From The Heart Read Online Free

Caroline. ‘Here. Let me take photographs for my Facebook page.’
    Laura didn’t really want pictures of Kirstie on Facebook, or indeed on any of the many other social networking sites that Caroline seemed to use. As far as Laura was concerned, she was the only one who should be putting up pictures of her daughter anywhere. But when she said this to Caroline, her mother-in-law looked mortally offended and said that only her closest friends would be able to see them, and that Kirstie was her grandchild as well as Laura’s daughter . . . It had all got a bit heated, and Laura hadn’t been able to stop herself bursting into floods of tears. When Jim walked into the room and found her blowing her nose, he’d told Caroline to leave, which had left Laura feeling guilty.
    ‘You’re the most important person in the world to me,’ Jim had assured her when she eventually apologised for upsetting his mother. ‘You and Kirstie. Don’t worry about it.’
    But she did worry about it. She worried about Caroline and she worried about Angela and she worried that she was caught between two women who’d lost the plot entirely. She worried that she was losing the plot herself. The grandmothers had taken to calling around to the house at unexpected times during the day to check on Laura and make sure that she was coping, which was driving her crazy. (Both of them felt – though they didn’t say it to each other – that Laura was suffering a bit from the baby blues. Well, Angela called it the blues. Caroline had taken Jim to one side, mentioned post-natal depression and given him a number of websites to check out. Jim told his mother not to be stupid, that Laura was perfectly fine, but he did keep a closer eye on her afterwards, just in case she started exhibiting signs of not loving their wonderful daughter.)
    Laura herself knew she wasn’t depressed. She could cope perfectly well until Angela or Caroline arrived on the doorstep dispensing words of advice. Then she would get flustered and anxious and do stupid things; on one occasion she found herself changing Kirstie’s nappy after already having just changed it five minutes earlier. (Caroline had been there at the time, and reported back to Jim that his wife was very frazzled, poor love, and that he should consider sending her for a consultation. Just in case.)
    ‘I don’t know what’s got into her,’ Jim told Laura later that evening. ‘You’re grand, aren’t you?’
    ‘Do you think there’s something wrong with me?’ demanded Laura. ‘D’you think I’m losing my marbles?’
    ‘Of course not,’ Jim assured her. ‘She’s overreacting, I know she is. And I’m sorry for even listening to her. ’
    ‘Oh, I don’t blame you,’ Laura said. ‘Both her and my mother are driving me bonkers these days, so I’m not surprised she makes remarks about it. Mum rang three times today because I told her that Kirstie had a bit of a cold. Every time I got the poor child to sleep, the bloody phone went off. I put it on silent eventually and then realised that I’d missed a call from my pal Bernie because of it!’
    ‘They’ll get things into perspective in a while.’ Jim tried to sound philosophical. ‘And I suppose it’s good to know that they’re both eager to help out.’
    ‘If only they didn’t give conflicting advice.’ Laura looked hunted. ‘I mentioned to Mum that because of her cold Kirstie was having trouble sleeping, which was why I was freaking out every time she rang up. She recommended vitamin C and taking her to the doctor for paracetamol or its baby equivalent if it didn’t clear up. Then your mother called and said it wasn’t a cold at all and that she was teething. So she had different remedies for that. But in case it was a cold she suggested some homeopathic stuff which in a million years I’m not giving her!’
    ‘Calm down.’ Jim could hear that Laura was getting agitated. ‘We both know she has a cold and it’s getting better. So you