There was room to eat in the kitchen, which was a good size, but the Formica table she found folded against one wall was a leg short and could not be extended far enough to seat them all, so they had to eat in the dining-room which was at the back of the house, and as depressing as all the other rooms.
Tea was a silent meal, but she was pleased to see that both boys cleaned their plates. She had been worried that they might be faddy eaters, so emotionally disturbed that they had to be coaxed to eat.
When she saw that James was yawning over his milk, she decided that one of the first things she would have to do would be to talk to Lyle about their routine. Presumably during the week when they lived with Justine they had a set bedtime, but she was aware that this was an area where she would have to tread carefully before instituting any rules of her own.
When they had all finished eating Lyle excused himself, saying that he had some work to do. Taking this as a sign that he did not wish to be disturbed, Jessica took their dishes into the kitchen and washed up. Neither boy offered to help her, but both of them hovered round her while she was working, saying nothing, but watching everything she did. When she had finished she said calmly, ‘Right, now I’m going to empty the car.’
Both of them followed her, Stuart in particular eyeing her Mercedes with distinct lust. Repressing a small smile, she started to take the first of her cases out of the boot.
She was halfway upstairs before she heard the noise behind her, and looking over her shoulder she saw that Stuart and James were coming behind her, carrying another case. It was a better start than she had hoped for, but she could not delude herself that there was not still an awfully long way to go.
It struck her then that the marriage which she had entered primarily for her sister’s sake seemed to be taking on a different emphasis.
Wryly amused by the distinctly matriarchal vein she had discovered within herself, she wondered if the crusading instinct she had developed towards the boys sprang from genuine concern for them, or from her unhappy memories of her own childhood. Time alone would tell, and after all she had plenty of that now. This marriage she had entered into was a fait accompli and her deeply ingrained sense of responsibility towards Andrea now seemed to have extended to include her new husband’s two sons.
CHAPTER FOUR
‘JESS?’
She looked up from the patch of garden she had been weeding, brushing her hair back off her face.
‘Over here, Stuart.’
It was nearly a month now since she and Lyle had married—a month during which her life had changed so much she herself found it difficult to comprehend how much at times. She often felt she was a completely different person from the Jessica who had calmly and logically sat down to find herself a husband in order to protect her elder sister, and to put her theories on marriage to the test.
As she heard Stuart coming up behind her, she turned to smile at him, ruefully noting the dusty patches on both knees of his jeans and the fact that somehow in four short weeks he seemed to have managed to grow a good two inches. Mentally adding yet another chore to an already long list, she sat back on her heels and waited to discover what he wanted.
‘The decorators have arrived,’ he announced importantly. ‘They want to see you.’
‘Okay, I’ll come now.’
Her first priority as far as her new home was concerned, once she had been all through it, was complete redecoration throughout. She had spent almost a week making careful sketches of all the rooms and then putting together her ideas before she communicated them to Lyle.
He had studied her sketches in silence for several unnerving seconds and then quite unexpectedly he had asked, ‘What about my room? You haven’t included it here.’
A deliberate omission. Jessica was acutely aware of the fact that as far as Lyle was concerned, a wife was something he most definitely did not want, at least not on a personal basis, so she strove to keep out of his way as much as possible—not difficult, given the appallingly long hours he worked; and she had also refrained from doing anything that might be construed as an attempt to intrude on his privacy.
‘I thought you might have your own ideas about what you wanted.’
‘Not really, although I could do with better cupboard space.’
‘I’ve got a firm coming out to measure for a new kitchen. All the bedrooms need proper wardrobes, I can get them to do a quote for your room too if you wish.’
Apparently he had wished, and he had also approved the drawings she had eventually shown him.
The local firm she contacted had been able to install the new fitments in the bedrooms almost immediately, although the kitchen renovations were going to take much longer. Jessica had specific ideas about what she wanted in the kitchen.
Stuart and James had been allowed to choose their own furniture and wallpaper. Rather to her surprise, Stuart had shown a distinct artistic flair, something she was determined to encourage.
Watching the elder of her two stepsons fall into step beside her as they made for the house, she marvelled at how well both boys had adapted to her presence. Already she could see definite signs of improvement in both of them, but more especially in James, which she suspected was only to be expected, as he was the younger of the two and had only been a baby when his parents separated.
‘You’ve got dirt on your face,’ Stuart informed her, squinting at her as they walked into the house. She tried to rub it off, forgetting she was still wearing her gardening gloves, and Stuart grinned. ‘You’re only making it worse, let me.’
Obediently she bent towards him, trying not to grimace when he produced a rather grimy handkerchief and carefully wiped the mud off her cheek. Initially the more aggressive and withdrawn of the pair, she could now see that Stuart was also the more sensitive. When he smiled at her, openly and warmly as he was doing now, she could almost feel the physical jerk on her heart-strings. This feeling she had for both boys, but especially for Stuart, was something that totally astounded her. She had never experienced a maternal twinge in her life before marrying Lyle, but something in his sons reached out and touched her in a way that she found totally unexpected, and which she could only put down to the fact that because of her own childhood she found it easy to relate to and understand their miseries.
With Lyle she found herself increasingly nervous and ill at ease, searching for polite small talk whenever they were alone together, but conversely when she was with the children she felt completely relaxed and at ease. In fact when she thought about it, she felt happier now than she had ever done before. Happy in a way she found hard to define, fulfilled almost, as though she had found a long-sought-after niche in life.
Unhappily the response the boys gave to her did not extend to include their father, Stuart in particular being almost openly hostile to Lyle. So far Jessica had not been able to discover the reason for this, but suspected that it must have something to do with his mother’s death. She had not made any attempt to force their confidences, though, letting them talk to her in their own way making sure she was available to listen to them when they did want to talk.