Mothers and Daughters Read Online Free PDF

impregnating her daughter and his smug arrogance made her feel that somehow
she
was the one at fault for being so judgemental.
    His presence, combined with her anxiety for Evie and the coming child, had spoilt her usual sense of tranquillity of being here in the peace of the countryside after the bustle of London. She loved it here. The house was a typical Suffolk cottage; its thick walls painted a soft yellow though a tiled roof had long since replaced the thatch. The small garden was mostly given over to flower beds filled with easy-to-care-for plants and a few trees dotted the lawn. She and Julian had planned it carefully so it did not need the likes of Nick to maintain it when no one was here.
    Alice hadn’t wanted to go to Suffolk so soon after Evie’s news, though she did want to discuss Laura’s impending marriage with her, and as she was in Suffolk on business it would be churlish not to visit her.
    When the girls started full time school, Alice and Margot Benson, an old friend, began a small interior decorating business. It had done quite well at the beginning, before people had the confidence to choose their own colour schemes, but life, changing fashions and various hiccups had slowed it down to half what it used to be. Two unmarried sisters, Edith and Amy, who were both wonderful needlewomen, made the curtains, cushions and bedheads here in Suffolk. She had an order from someone whose house they’d done up before and was now downsizing, so here she was having arrived with rolls of fabric to pass on to the sisters and staying the night with Evie.
    And here was Nick glowing with energy, his blond hair greying beautifully as if the grey streaks were expensive highlights – which perhaps they were. He was long and rangy, his nose rather misshapen – he said from an accident on the ‘rugger field’ while at school, while others joked that it was from punches from jealous husbands- either could be true. His main attraction was his love of women.
    Alice understood this. Many English men she knew – other people’s husbands – didn’t seem to bother giving their own long-term wives much warm attention, though they often stirred themselves with other people’s. It was as if once they’d got a wife they felt they could sink down into cosy apathy with them and seek their fun elsewhere.
    Nick overdid it; she’d watched him across the years affecting women like a ray of sunshine, making them glow. They’d gravitate towards him, stand a little taller, put on interesting, even seductive expressions. Even though Julian had been warm and loving to her, Alice too had felt Nick’s charm, though she’d ignored it. But this gift of his – or perhaps curse – did not bode well for any woman who expected his undivided attention and commitment, and it made her fear for Evie and the baby.
    Nick had arrived in his gardening van on his way back from a new client, who wanted the overgrown garden in the house he’d recently bought turned into an instant paradise.
    ‘They’ve come from London and bought a country house with his huge bonus, and have no idea how long a garden takes to establish,’ Nick said, as if to steer the conversation onto a safe subject.
    Evie drifted out into the garden and snuggled into his arms just as she used to with her father, touching Alice’s heart as she remembered how close Evie and Julian were. She looked away finding the sight of Evie in Nick’s arms slightly obscene. Cecily was probably right; Evie missed her father but that was no excuse to get so involved with Nick.
    ‘So, Alice, how are you really?’ Nick smiled fondly at her. ‘Julian was such a charming man and you must miss him dreadfully.’
    ‘I do.’ Nick was so direct, but she’d rather that than a sinister silence as if no one wanted to mention the departed and cause pain, when the one left behind could not help but think of them every waking moment.
    Nick’s voice was soft and smooth, soothing the pain inside her.