Unspoken: A story of secrets, love and revenge by T. Belshaw (best reads of all time .TXT) 📗

Her face was clear of make-up. Not even a hint of mascara. Alice noted that her eyes were puffy. She had been crying. Again.

When she smiled her blue eyes lit up. She turned her head back as the front door closed. ‘Bye, Gwen,’ she said, and waved.

Jess almost bounced into the lounge, dropped her bag at the side of an old-fashioned, lion’s-foot, coffee table and stepped quickly to Alice’s side. She put her arm around her shoulders and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

‘Mmmm, you smell of lavender. How’s my favourite Nana,’ she asked.

‘I’m the only Nana you have, dear. The other one couldn’t last the distance.’

Jess laughed. ‘You’re a wicked old hag. Would you like some tea, I’m parched.’

Alice pushed herself up from her chair and grabbed at her walker. ‘Close the kitchen door behind you and give me ten minutes, will you, Jessica. I’m desperate for a pee.’

Ten minutes later, Jess tapped on the door and eased it open an inch.

‘Have you finished?’

‘For now, but I’ll be going again soon if you keep forcing all this tea down me.’

Jess pushed open the door with her knee and carried in a tray holding a flowered china tea pot and a matching china cup, milk jug, sugar bowl and a brightly coloured mug. She set it down on the table and sat in the arm chair opposite Alice.

‘I’ve never once heard you refuse a cup of tea,’ she said. ‘I think you have PG Tips in your veins, not blood. That’s why you’ve lived so long.’

She leaned forward, poured the tea, added two heaped spoons of sugar, a dash of milk and handed it to Alice with a courtesy.

‘Tea is served, Ma’am,’ she said.

Alice took a sip and nodded approvingly. She looked over her cup at Jess.

‘Have you been crying, young lady?’

Jess bit her lip. Nothing got past Nana.

‘It’s just a silly thing,’ Jess replied. ‘An old song on the radio, I always get emotional when I hear it.’

Alice decided to let it go.

‘No story today? Weren’t we riding aboard an old tea clipper last week? I want to know what happens to Abel and his intended. They’ve been apart too long. It’s time they were wed.’

Jess studied her mug intently. ‘I’ve sort of shelved that. It wasn’t going to plan.’

Alice laughed and choked on her tea. Jess was at her side in an instant, hanky in hand, wiping the tea from her chin, the other hand reaching behind to pat her back.

Alice waved her away. ‘Don’t fuss, I’m fine.’

As Jess returned to her seat, Alice returned to the subject of the book.

‘That’s a shame, I quite liked Abel. You will have to finish one of these tales, Jessica. The publishers won’t print half a book.’

Jess sighed. ‘I know, Nana. I just keep thinking there’s a better story somewhere, one with utterly believable characters. A story that everyone can relate to.’

‘Most of us have one of those in our past,’ said Alice. She hesitated for a moment and then continued.

‘Who are you going to spend all of your Wednesdays making tea for when I’m gone?’ she asked.

Jess frowned. ‘What a topic of conversation, Nana. Gran says you’ll outlive us all.’

Gran was Martha, Alice’s eldest daughter. Alice was Nana, because Great Gran never seemed right and Nana was a lot more familiar. Apart from Gran there was Great Aunt Marjorie, Alice’s second daughter. Jess’s mother was Nicola, Martha’s only child. Alice had little if anything to do with any of them. Jess was Alice, reborn and they both knew it.

‘What a notion,’ said Alice. ‘I’d still be sitting on that blooming commode when I was a hundred and seventy, perish the thought.’

‘You must be looking forward to next month, Nana. Not too many people get a telegram from the Queen.’

Alice shook her head, her crystalline hair coming to rest a full second later.

‘I won’t get to read it, Jessica, I’m coming towards the end, a little bit more of me fades away every day.’

‘Oh, Nana, don’t say such things,’ said Jess, a tear sliding down her cheek. ‘You’ll still be here next Christmas, you’re as tough as old boots.’

‘I mean it,’ replied Alice. ‘When I sleep, I see the blackness now, there are no colours anymore. Every time it’s the same. It’s like I’m looking into a pitch-black tunnel. It was like that for weeks, but then, a few days ago, I saw a pinprick of light, only just bright enough to make out. Over the last few days, it’s grown larger. The light isn’t daylight or anything like that, it’s a brilliant white light, but it’s soft, if you see what I mean? The pinprick has grown bigger every day and now it’s about a quarter of the size of the tunnel. I’m being called, and I’m ready to go.’

Jess wiped her eyes with her tea-stained hanky. ‘Don’t, Nana, please. I don’t like you talking like this.’

Alice leaned forward and patted Jess’s proffered hand.

‘It comes to us all sooner or later, my dear, and now it’s my turn.’

She waved away Jess’s fretful protestations.

‘Listen, my sweetheart. I have something to tell you, a secret I’ve not shared with a living soul for eighty years.’

Jess wiped her eyes again and blew her running nose.

‘Not even Gran or Mum?’

‘Especially not your Gran or Mum,’ said Alice. ‘It would hardly be a secret if they got hold of it and, well, they wouldn’t be able to cope with the knowledge anyway. No one knows, Jessica. I’m the sole bearer of the secret, but I’d like to unburden myself of it before I go, a sort of confession if you like. Will you be my priest?’

Chapter 3

Alice

Jess shifted in her seat and leaned in towards Alice.

‘You can tell me anything, Nana, you know that. I promise not to tell a soul.’

‘I know that, Jessica,’ replied Alice, ‘and I’m sorry it’s you who will have to carry the burden of that secret… well, there are quite a few secrets if