The Skeleton Tree by Diane Janes (reading women TXT) 📕

‘A beneficiary under the will? Me? Goodness, I never expected that!’ A moment of genuine sincerity there, she thought, though if anything, the conversation became even more strained as she felt obliged to reiterate the difficulties she would have experienced in travelling down for the funeral.

Larry had clearly tired of excuses regarding the funeral, because he cut across this with a piece of information that all but stunned her into silence. After that Wendy stopped attempting to make polite conversation and just listened. Then she said, ‘Thank you.’

When she finally returned to the dining room – a space so restricted that when all five of them were seated at the table, the backs of the chairs almost touched the wall on one side and the sideboard on another – she found the children all talking at once.

‘But it’s a programme about horses,’ Katie was protesting.

‘You know we always watch The Rockford Files on Tuesdays,’ said Tara, in the voice she used when attempting to crush any dissent from her younger siblings.

‘Why can’t I stay up to watch Dallas? All my friends at school watch it.’ Jamie was getting tired and becoming querulous.

‘Be quiet a minute, all of you,’ said Bruce. ‘Your mother looks as if she’s seen a ghost.’

‘Ooh, have you, Mam?’ Katie had a tendency to take things rather literally.

‘It’s just an expression, pet.’ Wendy resumed her seat and glanced down at her plate, where the gravy was congealing around her slice of home-made chicken and mushroom pie. She hesitated, taking in each of the faces around the table before she said, ‘Though, actually, I have had a bit of a surprise.’

‘A nice surprise?’ asked Tara.

‘Oh, yes. Definitely a nice surprise. You remember I told you that my aunt Adi had died?’ She addressed the family in general, but Bruce in particular, continuing, without waiting for his acknowledgement, ‘Well, it turns out that she’s left me some money. One of my cousins – well, strictly speaking, I think he’s one of Mam’s cousins – Larry – is the executor of her will, and that’s what he rang to tell me. She left the money to Mam, but under the terms of her will, since Mam is already dead, the money will come to me instead.’

‘How much?’ asked Bruce, not bothering to beat about the bush.

‘Thirty-seven thousand pounds.’ She said it slowly, savouring the taste of it. Their house wasn’t worth thirty-seven thousand pounds.

‘Bloody hell!’ Bruce was not much given to swearing, and certainly not in front of the children.

‘Flipping heck!’ exclaimed Tara. ‘No one ever told me we had rich relations. Are there any more out there? Who on earth was this Aunt Adi, anyway?’

‘She was your nanna Burton’s cousin. Adeline Crawley, her name was. I hardly knew her, to tell you the truth. Her part of the family went down south years ago, before I was born. Mam always said they’d done well for themselves. The thing is, there were a lot of sisters in that branch of the family and, apart from Larry’s mother, none of them got married, so I suppose as the others died off, the money gradually got passed along to Aunt Adi. According to Larry, she left everything to be split equally among her cousins, but she’s lived so long, it’s mostly her cousins’ children that’ll be benefitting and there’s none too many of those.’

‘Lucky for you she thought blood was thicker than water,’ said Bruce. ‘She could easily have left it all to the cats’ home.’

‘Lucky for all of us.’

‘I suppose this means I can have that dress from Topshop after all,’ said Tara, with a hint of mischievous sarcasm. The dress in question had been pronounced of dubious quality and too expensive during a mother and daughter shopping expedition to Middlesbrough the previous Saturday.

Never slow to scent an advantage, Jamie chipped in with a request for a new bike.

‘Hold on, hold on,’ Bruce protested. ‘Your mother hasn’t even got the money yet and you’re already spending it. I’m sure there will be a chance to each choose something nice in due course, but we won’t be spending it all at once, you know.’

‘I’ve already decided what to do with most of it,’ Wendy said. ‘It’s like a sort of sign, isn’t it? The money coming just now … It means we can buy that house.’

The morning after the phone call from Larry, Wendy timed her walk down Green Lane and into the High Street to coincide with the nine a.m. opening of the estate agents’ office. She just had to pray that the legalities accompanying the sale had not progressed too far. Whatever the prospective purchasers had offered for The Ashes, she would simply offer more.

The same young woman with the toothy smile was manning the front desk. ‘Good morning. Can I help you?’

‘Yes, please. I’ve come about the house in Green Lane. The Ashes.’ Wendy took in the look of mild surprise but ploughed on regardless. ‘I want to make an appointment to view the house with my husband, and after he has seen it, we will be making an offer.’

The teeth flashed back into smile mode. ‘Well … goodness me, doesn’t word get round quickly? We only heard that the sale had fallen through yesterday. We haven’t even had time to readvertise or take down the sold plate.’

Wendy sat down heavily in a convenient chair. The sale had fallen through. It was an omen. Not only did she want the house, but the house wanted her. She felt as if she had successfully pulled off a conspiracy with someone she had never met. On the way home, when she looked over the gate, she wondered if she ought to pinch herself.

Her joyful mood was only slightly dented by the general air of surprise which greeted her announcement over tea that she had made an appointment for the whole family to view The Ashes.

‘Good grief, Wendy, I didn’t think you were serious,’ Bruce said. ‘You’ve got to think