If faith were to die Young ,she would like some other woman to look after jey , to try to make a life for him .
She slaved as never before over their Christmas party. sometimes she got up ludicrously early in the morning. Nelson would come down to breakfast and find a smell of cooking in the kitchen, even though all the mess had been cleared away. " You're a funny little thing ' he said to her giving her a squeeze.
Faith was not funny not was she a little thing. She would look at herself thoughtfully. She was tall , not willowy as Hayley, but tall .she was deadly serious about her family and her work. Why was it the action of a funny little thing to get the party right? He used to tell her how much he loved it, that he had always been one for ceremony and celebration, but Hayley had never wanted to bother. But faith would pick no fights , manufacture no rows . Not at the festive season .
Alison arrived a day earlier than she was expected. Faith came back from work and found her halfway through Eating a tray of intensely complicated hors d'oeuvre. Each one had taken three minutes to assemble,they would take one second to eat , and faith had made sixty of them , shaping the curls of filo pastry with endless patience, and leaving them to cool before freezing them. It represented three hours of her life.she looked at Alison with pure hatred.
Alison looked up from behind the curtain of hair. ' these aren't bad . I didn't know you were a homemaker as well as a career woman.' Faith's face was white with rage . Even Alison noticed. " These weren't for supper or anything were they ? She said
Jenny took the deep breath that all books on step-parenting seemed to recommend.it was so deep,it reached her toes.
" Welcome home Alison,' she said. ' No , these weren't for supper not at all.they were just something for the party. Party" ? " Yes , on Sunday. We have the family. It's a tradition.' ' I think things have to be more than just three to four years to be a tradition ,' Alison said
' this is our sixth Christmas together, so I suppose that feels like a tradition'. Faith shoes were hurting she wanted to take them off and beat her step daughter senseless with it's high sharp heel . But she felt it would have been both unseasonal and counter- productive . There was no way faith was going to enjoy this Christmas, what must she do was to contain it . She tried to remember that phrase people used _ what was it ? Damage limitation ? _ she had never known quite what it meant. Had it something to do with saving what you could? She often found at work that if you thought of something quite irrelevant and not allowed your mind to click through the motions, then it prevented you from flying off the handle .