The Grace Girls (30 page)

A while later, as they sat listening to a radio progra
mme, the front doorbell rang.

‘Who could that be?’ Kirsty said, checking the time on the clock. She got to her feet. ‘It can’t be my mammy and daddy back yet surely, it’s only quarter to eight.’

‘Maybe they want to collect something,’ Heather suggested. ‘Or maybe it’s Liz, wanting to have a chat about the wedding again.’

‘That’ll be interesting,’ Kirsty said, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. ‘We’ll all have to sit around again like stuffed ducks kiddin’ on that we don’t know Liz is expectin’. If it is her, I’m going into the kitchen to listen to the radio there, I couldn’t be doing wi’ listening to her yappin’ on about how brilliant Jim Murray is.’

She went out into the hallway, and could see a tall, dark-headed figure she didn’t recognise through the small panes of glass at the top. Surely it wasn’t Larry Delaney again, she thought. She smoothed her hair down and took a deep breath before opening the door.

Standing on the doorstep, looking unusually dishevelled
and obviously drunk, was Gerry Stewart.

‘Is Heather in?’ he said, supporting himself on the door
-frame. ‘I was out for a wee walk, and I thought I would call in to see her.’

‘Well, I don’t know how pleased she’s going to be when she sees the state of you, and you’re lucky my father’s not in
as well,’ Kirsty said, folding her arms across her chest and shaking her head. ‘Heather!’ she called along the hallw
ay, not knowing whether to laugh or be obviously critical of him. Still, she thought, it livened up a fairly quiet Christmas evening. ‘You’ve got a surprise visitor . . .’

Chapter 34

Mona came back into the kitchen where the rest of the gr
oup were watching the last two left in a game of cards. Not wanting to disturb them, she looked back into the living-room where the lads and a few of their friends were sitting in the dark, engrossed in some sports programme on the television. She stood at the door looking at the black and white screen for a while, but not taking in anything that was happening on it. Then, when she heard a bit of cheering from the kitchen, she took it as a signal that the game was finished, and went back in to rinse out the few cups and glasses that were waiting to be washed in the sink.

‘That room is that packed with lads, you’d swear you were in at the pictures,’ Mona said to Sophie, thumbing back in the direction of the living-room. ‘But at least it keeps them all quiet, and you know where they are.’

‘It’s great,’ Sophie agreed, coming over to dry the things
for her. ‘I don’t think it’ll be too long until we get one o
urselves. I can see Fintan getting more interested in it ever
y time we come over to watch yours.’ She lowered her voice
now. ‘How’s Lily?’ she asked. ‘Has she settled for the night?’

Mona crossed her wet fingers and closed her eyes for a moment as though in prayer. ‘Hopefully,’ she said, giving a small strained smile. ‘I hate to say it, but it’s been a mixed blessing having her home. We hardly slept a wink last night, worrying about her – listening to her breathing and our hearts nearly stopping every time she gave a cough.’

‘She looked tired when Pat lifted her up the stairs,’ Sophie commented, ‘so you’ll probably all get a good night’s sleep tonight.’

‘I hope so,’ Mona said. She suddenly stopped and then tears started to well up in her eyes. ‘I think maybe we were all expectin’ too much . . . we built ourselves up, and then it’s been hard to take it when she’s complainin’ about everything. She’s been going on all evening about how she never got taken in to see Santie in his grotto this year. How could I take her into a big shop in Wishaw or Motherwell? We’d have had to carry her in, and then have everybody gawking at her as if she was some kind of invalid.’

‘Sure, you couldn’t,’ Sophie agreed solemnly.

‘She’s too young to understand that she’s just cross because she’s still very weak and sore, and that she’s frustrated at not being able to move.’ Mona rummaged for a hanky in her cardigan pocket and then dabbed at her stre
aming eyes. ‘We thought havin’ her home for Christm
as would mean that she was fine . . . that she was back to normal. But she’s not fine at all, Sophie. She’s still a very sick wee girl.’

