When the Bough Breaks (34 page)

‘Awful. They say the waiting list for housing in Deremouth is hopeless.'

‘There and everywhere else. And there's nothing to rent in Sedgewood. They can't have a family living in one room over the pub. Anyway, I've said I haven't talked to you yet but I was sure you were going to give up the lease. He will be responsible for carrying on here – and supplying stuff to the hall just like you did – and he and Sarah will have the house.' Then with a hopeful but not entirely confident smile that seemed to take her back years, he asked, ‘What do you say?'

‘You've swept away the only cloud in my sky. What did Beth say?'

‘To be truthful Beth put the idea in my head – you know what women are like for suggesting a thing and making a chap believe it was his idea. But we both hated to think of Westways not being there for all of us. I think it's great – here, the Hall, all of it put to good use. And still
ours
, still yours. It sort of brings yesterday along with us to tomorrow.'

She was ashamed at the way her mouth was twitching. He put his arm around her shoulder. ‘You know something? When you and Bruce (I should say Uncle but he doesn't mind being just Bruce) were out last Sunday I went to talk to Bert and Sarah. Then Beth came over and we met up outside here and walked to the common talking about all of it. Silly, wasn't it, but we even found our den. What makes people cry when they're happy?'