‘Don’t you think you’re over-reacting?’ Kester stands behind Helen at the dressing table, rubbing his hair dry.

Helen looks at his reflection in the mirror before turning around. ‘No, I don’t, actually. I do not want people like that in my house!’

‘You don’t know for certain that that’s where he took her…if he took her anywhere’

‘Of course he took her somewhere!’ Helen scoffs ‘those sort of women always get taken somewhere even if it is…’ she colours uncomfortably ‘somewhere where we might not generally go’ she mumbles.

Kester laughs ‘that’s his concern, not ours’

‘It IS my concern!’ she argues ‘Everything in that cottage belongs to me and I don’t want…’ her voice trails away ‘I just don’t want him….’ she sputters to a halt again.

‘Fornicating and debauching on what was my old bed?’ he grins.

‘But it’s a new mattress!’

Kester drapes the towel around his neck and puts his hands on her shoulders, dropping a kiss on top of her head ‘You should have listened to me’ he smiles into the mirror before moving away to pull a shirt from a hanger in the wardrobe. ‘The old one would have been good enough’ he says, pushing his arms into the sleeves.

‘Because it was already well used?’ she comments coolly.

Kester pauses as he shrugs himself into the shirt. ‘I don’t think we’d better go there, do you?’ He turns the collar down.

Helen gets up and walks towards him ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that’

‘No, nor do I’

‘It was another life’

‘Exactly’

‘Let’s not fall out’ She draws the edges of his shirt together and starts to button them as she looks up at him. ‘Please’ she says, laying her hand against the soft cream cotton. ‘Not tonight’

‘This is still Blythe, isn’t it?’ He ignores her hand in favour of buttoning his cuffs. ‘She rattled you and you’re still convinced I need something more from this relationship, this marriage’

‘No…really…I’m not’

‘And even poor Dan…’

‘Poor Dan?’

‘Yes, poor Dan. It’s up to him what he does in that house, within reason. It can’t matter to you who he invites there or what he does as long as the place doesn’t get wrecked. You’ve got to let it go, Helen…all of it. My past, your past…the cottage, this is our life now and we can’t live it together if one of us can’t move on’

‘I know you’re right’ Helen says sadly, turning away. ‘I know that’ She sits at the dressing table again, her head lowered for a few moments. ‘But having Toby turn up out of the blue…I found that very unsettling’ she swivels to face him ‘it’s not so much what Blythe said, although that upset me…but seeing Toby…and knowing he’s been to the cottage…’

‘We can only suspect he has…’

‘I think we both know that to be true’ she rubs wearily at her forehead. ‘It brought back so much…so many memories I’d be very happy to let go of….but I can’t, Kester….hard as I try. You of all people should understand that’

‘Then I’m sorry too’ Kester crosses the room to crouch in front of her. He takes her hands in his. ‘You’re worried he might come back?’

Helen nods ‘Of course I am’ she whispers ‘it’s there at the back of my mind constantly…and with it…the memory of how I was then’

‘You’re a different person now. Stronger. You said so yourself’

‘I know…and even that is upsetting’ she laughs self-deprecatingly. ‘This new, stronger, much improved Helen still let him get under her skin. I believed I had moved on. It seems I wasn’t as successful as I first thought, after all’

‘He can’t hurt you now. Nothing can hurt you’ Kester cups her face in his hands, his fingers threading through her hair. ‘Nothing, okay?’ He kisses her softly on the lips. ‘What we’ve got is bigger than all the Tobys of this world’ he says, looking into her eyes. ‘We’re making new memories. They’ll blot out the old ones eventually but it’ll take time, I should have realised that. I’m sorry’

‘No, it’s me who should be sorry…am sorry…for what I said’

Kester rocks back on his haunches and chuckles quietly ‘But true though?’

Helen looks at him, unsure of how to react. ‘Maybe’ she says uncertainly.

He laughs and stands up ‘Come on, we’re going to be late. Got to be back fairly early, got some catching up to do’

‘We have?’

‘Yes!’ he says, sitting on the side of the bed and bouncing up and down ‘There is nothing more comfortable than a well-used mattress’

‘But that’s new too’

‘Exactly’

Tawny House, Manor Road

The Annexe

Chapter Twenty-four

Rose Cottage, Albans Lane

‘There we are’ Jessie sets a coaster on the corner of the sideboard and puts down a mug of cocoa. ‘Don’t go turning over and bashing your head on here, will you?’ She looks around the room, her brow creasing in concern. ‘Nathan thought it would be the best place for the bed to go…the only place for it to go, really’

‘Don’t you worry none about me’ George smiles gummily. ‘I just ‘appy t’be ere’

‘We could have put it in the front room, I suppose…but there wouldn’t’ve been anywhere for people to sit…’

‘Will yer stop worryin?’

‘Nathan said that you’d be able to hang onto the sideboard…the drawer handles…for a bit of balance if you needed it And it’s quite warm in here. The front room can be a bit draughty’

‘Jessie Shepherd, if yer dunt stop yer mitherin, I’ll drag yer in ere wi’me! Then we shall see whose looking arter who!’

‘I think I’d be quite safe’ Jessie gives him a withering look. ‘The idea of getting your leg over is that you actually can’

‘Yer got a point, gal’ George chortles and leans back on his pillows. ‘Blimey!’ he says, almost to himself, and looking faintly embarrassed. ‘I int never been washed be someone I knowed afore…..then she ‘ad t’get me pants off t’get me jamas on. See’d bits a me what she ain’t never see’d afore neither’

‘I don’t expect the shock was a great one’ Jessie blinks slowly.

George misses the joke. ‘It were f’me!’

‘She’s a good girl. You’re very lucky’

‘Ah…yer right there’ He picks up his cocoa and sips. ‘Ain’t you avin one?’

‘I’ve got mine ready to take up with me’ Jessie replies, straightening the bottom of the bedspread and tucking it in. ‘Do you need anything before I do? You’ve taken your pills, haven’t you?’

‘Aye…our Rowena gimme them afore she done me teef’

‘You should sleep okay, then…but you know what you’ve got to do if you need anything in the night?’

‘Blow on this 'ere whistle…’ George swings the whistle from the length of ribbon tied to the bedpost. ‘An’ if I needs a pee, I got t’do it in that there milk carton and Rowena’ll sort it out in the mornin’

‘It’s an adapted milk carton; I’ll have you know!’ Jessie huffs, her eyes twinkling merrily.

‘Ah… an’ I ’opes yer rubbed rough bits off round the ‘ole what yer cut. Pair on yer larkin about, were like summat off a Blue Peter’

‘Neither of us thought about that particular problem, we had to think quick. Stop grumbling. Better that than try to get out and fall over…And put the light on before you use it too! Your aim’s bad enough under normal circumstances’

‘You avin second thoughts, gal?’ George asks seriously ‘Am I gonna be a bother t’yer?’

‘You’re always a bother to me, George Harris’ Jessie smiles and squeezes his hand ‘but you’ve also been a good friend. I’ll cope. I’ll say night night, then. Leave you to turn the lamp off, shall I? Can you manage to shuffle down the bed on your own?’

‘I c’n manage’ George puts his empty cocoa mug down. ‘Ere…’ he beckons with a crooked finger and draws her closer with his other hand. ‘Thanks’ he says simply and kisses her cheek ‘Night night’