Chapter Nine

It was the morning of their trip to Glasgow. Olivia and Ted had spent the previous evening with her father, trying to persuade him to eat, which had proved more challenging than Olivia had first expected, but after seeing Ted heartily tucking into the scouse, William had eventually relented and eaten the lot, followed by a bowl of rice pudding. Then there came the task of getting him to take his tablets, something which he refused to do point blank, until Olivia reasoned that he would likely end up in hospital if he didn’t. This seemed enough to convince her father to take them, if only for a day or two.

Now, as she entered his room, a bowl of porridge in her hands, she was grateful to see that his mood seemed to have improved.

‘Is that my breakfast?’

She nodded. ‘Porridge with a smidge of honey.’ Sensing his improved mood, she added, ‘Would you like your tablets before or after your breakfast?’

He shrugged. ‘Either or.’

She placed the porridge on the table beside his bed so that he could reach it easily, opened the tablet bottle and handed him his medication along with a glass of water, which he took without complaint.

Olivia could have whooped for joy. ‘I’m glad to see that you’re feeling better – you had me worried for a minute there.’ She waited until he had finished his breakfast before broaching the matter of her trip to Glasgow with Ted, something which did not go down well.

‘What the hell are you going there for?’ he snapped irritably.

‘So that we can visit the crematorium and pay our respects.’

He looked up sharply. ‘We?’

‘Me and Ted,’ said Olivia.

‘Who?’

‘My boyfriend, the one you had your supper with last night?’

William fell silent for a moment as he searched his thoughts. ‘You mean Edward Hewitt!’ he said testily.

Olivia nodded.

He stuck out his bottom lip. ‘How long will you be away?’

‘Only overnight. We’ll visit the crematorium first thing in the morning and come back on the midday train.’

‘The crematorium?’

Olivia sighed. Trying to talk to her father this morning was like trying to get through to a brick wall. ‘Yes! The sooner we find it, the sooner we’ll be back.’

‘It’s easy enough to find. Pass me a pen and paper.’

Olivia nodded cautiously. Was her father really going to help her? She rooted around in her handbag for a pen and paper and handed them over.

William wrote the information down, and handed them back.

Olivia glanced at the paper to make sure she could read his writing, then placed it in her handbag. ‘Thanks, Dad, I or rather we appreciate it.’

He shrugged. ‘Have you prepared anything for me to eat whilst you’re away?’