Mothers and Daughters by Minna Howard Page B

grandmother.

10
    ‘I know I was so lucky having such a happy marriage to such a special man,’ Alice said to Margot as they sat over coffee in the garden of the V and A, watching the children splashing in the pool in the courtyard. ‘So I probably can’t understand why Laura should just settle for Douglas, not to mention having to be judged by his mother and the other grandparents, his ex in-laws.’
    ‘I suppose it’s hard to accept that one of your children is going to make their life with someone else, I know I’ll find it hard to accept it with my boys,’ Margot said, ‘but most people’s marriages aren’t perfect, so she’ll be just like everyone else, muddling along.’ Margot looked away, not wanting Alice to see the disquiet in her eyes.
    ‘You’re right, but all the same I feel she’d have more chance of real happiness if she married someone without all these ties. After all she’s only twenty-four and I can’t help feeling she’s so lost without her father, she’s settled on Douglas. He’s a nice man, kind, but there doesn’t seem to be much excitement between them, the sort of “can’t keep their hands off each other” that both of us knew.’ Alice remembered that sensation now, the constant urge to touch Julian, be close to him. ‘Don’t you remember?’ she said, regarding Margot intently, wanting to open up the conversation, dissect these new roles of her of being a mother-in-law and a granny, both thrust upon her without warning.
    Margot was staring into space, making Alice wonder if she’d inadvertently hit a sore spot in her. Margot and Glen always seemed happy enough, though no one knew what went on in other people’s marriages and what one person put up with another could not. Glancing at her friend, she sensed that all was not right but she knew better than to pry. If Margot wanted to confide in her she would.
    As if she guessed she was being watched, Margot seemed to pull herself back to the conversation. ‘It’s all a toss-up; well all life is really, isn’t it? Who knows who is going to get ill, lose all their money, love the wrong person, we just have to do our best to get on with what life throws at us.’
    ‘True, but I just think Laura could find someone who has not already been through a marriage and has children to bring up. I’m probably being unfair to Douglas, after all Nick would be even more of a disaster as a husband and Evie will have to bring up his baby on her own.’ Alice would have liked to confide her fears that she wondered if Laura was also in love, or more likely lust, with Nick too, but she decided against it. She trusted Margot not to spread it around, but it was best not give more life to the subject.
    ‘Douglas is dependable and has a good job, loves his children and in his own, perhaps low-key, way loves Laura,’ she went on.
    ‘You can’t ask for much more than that,’ Margot said, ‘though I know you think he snapped her up to keep house. You don’t think she jumped into it because Evie is having a baby, do you?’
    Alice frowned, ‘I don’t know. There’s always been a sort of rivalry between them and Nick… the father of Evie’s baby is… terribly attractive… and…’ Again she hesitated, wondering whether to tell Margot about Laura’s feelings for him.
    ‘But Laura is more like Julian, sensible, not the sort to fall for that sort of man. I’d say Laura’s just settling for safety and security, and you say he is a kind person,’ Margot said.
    ‘He is, and I think he does love her – more slow burn than raging fire that might last longer – I just wish she’d wait a little longer.’
    Alice had not taken her own advice. The moment she’d met Julian she’d known he was
the one
. It was hard to explain, she’d had a couple of lukewarm boyfriends her own age and then she’d met him at her cousin Beth’s wedding. Perhaps it was the romance of the occasion: a wedding held in a castle beside a beach in Scotland, the