Cricket Read Free Page B

ma’am.”
    Nell laughed and gestured for him to take a seat. “Then I think you should call me Nell. Unless ‘grandmother’ suits me better, do you think?”
    “Great-grandmother.”
    “Oh, no,” she said, waving away his words. “I don’t like that. It makes me sound old.”
    Shenal took the seat next to him on the small sofa, setting her mighty purse on the coffee table.
    “Shenal,” Nell said warmly. “Don’t you look beautiful today. I do think yellow is your color.”
    “Flattery, my dear Mrs. Richardson, will get you everywhere,” Shenal said, smirking. “Thank you. And thanks for taking the time to see us today.”
    “Oh, nonsense,” Nell said. “You know as well as I do that I wanted to meet the boy. I’ve ordered tea. It should be here in a minute. Did you take him by the house yet?”
    “Yes,” Shenal said. “On our way here, actually.”
    “I’m still recovering,” Henry admitted. “It’s a lot more than what I expected.”
    Nell clucked at him and nodded, her puff of white hair moving with her. “Stretton House is a beauty, I’ll give you that. Or, it used to be. I haven’t been in there in years. I daresay it’s in something of a state of disrepair by now.”
    Shenal nodded. “It’s not in the best condition.”
    Nell clucked again. “Such a shame. Such a shame.”
    They were interrupted by the arrival of the tea tray—a pot with three cups set on saucers and milk in a jug. Shenal took the task of pouring and stirring and adding sugar, handing out a cup at a time until they had all been served. Only then did Nell start up again.
    “You’re probably wondering why you’re here,” she said.
    “Yeah,” Henry said. “Shenal’s told me a bit. But not much.”
    “I’m dying, Henry,” Nell said frankly. “I have pancreatic cancer, and it’s rotting me from the inside out. They found it a few months back, and I probably don’t have long.”
    “I’m so sorry,” Henry murmured. He felt an undeniable rush of familial affection for this woman, even though they’d only just met.
    “Nothing to be sorry for,” Nell said, once again waving away his words. “Death is an inevitable consequence of life, my dear. I made the decision, after a long conversation with both my doctor and my lawyer, that we wouldn’t fight it. Dr. Morris has prescribed me the most wonderful cocktail of narcotics, which keeps some of the pain away, and I’m living out my days in this beautiful building. There’s not a lot more I could ask for.”
    “There’s no need for you to be in a hospice?” Henry asked.
    “Oh, phooey. Nonsense. I have cancer, not the plague. No one’s going to catch it from me. I’m an old lady, Henry, not a young thing worth saving. I want to know—” She paused to smooth her hands over her dress, over her knees. “I want to know that the things that are important to me are cared for. I don’t want to see my family home chopped up and sold off to the vultures. I wanted to meet my great-grandson.”
    A soft snort of a laugh escaped from Henry’s lips. “After meeting you, I’m very glad you called me here, ma’am.”
    “You’re polite,” she said, shrewd once more. “I like that. Tell me about yourself.”
    “My parents are good people,” Henry said, feeling now was the time to voice what he’d been hoping he’d have a chance to explain. “I want you to know that they didn’t know about you. My father, when I told him about your call, he didn’t know that you were still alive. I’d like to think that, if they had, they would have been in contact before now.”
    Nell smiled, the action crinkling the lines in her face even further. “That’s nice of you to say,” she said. “Where did you go to school? Did you work, before you came here?”
    “Yes, ma’am, I used to own my own business,” Henry said, feeling the weight of scrutiny on his answers. “I would plan weddings.”
    “Weddings?”
    “Yes,” he said, squirming. He had fallen into the