Cradle to Grave by Aline Templeton Read Free Book Online Page B

plate of biscuits on a tray.
    ‘For goodness’ sake, Gran, you can’t go saying things like that!’ Maidie protested. ‘Beth, don’t pay any attention. You’ve got very pretty eyes – lovely colour, and quite unusual with your dark hair.’
    Ina pursed her lips in annoyance. Maidie’s unrelenting cheerfulness and imperviousness to insult had always been a source of frustration.
    ‘I’ll say what I like and you’ll not stop me,’ she said, but the moment had passed. Her victim was on her feet, persuading Calum to help put the bricks in the box before he got his juice.
    ‘Good boy, Calum! Now sit down nicely so you don’t spill.’ Beth scooped up the child with practised ease and settled him beside her on the sofa.
    ‘You’re an absolute godsend!’ Maidie handed Beth a mug. ‘I’ve got a dozen things done this morning that I haven’t had time to do for weeks, and there’s a cake in the oven for tea. That’ll be nice, won’t it, Gran?’
    Gran’s face indicated merely irritation at this attempt at good cheer, and Maidie went on, ‘Calum’s been a wee angel for you, Beth. I barely recognise him! You must have worked with children – or have you young brothers and sisters?’
    It was an innocent remark. So why should Beth’s face have gone scarlet? Ina wondered. Something odd there. ‘She’s an only child,’ Ina put in – purely in a spirit of helpfulness, of course.
    ‘I’ve – I’ve never worked with children,’ Beth stammered. ‘I – I did other things.’
    It was so clearly untrue that Maidie in her turn became flustered. ‘Sorry, I – I didn’t mean to pry.’
    ‘She’s lying, obviously,’ Ina said in a conversational tone. ‘What’s she lying for?’
    Beth jumped to her feet, startling the toddler, who bawled in fright. She went to the door and wrenched it open.
    ‘I’m going out.’
    ‘Beth, it’s pouring!’ Maidie protested in distress. ‘There’s no need—’
    The girl turned in the doorway. ‘Oh, yes, there is. I’m leaving before I do something I’ll regret to that evil old bat!’
    The door slammed behind her.
    ‘Well! Nice manners, I don’t think!’ Ina tittered.
    For once provoked beyond bearing, Maidie picked up the sobbing Calum and carried him out, saying over her shoulder, ‘She’s absolutely right. I should have called you that more often, instead of just thinking it.’
    The door was slammed again, leaving Ina McClintock Buchan alone, with an unpleasant smirk of satisfaction on her face.
     
    Beth felt sick, sick and frightened as she half-ran past the kennels. They hadn’t believed her; she’d never been a good liar.
    ‘You were angry, weren’t you, when you had to give up your evening out?’
    The man in the wig hadn’t moved his eyes off her face since the questioning began. She felt as if he had flayed away the skin, as if now he was paring the flesh off her bones.
    She hesitated. ‘I said I didn’t mind.’
    She knew it sounded feeble. He let a pause develop. Then, ‘You said you didn’t mind.’ He gave the word intense significance. ‘Said it. But you didn’t mean it, did you?’
    And she hadn’t known how to reply.
    What was going to happen now? She didn’t dare to think.
     
    ‘The super’s right – Donaldson is a bit of an old woman,’ Fleming said, as she drove towards Kirkcudbright with MacNee. ‘But that isn’t to say he hasn’t got a point. After all, the Carron’s burst its banks already and this rain’s showing no sign of letting up. The bridge was still clear when he checked it yesterday, but the level wasn’t falling. And apart altogether from the question of the strain on the bridge with the river in spate, you have to consider that you could have hundreds of fans stranded if it rises any more. There’d be absolutely no way of getting them off the headland that wouldn’t involve helicopters or a flotilla of boats, and I’m not sure how much of the Dunkirk spirit survives in Kirkcudbright.’
    MacNee