Chapter 8

When we went to collect Ginny's mum from hospital the next day, I asked the doctor if she would manage in an upstairs bedroom with an en suite. He said if she took her time she would manage a flight of stairs so long as she was not running up and down all day. In fact a few times a day would be good for exercising her leg.

I told him that would be the extent of it for now and asked how long it would be before she could use the leg normally. For purposes around the house I would say as soon as the stitches come out of the wound. As far as her job as a waitress is concerned I would advise at least another month before she attempts anything like that. Her main problem was the blood loss and the damage to the artery, but we have fixed that and with proper nutrition she should make a full recovery in about two months, the doctor had said.

Shirley was wheeled to the door in a chair and then we helped her into the car and drove to my house. Shirley became a bit goggle eyed when we stopped at the gates to use the electronic key to open them and said,

"God almighty, do you live in a mansion?"

"Just about; I think the house has ten rooms not counting the kitchen and conservatory. We have a bathroom and toilet on the first floor. And a shower room with toilet and hand basin on the ground floor. And two of the bedrooms are en suite. But I expect that for you the ground floor would be the first floor and the floor with the bedrooms the second floor. We also have two large attic rooms and a toilet and shower room at the top of the house. When you are up for it we will give you the grand tour."

Ginny chipped in and said, "There is also a heated swimming pool out of doors and a hot tub in an outside cabin."

"It is a mansion then," Shirley exclaimed.

"Not as big as some as far as the house goes," I said, "but it has extensive grounds and gardens which have been let go a bit but Jim, my gardener, says he will soon get it into shape when the spring arrives.

We pulled up at the front door and helped Shirley out. Once we got into the house Shirley told us that she would probably be able to manage by herself. Yesterday after we left they had her up sitting in a chair and she was able to go to the toilet by herself. So we showed her the ground floor and where the toilet facilities were. She was impressed with the Fitness room and even more impressed by the kitchen. I told her we did not use it all that much as Mags, our housekeeper cooked for us when she was cooking for her husband. She left usually enough for two in the fridge and before Ginny started spending so much time here, I would use one and freeze one. Recently though, we had been using both and it was just a matter of heating things up. However, tonight because you are here, I told her, Ginny and I are going to do the cooking and prepare a meal and we will freeze what Mags brings over.

Once the tour of the ground floor was over I suggested we have some lunch, so we repaired to the spacious kitchen and I put out heated rolls from the oven with a choice of smoked salmon pieces or various cheeses with a side salad of tomatoes, lettuce and spring onions. We had chilled sparkling water and Filter coffee for drinks.

Over lunch I told Shirley that if she felt up to it, we would take her up to her bedroom and get her settled. I also suggested that this afternoon I get a wheelchair and tomorrow we would take her shopping for new clothes. In the meantime, using Ginny's information on her mother's measurements we had purchased a couple of outfits for her to wear till then. While Shirley was a bit over weight she was far from obese. I think the drinking cut her appetite, and probably if she had not worked and ate in a fast food place, she would have been malnourished.

I asked her how she felt now that she had been four days without any alcohol. She informed us that she was surprised she had not missed it more. This gave me hope that she was just a heavy drinker, rather than an alcoholic. The difference being that the heavy drinker could be persuaded to cut back, where the alcoholic was addicted to the stuff and usually had to want to stop and had to abstain from then on and he could only do this with help.

Ginny's mother was resistant to the idea of me buying her new clothes but in the end she agreed to let us furnish her with a modest wardrobe. You might notice that I am increasingly speaking of us when referring to Ginny and me when we do things for her mother. I think that is increasing how I feel, just as Ginny does when she refers to my home as our house. It is a sign that we are accepting that we are now a couple.

After lunch Shirley felt able to venture upstairs. The en suites were at each end of the hall with the staircase coming up between them. Ours was much larger because it took up the whole width of the house. Between where the stairs emerged onto the hall and the end wall a corridor ran from the staircase to the opposite side wall of the house. At the top of the stairs as you turned left was a spacious bathroom and then a fairly large bedroom with the en suite and on the other side were the two bedrooms which had no en suite.

On the wall at that end of the corridor was a window, where at our end with the larger en suite the window was incorporated into the en suite. This meant there was a fair bit of space between our room and the room that Shirley would occupy, but I was still a bit worried about disturbing her. There was an advert which ran on British Television for a while.