Sophie patted her sister-in-law’s shoulder. ‘Don’t let thi
ngs get on top of you, Mona. Lily has improved a hundred per cent since she first took bad, and we all see improvements in her every day.’ She gave a little laugh. ‘Sure, a
few weeks ago she could hardly talk, and now she’s chatting away like a wee budgie.’

Mona nodded, looking slightly mollified by the comforting words.

‘Was Lily delighted with all her Christmas presents?’ Fintan asked, as the game came to an end. ‘She has some pile of stuff out there.’

‘Oh, indeed she was,’ Mona said, smiling now, ‘especiall
y when somebody played the games with her. The boys were good, they all took turns playing with her the whole day.’ She laughed. ‘Poor Patrick even sat playing scraps with her this afternoon, sorting out all her cherubs and angels into piles, and then she had him trying to do some kind of a crochet set. It came with the crochet hooks and wool and everything.’ She sighed. ‘I don’t know who got it for her, but you’d think they’d have more sense than to buy her something fiddly like that when she can hardly lift her arms. She got all annoyed with it, and flung the basket with all the wool and everything across the room.’

‘Ah, she’ll soon be back to her oul’ self,’ Fintan said, patting Mona’s arm.

‘I hope so,’ Mona said, ‘because you begin to feel as if it’s all your fault she’s so miserable – as if you should be able to make everything all right.’

Wouldn’t every parent like to make everything all right for their family?’ Fintan said. ‘Especially the little ones – but there’s only so much we can do. After that,’ he gestured towards the ceiling, ‘it’s up to the man above.’

‘And there’s times we’d feckin’ well like to know what
He’s
thinkin’,’ Pat cut in. ‘Because I’m none too pleased with Him at the minute after what He’s done to my poor wee lassie. I might as well tell ye, I’m none too pleased with Him at all.’

‘Don’t be saying things like that, Pat,’ Mona snapped. ‘And don’t be lettin’ the boys hear you either.’ She shook
her head despairingly. ‘It’s bad enough wi’ all that’s alrea
dy happened in the Grace family to make them toe the line – if they heard you talking such blasphemy we’d have no chance.’

There was a little silence, as everyone pointedly ignored Mona’s jibe about Claire.

‘Listen, Mona,’ Sophie said now, ‘why don’t you go and sit down at the table, and I’ll bring you over a nice hot brandy?’ Then, before her almost teetotal sister-in-law could argue, she said, ‘It’ll do you good, and it’ll help you to sleep, medicinal like.’

There was a moment’s hesitation. ‘If I have one – will you have one as well?’ Mona checked.

‘I will,’ Sophie said, smiling. ‘Sure, isn’t it Christmas night? If we can’t let ourselves go a wee bit tonight, when can we?’

‘I just thought I’d come down and have a word with you about Liz and Jim,’ Gerry said, as he sat at the kitchen table, drinking the cup of tea that Heather had poured for him. ‘I know we’re not going out any more, and I’m not trying to get back in with you or anything . . . but you’re the only one that knows them as well as me.’

Heather stood with her back to the cooker, holding her own cup of tea between both hands. She had tried to keep Gerry at the door, but he had ended up rambling on in such a loud voice that she felt it was easier to bring him inside for a few minutes. Despite pleading with Kirsty to stay in the kitchen with them, her sister had given a derisory laugh and gone back into the living-room saying, ‘He’s your visitor –
you
entertain him.’

‘I think they’re off their heads getting married,’ Gerry stated now, his face a picture of misery. ‘Jim Murray had no intention of getting tied down – I know that for a fact. He even told me that he was going to dump Liz after Christmas.’

‘Well, that was obviously just big talk,’ Heather said quietly. ‘Fellas often say things like that to their pals, in case they look soft in front of them.’

‘I don’t care whether he was talking big or not, the fact is Jim’s too young and they’ve hardly got a penny to their names.’ He looked up at Heather. ‘D’you know where they’re going to have to live?’ When Heather looked blank, he went on indignantly: ‘His granny’s spare room! What a start to married life. What do you think of that?’

Heather was silent for a few moments. Surely Gerry knew that they were
having
to get married? ‘It’s not up to m
e or you to think anything – that’s Liz and Jim’s business
, and I’m not going to interfere.’ She took a sip of her tea, wishing he would just hurry up and go home. ‘By the sounds of things they’ve made up their minds what they want to do.’

