Under My Skin

Part Fifteen

Part Fifteen

Piled into his four wheel drive, Marc left the station and headed home. As they drove into the village, he pulled up outside her cottage, the turned in the seat to face Isobel. “I’m hoping that you’ll just go in to collect your mail...”

She smiled at his anxiety, and placed her hand over his on the gear stick, “I had it all redirected, and today I changed it from Maria’s address to yours.”

                “You’ll come home with us? Are you sure?”

She shrugged, “I’ll never be sure about him coming into our lives, but we need to be together...I want us all to be together.”

He nodded as he pulled away from the kerb, trying to hide the smile of euphoria that threatened his lips, and drove through the village to his imposing home on the outskirts. She saw a curtain flutter as the car arced over the gravel in front of the doors, then Mrs. Edwards emerged smiling, greeting them all very genially. Isobel groaned, her and Mrs Edwards had never seen eye to eye, the last thing she wanted was to have to deal with the overly helpful housekeeper.

                “Isobel! Lovely to see you, just thought you both may need some help with the kids.”

Marc looked at Isobel and saw her grim face, and answered for them, “We’ll be ok, they’re so excited, they need to wear themselves out!  But you go off, we’ll manage!”

                “Ok, there’s plenty of salad and meat in the fridge, enough for a decent size meal.”

                “Thanks Mrs E.” Marc assured her again. “We’ve got a lot to do, why don’t you both take the night off?”

She nodded, “thank you, are you wanting dinner tomorrow?”

Marc sighed, wishing the woman would just listen for a moment, “why don’t you give us some time to ourselves? We’ve got nothing planned for a while...I’ll speak to you in a couple of days time. Would that be ok?”

                “If you’re sure Mr Banfield. We could go and see our grandchildren...”

Isobel cut in, “don’t feel obliged to go away because of me, but we do need some time to sort things out, I don’t want you to feel threatened by this.”

The two ladies shared a few reassuring glances before the older lady departed. There had been an issue of territory between them since she’d started going out with Marc, and it had all been left very raw. This confrontation wasn’t doing much to help anything.

Taking the strong hint, she disappeared smiling awkwardly, and as the door closed the children started to run wild, playing, laughing and the odd fight thrown in for most of the evening. Isobel wandered into the kitchen and opened the fridge, they all needed to eat. Marc suggested a Chinese takeaway, but cooking something wholesome, starting off on the right foot as a family was really important to Isobel. And the children had a lot to take in, so it was over a dinner of pasta and garlic bread that they broached the subject of the two families combining.

                “So have you three enjoyed playing together today?” Marc asked as they ate their food ravenously.  All three nodded enthusiastically. “Well...” he added, “we have got something to tell you all. We’re all going to live here together, and in a few months we’re going to have a new baby!”

Sophie was genuinely pleased, that much was obvious, the other two were a bit bewildered by it all, not really understanding what it all meant. But Marc and Isobel shared a look of relief as the news was passed over; instead discussions over where Taylor was going to sleep were more important. That was the beauty of children; they just accepted things in their stride and carried on.