What about you?

Part Twenty Seven

The drive to her family home took less than an hour. And when Kate arrived there, she was stunned.  Her mother was in the kitchen, head in hands and a tear stained face. When she looked up and saw her daughter there, she sighed before bursting into tears.

                “What’s going on Mum?”

She pulled her mother into her arms and held her until she stopped crying. Eventually her mother was able to form some words, “she’s just horrible to me. I can’t do anything right and I’m spending all my time hiding in the kitchen to get away from her. I don’t know what I’ve done wrong.”

Kate smiled, “Mum, they’re newlyweds, she probably feels really threatened. You’re a great cook, so organised...you’re everything she’d aspire to be. AND you’re already the farmer’s wife she’s trying to learn to be. Give her some space Mum,” Kate took a contemplative moment, “look. I spoke to Stu at Christmas, is there any way we can build them their own place on site? And maybe we and you can go away, have a holiday, and give them some space? What so you think?”

Her mother was stunned, “you’d really come away with me?”

Kate smiled, “a lot has changed Mum.” She then proceeded to tell her mother about her rather eventful Christmas, she mentioned Mason, but didn’t go into any great detail.

                “So this Mason, tell me more!”

Kate sighed, “I met him at Stu’s wedding, the guy I danced with?”

Her mother paused for a moment then nodded enthusiastically, “I remember, tall, dark and rather rugged looking as I recall.”

Kate chuckled, “that sounds about right. He’s a friend of Paula’s brother, a business partner out in Dubai.”

                “Oh!” Her mother’s sudden change in mood caught Kate off guard, but then she followed her mother’s chain of thought. “I’m not about to rush off to Dubai Mum, that’s not the future...well I was meant to fly tomorrow for a couple of days, but that’s another story!”

Her mother glanced up, “you’ve jeopardised your holiday to come here? Oh my, us and our petty arguments! I’m so ashamed.”

Kate held her mother’s hand and smiled, “I promised Stu I’d help sort this out at Christmas, and I was neglectful of you both...again. I’m happy to be here, if Mason wants me he’ll just have to wait!”

By the time her brother appeared from his living space upstairs, her mother was happy, smiling and laughing.

                “Kate! I thought you were going away?”

She smiled hugging her brother, “no plan is ever set in stone! And it’s about time I started to pay more attention to my family.”

Over a coffee she share the modified story with him too, but then also moved on to the discussions she’d already had with her mother. There was a large disused barn across the farm, and they’d already thought through the logistics of that being converted into a home, and her mother had even suggested that she actually wouldn’t mind moving herself, a downsized home slightly nearer to the village, much to Kate’s amazement.

Stuart was also stunned, “Wow! Mum...I don’t know what to say, it’s so generous.”

Her mother shrugged, “I don’t want this animosity, and when I was talking to Kate earlier she did say something that made me think differently. I didn’t have a great relationship with your father’s mother, but they gave up this home for us when we married, moved up to the house they had in the village. I think it would have been a lot worse than this situation...” She turned to her son, “I am so sorry for yesterday Stuart, I’m quite ashamed of my behaviour.”