Read Secrets to Keep for Free Online Page B

fell to pieces, couldn’t even go to the privy by herself for ages afterwards. She broke down when she first heard about Mam, but now it seems like a … well, a determination has come over her to get on with what she needs to do for Mam. Whether she’ll fall apart after she’s finished laying her out remains to be seen. You know how close me gran and mam were.’
    Aidy paused to take a deep breath, the pain she wassuffering creasing her face, and whispered, ‘I know it’s me mam, but I couldn’t offer to help Gran. The thought just made me feel sick. But she understood. In fact, she was relieved. She really wanted to attend to it by herself. She said her mother was the first to see to Mam when she was born, and being’s she is still alive, it should be her mother who is the last to see to her too.’
    The look on Arch’s face betrayed the fact that, like his wife, he found the thought of what Bertha was doing totally repellent.
    Getting up from her chair, Aidy said, ‘I’ll mash a cuppa.’ As she was busying herself with her task, she told him, ‘I’ll be staying here tonight, Arch.’
    He was sitting at the table now. Thankfully Aidy’s back was to him so she didn’t see the expression he pulled. Despite the circumstances, he selfishly didn’t like the thought of not having his wife beside him in bed to snuggle up to tonight. This would be the first night in five years of marriage they had not slept together. He knew better than to voice his thoughts, though, as his wife would not hold back from telling him exactly what she thought of him for thinking purely of his own needs at a time when he should be thinking of others. He said, ‘I suppose I’d better go and tell me mam what’s happened.’
    Aidy spun round to look at him, horrified. ‘Can’t that wait until tomorrow? I couldn’t cope with her tonight, and I know Gran couldn’t either.’
    Arch didn’t take offence at his wife’s words about his mother. Pat Nelson was a big woman, in body and character. Despite Aidy herself being strong enough never to let the likes of her mother-in-law dominate her, Pat would feel duty bound to interfere. As soon as she learned the news of Jessie Greenwood’s death, regardless of her son asking her not to, she would be round here, taking over in her bossy way, getting on her son’s nerves, let alone his wife’s at this extremely difficult time.
    ‘I’ll pop around tomorrow after work. What about your work, Aidy? They’ll need to be told what’s gone on.’
    ‘Oh, I hadn’t given work a thought. Could you call in at lunchtime and tell them for me?’
    He nodded and told her that of course he would. As Aidy returned to the task of making the tea, he opened his mouth to ask if her mother’s funeral arrangements had been discussed, but then thought that might not have been tackled yet. He didn’t want to upset her further by bringing to mind that additional trauma when she was still trying to accept that her mother had actually died. Anything else he could think of to ask her, like how her day at work had gone, seemed trivial in the circumstances so a silence reigned between them, broken only by the clattering of cups as Aidy gathered them together and the sound of the water coming to boil in the kettle on the stove.
    As Aidy put a cup of tea before him, a thought occurred to her and she exclaimed, ‘Oh, Arch, I’m so sorry, I’ve completely forgotten about your dinner. I was going to heat up the remains of last night’s stew and boil you some spuds. Do you think you can see to that yourself when you get back home?’
    He supposed he had no choice, in the circumstances, unless he wanted to go hungry. In truth, though, he wasn’t actually sure how to put the stove on. Aidy had always seen to the cooking of their meals, and his mother before her … He once used to enjoy Pat’s food, but now he had Aidy’s cooking to compare it with, he could see his mother was barely an adequate cook. Oh, he knew