Elinor began to notice her upper shoulders and neck start to ache with the tension. She started to rub the back of her neck, pushing aside her thick brown hair with impatience. Ever since Tony had said he loved her hair loose she’d given up wearing a ponytail, but today she wished she’d tied it up.
She was sitting in the dining room of The Ninth Hole, amongst many of her friends and acquaintances who were waiting to have their palms read.
She’d watched several people walk out of their session with Morwenna in tears and leave in a hurry. Which was a little odd.
And which wasn’t exactly what Elena had planned on when she’d set the event up. Elena had been hoping people would stay on and have some afternoon tea. In anticipation of this she had cooked a huge batch of scones. But today it looked as though nobody was interested in hanging on after they’d had their palms read.
What on earth is she telling them, Elinor wondered to herself. She watched Jennifer going in to have her palms read and decided she’d ask her how it went afterwards. As Jennifer walked back into the café after her session, Elinor hurried up to her.
‘Jennifer, did everything go OK?’
Jennifer looked at Elinor implacably.
‘No, it didn’t go well. I’m sorry if it hurts you but your mother is a first-class bitch, if you want to know the truth. Nobody in their right mind would say the things she said to me just now.’
Jennifer strode angrily to the entrance of the café and walked out without a backward glance.
With a sense of impending doom, Elinor looked around the room. She decided she was going to have to take control of the situation. Thinking spontaneously wasn’t an asset of hers, but she decided desperate times demanded desperate measures.
She pretended to look at her phone for a minute and then stood up.
‘Right, everyone!’ she yelled, above the babble of voices. ‘I’m afraid my mother’s had an urgent call from home. We’ll have to reschedule the palm reading for another day. I’m so sorry, everyone.’
There was a collective groan from everyone gathered and then Elinor was pelted with questions. What was wrong? Was her mother going to be OK? Could they help at all?
Elinor managed to put her amateur acting skills to work and within a short space of time had cleared out the café, promising they would do it again soon.
She then sat down on a chair and sank her head down into her hands. A little while later Morwenna appeared in the doorway, looking absurdly incongruous in her floor-length silk ball gown.
‘Elinor, where is everyone? I’ve been waiting for ages.’
Elinor lifted her head and gazed at her mother, too emotionally exhausted to say anything.
Her mother looked around the empty room.
‘Did you say something to them?’
‘No, Mum, you did. Congratulations. You probably lost me a good few friends this afternoon.’
‘Oh, honey. Don’t be so silly. It’s only a little harmless fun.’
Elinor smiled sceptically.
‘Really? “A little harmless fun?” Is that what you call this week from hell?’
Morwenna opened her mouth to speak but Elinor lifted up her hand.
‘No, don’t say anything more, Mum. I’m tired of your lies.’
‘But...’
‘No, I don’t want to hear it.’
She saw Elena standing in the doorway looking confused.
‘Elena, I’m really, really sorry. I had to cancel the palm reading. My mother was upsetting everyone with the things she was foretelling. I saw a few people leaving in tears and I decided we had to stop.’
‘Who gave you the right to cancel my palm reading event, Elinor?’ asked Morwenna in a furious voice.
‘You did!’ yelled Elinor, unable to tolerate her mother’s misbehaviour any more. ‘You’ve bloody well been causing havoc since you got here! I just wish you’d go home and leave me! I’ve had enough of your idiotic behaviour!’
Elinor glanced apprehensively for a moment at Elena but she didn’t seem to be remotely shocked. In fact, she seemed totally unfazed. Maybe her Spanish upbringing helped in this respect.
‘Elinor, why would you speak to me like that?’ asked Morwenna, bursting into tears. She sobbed loudly, with fat tears streaming down her face and her shoulders shaking, but Elinor remained stony-faced.
‘Mum, I’ve had enough of your disgraceful behaviour. You’d better tell me what’s going on or there’s a good chance our relationship will never be the same again.’
Morwenna collapsed onto a chair and sobbed her heart out. Elena, soft-hearted as always, went up to Morwenna and patted her heaving shoulders awkwardly.
‘There, there,’ she said consolingly. ‘Elinor doesn’t mean the things she say. All will be better in the morning.’
‘I bloody well do mean the things I say, Elena. You’ve no idea what a nightmare she’s been.’
Elinor waited with her arms folded at the other side of the room. Morwenna’s sobs slowly but surely died down and within a few minutes Elinor caught her mother peeking hopefully at her. Elinor stayed where she was and stared angrily back at her. She saw her mother blench as the realisation that she’d seriously incensed her daughter hit home.
Morwenna looked down at her hands, her upper lip quivering.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.
‘What did you just say, Mum?’ asked Elinor impatiently.
‘I said I’m sorry, OK? I’m sorry I screwed everything up for you. I couldn’t help myself. I was so utterly distraught when I heard you had no intention of returning to Glasgow. And yet you didn’t seem to spare any thought as to how I would feel. You were too busy swanning around with your new Cornish friends and your new boyfriend.’
The venom in Morwenna’s voice seemed to shock even Elena.
‘I’ve nothing left,’ continued Morwenna, in a milder tone of voice. ‘You’re the only one who makes my life worth living. My life’s just empty without you. And I so wish I’d never sent you to stay with Leo. At the time, I just didn’t know how to snap you out of your issues.’
There was a silence in the room while all of them remained lost in thought.
Morwenna reached up and grabbed Elena’s hand.
‘I’m sorry I made a mess of your event, Elena. I wasn’t planning to, at all. I promise you. I don’t know what came over me.’ She turned to face Elinor. ‘All I wanted to do was hurt you, Elinor, the way you hurt me so callously when you told me you didn’t want to come back to Glasgow.’
A thought popped into Elinor’s head. She stood up angrily.
‘Mum, was it you that cracked the top of my surfboard?’
Morwenna looked at her daughter aghast. She didn’t say anything but she didn’t need to. Her face said it all.
‘Ahhh! Mum! I can’t believe you!’ shouted Elinor, making her mother flinch and cower in the corner.
‘I never realised how controlling you were until today,’ continued Elinor, shaking her head in bemusement. ‘If you’d loved me at all you’d have let me cut myself loose from you. You’d have set me free. You can’t live your life through me. That’s what went wrong with you and Dad.’
‘Listen, you keep your dad out of this,’ spat Morwenna, looking thoroughly ruffled.
Elinor bit her tongue, rolled her eyes and looked across at her dejected mother.
‘What do we do now?’ she asked.
Morwenna looked at her pleadingly.
‘Are you sure you won’t come back?’
Elinor shook her head firmly.
Morwenna bent her head down sadly.
‘Listen, Mum, you get loads of time off with your job. We could do more stuff together. Like weekends away, that kind of thing. It’s true I hadn’t really thought about the repercussions for you when I decided to stay. You see, my stay in Cornwall’s healed me. When you find that kind of relief you never ever want to go back.’
Morwenna nodded resignedly.
‘I can see that, Elinor. I always did see it. I’m just sad I wasn’t the one to help you. But you’re right. You’re stronger down here. As I said, I’m sorry for being so unreasonable.’
Elinor went and wrapped her arms around her repentant mother, who started to sob again. She didn’t know if her mother was ever going to get used to the idea of her living permanently in Cornwall, but she hoped she would.
Elena, who’d been watching their interchange with all the intense fascination of a soap opera addict, clapped her hands happily and announced she would make them all some tea and scones.