The Tangling of the Web by Millie Gray Page B

Flora … a-a-a-and …’ Sally paused before adding. ‘ Maggie … Oh no,’ she sobbed, ‘not my bosom pal, Maggie!’
    Ginny could only nod her head before saying, ‘None other than.’
    ‘But I am the only person who has ever given her the time of day. I felt sorry for her. I pitied her. I invited her into my home and made her welcome.’
    ‘And Jezebel that she is … she has repaid you by stealing your man.’
    ‘But if you knew all that, why did you give us the rooms and all we required for Margo’s wedding for just the cost of the food?’
    ‘Mistakenly, I thought that when you were all here as a family enjoying Margo’s wedding he would appreciate all that he had. Think twice about throwing away the gold and picking up the dross.’
    Sally half turned herself towards Ginny. ‘You did all that for my family but mostly myself … Why?’
    A long minute ticked by before Ginny replied, ‘Everybody thinks I have it all. Did have once,’ she chuckled. ‘But a blue-eyed blonde fourteen years younger than me with legs that went on forever came along and, bingo, she poached my preserve. Now I accept I was luckier than you because I got sympathy for being ousted by a nubile twenty-five-year-old, whereas …’ she stopped to pick her words carefully but decided that truth was best and added, ‘… you have had the added ignominy of being replaced by an ugly older bitch.’
    Sally ignored Ginny’s truthful comments on Maggie. ‘But you seem,’ she began quietly, ‘to be quite wealthy and readjusted.’
    ‘Seem. And right enough I was astute enough to get a good settlement out of him, which I used to start up my businesses. But the blow to my confidence and esteem when he dumped me …’ She now patted her left shoulder, ‘still haunts me and is responsible for this big chip on my shoulder.’
    Sally nodded. ‘I’m different from you. Any settlement I get will be needed for a deposit on a house – that’s if they now give mortgages to women. I have no talent for getting a business up and running.’ Sally looked at herself in the dressing table mirror. Nervously, she stoked her hair before saying, ‘I’m just about to say hello to my forties – so what have I got going for me?’
    Ginny seemed deep in thought and Sally was surprised when she eventually said, ‘Look at the time. It’s nearly six o’clock.’ She arose from the bed before announcing, ‘It’s breakfast time. So how about you and I nipping up to the Caledonian Hotel to have a good old Scottish breakfast and then I’ll send you home in a taxi?’
    ‘I can’t. I’m too upset. You see, I don’t know what to do. Be reasonable, how can I eat bacon and eggs when I don’t know what’s going to happen to my children, Flora and Josie?’
    ‘Well, if you persist in feeling sorry for yourself they’ll end up in the gutter. But if you get up off your backside and start putting up a fight, and I’ll hold your coat while you’re doing it, you’ll be surprised at what a woman on her own can achieve.’

    Sally arrived home just before lunch and when she entered the living room she was confronted by her broken-hearted daughter Helen, her irate son Bobby, her embarrassed mother-in-law and Josie, who was trying to give the impression that she had led a blameless life and therefore she’d felt gutted that Sally could think she would be the type of person who would lead on her sister’s man and break up her home.
    Knowing that she owed a lot to Flora, Sally decided to speak to her first. ‘Look, Mum, ’ she said, deliberately using the term ‘Mum’ with emphasis so Flora could be left in no doubt about how much she loved her. ‘It is true Harry has left us – all of us – and we must leave here.’ Sally’s eyes became moist and she looked around the room that had known all of them and their so many happy times. ‘However, don’t panic. Ginny Strang has spent time talking to me and if we all put our shoulder to the wheel we will