Marcie sighed. ‘Okay. But for what it’s worth James agrees with me that the man’s preoccupied with something…’ She caught Beth’s look of alarm and grinned. ‘Don’t worry, James isn’t downstairs giving him the third degree. We confine our meddling to your life. Matt’s out of bounds.’
It was another fifteen minutes before Matt appeared again at the entrance to the ward, his quick signal more than enough to tell Beth what was on his mind. There was a strict ‘two visitors per bed’ policy, and it was time to leave and let James and Marcie spend a little time together with Josh and Anna.
Words, handshakes and hugs were exchanged, and Matt ushered Beth away from the couple.
‘How is he?’ Josh had looked better to Beth, but Matt was more qualified to tell than she was and she had noticed that James and Matt had stopped at the main desk to exchange a few words with one of the doctors there.
‘They’ll keep watching him carefully for a little while longer, do some more tests to make sure that the poison hasn’t affected any of his major organs, but he’s looking good. The first twenty-four hours is always the critical time in these cases.’
‘I hear that you managed to get through to Marcie.’
‘I hope so. Nice lady. I’ll bet she has a hell of a right hook, though.’
‘She didn’t…’ Beth had thought that the talk of stabbing Matt with the cutlery had just been Marcie’s joke.
‘No. She looked as if she was about to at one point but we worked it out.’ Matt flipped the fob of his car keys and the lights flashed. ‘Do you mind a bit of a detour on the way home? Jack’s with my parents today, and I said that I’d drop in and see whether he wanted to stay on for tonight. And I want to see whether my father has any roofing slates to match yours in his shed.’
Panic flared, making Beth’s heart thump uncomfortably. Matt turning up at his parents’ house with her in tow. On the other hand, they were just friends, so where was the harm in it? ‘No, I don’t mind. That’d be good, thanks.’
Matt’s look of astonishment mirrored Beth’s own surprise at her words. ‘Right, then.’ He opened the car door, waiting while she got in. ‘Let’s get going.’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
MATT’S parents’ home was a comfortable, spacious bungalow in a pretty village that lay only a few minutes’ drive from Matt’s house. The location was perfect, not so close that Matt was living in their pockets but not so far that Jack would not be able to walk or cycle it when he was a bit older. In their early sixties, the couple seemed youthful and active and were obviously extremely fond of their grandson.
She hung back a little, not catching the babble of conversation in the hall, and Matt turned to her. ‘Beth, this is my mother.’ He grabbed hold of her hand, pulling her forward, and Beth wriggled her fingers away from his grip. It was one thing to agree to come here on a whim, but now that she was actually facing Matt’s mother nerves clawed at her stomach.
Jack was jumping up and down next to his grandmother, pulling at her sleeve, and she batted him away fondly. She looked at Beth, beaming.
‘My grandson is teaching me how to suck eggs. He tells me that modern technology, which is of course quite beyond my understanding, allows you to hear me perfectly well. I’m instructed that I don’t need to shout.’ She poked Jack’s shoulder playfully, her blue eyes dancing with mischief. ‘That all right, then, Jack?’
Jack appeared to approve his grandmother’s efforts and she held her hand out to Beth. ‘Kate Sutherland. Pleased to meet you.’ She grasped Beth’s hand with a no-nonsense grip and didn’t let go, leading her through to the sitting room, waving her into a chair and sitting herself down. The woman didn’t just look like Matt, she had the same kindness and forthright humour and Beth found herself warming to her.
‘Matt and his father are off to the shed.’ Kate waved her hand towards the large picture windows at the back of the house, and Beth saw the two men, with Jack in tow, heading towards a large, brick-built workshop, situated at the end of the garden.
She peered at the structure. ‘That’s some shed. It’s got bow windows!’
‘Matt and his father built it the first summer that he was home from medical school. George salvaged all the materials and they spent a couple of months down there arguing about brickwork and roofing materials and goodness knows what else. Matt was at that age when they know everything.’ Kate’s eyes twinkled. ‘I keep wondering when he’s going to grow out of that.’
Beth grinned, afraid to either agree or disagree.
‘They may be a while. Men and sheds, you know. So we’ve got time for a cup of tea.’ Kate gestured towards a door that obviously led to the kitchen. ‘Come and talk with me while I make it.’
Matt followed his father into the shed, noticing with some satisfaction that the pointing on the brickwork was still holding up against the weather.
‘Nice-looking girl.’ In Matt’s opinion, his father always had been given to understatement. ‘Got a good honest job as well.’
‘Dad.’ His father was taking a poke at Mariska now. Matt threw him a warning glance and looked over his shoulder to find that Jack had found something of interest at the far end of the garden and was well out of earshot.
His father shut the shed door behind him. ‘It’s all right, the boy’s not going to hear. It might not be such a bad thing if he knew the truth about his mother, anyway.’
‘Yeah. Right, Dad. I’ll just tell him that when his mother died she was with her lover, shall I? I went along with the production company when they hushed it all up, perpetuated the lie because I didn’t want him to know the truth about her. I still don’t.’
His words had spilled out in a whispered rush. Even though the facts were unpalatable, it was good to be able to say even this much out loud.
‘That’s not what I mean.’ His father was pottering around, picking up odd tiles and putting them back down again. ‘He notices things, you know. Even if you think he doesn’t.’
Panic flared in Matt’s chest. ‘Why? What’s he said, Dad?’