Mark held up his credit card, ready to pay. ‘If you don’t say yes, I’ll tell Dulcie it’s your fault that I won’t be taking her up on her offer, and she can be cross with you instead.’
The look Beatrice gave him could have frozen mercury. ‘When?’
‘Whenever suits you.’
She rang his purchase up and handed him a receipt. ‘I’ll have to see if I can get a babysitter. Maybe Lisa could do it. You remember Lisa? We were best mates. We still are.’
He remembered Lisa all too well. ‘What about your mum and dad?’ he asked hurriedly. After his conversation with her last night, it might be better if Lisa didn’t know about this – although he suspected she would get to hear of it at some point, whether Beatrice told her or via the local gossip mongers. But he hoped it would be after the meal, and not before it.
‘I’ll let you know,’ she said, her attention already turning to the next customer. ‘Thanks for the links, by the way.’
‘Glad to help.’ He smiled, but she didn’t see it, and he left thinking that he mightn’t hear from her again, or if he did it would be to tell him that she couldn’t get a babysitter or that she’d changed her mind.
But hedidhear from her, and when she suggested Tuesday, a huge grin spread across his face.
CHAPTER SIX
On Monday morning, Beatrice had her head in her wardrobe and was scrabbling around inside it hunting for her comfiest pair of jeans to wear to work, when Sadie appeared at her side.
‘Mummy, I feel sick and I’ve got a tummy ache.’ The plaintive note in her daughter’s voice tugged at Beatrice’s heartstrings.
Sadie’s complaints of feeling sick were becoming a daily occurrence, usually when Beatrice was nagging the girls to get ready for school. She was beginning to fear that Sadie disliked school and was saying she felt ill in order to get out of going. However, she’d read somewhere that in young children mental distress could cause actual physical symptoms, so she wasn’t about to accuse Sadie of making it up.
Sadie had loved nursery and she seemed to have settled into full-time school, but gradually, over the last few weeks – since October half term, in fact – she’d started to mention not feeling well. The usual culprits were feeling sick, and/or pain in her tummy. The symptoms didn’t last long though, and Sadie more often than not perked up considerably by the time she arrived at school.
To Beatrice, it seemed as though Sadie disliked thethoughtof going to school, but didn’t mind it when she was actuallythere.
Beatrice could sympathise with that. She used to feel the same about the exercise classes which she used to force herself to attend in the hope of staying slim and keeping fit. Maybe having a week off school at half term had disrupted Sadie and had made her decide she preferred being at home. Or perhaps something had happened at school that had upset her?
Beatrice crouched down beside her daughter, ignoring the nagging voice in her head reminding her that they were going to be late for school if she didn’t get a move on. ‘Where does it hurt?’
Sadie put a hand over her belly button. ‘Here.’
‘How sick do you feel?’
‘Very.’
‘Too sick to eat a biscuit?’
Sadie nodded.
Beatrice held out her arms and Sadie cuddled into her, saying, ‘I won’t be too sick for a biscuit in a minute.’
‘Is that right?’
‘Uh-huh. Has a minute passed yet?’
‘No. How about you put your shoes on? That’ll take a minute.’ Beatrice didn’t usually allow the girls biscuits this early in the day, but she was trying to gauge just how real the sicky tummy ache was.
‘Do I have to go to school, Mummy? Can’t I stay here with you?’ Sadie asked, her face buried in Beatrice’s neck. ‘I promise I’ll be good.’
‘I won’t be here, sweetie. I’ve got a job, remember? All the time you are in school, Mummy will be working in the shop at the farm.’
‘I don’t want you to.’
Bingo!Thatwas it! It wasn’t the change in routine brought about by the half term break that was the issue, it was Beatrice’s new job. Maybe Sadie starting primary school and Beatrice going out to work for the first time in Sadie’s young life, was proving to be too much too soon for her little daughter.
Reassured that there wasn’t anything more serious troubling her child, and knowing that Sadie would soon get used to this new routine, Beatrice gave her a squeeze and stood up. ‘Go put your shoes on and I’ll get you a biscuit.’
