Obsession by Susan Lewis

stopping off in the kitchen and checking on the delicious aroma coming from the stove, she went outside to find her mother in the garden tidying up her rose bushes. She saw straight away that Edwina had a good deal more colour than usual in her cheeks and since Edwina hadn’t heard her come in, she watched her curiously for a moment. Yes, there was no doubt about it, she did look better, and there was a smile on Edwina’s face that Corrie felt reflecting on her own.
    ‘You look wonderful,’ Corrie told her.
    Edwina looked up in surprise. ‘Thank you,’ she said.
    ‘So, what’s happened?’
    ‘Happened? Nothing’s happened. Except the sun is shining and I love my daughter more than anyone else in the world.’
    Corrie pulled a face. ‘God, you’re slushy sometimes. Still I have to tell you it’s a relief to know that’s all it is. For one minute there I thought you’d been bouncing about the bedroom with Doctor Sands.’
    Edwina laughed. She really did seem happy today.
    Corrie handed her the bag with the dress in then went to put the kettle on. When she came out again Edwina’s gardening gloves were lying on the table and she was holding up the dress admiringly.
    ‘This isn’t one of ours,’ she said.
    Corrie explained whose it was, then as she went back inside to make the tea she added. ‘She wants it for a ball tonight at the Denbys’. The chauffeur’s coming back for it, if you please.’ Since her mother was standing quite near the door she kept up her chatter as she made the tea. ‘You should have heard me in the shop with this woman,’ she said. ‘God, it was disgusting. There I was fawning around her like Uriah Heep, then you’ll never guess what I said …’ She was laughing away as she told her mother about her
faux pas
, by which time the tea was made and she carried it out into the garden. One look at her mother’s face and the laughter died on her lips.
    Corrie rushed to her side and asked what was wrong. Edwina said it was nothing, but Corrie was insistent. ‘You’re so pale all of a sudden.’
    Edwina looked into Corrie’s eyes and for a moment seemed about to tell her something, but then she shook her head and turned back to the dress.
    ‘Are you in pain, Mum?’ Corrie asked.
    ‘Not now, sweetheart. It’s passed. Now go on telling me about the lady in the shop …’
    At six o’clock the chauffeur returned for the dress, and Corrie, who was waiting impatiently by the door, handed it over and immediately locked up the shop. She all but ran back across the square, trying all the time to suppress the horrible foreboding that was threatening to explode into panic. She didn’t want to admit it, even to herself, but she’d heard how sometimes people with cancer seemed better in the days before they died.
    A week later Edwina was in bed. Corrie and Paula had spent the evening in her room with her, but Edwina was tired so Paula had left early. Around ten Corrie went in to wish her mother good night.
    Edwina held out her hand and Corrie took it.
    ‘Would you like me to read to you for a while?’ Corrie asked.
    ‘Mm, yes. Why not?’ Edwina said. ‘But in case I fall asleep I’ll say good night now, sweetheart. And God bless.’
    Corrie started to read, but Edwina fell asleep very soon. It was in the early hours of the morning, with Corrie still sitting beside the bed, that Edwina died.

– 4 –
    IT WAS A week after Edwina’s funeral that Ted Braithwaite asked Corrie to come and see him. She’d been expecting the call and was surprised Ted had waited this long. For her part she could have waited a lot longer.
    Since Edwina’s death she had been coping with each day as it came. She never allowed herself to think beyond what she was doing at any given moment; she wouldn’t allow herself to cry for more than a few minutes at a time; neither would she permit herself to be drawn into the vacuum of overwhelming senselessness that constantly threatened to engulf her. She made tea