Fatal Legacy

Fatal Legacy by Elizabeth Corley Page A

Book: Fatal Legacy by Elizabeth Corley Read Free Book Online
Authors: Elizabeth Corley
as it opened noiselessly on well-oiled hinges. At first he could hear muffled conversation and his spirits rose, then he realised that it was the radio and his mood deflated in an instant.
    Nurse Brown had heard his quiet entry and walked into the hall. He raised his eyebrows in a silent question but she shook her head and his spirits sank even lower. In the kitchen he set a white-and-green M&S carrier bag on the island unit. To his left, past the built-in oven, fridge and larder unit, was the door to the utility room; straight ahead a double-width back door led via a ramp into the carefully tended garden. To his right there was a passage, and beyond, a purpose-built extension where his wifenow spent the remainder of her days.
    Behind him, in the hall, Nurse Brown was putting on a lightweight coat.
    ‘I’ll see you tomorrow morning, then, Mr Fish, just before eight. I’ve left a note of things we need on the worktop – and there’s a new prescription to pick up from the doctor if you have a moment at lunchtime.’
    He thanked her and wished her a good evening. When she had left, the silence of the house surrounded him, broken only by small mechanical noises in the kitchen. The fridge motor clicked on and hummed, the tap dripped erratically, and away to his right, faint in the distance, the radio chattered.
    He walked through the passage and into the pretty sitting room cum bedroom beyond. His wife was half lying, half sitting on her bed, the radio beside her. As soon as she saw him her eyes rolled slightly and the left eyelid flickered. She was welcoming him home.
    ‘Hello, love. How’s today been?’
    With great effort she closed and opened her left eye twice. One was good, and three bad.
    ‘Oh.’ Arthur wasn’t quite sure what to say; he never was. He put all the troubles of his day at work behind him and focused on the next hour he would spend with his wife.
    ‘I’ve got us a bit of a treat for tea tonight. A Marks and Spencer steak and kidney pie – your favourite – and a summer pudding with cream to follow.’ Even as he spoke he knew it was for his own comfort; she ate like a bird these days, pecking at the mashed food he served her for a few minutes at a time, before dozing off. How could anyone be so ill and yet continue to live? It baffled him, and yet she remained the only sane, controlled part of his awful life.
    He walked back to the kitchen and set the oven to warm whilst he went to change out of his suit. His bedroom was neat and tidy, the double bed carefully made up with envelope corners that would have pleased the sternest nursing sister. In a freshly laundered casual shirt, cardigan, check trousers, socks and slippers, he made his way back down to the kitchen and popped the pie in the oven. He’d bought ready-prepared runner beans and it took him only a moment to peel the potatoes. Atseven o’clock precisely, his early-evening chores complete, Arthur went to join his wife in time for The Archers . He told himself she still looked forward to the series, but there was no way of really knowing any more. Still, she always blinked once when he asked her whether she had enjoyed it.
    Arthur looked at her now, her eyes closed. Was she asleep or conscious? What went on behind that paralysed, twisted face? He tried hard to remember her as she had been: a smiling, quiet, contented wife with not a bad word to say about anybody. She’d had no great gifts save her ability to be a wonderful, calm wife and mother. Their three grown-up children were a testament to her abilities; Arthur took no credit for their upbringing. And now look. All that goodness trapped inside a sick, bloated body that needed twenty-four-hour care. It made him very angry. No wonder he had gone so badly wrong.
    The buzzer went off on the cooker, reminding him that he still had the beans to cook. He raised himself to his feet and returned to the kitchen, steeling himself to prepare his wife’s mush and talk to her for the next

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