‘Hello..’ Charlene says hesitantly as she reaches the end of Nathan’s bed. ‘Do you remember me?’

Nathan looks up from the chair by its side and his eyes light up in recognition ‘Do I remember you? Come here!’ He eases himself to standing and holds his arms open. ‘Am I pleased to see you! Come on…let me give you a hug then’

‘Oh’ She looks at him uncertainly and moves just within his reach.

Nathan tilts his head and smiles at her hesitation. ‘No?’

‘I’m ‘fraid I might go and hurt you’ she admits ‘And you still look like summat off a horror film’

‘Gee thanks! Come on…’ he encourages ‘Put it this way, if I’m giving you a hug, you won’t be able to see my face. How’s that?’

Charlene bites her lip, a smile spreading either side of her small even teeth and lets Nathan put his arms around her.

‘Thanks for everything’ Nathan says hoarsely ‘I’ve never been more pleased to see anyone in my life. You were awesome!’

‘Thank you’ Charlene flushes and steps back. ‘You do look a bit better’ she admits ‘Kester said you would’

‘I’m quite handsome really…underneath all this lot’ Nathan jokes as he lowers himself onto the chair again. ‘Any other time I’d be fighting you off’

‘You would?’ Charlene look at him blankly ‘But Kester said you wanted to see me’

‘I do! Come on…sit down. I’m really pleased you came’

Woodbury General Hospital

Chapter Six

Hill House, Boundary Road

I don’t know what’s got into you these last few days but I’m telling you now, I’ve had enough of it’ Marilyn Ward gives the window a final rub and tucks the cloth into the waistband of her trousers. ‘What’s the matter with you?’

‘Nothing’ Leonie mutters, turning another page of the magazine she is reading.

‘You’re not pregnant are you?’ Marilyn pauses as she passes the sofa with the step stool.

‘Huh! Chance’d be a fine thing’

‘I thought you were going out with that boy you met at the staff Christmas do…’ Marilyn queries as she reaches the second window and steps up while folding the cloth to a clean patch ‘Works in menswear or something doesn’t he?’

‘He dumped me’

‘Oh…and that’s the reason for your mood is it?’

‘No it is not!’ Leonie looks up and glares at her mother.

‘If you threw one of your moodies with him, I’m not surprised he dumped you. I don’t know what you expect but no man in his right mind would put up with it. I know I’m sick and tired of your sulks all the time and so’s your father’ Marilyn squirts more glass cleaner at a stubborn spot and rubs furiously.

‘I did not throw a moody and I am not sulking!’ 

‘Whatever’ Marilyn shrugs in a parody of Leonie’s usual response.

‘Don’t know what he sees in her’ Leonie pouts

‘Who…the bloke from menswear… Did he drop you for someone else then?’

‘No, I’m not talking about him' she snaps in reply. ' I’m talking about Kester and that miserable bitch from the library’

‘Leonie! That’s enough’ Marilyn rebukes sharply. ‘Kester’s going out with Helen Marchant?’ she asks after a short while.

‘Seems like it. You must be the only person that doesn’t know. It’s not exactly a secret’ Leonie says contemptuously.

‘I have been a bit busy for listening to gossip’ Marilyn wipes her cloth along the sill and checks the window for smears before putting the cloth and cleaner back in the caddy ‘That’s nice…they suit each other’

‘Suit each other?’ Leonie’s mouth tightens.

‘Yes…I think they do. Helen’s a lovely woman, shy maybe..’

‘Shy? She’s right stuck up!’ she scowls into her magazine, flicking pages without reading.

‘She was very pleasant when Mrs. James introduced her to me a while back. I don’t know where you’ve got that idea from’

‘She just is!’

‘Ah…I see…Someone’s had their nose put out of joint have they?’ Marilyn pulls off her rubber gloves with a snap. ‘Well, serves you right!’

‘Me?’ Leonie says indignantly, slapping the magazine onto the coffee table

‘Yes, it does. He’s always been nothing but nice to you but you have been a right little cow to him in the past. What about when he wanted to take you out in his car when he passed his test? He was so proud that day’

‘Mum! That was YEARS ago!’ Leonie rolls her eyes and sighs.

‘Maybe it was but telling him you wouldn’t be seen dead in his old rust bucket wasn’t exactly kind’

‘Kind? It was falling to pieces. When he said he was getting a car, I thought he meant something decent…I’d have thought his Gran would’ve..’

‘… bought one for him?’ Marilyn finishes for her. ‘You don’t know him very well at all, do you? I daresay Harriet did offer but right from the start he’s been determined to make his own way….and he has…very successfully’

She straightens the curtains and starts to plump cushions on the sofas. ‘That’s what’s really got up your nose, hasn’t it?’ she says as she comes to where Leonie is sitting ‘You didn’t want to know him when he was starting out. You expected him to have money to spend, coming from the family he did but when he didn’t want to take advantage of Harriet’s generosity, you all but ignored him’

She lays the cushion back against the arm of the sofa and puts one hand on her hip to continue her lecture ‘He was really keen once upon a time, hung around like some lovesick puppy but you knocked him back once too often my girl….  Now he’s all grown up and got the sort of money you like, all he does is treat you like any other friend and you don’t like it. Well, that’s tough, Leonie, it really is’

‘Thank you very much. You really think I’m that mercenary?’ Leonie follows her mother’s progress around the room as she tidies.

‘You want me to answer that?’

‘I do not go out with someone just for what I can out of them’

‘Not so much now maybe….but certainly back then’

‘But her!’

‘Okay…' Marilyn stops what she is doing and faces Leonie 'So come on then….what do you think is so wrong with her?’

‘She’s so……old fashioned!’ Leonie huffs.

Marilyn laughs ‘I hardly think she can turn up at the library in low rise jeans and a belly top’

‘Huh…not that she would be able to’ she scowls.

‘Leonie, that was uncalled for and spiteful. I think she’s very striking and obviously Kester does too. There is more to a person than being stick thin and wearing the latest in clothes’

‘But…’

‘But nothing…I just hope he’s found someone that he can settle down with, I really do’

‘What…like Andy? What’s with the wanting to get everyone married off?’

‘I’m not….Andy wouldn’t be pushed and neither will Kester…all I’m saying is that it would be nice if he had found someone, that’s all. He’s a... family man...without a family’ Marilyn's voice wobbles and she turns away.

‘Mu-um, for goodness sake!’ Leonie sneers

‘He is....And if Helen is ‘the one’ then there’s nothing you can do about it’

‘And just why would I want to do anything about it?’

‘Because you like your own way….you always have…’