Getting The Picture by Sarah; Salway Page B

that old man at Pilgrim House. You know, the one Robyn had been talking about poetry with, and he’s only invited me to have tea with him.
    His letter made me shiver because he quoted that line Mum always used to go on about, you know, the one about loving going on after you’ve died. Hah, I wish James had listened to that being-true-and-faithful bit. Anyway, this Martin made me cry, saying I should be proud of Robyn. I can’t remember the last time anyone told me that. And to think I told Dad to make friends with him. What have I let this Martin in for?
    I think I’m going to accept his invitation to tea. Just him and me, away from Pilgrim House. Dad doesn’t need to know. You could be right about Robyn looking for a father figure but she knows she can see James whenever she wants. It’s her decision, and neither of us have put any pressure on her either way.
    And about the other thing, I’m glad you’ve decided to have the baby. You’re not alone and you can always come here. Anytime. We can make arrangements when you’re over. It’s not too late for us to be a family, surely. Robyn would love it. In his defence, Dad asked her to go to tea the other day but I said she didn’t have to if she didn’t want to, so she said no. I told her I was proud of her. Perhaps I should start saying it a bit more often.
    77. letter from florence oliver to lizzie corn
    Dear Lizzie,
    Well, you can release your breath and uncross your fingers. George and I had our meeting and that’s all it was. A business meeting. He’d even drawn up an agenda. Point number one was ‘Explain that investments can go up as well as down’. It felt like the time I had to go in and see the bank manager after Graham died and he asked me if I knew how a credit card worked. Admittedly Graham never liked me to shop, but who did the manager think had been balancing the books for years? Rather well too it seems, according to this manager. ‘Do you know how much money your husband has left you?’ he asked, and I got a little satisfaction from seeing his face when I told him the exact amount down to the last penny.
    Remember that investment club we started on the army base when the men were away on the German tour? We made a fair packet, and it taught me a lot.
    Anyway, I was a good girl and played dumb with George. I couldn’t quite manage the ‘you’re so clever’ line, but I sat still while he went through points two to ten, pretended I’d never heard of an ISA or compound interest. Trouble is, for no reason at all, I got this picture of George pleasing himself on a bed of pound notes, and that was it. I thought I was going to burst with giggles. Daft of me. He looked a bit cross and put away his file. Did I tell you about his file? He’s got this black clipboard, with a pencil taped to a piece of string. He does make me think of Graham. He was always tying ballpoints to the phone, or to the calendar in the kitchen because he thought I would hide them to spite him. Well, I did, but it’s in the same way I take things from George’s room. Some men need to worry about the small things, otherwise who knows what they’ll get it into their heads to start accusing you of.
    So to cut a long story short, George has left me to have a think. He’s written out some notes and I’m to come back to him. He’s got it a bit wrong because I’d be leaving myself open on the futures front with the plan he’s given me, so I’ll have to come up with a way of not letting on about that, but at least we managed to spend some time together without me losing my temper at him too much and there’s another meeting planned. Martin will be pleased about that.
    The only time he seemed human was when he mentioned Robyn towards the end. Apparently she’s refusing to come to tea with him, but I said I was sure I’d seen her around. He went a bit blustery