Frozen Charlotte by Priscilla Masters Read Free Book Online Page B

stood back from the Aga. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘I just have to concentrate on being very glad that I have you,’ she said. ‘Both of you because it’s all I have of your father.’ She smiled at Sam. ‘You’re so like him, you know, in many ways. You look like him. Apart from . . .’
    ‘The hair,’ Sam said, smiling at her. ‘Thanks, Mum.’
    Sukey was quiet for a moment, too motionless not to be forming some other thought. ‘Mu-um’, she said at last, ‘does it always happen that the guys you fancy don’t fancy you?’
    Martha laughed. ‘Mostly. In my experience anyway.’
    ‘Did you fancy Dad right away?’
    She needed to be truthful. ‘Not at first, no. He wasn’t the most handsome of men. It was later, when I talked to him, that I realized what a very nice, kind and intelligent person he was. That was when—’
    ‘So he fancied you first.’
    She nodded. ‘He said he thought I looked different.’ She smiled. ‘He said later on that he’d been right.’
    She laughed then realized Sukey was watching her, needing something from her. ‘Darling,’ she said to her daughter, ‘you’re very young. You will meet people you think you love and find out you were wrong and you’ll meet people who don’t initially attract you but interest you and quite often they turn out to be the really good things in your life. Now then,’ she said, wiping her hands down her apron, ‘enough chatter. It’s time to get the breakfast on.’
    ‘What about Agnetha?’
    ‘She’ll be down when she smells the bacon.’
    Martha enjoyed herself cooking the huge breakfast for the family. Perhaps it was the Irish in her but it felt so normal, the house filled with the scent and sound of bacon frying. A warm, comfortable, greasy, sizzling, winter’s smell. As they sat around, munching toast and the fry-up, sipping juice and coffee, Agnetha appeared, already dressed in tight skinny jeans and a scarlet sweater. Sam and Sukey were teasing each other.
    ‘So how was last night,’ Sam asked his twin as he crunched on a bit of crispy bacon.’
    Sukey shrugged. ‘Oh, you know. OK, I suppose. You ought to come out with us one evening.’
    ‘Maybe I will,’ Sam grunted, ‘though it’s not really my scene.’
    ‘Not sure it’s mine either.’ Sukey sighed loudly. ‘But I must have a “scene” otherwise there’s no point being a teenager. Dire. Let’s change the subject. How long do you think you’ll be injured for?’
    ‘I’ve got to have a check-up with the doctor next week,’ Sam said. ‘But really I feel absolutely fine now. One hundred per cent so I think I should be playing again by next weekend.’
    ‘Don’t you ever get fed up with football?’
    ‘Never,’ Sam answered fervently, as though she had asked a devout Christian whether he ever got fed up with God. ‘But . . .’ He stopped abruptly and they all looked at him, his mother, sister and Agnetha. He went red. Almost red enough for his face to clash with his hair.
    ‘What is it,’ Martha prompted gently.
    Sam coloured even more. ‘It’s only been mentioned .’
    They all waited.
    ‘It’s just a possibility,’ he said carefully, ‘that I might be lent to Stoke too – just for a season.’
    Martha’s heart leapt but it was Sukey who said it. ‘You could live at home with us?’
    Sam grinned at them all. ‘Except Agnetha. You won’t be here, will you?’
    ‘I will be a married woman,’ she said primly, ‘back in Sweden.’
    ‘But it would still be good,’ he said uncertainly, ‘wouldn’t it?’
    Martha raised her glass of juice. ‘Certainly would,’ she said. ‘We’ll drink to that.’ She gave the slightest of glances in her daughter’s direction. ‘Won’t we, Suks?’
    Her daughter went only ever so slightly pink.
    ‘I was wondering,’ Agnetha continued tentatively, ‘if you would allow her to be one of my bridesmaids possibly?’
    ‘Yes. Yes, Agnetha. Of course, provided she’d like to. You know Sukey.’
    Sukey