Cradle to Grave Read Online Free Page A

problem, and glancing out of the window she saw Alick jumping down and hurrying across the yard to the house, his hair flattened to his head by the teeming rain.
    As he opened the back door, he saw Beth alone and stopped.
    ‘Maidie not here?’
    ‘Your son was crying. She said you’d to have some toast. Here – I’ve buttered it.’
    He took the plate from her without thanks, dug his knife into a pot of raspberry jam and spread both slices thickly. ‘I’ll take them with me. Might as well get on with it, if I have to.’
    Beth’s parka was drying on the old-fashioned pulley overhead. She went to pull it down, but Alick frowned.
    ‘You’re not coming with me,’ he said flatly. Then he paused. ‘Unless you want to be dropped off somewhere. With family, maybe?’
    Beth could hear the hope of getting rid of her in his voice. ‘No,’ she said coolly. ‘I’ve no one. Just the cottage. I thought maybe the police would want to speak to me.’
    Disappointed, Alick was dismissive. ‘What can you tell them they can’t see for themselves? And the emergency services won’t want people like you getting in the way.’
    Beth nodded with apparent submission. She’d learned that trick long ago.
    ‘A night out with a friend? Oh, that’s all right, then. You can go another time – have an extra night off. Not this week, though – we’ve a lot on. Next week, probably. All right?’
    She’d agreed, because it was the best-paid job she’d ever had and the result of saying no could be losing it, even though she was at the end of her tether after a difficult day and the promised extra night would never materialise.
    Alick seemed satisfied with her practised response. He was on his way out when his wife appeared with a small child on her hip. He looked about eighteen months old, curly-haired and with big, dark eyes, and he was grizzling quietly.
    Alick, his mouth full of toast and with the other slice in his hand, said thickly, ‘I’ll call in and tell Himself what’s happened – maybe the phones are all right there. We’ll sort her out later.’ He jerked his head ungraciously at Beth and left.
    Perhaps to cover her embarrassment, Maidie went to get a tissue to wipe her son’s tears and his runny nose. ‘I think he’s getting another cold. He was a right little b yesterday and no doubt he’s planning—’
    A peremptory voice interrupted her, from upstairs somewhere. ‘Maidie! Maidie! Where are you? What’s going on?’
    ‘Oh damn! It’s wakened Gran. I’d hoped for another hour’s peace.’ Maidie sighed. ‘I’d better go to her.’
    ‘Leave Calum with me,’ Beth said quickly. ‘I’ll look after him.’
    Maidie hesitated. ‘He’s not very good with strangers, but. . . .’
    Beth held out her arms, smiling, and to his mother’s surprise the toddler stopped crying and after taking a long, appraising glance, reached out to her. Beth gathered him to her hungrily.
    ‘You’re a lovely boy, aren’t you, pet?’ she said. ‘And no one could be happy with a horrible cold, could they?’
    She spotted a small chest of toys in a corner of the kitchen and went to pick up a toy car. ‘Look, Calum – it’s going to run along here and run along and—Oops, crash! It’s fallen off.’
    The toddler gave a gurgle of amusement. As Maidie watched, smiling, another shout of ‘Maidie! Did you hear me?’ came from upstairs.
    She sighed again. ‘I’ll have to go to her.’ Then she paused at the door. ‘You’re awfully good with children, aren’t you?’
    ‘I’ve always loved kids.’
    And as Maidie disappeared upstairs, the phrase echoed in Beth’s head like the slam of an iron door.
    It was another hot day in the airless London summer and the sun was streaming through the great windows. The atmosphere was damp with the breath and the sweat of spectators packed into the public seats. In the crowded press box, hacks with notepads sat scribbling, scribbling.
    There had been some dull technical stuff from a