Alice is trying to patch things up with Emma, who is refusing to take her calls. Eventually, however, she does answer and Alice says that she’d like them to bury the hatchet, if for no other reason than for Chris’s sake – he’s so pleased that he’s going to be a dad. Alice is continually apologising and Emma keeps on telling her how hurtful and nasty the message was that Alice left on her mobile. Once again, Alice says sorry, adding that she always thought that Emma doesn’t like her. “No, I don’t – I never have” Emma tells her.
Now come on Emma, why all this beating about the bush? Why not tell it like it is? Alice is taken aback, but says “Oh – at least that’s honest.” Despite this, Emma grudgingly agrees that there’s no reason why they should constantly be at each other’s throats and a state of armed neutrality prevails. But not for long, as Alice remarks that making peace will be so important for the health of the baby and Emma goes off on one, accusing her sister-in-law of trying to shift the blame. Emma reminds her that it was Alice who got wrecked and passed out drunk by the side of the road. “You’re carrying my brother’s baby and if you get wasted again, you’ll have me to answer to” Emma snarls. In vain does Alice protest that she doesn’t drink at all now – Emma has broken the connection.
I think we can safely say that that could have gone so much better. Still, there are another six months or so of this pregnancy left to go, so lots can still happen; and it probably will.
Let us turn now to the story concerning Gavin’s non-existent gambling problem. More and more people are getting involved in this story and it is becoming ever-more complicated, with Kirsty trawling gambling problems websites and getting Alistair to come and talk to Gavin about his experiences regarding gambling. All this is starting to pee Gavin off somewhat, as it is him taking the flak for everything once again and he hasn’t done anything (apart from being indirectly responsible for the Grey Gables explosion, of course).
Philip tells his son that he has to go along with the pretence – worrying about Gavin is distracting Kirsty from digging further into the suspicions she might be having about ‘the horses’ (as Phil’s workmen are referred to). Alistair has offered to talk to Gavin and Phil says that it is a great opportunity to turn things to their advantage. “This is our chance to put a stop to all this for good” Philip says, adding that he is beginning to see a way out of this mess and a possible new start “but it starts with you calling Alistair Lloyd” he warns his son.
This is a strange meeting, as Gavin doesn’t really want to be there and Alistair obviously has no idea of the true picture. He invites Gavin to tell him about his initial experiences about gambling, but of course, Gavin hasn’t got any, and is stumbling somewhat. To help him, Alistair offers to tell him of his descent into gambling addiction and Gavin agrees gratefully.
To cut a (very) long story short, Alistair traces his problems back to when his mother died when he was very young – he realised that nothing he could do would ever make his father (Jim) proud of him, and it was up to Alistair to become his own man. This, says Alistair, made him determined that his son would never suffer the same coldness that he experienced and Daniel was much loved and much hugged. Gavin, suggests Alistair, has similar experiences to look forward to when he has a family.
This chimes with Gavin, who says that he cannot see himself having children and, if he did, they would be ashamed of him: “I’m such a bad person, Alistair – I see that now.” But it’s not all negative, as Gav adds; “I know things have got to change, but I don’t know how to.” He tells Alistair that he’s got to leave, and Alistair says that he’s sorry if it has been a wasted afternoon. However, Gavin assured him that it hasn’t been wasted – “I know exactly what I’ve got to do now.”
He might, but he doesn’t tell us, the tease. Suffice it to say that, next day, Gavin is somewhat distracted when his father asks him how’s the job going? Phil tries to jolly him along, by recalling how they used to both go camping in Wales and how much fun it was, eh?
The short answer is ‘no, not really’ as Gavin reveals that he detested these holidays, and only went along with them because these were the only times that he ever saw his father. He was terrified because he thought Phil’s snores would attract wolves and bears to their tent. “What? In Port Talbot?” asks an incredulous Phil. “Well, I was very young” Gavin replies.
It wasn’t a good week for Moss senior or junior, as the week ends with Phil going home to Kirsty, looking totally knackered. She isn’t very pleased, as she is composing a report to the Board of the Wildlife Trust on the amount of litter hanging around. Phil is very down, and says that, when this current job is over, there’s little prospect of work on the horizon. Why are things so pointless, and when will their luck change? Nothing’s gone right since they moved into Beechwood, he observes.
Kirsty seems to be of similar mind, as she says, apparently thinking out loud; “What would I give to escape to a nice little cottage somewhere?” Phil cuts in; “So why don’t we? Why not get away and have a fresh start?” Kirsty thinks he is joshing and says that she was being serious, to which Phil says he’d love to be back in Wales – he’s so tired of trying to hold everything together here. “I’m sorry love, but I don’t think I can take it much longer” he tells her.
We are all holding our collective breath regarding the discovery of Anglo-Saxon coins at Brookfield. As last week unrolled, Rooooth was amazed that so many people were aware of the existence of coins at Brookfield – how did they find out? Elizabeth told her that Freddie had told her, having been told by Ben (who had assured Rooooth that he hadn’t told anyone, honest). Why not just cut out the middle-men and get Susan to announce it on her radio show?
Anyway, towards the end of the week, a load of Archaeological students descended on Brookfield in order to conduct a dig of the fields. They arrived at the crack of sparrow’s (much to Ben’s disgust, as he was dragged out of bed by his mother) and started quartering the field, looking (unsuccessfully so far) for further finds. Ben is even more upset because the students seem so intense and driven – that’s how students should be, Ben - but he was trying to get second-year student Evie into the barn for some one-on-one historical discussion. Sadly for Ben, she seems to prefer the early-morning open air to a roll in the hay.
Let’s go back to when Alistair visits Philip and Kirsty – Alistair tells them about when he first started lying to Shula about his gambling and how it got to the stage where he could look her straight in the eye and tell her a complete pack of lies. It was, remembers Alistair, a hard task to remember the stories you had previously told different people. “Can you imagine what it’s like, living a lie, Philip?” Alistair asks, earnestly. Philip is growing increasingly uncomfortable at the tone of this conversation, and he says “I’m not sure I can; no”. But we know that he’s lying, don’t we boys and girls?
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