The Tides of Time - Book 2, The Porth Kerensa Series

Chapter Ten

2000

Annie Harper was the most excited she had ever been in her life. It was only two days until her eleventh birthday,  and for the first time ever she was going to celebrate the day. Mr and Mrs Harrod were taking Rachel and Annie to London for the weekend for a joint birthday treat. They would stay in a real hotel and spend the weekend sightseeing and having fun. Annie was counting down the hours. Her grandfather had given her money for her birthday to buy something in London with and he'd bought her a smart pull along suitcase to take with her for her first time in a hotel.

   Her mother had said nothing.

   Annie had expected nothing less. Her mother had grown more silent as the years passed and Annie had become older and more independent. There was very little conversation between mother and daughter in the small dim flat they shared. Mother sat in front of the telly day in, day out staring from behind her black veil at the movies she watched over and over again. Grandfather dealt with the bills and he paid the cleaning lady Mrs Bandle who visited three times a week. Annie herself was very adept at preparing microwave meals and clearing up afterwards.

   But even she knew that this was no life for a child, that there was more to life than coming home to silence and chores to be done. Annie spent her evenings lying on her bed doing homework and reading. She always brushed her teeth and put her light out by 9pm and she lay in the dark listening to the murmur of the television, listening for any sign of life from her mother.

   Annie lived for the evenings she went to tea with Rachel and the two weekends a month she spent at the Harrods big house in Rushworth. It was the only time in her life when she was really a child. She never gave any thought to her mother on those weekends. She remembered how surprised Rachel had been the first weekend when Annie had said she was fine and really didn't need to call home. It had been hard for her to comprehend. She didn't understand how someone could not miss their mam. Mrs Harrod had put her hand on Annie's shoulder and kissed Rachel's head and said Annie could do whatever she wanted.

   Annie loved Mrs Harrod as much as she loved Grandpa and Rachel.

I stand at the hotel window and stare down at the bustling street below. It is always disconcerting being back in London. Like we're on a different planet to L.A. I don't feel at home in London, though to be honest I don't really feel at home in L.A anymore either. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever feel at home again.

   I listen to the noises Lee makes as he showers in the huge ensuite bathroom. I know his routine so well and it comforts me. He is getting ready to leave the bathroom then it will be my turn. I listen, knowing that any second he will saunter from the bathroom with a towel wrapped round his waist and his hair wet but combed. I hope he will smile at the sight of me, instead of scowling as is so often his way these days. In the old days he would come up behind me and kiss me before going to get dressed, now I am not so sure.

   The door opens and Lee walks into the bedroom but he doesn't come up to me, he doesn't even look at me. It has been five weeks since we last saw each other yet he doesn't seem to notice I am there. I turn and watch as he opens the wardrobe door and removes his suit.

   "Are you getting ready or going like that?" he asks me brusquely and I almost cringe from the barely concealed contempt he holds me in.

   "I missed you" I say quietly. It is the truth but it is a truth that has come too late.

   He turns and looks at me. His eyes are cold and his face a hard mask. "You missed me? I doubt that Jessie. I see you're looking better at least since I last saw you."

   I recoil and glare at him. "Why did you ask me to be here if you are going to be so horrid?"

   "Because however angry I am with you Jessie, I have a job to do and you know as well as I do that the job goes much better if both of us do this shit together" he snaps. "That's all this is Jessie. It's not a loving reunion where you pretend you don't remember what you said to me and I pretend you didn't rip my heart out and stamp on it."