Licence to Dream by Anna Jacobs Read Free Book Online Page B

In fact, why don’t you come home for good while you’re at it? Surely you’ve had enough travelling around now?
    You could live with your grandmother till you find somewhere of your own. She gets lonely.
     
    The wedding date coincided exactly with the final exams for the year. Meriel wrote to explain that she was taking some art courses and asked if the wedding could be postponed for two weeks.
    The reply from her mother was full of exclamation marks and underlining. Everything was booked. They couldn’t possibly change it, had had enough trouble finding somewhere free around that time. Surely a mother’s wedding was more important than an exam in a hobby subject?
    But Meriel didn’t give in to the emotional blackmail. She sent a nice present, a piece of antique silver she knew her mother would treasure, and apologised for not being there.
    The letters stopped for a few weeks, then resumed again, little changed. The wedding photographs showed that her mother had lost weight and looked happy. Her sister had put on weight and looked – Meriel frowned as she stared at the pictures – Helen looked resigned, as if she wasn’t particularly happy with life.
    ‘Well, I’m never going to look like that,’ Meriel muttered. Since the episode with Gary, she knew she’d been sharper with people. She hadn’t given men up or anything neurotic like that, but she now kept things light. She wasn’t looking for a permanent relationship at this stage in her life.
    From then on, the letters from England hardly varied from one month to the next, always beginning with, Well, dear . . . and ending with the wish that Meriel would come to her senses and return home.
    * * * *
    A few months later the envelope was addressed in thick black ink and carried the news that Meriel’s grandmother had died in her sleep. She felt sad about that, but not nearly as sad as she had when Grandpop passed away.
    She phoned her mother, finding her uncharacteristically subdued.
    ‘I’m going to miss Mum,’ Denise said with a sigh. ‘I enjoyed popping round to her house for a chat. There’ll be no one to pop round and chat to me when I’m old.’
    ‘Of course there will. Helen lives just down the road.’
    Silence, then. ‘She may be moving. Peter’s been offered a job in Yorkshire.’
    ‘Oh. I’m sorry.’
    ‘Perhaps Ralph and I will come out and visit you one year.’
    ‘That’d be lovely.’ But she didn’t think her mother was likely to undertake such a long journey.
    ‘Ralph and I will be moving soon, too.’
    ‘Oh?’
    ‘I inherited everything from Mum. We’re going to sell her house and both ours and buy a detached house with a garden.’
    ‘That’ll be wonderful. Are you into gardening now?’
    ‘Ralph’s teaching me. I do like a pretty garden. It sets a house off so nicely. I’ll send you a memento before I dispose of Mum’s things.’
    Meriel had a sudden thought. ‘Are Grandpop’s tools still there?’
    ‘Yes. Mum would never let me get rid of them.’
    ‘Then that’s what I want. I’ll pay the freight.’
    Denise roused instantly out of her lethargy. ‘I can’t believe you want those rusty old things.’
    ‘I do. Very much. Just pack them up and send me a bill.’
    The family wedding and funeral made Meriel realise she had no intention of ever going back to live in England. She’d fallen in love with Western Australia on the very first day and that love had only grown stronger as time passed.
    She was going to apply to become an Australian citizen. But she wouldn’t tell her mother about that.
    The art course was the main focus of her life now. It was well structured and she was learning all manner of fascinating techniques. Straight A student, too. If only she could do it full-time. She got very tired sometimes of trying to fit everything in.
    But what was the use of wishing for the moon? As Grandpop had said, you sometimes had to go the long way round to get to your chosen goal. At least she was well on the