Things I Want My Daughters to Know_ A Novel - Elizabeth Noble [83]
“You,” and she put her arm through Amanda’s, “can come with me to the kitchen, where at least it’s warm, while he does it. Tom and Ginny will be here in a bit. Ed’s brother and his wife. I left them with his dad. They’ve left the boys with Ginny’s mum for a couple of nights, and they’re picking up some fish and chips in Truro on their way over.”
Amanda glanced at Ed, who shrugged and smirked back conspiratorially, and went with Nancy into the kitchen.
ONCE THERE, NANCY DREW A CHAIR UP TO THE AGA, GESTURING for Amanda to sit in it. “I’m sorry Ed’s mercy dash put a spanner in your works, Amanda. He explained to me…about the phone and everything. I told him to go back up to London, but he wouldn’t leave me, sweet boy. Then I told him if you were any kind of girl, you’d give him a chance to explain, which you clearly did. In case he hasn’t convinced you, I can confirm that he was tearing his hair out, trying to get hold of you. He’d kill me for saying so, but I’ve never seen him so worked up about a girl. I’m so glad he finally did.”
“I hope it’s okay that I’m here. I don’t want to intrude….”
“Listen—we’re glad of the company. I’m glad you’re here! I know it’s miserable for my husband, stuck in the hospital, but it’s no picnic being here without him, either. Ed’s been a star. And so has his brother Tom. Dan’s away, of course, but he calls when he can.”
“It’s nice you’re so close to them all.”
“Very nice.” She nodded. “I’ve been a real drip. I surprised myself how much. Don’t know what I would have done if they hadn’t been around.”
Amanda didn’t say anything. She was thinking about Mark, and what those last few weeks with Mum must have been like for him. Thinking that she hadn’t been around.
Nancy shook herself. “Still. We’ve been very lucky. He’ll heal from the accident. And the heart attack—it was one of those warning jobs. He’ll have to give up some of his vices, but…like I say, we’ve been lucky.”
SUPPER WAS FAR JOLLIER THAN AMANDA MIGHT HAVE EXPECTED under the circumstances. Ed uncorked a couple of bottles of wine, while the fish and chips were reheated in the Aga. They stood, leaning against it, drinking and chatting. They all seemed to have Ed’s easy, friendly manner. You could see straightaway that the boys got it from their mother, and, she guessed, that Tom had gone looking for the same things in a wife. She instantly liked Ginny, who was loud, and earthy, and funny. Dead posh, and slightly horsey, but great. Tom looked just like Ed, except that he was about three stone heavier and wore his hair in an altogether more conversative fashion. “Are you joking? I couldn’t get a client, looking like that, not down here!” he had exclaimed, reaching for Ed’s head and being deflected by a sibling blow and a fast ducking.
When they had eaten, they moved to the living room; the fire Ed had set a couple of hours earlier was still blazing in the hearth. Tom poured port for all of them, except Ginny, who was driving, and they sat for a while, in what must constitute companionable silence, staring at the flames.
“So, Amanda,” Tom began. “Tell us how you met my little brother, and what on earth you saw in him.”
“She doesn’t have to do anything of the sort!” Ginny rallied to her defense. “No cross-examinations here, Amanda.”
“I don’t mind.” Amanda smiled demurely. “It’s a very sweet story, actually. I caught him staring at some model-type girl’s tiny arse, in a Starbucks, a few weeks before Christmas. He caught me catching him, and it sort of went from there. Terribly romantic.”
Tom laughed out loud.
“This Christmas? The one we just had?” This was Ginny.
“Yes.”
“So you guys have been together, what, less than a couple of months?” Tom looked amused.
Amanda wondered if she had said the wrong thing and was suddenly grateful that her rucksack was at the end of the guest bed, and not, as he had half suggested earlier, at the end of Ed’s.
“I suppose so!” she admitted. When you put it that way…
Ed put his arm around her shoulder protectively.
“Mind your own business, you lot. We’re together now.”
“Yes, shut up, Tom,