Accidents Happen by Louise Millar Read Free Book Online Page A

daughter-in-law ‘It’s just that it is a little unexpected, darling. What you’ve done.’
    Saskia’s mouth fell open. ‘Unexpected? It’s complete bloody madness, Dad! At what point are you and Mum going to stop pussyfooting around her, and tell her this has to stop?’
    ‘Sass!’
    Kate and Richard glared at her.
    But the volume of Saskia’s voice kept rising.
    ‘Or do you think she’s going to stop you and Mum seeing Jack? Is that why you put up with it?’
    ‘Sass! Enough!’ Richard repeated, his jolliness long gone.
    Kate sighed. After the trauma of Sylvia’s, a fight between Hugo’s family was the last thing she needed.
    ‘Look, I did it in case they come back, Sass,’ she said, trying to keep her voice calm.
    ‘But you’ve just spent thousands on a new alarm!’
    What the hell was her sister-in-law doing?
    ‘Sass, I’m sorry, but this is none of your blood—’ Kate stopped herself. ‘. . . Your business. You know the old alarm was unreliable, always going off. And even if the new one goes off, it still gives them a few minutes to get upstairs. And what if me and Jack are here? What if none of the neighbours takes any notice because they’re so used to the old one going off by accident?’
    ‘Oh for God’s sake. This is BLOODY RIDICULOUS!’ Saskia yelled, half-standing up.
    Kate sat, open-mouthed.
    ‘What about all that money you just spent on putting in the internal locks downstairs? And now this bloody thing,’ Saskia exclaimed, pointing upwards. ‘I mean, Jesus, Kate? How much did it cost? What the hell would Hugo say?’
    Oh no.
    Kate gulped hard. ‘Sass . . . don’t even . . .’
    ‘And then tonight Snores tells us you’re not letting him go to the secondary with his friends because you’re scared he’s going to be stabbed or something; you’re thinking of sending him to some private school on his own? I mean, for God’s sake, Kate, what is wrong with you?’
    Kate blinked. ‘He’s called JACK,’ she said, her voice rising to match her sister-in-law’s.
    Saskia stood facing her, furious.
    Richard and Helen sat quietly. Why were they not stopping this?
    Without planning it, Kate stood up, too.
    ‘Actually, Sass,’ she said, her voice icy, ‘if you must know, though I don’t think it’s any of your bloody business, someone from that school was threatened with a knife. A sixth-former. At a party last weekend in Cowley.’
    Richard tutted. He shook his head at his daughter.
    ‘Listen, Sass. This isn’t helping. Sit down, darling.’
    He waited until she begrudgingly obeyed, then turned to Kate. She also sat down.
    ‘Look, Kate, the thing is, these things happen,’ he said, taking her hand. His hand was large and warm and comforting, like her own father’s used to be. At what point did men’s hands become that shape? Hugo’s had never reached that stage. They had been too strong and busy and vital at his stage of life. Quick hands, energetic.
    ‘I know you’re just trying to protect him, darling, we all understand that. And you know I’d be absolutely delighted if you wanted to send the boy private . . .’ Kate bit her fingernail crossly. Richard had never stopped bloody going on about it since she and Hugo had announced they were sending Jack to the local primary school in London. ‘But I think what Sass is trying to say is –’ he glared at his daughter – ‘and perhaps not in the best way, Sass, is that perhaps things are going a little far. You have to prepare the boy for life, not hide him from it.’
    Kate shook her head. It was all too much: the session with Sylvia, and now this.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, holding up her hands. ‘Richard, Sass, Helen – I appreciate everything you have done for me, I really do. And I know not everything is right in my life right now. But Jack is my child and, really, I’m sorry, but this is no one else’s business.’
    The room fell silent. She picked out the stain on the runner.
    Tears began to form again.