleep.’
    ‘And he still
won’t see the doctor about it?’
    ‘No. As I’ve
said before, he doesn’t do doctors. It was bad enough before, but
after the, you know…’
    I’d never heard
Sophie say the word miscarriage.
    ‘…well, that’s
it for him and the medical profession I think.’
    ‘I hope he
changes his mind,’ I said. ‘Surely he can’t go on like this for
much longer.’ I had fears that one day Sophie would call, saying
that Michael had fallen asleep at the wheel and killed himself – he
had to do a large amount of driving in his role for Aspire ,
including visiting their other main office in Leeds.
    ‘I hope he gets
help too,’ she replied. ‘But I feel like I’ve done all I can. It
really needs to come from him. He has to want to be helped,
and I’m just not convinced he does.’

 
     
    5

     
     
    The rest of
the day flew by – a trip to the supermarket, various household
tasks, feeding Grace, and dealing with the results at the other
end. Sometimes I wondered what I did with my life before Grace came
along. How did I fill my time? But it was easy to forget that
before our daughter was born, I had been working full time. And
long hours at that. The one problem about working with your spouse
is that it can be easy to spend too much time at work. It was usual
for both James and I to only return home after eight. Once we had
eaten and washed up it was frequently pushing nine thirty – leaving
about half an hour, an hour tops, to grab some time to relax,
before retiring to bed.
    Grace’s
appearance changed all that, and gave me a new perspective on life.
I used to wonder how I would cope when I wasn’t working full time
in my chosen profession of dentistry. Now, I often wondered how I
would cope on returning – in the first four months, I put this down
to my anxious state of mind, and my rock bottom sense of
self-worth. But in the past two months, in the good times, work
seemed even less appealing. Things had never felt so right, and I
wanted it to be like this forever.
    I hadn’t
mentioned these thoughts to James.
    ‘Hey, George.’
James curled an arm around my waist and kissed me hello as he
entered the kitchen. ‘Is Grace asleep?’
    ‘Half an hour
ago,’ I replied, glancing up at the wall clock and clicking off the
oven. It had just gone eight. The lasagne had been on a low light
for half an hour.
    He pulled an
apologetic face. ‘Sorry, I wanted to be earlier.’
    ‘It’s okay, she
was good going down.’ I’d noticed that since my recovery, James had
started to return home that little bit later than in the dark
times. I wasn’t angry that he had missed Grace’s bath and bedtime.
James was normalising his routine, which was a good thing, as it
meant that things were getting back to normal. For a time, he would
be coming back around half past five, having cut his clinic short.
It had just made me feel even guiltier.
    He pulled out
some plates and slid them