Chapter 11

David’s homecoming followed the same pattern for the week he had established on the first day. He would be greeted by his son, pick up Bethan for a cuddle, a play and a tickle. Celia would bring him an aperitif – a beer, G & T, or a dry sherry before they sat down to the evening meal, with Bethan close by him in her bouncy chair.

He had to admit that Celia’s cooking had improved immensely, and found himself looking forward to finding out what delight she had in store each evening. There was no sign of any ready meals, or take-aways, though he made up his mind to suggest one once a week to relieve her of the work of preparation.

He caught himself watching her as she worked in the kitchen, taking in her lithe shape, her shining hair, the flash of waist flesh as she reached up for something, the exquisite roundness of her bottom as she bend to a cupboard. Then he would feel guilty and look away.

After the meal, he would play with Evan, then watch Bethan while Celia bathed Evan. She would put Evan to bed and David would then read him a bedtime story as he always had. Meanwhile Celia bathed Bethan and gave her a bottle, before putting her down to sleep, when David would come to kiss the tot and bless her good night.

Downstairs afterwards he would wash up, and Celia would join him after making sure Bethan was settled. They would watch TV for half an hour or so, or read or chat about the day, if they had not already done so at dinner. Celia sat on the sofa, and David in ‘his’ armchair. He felt comfortable and relaxed in her presence.

Some evenings she would go straight to her room from the kitchen, on others David would disappear to his office to catch up on the months he had been away. She would put her head round the door and wish him good night before retiring early. After all, he thought, she would be up in the night. He would emerge, often after midnight, to find the house locked up and everything ready for the morning.

Each night he faced the emptiness of the bed and felt that pang of sadness, though it did not feel so acute any more. He still whispered, “Good night my love, I miss you!” to his Gwen, hoping that somehow she was somewhere listening.

Each morning, after an undisturbed sleep all night, he would shower, shave and dress, then descend to find Celia ready to serve his breakfast at which she joined him. Sometimes she would have Bethan on her hip, and sometimes Evan would be playing if he had woken early.

He would kiss the children if they were awake and Celia would send him on his way from the front door with a happy smile and “Have a good day!” She had done that on the Monday, and then simply continued the practice. He found he liked it.

It was something Marissa said on Friday. They met as they always had near the end of the day in his office to recap the week’s events, and plan the following week.

“How’s your housekeeper doing?” she asked. “Protecting you from nighttime feeds?”

It brought him up short, though he did not show it.

“She’s very good,” he said. “I’ve had a good week.”

Later her comment set him thinking. Celia had never been good at getting up in the morning in all their six years, but that week she had been ready for him every day. She had seen to Bethan and probably Evan each night, leaving him undisturbed. Then a further thought struck him: she had not had an evening off. He wondered if she was going to leave for the weekend, and he felt unhappy: he did not want her to go.

That evening, over dinner, he broached the subject.

“Celia,” he said, “You haven’t taken any time off this week.”

“Not this week, I want you settled in at work full time for a couple of weeks.”

“This weekend?”

“No. I don’t have to take my time off, you know. Anyway, what’s the matter? You want me out of the way?”

“No, no,” he hastened to tell her. “I just wanted to be prepared, I love having you here when I’m not at work.” He immediately regretted that remark even though it was true, wondering if it gave the wrong message.

She smiled a certain way at that, and he thought it had.

“David,” she said softly, “I’ll always give you plenty of warning of my days off, OK?”

He had another thought, “You haven’t had a night off Beth’s night feed either,” he said. “You must let me do my share.”

She coloured and smiled broadly.

“No,” she said. “I didn’t need to bother you: Beth gave me a night off, in fact three nights off. She’s slept through since Wednesday. She’s a poppet!”

A wave of relief flooded him, and he remembered his and Gwen’s relief when Evan, much later, started sleeping through the night. There would still be nights when Beth awoke, but they would be fewer.

The weekend passed doing ordinary weekend jobs and entertaining the children. He insisted that Celia slept in on Sunday, while he got up early to the children, and it was early! Bethan was sleeping through the night, but awoke at around six, hungry and needing a change.

The following week followed the pattern of the first, and so did the following weekend. Again Celia had taken no time off and David felt shy of bringing up the matter again, but Celia clearly wasn’t. On Sunday evening after the children were abed, she sat nearer to him in the living room.

“Well, David,” she said with a cheerful smile, “the four weeks are up. What d’you want to do?”

“Do?” he asked puzzled. “I don’t follow?”

“Cast your mind back to when I first arrived. You didn’t want me to stay, so I invited you to give me a trial for four weeks, two weeks before you went back to work and two weeks after. Well, the four weeks are up, and you have to decide what to do about me.”

He had completely forgotten. He looked at the woman sitting on the sofa to the side of him. She was sitting with a big grin on her face, looking as stunningly beautiful as she ever did. His mind flashed over the weeks she had been there. Her calm presence had become normal for him and she had been a perfect nanny and housekeeper – more than that, she obviously had a great love for the children and they for her. He could not imagine life without her there.

This all passed through his mind in a flash and suddenly there was a fear that she was actually asking to leave. His face must have betrayed him for she spoke again.

“David,” she said, almost chiding him. “You’re the one giving the trial. If you want me to continue in post, I’ll be delighted: I love the job. I love being here and I love Evan and Beth. So do I stay or do I go?”

“Oh Celia,” he laughed with relief. “You already know the answer to that. How could I cope without you? The children adore you. You will stay, won’t you?”

“All right, then,” she said, attempting and failing to sound reluctant. “I’ll stick around. Shall we have a drink to celebrate how good I am to you?”

“Definitely,” he enthused, getting up and fixing their drinks.

He decided to broach the subject of her days off again. He did so with some diffidence, for she seemed to know her own mind, though he wondered if she had tried so hard over the past weeks simply to ensure she stayed.

“Celia–”

“David, I’ll let you know when I need days off. One day at the weekend or two nights during the week after dinner, that’s what we agreed. I haven’t needed any time so far, but this week I’ll need to go back and check on my flat.”

It surprised him. He had thought that she had given up her flat as well as her job, but immediately saw how silly that idea had been. She had kept to her promise of four weeks, and it would have been the height of foolishness to have nowhere to live if he had ended her stay.

That night as he lay in bed, he thought about Cecilia. He was relieved that she wanted to stay. Life had become so easy, so relaxed, with her calm and efficient housekeeping and childcare. She was certainly not the woman who left him for the footballer.

How long would she stay? She was getting older and her biological clock was ticking. The way she was with the children showed she would want children of her own. When she met some man on one of her days off and they hit it off big time, she would be off. Where would that leave him?

He gave up. He would keep her as long as she wanted to stay; the children needed her and he was certainly happy with that. She was so efficient and caring, and she was certainly easy on the eye. He felt an attraction to her and immediately a twinge of guilt at the thought, as if even that thought was an insult to Gwen’s memory. He settled and said his usual ‘Good night, I miss you!’ to Gwen.

That week she took the evening off on Thursday, leaving after the evening meal, telling the children she’d be back later and would see them in the morning. David enjoyed putting the children to bed and doing the clearing up afterwards. She returned before eleven, giving him a smile before going straight to check on the children, telling him she’d get up in the night if necessary and then she went to bed.