I can't remember its purpose, but it was something to do with disability and sex.

The girl was in a wheelchair and the guy, presumably her husband, was able bodied. In the advert he said that they had trouble when they were asked out for an overnight, or when they stayed in a hotel because his wife was a screamer when they had sex. No wonder I have forgotten the purpose but it must have brought home to that me that many disabled people in wheelchairs could really enjoy sex and that's not all of them had lost feeling in that region.

It figured in my mind now because my Ginny really is a screamer and then some. It really turns me on but I'm pretty sure Shirley will not be far enough away from us for the noise not to carry. I suppose I could say that is Shirley's problem not ours, but I'm not sure that is the case. Long term there is another solution and sometime over the weekend I hope to be able to persuade Shirley to accept it.

Shirley made it upstairs without too much difficulty as there was a stout stair rail. Once there we showed her to her room and I carried her bag from the hospital into it. I showed her the clothes we had bought which were just two or three blouses, two skirts and a pair of trousers and two Jumpers. She already had the dressing gown and the nightwear we had bought for her while in hospital.

I suggested that we show her the rooms on this flower and then Ginny could help her to put her stuff away and if she wanted she could try on the clothes we had bought for her. She was quite impressed with her room. It had a comfortable double bed, a wardrobe, two chests of drawers, two bedside tables, each with a lamp with dimmer switches and a walk in cupboard which took half the width of the wall that separated it from the bathroom. In the bathroom itself was the other half of that space holding a cupboard about the same size which was used for storing towels sheets, spare eiderdowns, pillows and other odds and ends.

The bedroom side acted as a wardrobe. The other bedrooms were adequate for visitors or children when they arrived.

When she saw the size of our bedroom she was surprised by how large it was. But about a third of the space was taken up by the en suite at the far end. The floor was completely tiled and there were two shower heads on the back wall and no curtained off area. There was also a bath a toilet a bidet and a hand basin and several small cupboards on the floor and some wall mounted for storing toiletries and other things. The wall along the length of the bath was covered in mirror tiles which made the room appear twice as large as it was. I really liked it even though I had inherited it rather than being the one who designed it.

I went downstairs and tidied up the lunch things while Ginny helped her mother get settled into her room. It was about an hour before they came back downstairs. I had been busy working on the computer doing some of my homework and had not noticed the passage of time until Ginny popped her head into the study to ask if I would like to join them for coffee. I readily accepted and joined them in the kitchen. This was a habit for Ginny and I. We often sat in the kitchen rather than take things through to the sitting room or dining room

As we sat around the table I asked Shirley if she was ready to think about the future.

"In what way?" She asked.

I pointed out that there were several problems facing her, the first was her apartment. The rent was due in a day or two and she had indicated she could not continue to pay it if she was not earning. As she was going to be off work for at least a month then she had to decide what to do about it. The second problem was the job itself was she guaranteed that her job would be there when she was able to go back. The third problem was the long term one. Would she be able to cope if she went back and Ginny stayed here with me, or alternatively when Ginny went off to college?

Then I said to her,

"Let us look at these problems and deal with them one by one. I would like to start with the last one first. The reason for this will become obvious and it is not because I want Ginny to stay here with me if she can. It is because I am worried if you will cope on your own."

"Why shouldn't I be able to cope on my own? I managed before I had Ginny?"

Shirley said indignantly.

"Yes you did," I agreed, "But do you realise what Ginny has been doing for you to keep you safe?"

"What do you mean by that?" She demanded.

"Let me remind you what you said when I asked about your drinking in hospital, I quote, when I feel miserable or lonely or when things are emotionally painful I drink. Since I feel that way a lot of the time, then a lot of the time I drink.

"So what has that to do with anything?" She asked

"When you drink at night you often do so till you fall asleep in your chair. Since you smoke, Ginny stays awake until you fall asleep, then she gets up, checks that you have not fallen asleep smoking, tries to make you comfortable and puts some blankets over you. On at least two occasions she has retrieved a smouldering cigarette end which would almost certainly have started a fire. Obviously if she had not been doing that, the two of you might be dead by now. Especially since that apartment of yours is a death trap, no smoke alarms and no way out if you are cut off from the door to the landing."