Liverpool Love Song by Anne Baker Page B

over. They wanted that to take place as soon as possible, but Chloe knew they were dreading it as much as she was. Her mother was clearly looking for support.
    Rex came round as usual and Chloe was surprised to find him discussing everything from the service to the flowers with Mum and Aunt Goldie. The earliest date they could get for the funeral was seven days hence. It was to be at half past eleven in the morning, and Mum decided to follow it with a light buffet lunch at her house for the mourners.
    ‘What about Auntie Joan? Have you told her?’ Chloe asked. ‘She’ll be upset, Gran was her aunt.’
    ‘Oh heavens, no! How could I forget Joan?’ Helen rushed to the phone.
    ‘Tell her about me too,’ Chloe called after her. She wanted them to know of her problem before they saw her.
    Mum was on the phone for ages. Chloe heard her say her name several times and she knew they were discussing her. But when they came round later that day she was swept up into comforting hugs.
    ‘You mustn’t worry about it love,’ Auntie Joan told her. Chloe thought they were particularly kind to her. It was Auntie Joan who took over organising the funeral lunch.
    Chloe rang Adam later that day. ‘I’m missing you,’ he told her. ‘When are you coming back?’
    She told him about the funeral arrangements and suggested he came. ‘You could take me back with you after the lunch. I’ll have everything packed ready.’
    ‘I don’t like funerals,’ he said. ‘They give me the creeps. Tell your mother I’m sorry but I have to go to an auction on that day. An important one I can’t afford to miss.’
    ‘Oh!’
    ‘She won’t care whether I’m there or not.’
    ‘I care.’ Chloe thought he should come. ‘You must if you’re ever to be considered one of the family.’
    He said, ‘You could catch the train back and I’ll meet you at the station.’
    To Chloe, the days of waiting seemed interminable. Aunt Goldie came to stay with them in the third bedroom, but she complained that it was poky and the bed uncomfortable. Rex encouraged Chloe to take her mother out for walks and on trips to the shops to buy their daily provisions. They cooked together, and Rex usually joined them for their evening meal.
    Adam rang her every day. ‘I do love you and wish you were here,’ he told her. ‘It’s lonely without you.’
    But on the day before the funeral he said, ‘If you come back tomorrow afternoon, I won’t be able to meet your train, because the sale I told you about is in Edinburgh.’
    ‘I thought that was just an excuse for you to avoid the funeral.’
    ‘Of course not.’ He sounded disconcerted. ‘The sale is at Hampton’s in Edinburgh, I told you that.’
    ‘I don’t remember.’
    ‘Why don’t you stay over till the next morning? There’s a train you could catch that gets in about twelve. I could meet you and take you to lunch in Manchester before we go home. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?’
    ‘Yes,’ she agreed. ‘All right, that’s what I’ll do.’
    When the day of the funeral came, it was pleasantly warm and sunny. Rex drove them to the church in Mum’s car and was very attentive to them all. Gran had been in her eighty-sixth year and had outlived or lost touch with most of the friends she’d had, but she and Aunt Goldie had been regular churchgoers all their lives, so the church was not empty, as many of the congregation attended the ceremony.
    As Helen’s house was some distance from the church, only the vicar and two or three of the congregation came for refreshments, and they didn’t stay long. That left the family party, which included Auntie Joan and Uncle Walter. Soon Mum and Rex were showing them round the lovely garden. Chloe made afternoon tea in the summerhouse for those who stayed on, and spent quite a long time talking to Auntie Joan.
     
    Helen was relieved when she could take Marigold home and have the funeral over. She missed Chloe when she went back to Manchester, but was