The Bad Mother Read Online Free

matter? I don’t understand.’
    He made an effort to smile, though his grip on her shoulders tightened. ‘Nothing! It’s just the shock of seeing her here again after so long. I didn’t expect it. I don’t see why she’s suddenly decided to come back.’ He sighed and stroked Tessa’s hair – an unaccustomed gesture. ‘You’d better come in.’

THREE
    When Tessa entered the kitchen she found her mother and Erin standing side by side at the worktop, a steaming kettle, open biscuit tin and plate half covered with Pamela’s homemade shortbread beside them. Erin looked around guiltily, and Tessa saw that she was comforting Pamela, who was weeping, oblivious to Tessa’s presence.
    ‘I couldn’t bear it,’ Pamela was saying between sobs. ‘It was the worst day of my life. I’ve never got over it, what we did to you. I’m so sorry, Erin. So sorry.’
    Erin flapped her hand at Tessa, urging her back out of the kitchen. Tessa obeyed, closing the door behind her. She stood in the empty hallway, the low sun shining through the ribbed glass of the front door, muddy marks from Pamela’s gardening shoes on the usually spotless oatmeal carpet. She listened to the ticking of the old-fashioned clock on the hall table. It had been presented to Hugo’s father on his retirement from the brewery, where he had been a driver, as had his father before him, though her great-grandfather had taken care of horses rather thanengines. She looked at the picture hanging on the wall above it, a reproduction of an Edwardian flower painting that used to hang in the guests’ breakfast room at the Seafront B&B and that Pamela had salvaged from Tessa’s refurbishment. Tessa had known these items all her life, but never before had she seen her mother cry like that.
    She went into the lounge where she found Hugo standing at the picture window looking out onto the muted April colours of the sheltered back garden. He turned to her with a stricken expression she could not read.
    ‘What’s going on, Dad?’
    He seemed unable to find words. Instead he came and wrapped his arms around her in the kind of bear hug he used to offer when she was a little girl. Letting go, he said merely: ‘We’d better wait for them.’
    Out of habit, Tessa plumped some cushions on the couch before she sat down. She had never met Erin before, but her long-lost aunt’s clandestine visit to the B&B yesterday and her decision to turn up unannounced here today seemed to Tessa not only pointless but also mean and unfair. Although Grandma Averil used to talk about her younger daughter, and showed pride in Erin’s life in Australia and her career in the travel business, Tessa had always assumed everyone was content with little more than the sending and receiving of Christmas cards. Certainly she could recollect no plans to visit, nor even any regular phone calls. But it was obvious now that the apparent placidity of these relationships had not been due to indifference. Tessa felt deeply wary of this unknownwoman; the fact that Erin could provoke such strength of feeling in her normally reserved parents left her cross and resentful. She hoped her aunt would soon go back where she belonged.
    Erin came in carrying a tray laden with coffee, cups and plates. ‘Pamela’s nipped upstairs to change out of her gardening clothes,’ she told Hugo brightly, and then took charge of serving the coffee.
    ‘So what took you to London?’ Hugo asked with studied politeness when Erin had settled with her own cup. ‘Have you been over before?’
    ‘No,’ she said. ‘Always avoided it.’ She flushed. ‘I mean, most of my work is with the Far East. Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, rather than Europe.’
    ‘So why now?’
    ‘One of the airlines had a promotion. My company puts a lot of business their way. And a first-class seat makes everything so much easier!’ Erin spoke with a professionally friendly manner that Tessa recognised from her own interaction with guests. The