Untimely Graves by Marjorie Eccles Read Free Book Online Page A

to be admitted that she kept it in order – more or less – saying off-handedly that life was made easier if you knew just where to put your hands on a clean pair of knickers when you needed them. Daphne saw to it that she helped with the housework when she was around, though truly she found her daughter more of a hindrance than a help to her own efficiency. And nowadays, Cleo occasionally cleared the table after meals and put the dishes in the dishwasher without needing to be reminded. But dedicated to domesticity she was not.
    ‘Val must be desperate,’ was all Daphne allowed herself to say, in a jokey sort of way, as she whisked around, getting ready to go out. She’d learned to hold her tongue, and sometimes her tight-lipped disapproval. She did try, she really did. As she did now, by changing the subject. ‘Do you like my new bowling skirt?’
    It was important to Daphne that she always looked exactly right, even just playing bowls with her friends, a game they were all currently mad about. She’d have liked George to go with her and had been at pains to explain that it wasn’t just a game for the wrinklies, and what great skill it required, but George only rolled his eyes.
    ‘Mmm, yes,’ said Cleo. ‘Very stylish.’ Like all Daphne’s clothes, the skirt was well chosen and perfectly fitting. She’d kept her figure and the natural strands of silver in her well-styled fair hair only served to give it a fashionably streaky look. People often took her and her daughters for sisters. ‘Nice for me,’ Daphne would say with a light laugh, ‘but poor you. Unfair.’
    ‘It isn’t Val that’s desperate,’ Cleo said now, ‘it’s me. Now that
Muriel’s come back, Dad doesn’t need me. I have to find another job.’ In fact, she rather suspected that Muriel’s sudden return wasn’t unconnected with her own unexpected arrival on the scene.
    ‘Oh, now, look –’
    ‘Don’t, Mum.’
    Cleo began to rummage through the stacks of CDs on the rack. There was nothing to be ashamed of in living on the Social if there weren’t any jobs around. Or living at home with your parents. But she’d been independent during the last three years and she’d no intention of going back on that. She’d thought that maybe the best solution would be to buzz off and find somewhere to live in London, like Jenna, who was flat-sharing there, and where a lot of her friends were, but she couldn’t even begin to think of affording that without a job, even if she was sharing, which for one important reason she didn’t want to do.
    ‘That Muriel!’ Daphne was saying, as if what Cleo had said had just registered. ‘And that Hermione! Anybody would think nobody had ever had a hysterectomy before.’ She sniffed. Even she thought of Hermione as a person. Then she looked at Cleo more closely, her eyes worried. ‘Cleo, you could get yourself a good position anywhere, if only you’d …’
    Be content with what there is, she’d been going to say, but she bit it back just in time, seeing the expression on Cleo’s face, which said that was just what she wasn’t going to do. If she couldn’t get the sort of job that demanded a good degree, then perversely, she’d said more than once, she didn’t care what she did. One day she might, Daphne fervently hoped, she just might be persuaded to go back to university and begin again where she’d left off, because, contrary to what recent events had shown, Cleo was every bit as bright as Jenna. Jenna was just more clever at passing exams. On the other hand, Daphne sighed, it was more likely Cleo might not. She seemed to have changed and, in some way, grown older, even more secretive than usual. Certainly more independent, and stubborn. Well, university apart, there were plenty of other opportunities open to clever girls. But going out cleaning wasn’t one of them.
    ‘Oh, Cleo!’ she said helplessly. ‘Maid to Order – I ask you!’
    ‘Mum, I haven’t signed my life away! It’s only