Meredith Jones tapped her lit cigarette out of the window, so that the ashes fell and died on the side of the road, turned to her daughter and said, for the fortieth time that day "Are you really sure about this?"

"I'm sure, mother." Rhea tapped her finger on the page of her battered, tattered copy of National Geographic, not looking up.

"Oxford is closer...darling, you know I could support you better if you were closer."

"Countshire has the best scholarship program," her daughter pointed out calmly, carefully. "And I'll get a job, too. You and father won't have to support me."

"Del fach..."

"You only speak to me in Welsh when you want to emotionally manipulate me," Rhea replied in Welsh, coolly flicking through her magazine.

"You're so cold." Meredith kept her eyes on the road, on the traffic jam ahead of them. She stubbed out her cigarette in the cigarette tray and adjusted her overly-large sunglasses. Rhea closed her eyes and put her magazine down finally, feigning sleep beside her. "You know I didn't just mean financial support. Besides, you have that emergency debit card I gave you, yes?"

The emergency card she'd given her this morning in the kitchen while she was slicing sandwiches for lunch, along with a pin-number on a piece of paper. The girl had accepted with a smile that seemed too natural to be real, and hadn't pulled away when Meredith had hugged her after, which was a change. "I have it," Rhea said quietly, eyes closed and head against the window. Meredith barely held in a snort. She'd probably get back to find it neatly tucked into a kitchen drawer, with 'never write your pin number down' written beneath the code in Rhea's neat handwriting.

For somebody so clever, her daughter could be incredibly stupid sometimes.

She sighed instead, wishing she hadn't put out her cigarette. Pushed a hand through her short blonde bob. "Don't be like your sister, mm? Do call occasionally."

"Yes."

"Cyw. I'm going to miss you."

Silence, and then a quiet "I know." They were quiet for a few minutes more as the traffic began to move again, a silence hanging between them that was almost solid. And then her girl said "Mum, reporters."

"At the train station?" Meredith pulled a face. "They must have been tipped off...light mummy another cigarette, please, darling." Her daughter dutifully did so, and Meredith held it in her mouth as she pulled into one of the few spaces outside the station. Rhea hopped out even before the car had stopped, eager to get her bags and be on her way. Meredith herself pulled herself out, a stately, dignified figure wreathed gently in cigarette smoke, her facial expression unreadable beneath her overly large sunglasses. They would have been almost comical on anyone else, but somehow she made them work.

"Merry! Over here, Merry!" A reporter she dimly recognised as being from some big paper or another called, waving a microphone. "We heard you were sending your daughter off to university today" - a glance at Rhea, and her mussed-up black hair, scruffy sweater and scuffed trainers, and then a glance at Meredith with her immaculate bob and tailored suit - "is this her?"

Rhea shook her head, not looking at the reporters as she pulled her bags out of the backseats, and Meredith took her cue. "Oh no, I'm just doing a favour for my next-door neighbour's daughter. She needed a lift here, you see." She breathed out cigarette smoke into the face of the nearest reporter, accidentally on purpose. Without looking at her, Rhea began to walk into the station, tottering a little under the weight of her bags. "My youngest will be starting in September, of course."

"You have a very close-knit family, don't you?" Another reporter was in the way now, and Meredith found herself staring into his glasses rather than his eyes - she could see Rhea's back mirrored in them as she walked off to study the train time-table, root in her bag for her pre-bought ticket and hold it between her teeth as she set off towards her platform. "I suppose you must be very proud of your daughter's results!"

She watched her girl walk away, a faint reflection in the reporter's glasses. Then she dropped the cigarette and squished it flat under her shoe, crushing it. None of them could wait to leave her, could they? Her husband, always away in London with the lover he thought was a secret, Mel somewhere up north pretending to forget to call, and now even her little Rhea was running from her. Couldn't they tell she was lonely too? Couldn't they tell she was scared, sad without them?

"Well, obviously I've been busy with filming lately, we haven't been able to spend as much family time together as we'd like! But yes, we're all very proud of our youngest."

"Oh yes, you've been filming for your new show, haven't you? A continuation of the Colours series, right?"

"That's right! Ex-police woman turned painter, Sophia Dangerous - first we saw her framed for murder in the Colour of Blood mini series, next we saw her helping to track a serial killer in Colour of Murder, and now she's finally tracking down who wanted her behind bars in Colour of Justice! It's obviously a very exciting project, and I'm both thrilled and privileged to have been picked to play Sophia!"

"How does your family feel about you taking on the role?" Another reporter was jabbing a microphone at her, but she kept her eyes on the first one, watching as the reflection of the girl as she turned a corner, and she lost sight of her completely.

"My family support me in everything I do," Meredith smiled a smile that was far too natural to be fake, and got into the car. "I'm very lucky to have them. That's enough questions for today, lads. I have to get home to help my daughter pack up for university."

She drove off, and didn't look back. Not until she was a long, long way away.

• Privacy Policy   |   
• COPPA   |   
• Legal Disclaimer   |   
• Sitemap   |   
• Viewing Options   |   
• Upgrade