‘It’s more a case of what Jim’s being made to do,’ Gerry muttered. ‘She trapped him into this.’

So he did know. ‘Well,’ Heather said, picking her words carefully, ‘it takes two to tango . . . and Jim looked happy enough to me the other night when they were coming back from Glasgow.’

‘He’s a blidey clown,’ Gerry stated. ‘It’s not what he wants . . . he was in tears telling me the other night. He says it’ll ruin his life. He said if I had still been going to Australia, he would have come along wi’ me.’

‘Well, he probably had a few drinks in him,’ Heather said pointedly. ‘The same way you have now . . .’

Gerry pushed the mug of tea away from him, not even noticing that he had spilled drops from it onto the paper Christmas tablecloth. ‘You can be awful hard-hearted, Heather Grace,’ he said, standing up. ‘Surely you don’t want your pal to marry somebody that has no feelings for her?’

‘It’s to be hoped he has
some
feelings for her,’ Heather snapped, ‘when he’s got her into the position she’s in now. And anyway it’s nothing to do with us.’

He shook his head. ‘It’s all a blidey mess – them getting married when Jim doesn’t want to. It’ll never work out.’ He ran a hand through his dark hair. ‘If it had been me and you – at least we were suited. At least we would have made a go of it, once we got over this daft notion you have of needing a break.’

‘Gerry,’ Heather said through clenched teeth, and going over to open the door to the hall, ‘get it into that thick head of yours that we would
never
have made a go of anything. It was only a teenage romance and now it’s over, just like hundreds of other couples who finish up every week.’ She paused for breath. ‘And anyway, you have a new girlfriend. You shouldn’t even be here talking to me – it’s not fair on her. She’s a lovely-looking girl and she doesn’t deserve to have you visiting an ex-girlfriend.’

Gerry shook his head and muttered something under his breath that sounded like, ‘She’s nothing . . .’

Heather walked down the hallway ahead of him now, towards the front door. ‘I’m going over to visit Lily in a few minutes,’ she said, immediately feeling bad about lying, especially when it was about her sick little cousin, ‘so it’s about time you went home.’

Gerry came towards her, and then as he went to go out the door, he suddenly swung round and gripped her tightly around the waist. ‘I love you!’ he whispered fiercely, his blazing eyes piercing straight into hers. ‘And if Jim Murray and Liz Mullen can make a go of it, then I don’t see why we can’t.’

‘Because I don’t love you!’ Heather enunciated very slowly, pulling out of his grip.

‘I might as well tell you,’ he said, letting go of her, ‘that I’m not going to give up. I’m going to keep waiting for you until you change your mind.’

‘Well, you’re wasting your time,’ she called after him, ‘and don’t say I didn’t warn you!’

She closed the door firmly, and sent up a prayer of gratitude that neither of her parents had been in to witness the unbeliev­able argument that had just taken place. She f
elt hot with embarrassment over the whole affair, know
ing that Fintan would have disapproved of Gerry being allowed into the house with a drink on him to start off with. And God knows what he would have said and done when he heard the two of them arguing. Heather shook her head, hardly able to believe that it had happened herself. This definitely wasn’t the Gerry who she had started going out with all those months ago. This Gerry was a total stranger.

‘Did he not even bring you a Christmas present?’ Kirsty said, affecting wide-eyed innocence as her sister came storming back into the living-room. She had obviously he
ard the exchange between Heather and her ex-boyfriend
.

‘It’s not a bit funny!’ Heather snapped, her dark hair flying as her head moved in temper. ‘And I certainly didn’t want any Christmas presents from him.’ She strode over to the window, lifting the curtain to check if he was gone. ‘I think that fella’s gone off his head. You should have heard the things he was saying to me.’

‘What kind of things?’ Kirsty said, all interested.

‘Aw, rubbish about loving me and never letting me go – all that kind of daft nonsense.’

‘You should be flattered that he thinks so much of you,’ Kirsty responded flippantly, then when she saw the enraged look on her sister’s face she regretted not thinking first.