Faith and Nelson gave wonderful holiday parties. Always on the Sunday before.they do ask the whole family,his and hers , they produced jey for just enough time for everyone to think he was adorable and never for that one moment too long when people would tire of him.they made the party a huge buffet so nobody was trapped with anyone else. The house was festooned with decorations, usually real Holly and real ivy gathered from the country side where it was growing wild .there was nothing vulgar about the tree .but everyone knew that that somewhere, discreetly,were the gift wrapped presents that must have poured in to a couple so loving as Nelson and faith .
Years passed 8 Christmas to be precise,faith stood sometimes in her magnificent kitchen listening to the murmurs of appreciation. Nelson first wife had never done anything like this .oh no one had been invited across the door in Hayley's day . Hayley had been far too hoity-toity to bother with family.
That was Faith's reward .that was the glory for weeks ,no months, of preparation and planning and shopping and making it seem so stress free and effortless. Nelson had grumbled slightly when faith said they should have a second freezer, but then he wasn't there when she made the mountains of mince pies and stacks of savouries. Nelson didn't know how faith worked in that kitchen on the nights he had meetings or had to stay out of town. He can never know .she would be as different from the beautiful, selfish Hayley as it was possible to be. And her child jey would be an angel not a devil, as Hayley's child had turned out.not a dangerous, destructive girl like Alison.
Alison had been nine when faith met her first. Very beautiful, with untamed curly hair almost covering her face .she had made no pretence at politeness .
' How much did it cost ?' she had ask Faith about the new dress. ' why do you want to know?' faith was spirited from the start. ' I was asked to find out' Alison shrugged as if it didn't matter very much. ' By your mother? Faith could have bitten her tongue the moment she said it . ' Heavens no , mother wouldn't be remotely interested' the way she said it, Faith knew she was speaking the truth , the lovely lazy Hayley would not indeed have cared . ' Who then ?' ' the girls at school.one of my friends said you must be after father for his money .'
It hasn't really got any better. When she was ten , Alison had come to stay for a weekend and had tried on all Faith's clothes and used all her make up . It wouldn't have mattered so much if Every single lipstick had not been twisted out of shape, and every garment marked with make up.
' she was only dressing up, all little girls like doing that', Nelson said ,his eyes pleading .
Faith decided not to first row on the losing battlefield of the stepchild.she managed to smile and planned a lengthy session at the dry cleaners.when Alison was eleven jey was born. ' Did you forget to take your pills '? She asked faith when her father was out of the room . ' We wanted him , Alison, just as your mother and your father wanted you .'
' oh yeah?' Alison had said,. And Faith's heart was leaden . It was true that she had wanted the child much more than Nelson had .how could this monstrous step daughter have found her vulnerability?
When Alison was twelve,she was expelled from school.the counsellor said that it was all to do with her feeling's her father had rejected her .she must be allowed to spend more time as part of his life, Nelson was out at work all day, and so was Faith,they treasured the time they took together with jey . Time when the quiet Swiss au pair went to her room and left them to be a family. Now they had Allison on long visit sulking, yawning, contributing nothing, criticising everything .
When she was thirteen ,she didn't want to come near them , which was bliss , except that it made Nelson feel rejected. Faith worked in a publishing house . She told her colleagues ruefully that she could see why there were so many books on a step parenting, she had read them all and she could have written half a dozen more . But none of them had ever had to face anything like Alison .
When Alison was fourteen ,her mother died . Suddenly and unexpectedly, after a routine operation. Nelson had to go to Alison's boarding school . ' I expect you'll have to have me now ' she had said to her father . Nelson said it nearly broken his heart that his only daughter considered herself a package to be passed from one place to another. Faith forced herself to think about Hayley, dead before she was forty . Dead without ever lived properly.she put the thought of Alison to the furthest part of her brain. She knew it would spoil everything. There were going to be no happy endings in this story,no one would walk hand in hand into the sunset swearing undying friendship. She would do it ,she would do it for Nelson and oddly for the dead Hayley, whom she had feared and mistrusted in life. If faith were to die Young,she would like some other woman to look after jey ,to try to make a life for him .
To be continued .
Nice story