The Memory of Midnight Read Online Free Page B

in than to argue.
    As it had always been with Martin.
    Humiliation bloomed under Tess’s skin, and she felt herself redden as she turned away to put the milk in the fridge.
    How many times do I have to tell you? The milk should be kept in the door of the fridge, Theresa, with the label facing the front. It’s simple enough. Even you should be able to
remember that.
    Why hadn’t she laughed at Martin when he insisted on something so petty? Surely a new wife should have been able to tease her husband out of a mood? But it hadn’t seemed to matter
much at first. Tess didn’t care which way round the milk faced, but if it was important to Martin, why not do as he asked?
    Besides, she had adored him. She had wanted to make him happy. He was so attractive, so tender, so loving. He told her she was beautiful. He made her
feel
beautiful. He made her feel
safe. For a while it had been lovely to be cossetted. He said he wanted to look after her and that they would be together forever. Overlooking a few foibles about the arrangement of the fridge
hadn’t seemed too much to ask of her in return.
    But the fridge had been just the beginning.
    Defiantly, Tess put the pints of milk on the shelf and turned them to face in different directions.
What a rebel
, she thought to herself.
    ‘I don’t need a car,’ she told Vanessa.
    ‘What about Oscar?’
    ‘People managed to get around perfectly well before cars were invented, Vanessa,’ she said, trying not to show her annoyance. ‘Oscar is quite capable of walking to school.
It’ll be good for him.’
    ‘It’s not just school. It’s after-school clubs and swimming and music lessons and football practice and sleepovers . . . Believe me, I’ve been through all this with Sam.
You’ve got no idea!’
    Tess pulled a packet of cereal out of the carrier bag and set it on the counter, only just managing to stop herself straightening it. Vanessa had never liked being argued with, she remembered.
Even at school it had been easier just to let her have her own way. Tess had been grateful for her friendship then, scarcely able to believe that the coolest girl in the class would take a shy,
gawky girl like Tess under her wing.
    Until Luke. Vanessa hadn’t been pleased when Tess refused to listen to sense and it had taken Tess’s ignominious return to York more than a decade later for all to be forgiven.
Proved right about Luke as about so much else, it again seemed that there was nothing Vanessa wouldn’t do for her.
    As long as Tess did it Vanessa’s way.
    Tess had only just escaped from doing it Martin’s way. This time, she wanted to do it her own way.
    Vanessa had been a huge help since her return, Tess couldn’t deny that. She had helped sort out a school, a doctor, all the red tape of moving and claiming child support. She looked after
Oscar whenever Tess needed time on her own and he was always happy to play with her two children, Sam and Rosie. She made Tess feel welcome and wanted, and took her away from the disappointment
that simmered in the air in Tess’s own mother’s house.
    Tess hated feeling ungrateful, hated the creeping guilt of it and the familiar, awful doubt as to whether
she
was the one being unreasonable. Martin had been very good at making her
feel that until the resentment that built up inside her corroded everything. She didn’t want to feel the same about her old friend.
    Frowning a little, not liking the way her thoughts were going, Tess carried on unpacking. Peanut butter, jam, bread. Eggs and cheese. There would be time enough to try and get some fresh
vegetables down Oscar. For now it would be enough for the two of them to be alone, away from her baffled mother’s resentment.
    Away from Martin.
    Doing it her own way.
    ‘Oscar’s only five,’ she pointed out at last. ‘I don’t need to think about any of that just yet.’
    ‘Well, I think you’re mad!’
    A wry smile touched the corner of Tess’s mouth. ‘Funny, that’s exactly