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

my mother and I was under a lot of stress worrying about my father.’

Jess leaned back in her chair and blew out her cheeks.

‘I don’t know what to say.’

‘Neither do I, but I know what you ought to do,’ said Alice pointing at the clock. ‘I’d love you to stay longer, but you really ought to go home. You’ve been here for four hours now.’

Jess almost fell out of the chair in her hurry to get to her feet. She pulled her phone out of her bag and checked for text and voicemail messages. There were none. This was odd. Usually if she was late, he’d be texting every five minutes asking where she was.

‘Oh my God, he’ll be angry,’ she said aloud. ‘I’ve got to do a bit of shopping yet.’ She smiled at Alice. ‘Will you be all right on your own?’

‘Of course I will, silly child,’ retorted Alice. ‘I do it every day, remember?’ She wriggled into her cushions. ‘Gwen will be here at six to feed me, empty my disgusting commode and get me ready for bed.’

Jess grabbed her things and hurried to the door. She spun around, blew a kiss and disappeared down the hallway. ‘Bye, Nana, see you on Friday,’ she called.

Alice blinked as the front door slammed.

‘Cheerio, Jessica,’ she said.

Gwen arrived in a fluster, fifteen minutes late.

‘I’m so sorry I’m late, Lovely, but I got stuck at poor Mrs Swinston’s. She had an accident just as I was leaving and I had to change her.’

Alice shuddered and raised a silent thank you to whichever deity had delivered her from incontinence.

‘You haven’t had your flask, and you haven’t eaten your sandwiches,’ chided Gwen.

‘Jessica was here for longer than expected, we forgot all about them. Leave them where they are, I’ll have them for tea,’ Alice replied.

‘Speaking of tea,’ said Gwen raising the tea pot from the coffee table and shaking it. ‘I’m ready for one, are you?’

‘All right, I’ll have one,’ replied Alice, ‘but if I’m up all-night peeing, you’ll be held responsible.’

She reached out for her walking frame. ‘Shut the door, Gwen, I’m just about ready to burst.’

Later that evening, after an hour staring at the clock whilst listening to News Hour on the radio, Alice shuffled across the room behind her walker and with several grunts, eased herself into bed. She picked up the novel she had been reading, opened it at her bookmark, then shut it with a snap and returned it to the table.

She lay on her back, her head propped up on soft pillows and stared at the cracked plaster on the ceiling. Within seconds she was back in the autumn of 1937.

‘Damn you for all eternity, Frank Mollison,’ she uttered.

Chapter 6

Jess

Jess jumped into the car and drove far too quickly to the Tesco Direct in town, taking no notice of any other road users. She bought ingredients for a quick stir fry and grabbed a mid-range bottle of white wine. As she reached the checkout, she changed her mind about the wine, rushed back and picked up a bottle of Calvin’s favourite, but much more expensive, wine.

Outside the store she checked her phone again. No messages, what the hell did that mean? She was about to cross the road back to where she had parked, when a man’s voice called to her.

‘Jess? Is it really you?’

Jess turned back to see a youngish man of about six-two in height, he had rugby player’s shoulders with a football player’s waist. He wore a brown leather jacket, white t-shirt and light jeans.

‘Ewan? Good God, it’s been years. How are you?’

Ewan had been a member of her group at school, never a close friend but frequently on the fringes of the crowd. Always there but never really a part. It was the same at the local Uni which they had both attended. Ewan was in the rugby team but again, had been on the fringes of her group of friends. Drinking with them, fooling with them, attending demos with them, but no one knew that much about him.

‘You won’t have seen me around, Jess. I went to Africa volunteering with MediAid for a couple of years. I’m back for good now though. I’ve got a job at the local paper, reporting on environmental issues.’

‘Well done you,’ said Jess hurriedly. ‘Look, I’m sorry, Ewan but I’ve got to rush, I’m seriously late.’

‘Oh, don’t mind me,’ said Ewan with a big smile. ‘I’ll, erm, see you about the place.’

He waved as Jess sprinted across the road and hurled herself into her car.

‘Hopefully,’ he said.

When she arrived home, Calvin’s BMW was parked in its usual spot in the forecourt of the block of flats. Jess parked alongside, grabbed her bags and fumbled nervously with her keys at the front door. It opened before she could insert the key in the lock.

‘Hello, Jess. You decided to come home after all then?’ Calvin stepped aside to allow Jess to get by with her bags.

‘Sorry, Calvin,’ she blurted out as she hurried up the stairs. ‘I was having a serious conversation with Nana and forgot the time. I’ve got dinner.’

‘I hope you were discussing her will,’ said Calvin. ‘Time well spent if so.’

Jess couldn’t understand why he was being so pleasant. Usually she’d be interrogated if she was even fifteen minutes late.

‘It was nothing to do with money.’ Jess sighed and put her bags on the table. She fired up the hob and took down a wok from the shelf above. ‘It was a private matter, a personal thing she wanted to discuss with me.’

‘Christ, she hasn’t started shitting herself, has she? Keep well away from that, Jess. Leave it to her carer, that’s what she’s paid for. Don’t come back here with your hands stinking of shit.’

Jess glared at him.

‘It’s nothing to do with her health, well, not directly. She was telling me about her past. Wartime and all that. It was really interesting; I’m thinking of basing a book in that era.’

Calvin groaned. ‘Not