‘More snow? Really?’
I had nothing against snow. In fact, I quite liked it and it was lovely to look at, but taking Merry for her walks wasn’t quite such fun. Her long fur brushed against it and even with her warm coat, it got onto her fur and formed large clumps of ice.
‘Don’t you like snow?’ Elsie asked. ‘Josie and Diana love it. So do I, I suppose.’
‘I love it to look at and to build a snowman, or make a snow angel, but Merry’s tummy is closer to the ground, so she’s not a huge fan.’
Merry barked as if to agree with me.
‘Poor Merry,’ Elsie said. ‘That hadn’t occurred to me. Perhaps we should ask one of the men to make her a little sled?’
‘But then she wouldn’t get to walk, and as a spaniel, she does like her exercise.’
‘Sledging is exercise,’ Diana said. ‘It’s really hard work.’
‘We should all go sledging,’ Josie shrieked, excitedly.
‘Not today, honey bee,’ Elsie said, as we all gingerly made our way down the sloped driveway.
‘Wish me luck then.’
Diana shivered noticeably. Probably more from fear of what she had to do than from the cold.
‘Good luck,’ the three of us said.
The others gave her a hug, so I did the same, and we all waved as she walked away.
Josie shook her head. ‘I feel so sorry for Mikkel. The poor guy doesn’t deserve this.’
‘I’m surprised Diana is taking Alex back,’ Elsie said, a hint of sadness and maybe a touch of doubt in her intonation.
‘Me too.’ Josie actually looked a little tearful. ‘I’m not sure she’s made the right choice. No. Scrap that. I’m sure she hasn’t. I’ll admit Alex does seem to have changed over the last week or so since Bernice died, but once the shock of it wears off, he may well simply revert to his old ways. I heard what she said about the shock making him re-evaluate his life and what’s important and all that, but this is Alex we’re talking about.’
‘I know,’ Elsie said. ‘But even if we think we know what’s best for someone, it doesn’t mean we’re always right. People do things for all sorts of reasons that we might not agree with, or even begin to understand. That doesn’t make them wrong. Every person has to do what feels right for them, no matter what others may say, or think, or feel, or want. And sometimes we have to risk hurting someone even though that’s the last thing we want to do.’
Josie glanced at her, raised one brow and cocked her head to one side. ‘That’s deep, Elsie.’ There was a trace of sarcasm in her words.
Elsie cleared her throat, and Merry peed on her garden wall.
‘Yes. Well. I think Merry’s just shown what she thinks of my pontificating. I should leave sermons to the vicar.’
‘And I’ll love you and leave you for a while.’ Josie grinned and kissed Elsie on the cheek and immediately did the same to me. ‘I’ll see you in the café.’
We waved her off and crossed the road.
‘Let’s get Merry to the beach where she can run around on the sand,’ Elsie said.
She seemed to be avoiding eye contact now, almost as if what she’d said a few minutes before had embarrassed her in some way. I didn’t know why it should. Her words had made perfect sense to me.
The snow had fallen while the tide was going out so only the sand near the promenade and a few of the rocks were covered in a blanket of white, but the salt air was rapidly eating into that. The rest of the beach was wet sand and looked pretty safe, so I let Merry off the lead as soon as we stepped onto it from the promenade.
She immediately dashed after a seagull that had been bashing a shell against a rock, while another squawked overhead as if warning Merry away, but she bounded forward, regardless.
‘She’s adorable,’ Elsie said. ‘And she’s grown so big since I last saw her.’
‘Yes. She was still a tiny puppy then. But three years is a long time in a dog’s life.’
‘It’s a long time in a human’s too, in many ways, but in some, I expect it only seems like yesterday. I wish you’d contacted me before, Lottie. When you were having trouble maintaining the house, I mean. I could’ve helped you out, financially. You wouldn’t have needed to sell. I’d assumed the reason you moved was just because it was too big for one person, or the memories were too much to cope with on a daily basis. I had no idea you moved for financial reasons.’
I lowered my gaze and continued walking, although Elsie had slowed to a stop, but after a few more steps I turned to face her, shaking my head as I did so.
‘Mum and Dad left me some money, but I knew if I spent it on the house, it would soon run out, as I didn’t have a job. There was no way I would’ve let you help me out, financially. I hardly knew you. I know Mum and Dad thought the world of you, and that’s really one of the reasons I’m here now, but at the time, I sort of resented the fact that you were there and they weren’t. That sounds dreadful, but what I mean is that you were always full of life, and Mum and Dad had just died. I know they were both about ten years older than you, but I couldn’t help thinking, why them? Why did they have to die?’
‘I understand, believe me. When Eric died, I felt the same. Why him? And the strange thing was – and this really does sound dreadful. Far worse than anything you said. I only married Eric to get away from my mum. I’m not saying I didn’t love him. I did. But maybe not as much as a woman should love the man she marries. And Mum wasn’t a child-beater or anything. In fact, she was a very caring woman. Too caring. She virtually smothered me with her version of motherly love. And she held me up to be some paragon of virtue, which I never was. Not really. I’m five years older than my sister, Tibby, and Mum only wanted one child. She didn’t particularly like kids although she’d never admit that to anyone, but to be a real family, one had to have a child, as far as Mum was concerned. Anyway, she made poor Tibby’s life a pain by constantly comparing us and telling Tibby she must try to be more like me.’
‘Oh gosh,’ I said, for want of anything better. I was surprised by this revelation.
‘I tried behaving badly, partly to take some of the pressure off Tibby and partly because I was tired of being the ‘perfect child’, but all that did was upset Mum and make her even more cross with Tibby. When I met Eric it was obvious that he’d fallen for me almost right away. He was kind and considerate. He was everything most women want in a man. In a husband. So I dated him and when he asked me to marry him just a few months later, I said yes without hesitation.’
‘Wow. Did your mum like Eric? Was she pleased?’
‘She was pleased that he had a career with a bright future, that he was good-looking and polite and that he’d take care of me. Other than that, she didn’t say. I felt bad about leaving Tibby, but by then Tibby had learnt to cope with Mum, and she was rebellious and knew how to have fun. You don’t know this, obviously, but Tibby has turned into a replica of Mum. A clone almost. She treated Diana like Mum treated me, and Josie, who is younger by five minutes, as a sort of poor second. I was often nagging her about it but she couldn’t see what she was doing. And Josie was strong. She is strong. In fact, I think, in a strange way, Josie has actually become a better person. I’m not justifying Tibby’s behaviour. But Josie is much more sensitive of people’s feelings than Diana is. She’s fiercely loyal too. And she’s considerate and kind. But for years she was a tearaway and it’s only now that she’s with Liam that she’s really coming into her own and proving what a wonderful woman she truly is.’