The Bad Mother Read Online Free Page B

floor.
    ‘Oh, it’s nothing – the usual story,’ said Erin, her Australian twang more accentuated. ‘I was a delinquent teenager, and Mum couldn’t cope. She’d just managed to buy the house next door and was going to knock through. It was such a big risk. If it hadn’t worked out she’d have lost everything, and then who knows what would have happened to us. She couldn’t afford any hint of scandal.’
    Erin spoke so airily that Tessa was sure she was lying. She glanced at Hugo who was staring sightlessly out at the garden and was shocked by how wretched he looked, by the sorrowful lines in his face that, she realised with a jolt, had always been there.
    ‘What sort of scandal?’ Tessa asked.
    ‘Oh, nineteen-seventies Felixham! Nothing anyone wouldbother about in this day and age. Tell me about Mitch and Lauren. Are they doing well at school?’
    Tessa ignored the question. ‘What happened?’ she insisted.
    A sort of hush fell. Pamela gazed at Hugo and he glared back hopelessly with a faint shake of his head.
    It was Erin who spoke, with a firmness that Tessa suspected was professional. ‘Nothing. I was difficult, so Averil packed me off to stay for a while with the only family she had. As it turned out, I adored my cousin Brenda, discovered I’m a city girl and was only too glad to shake the dust of this place off my feet, so I stayed put.’ Erin turned to Pamela, touching her arm. ‘I’ve been fine, really. No need to worry about me. I’ve got a fantastic life in Sydney.’
    Pamela burst into tears
    ‘What on earth’s the big mystery?’ demanded Tessa, beginning to feel afraid.
    Hugo sighed and sat back, defeated. He nodded to Erin. ‘Tell her, if that’s why you’re here. Don’t drag it out.’
    But Erin shook her head, occupying herself in comforting Pamela.
    ‘Tell her,’ he ordered.
    ‘There’s no need,’ she protested. ‘Really.’
    ‘Then why are you here?’ he asked coldly.
    Pamela took a deep breath, trying to control her tears, and turned to Tessa. ‘Your grandmother sent Erin away soon after you were born,’ she said finally. ‘Because you were born.’
    ‘I don’t understand,’ said Tessa, hearing her own voice as if from very far away.
    ‘Erin was barely sixteen,’ said Pamela. ‘Little more than a child herself.’
    ‘But what has that got to do with me?’
    ‘I had a baby,’ said Erin.
    Except for birdsong from the garden, the room was silent. Pamela’s face softened and her shoulders dropped as if a huge burden had been lifted.
    ‘What happened to it?’ Tessa asked, already dreading the reply.
    ‘We wanted you, Tessie!’ Hugo’s voice shook uncharacteristically. ‘Welcomed you!’
    ‘I knew Pamela would take good care of you because she’d always looked after me so well,’ said Erin. ‘Loved me.’
    ‘But that’s ridiculous! You would’ve told me. Why wouldn’t you?’ Out of habit, Tessa looked to her father for verification. Hugo’s answering look of shame was terrifying. She turned back to Erin. ‘You’re saying that I was that baby? That you’re my mother?’
    Erin looked to Pamela for permission before she answered. ‘Yes.’
    Tessa sought wildly for some escape. ‘But there’s nothing on my birth certificate.’
    ‘No,’ said Hugo. ‘The adoption went through just before the law was changed.’ He looked accusingly at Pamela. ‘When people still believed it was best to ignore the truth.’
    Pamela uttered a wail of contrition. ‘I took you away from her. I stole my sister’s child.’

FOUR
    Refusing Hugo’s offer of a lift, Tessa took the footpath home through the tall reeds, grateful for some space in which to process her shock. At first she had expected Erin to leave, to offer her and her parents some private time together; but Pamela had been adamant that her little sister would not be cast out a second time, and so it was Tessa who had said she must get back to work, and had left their house feeling unfairly