He said, ‘I hope you don’t mind, but Nicki invited me as a guest of honour.’
Beatrice’s smile was wry. ‘Is that the kind of thing you meant when you said your publisher wanted you to do stuff?’
Mark took her in his arms. ‘Yes, but they’ll be cheesed off when they find out I’m not doing this for the publicity.’ He kissed Beatrice on the nose.
‘Whyareyou going?’
‘To see Sadie in her toadstool costume, of course!’
Beatrice lifted her chin, offering him her mouth and he kissed her with renewed passion. When she ended it, his disappointment was acute.
‘When can I see you next?’ he asked, knowing he sounded needy but he couldn’t help himself.
She lowered her head and murmured, ‘I don’t know. Soon, I hope, but with the kids…’ She trailed off.
‘I understand. They come first.’
Her head came up and she gazed into his face. ‘They do. They have to.’
He kissed her again, this time a tender meeting of the lips. He knew they did, and he was okay with that, that’s how it should be. Mark would fit in with whatever Beatrice wanted, because now that he’d found her again he had no intention of letting her go, and if that meant waiting until she felt able to welcome him into her family, he would wait for as long as it took.
Beatrice studied her youngest child as she shuffled into the living room, and thought she looked simply adorable dressed in her pink sparkly toadstool costume. Beatrice’s mum had done a brilliant job: much better than Beatrice could have done.
But Sadie looked worried. Her little face was flushed and her eyes were huge. ‘I don’t feel well, Mummy.’
Beatrice had a flash of concern. ‘Is it your tummy?’
Sadie nodded.
‘I thought you were looking forward to being the best toadstool in the world?’ Maybe she had stage fright? After Sadie’s initial reluctance on being told that she wouldn’t be playing a fairy, she seemed to have come around to the idea of being a toadstool. But perhaps, with the play only a few hours away, she was becoming anxious?
Beatrice placed a hand on Sadie’s forehead. She did feel rather hot, but then, it was probably quite warm in that costume. She’d only picked at her breakfast though, which hadn’t bothered Beatrice at the time as Sadie and Taya had been in a heated discussion about Rudolf’s nose, and Taya hadn’t eaten much of hers either.
The kids were wound up like spinning tops already, and there were still six days to go until the big day. As far as Beatrice was concerned, Christmas couldn’t come soon enough.
‘Shall we get you out of this costume? You’ll feel cooler with it off,’ she suggested.
Sadie nodded, and Beatrice helped her take it off. ‘Is that better?’
‘Yes,’ Sadie replied but she still sounded rather subdued.
‘You don’t have to take part in the play if you don’t want to,’ Beatrice told her. ‘I’m sure Miss Barnes will understand if you don’t feel up to it. Would you like me to have a word with her?’
‘Iwantto be in the play.’
‘But if you’re not well…?’
‘Please, Mummy, I want to.’
Beatrice checked her forehead again, but couldn’t tell if Sadie was any cooler. ‘I’m going to take your temperature,’ she announced, getting to her feet.
‘Nooo…’ Sadie was starting to get fractious.
‘If you’ve got a temperature, you can’t go to school.’
‘I haven’t got a tempacher My tempacher is good.’ Her chin wobbled. ‘Please, Mummy, I want to go to school!’
Beatrice thought for a moment, then relented. ‘Okay, but you’ve got to promise me you’ll tell Miss Barnes if you don’t feel well and I’ll come get you.’
