Tangled Lives by Hilary Boyd Read Free Book Online Page A

Annie knew her to be.
    ‘God, she hasn’t changed a bit!’ Jamie exclaimed as he got out of the car and went to greet the old lady.
    ‘Jamie, dear, this is such a pleasure for me!’ Marjory embraced him, then moved to kiss Annie. For a moment Annie clung to her, wallowing in Aunt Best’s reassuring love.
    ‘Sorry, guys, need a pee.’ Jamie carefully sashayed past Marjory into the hall.
    ‘End on the left,’ Marjory called, looking after Jamie. ‘He hasn’t changed at all. He still looks so young.’
    ‘That’s exactly what he said about you.’
    ‘Would that it were true.’ Marjory shook her head, a wry smile lighting her washed-out blue eyes. ‘I’d make a pact with the devil to be mobile again, but the bastard hasn’t made me an offer yet.’
    They went through to the kitchen, where Marjory hadset out lunch on the oak table. Unlike the rest of the large house, the room was warm. What will Daniel make of this place, Annie wondered, glancing around with a new eye now that she had her son in mind. It had not been redecorated in at least two decades and was gloriously untidy, filled with piles of books, newspapers, sketches on torn-off scraps of paper, paintbrushes soaking in jam jars full of murky water. She knew Marjory still had her ‘morning woman’, as she called Mrs Blundell, but Joan was almost as ancient as Marjory. Annie revelled in the familiar chaos. She sank gratefully into the worn armchair by the Raeburn, almost hoping that her son wouldn’t come, as she listened to Marjory and Jamie catching up on the decades since they had last met.
    ‘Sit, sit,’ Marjory urged her guests, pouring a glass of red wine for each of them. They ate the smoked mackerel, potato salad, sliced beetroot and brown bread in silence for a while, perhaps nobody wanting to be the first person to mention the reason why they were there.
    Marjory eventually took courage. ‘He’s coming at two?’
    ‘He said so, yes.’
    ‘He knows how to get here, I assume.’
    ‘I only gave him the address. Do you think I should have sent him detailed directions? It’s not that easy to find.’ Annie began to panic.
    Jamie laughed. ‘He’ll ring if he’s lost, darling. We live in the twenty-first century now. He’s not a child.’
    Annie was upset by her friend’s remark. For a momentDaniel’s missing childhood hovered between them. She looked yet again at the large station clock ticking loudly on the wall beside the wooden dresser. It said one thirty-five, three minutes later than when she’d last checked. Her heart was fluttering and her mouth dry. She wished she hadn’t had the glass of wine. Would he smell it on her breath?
    ‘Shall we sit in here when he comes?’ Marjory asked. ‘I’ve done a fire in the sitting room, but it’s still not very warm in there.’
    Annie glanced at her two friends, waiting for guidance.
    ‘Let’s stay in here. It’s properly cosy … love it.’ Jamie declared, throwing his arms wide to embrace the mess as if it were an artwork. ‘OK if I just go for a wander in the garden before he gets here?’ he asked, getting up from the table.
    Marjory nodded to him.
    ‘I don’t really know what to expect,’ Annie said, when they were alone.
    ‘Expect nothing if you can, dear.’ Marjorie reached across to pat Annie’s hand. ‘Because there might be disappointment. You might not relate to him, or you might not even like him. He might be angry, or needy … just plain dull.’
    Annie said nothing, not believing a word of what Aunt Best was telling her. Of course I’ll like my own son, she said to herself.
    ‘I’m not saying it will be like this, of course. It’s just he’s spent a lifetime out of sight, and genes don’t guaranteelove. You know as well as anybody, parenting is about familiarity, Annie. You see your child every minute of every day, for decades. You build on your primary instinct to love. But with Tom, you only have the fact that you’re related, and the memory that