(Thanks for all the congratulations and good-wishes. I'm slowly settling into the real world after three years of the student life, which thankfully starts again in September, but to keep myself bust I intend to write lots of fuzzy chapters! Enjoy.)

Part 14

They stayed talking to Richard and Cathy for a while. At first much of the time was spent listening to Richard apologising to Carter for not realising who he was, but this subject was soon put to rest by Carter's self- deprecating comment that he himself was nobody.

A slight yawn from Abby made Carter look at his watch and suggest that they should be heading home as it was late and they had to go to his Gamma's house in the morning for lunch. Richard and Cathy also noticed that they had been rather neglecting their other guests, some of whom looked like they were getting ready to leave, so they rose

"Do you think you'll take her up on her offer?" Carter asked her as he stood behind her, pulling out her chair and holding out her wrap to put around her shoulders.

"I don't know," said Abby, adjusting the wrap and then turning around to face Carter. "She seems lovely, but it would just be too weird to be friends with your ex-husband's wife." She took hold of the arm which he held out to her and they started to walk towards the doors of the room. "Too much like revisiting the scenes of past crimes. You know what I mean?"

"I think I do. If things start to go wrong she'll want to know what Richard was like with you, which will stir up all sorts of problems, and if nothing goes wrong you'll only wonder why he couldn't be nicer when you were married."

"That's it exactly! If he turns out to be a perfect husband I wouldn't wish I was married to him again 'cause I'd never regret marrying you, but I know I'd feel bitter because I wasted so much of my life being married to him. I could have come to County without all my emotional baggage and we could have been together ages ago. Mad mother and teenagers excepted, of course!"

"Of course!" he laughed. They had reached the edge of the room by now and were about to leave, both still laughing, when they again noticed an strange woman breaking away from a group and heading their way. Abby caught her eye and quickened her step in an obvious attempt to avoid this woman, but she was unsuccessful. Just as they were about to exit the woman stepped out in front of them and looked directly at Abby. They were almost out of the room but she stepped out in front of them, seemingly intent on talking to Abby.

"Abby," she said dryly, "you're looking more animated than I remember you."

"Judith," replied Abby, equally cold and unenthusiastic. "Always a pleasure. How are you?"

"Oh I'm the picture of health, as always. And yourself?"

"Oh I'm just peachy!" said Abby with false brightness. She really didn't want to be here talking to this woman, and it didn't look as though the conversation was going to progress much beyond . However, rather than issuing them a polite good-bye and allowing them to leave 'Judith' remained silent and continued to bar their exit. After a few polite observations on the weather and the decorations were met with short, curt answers, Abby started to search around desperately for a subject of discussion…

Carter, meanwhile, had been observing the two women during the exchange and noticed that they both appeared to dislike each other immensely. At first he had been struck by how much the newcomer looked like Richard's aunt who they had met earlier, only much thinner and with a decidedly sour expression. At Abby's mention of her name, however, he suddenly realised that the woman standing in front of him was Richard's mother. He had thought Abby was exaggerating when she had described her ex mother-in-law to him, but from what he had seen so far he was beginning to believe her nightmare tales! He then observed the awkward silence, and could see that Abby was beginning to shift uncomfortably under the scrutinizing glare, so he decided to help her out. He cleared his throat in a polite "excuse me" gesture which brought the gaze of both women swinging round towards him, and he gave Abby a pointed look which asked her to introduce him. She sighed with relief at the escape route he was offering and gave him a smile to say "thank-you". Still smiling and holding onto John's arm she turned back to face Mrs Lockhart.

"Judith, I'd look you to meet my husband John. John, this is Judith Lockhart. Richard's mother."

"Very pleased to meet you," Carter reached out and shook the hand she offered.

"Oh, so you got married again. That's nice," she said, unenthusiastically. "Tell me Abby, are you going to be keeping your name? Or, rather, Richard's. I understand that's what women do nowadays."

"No, Judith," said Abby, the smile still on her face through a definite force of effort. "I've decided to take John's name. Just a few forms to fill in at work and I'll be Abigail Carter."

"Carter? You aren't by any chance related to Millicent Carter are you?" Judith asked Carter, a slight note of interest creeping into the supercilious monotone of her voice.

"Yes, she's my grandmother."

"Ah, so I was right. You've managed to marry into a very influential family, Abby. That would explain your dress. I was wondering how you could afford to buy an expensive designer dress like that on your nurses salary. I actually thought it was rather pathetic that you'd be willing to bankrupt yourself just to impress me, but seeing as you're a Carter now such apparel will be par for the course, I suppose."

"Well, I never thought of it that way." Carter said. Abby looked over at him and saw that like her he was having a hard time keeping his good temper. Luckily his sense of humour prevailed. "You only married me for my family's money, Abby?" he joked.

"Oh yeah, and the sex! What, you thought I was in love with you or something?" she joked back. They both laughed at each other and Carter put his arm around Abby's waist to pulled her closer against his side. She smiled and put her hands on his chest as he bent his head down to kiss the top of her head. They looked over at Richard's mother who had a slight smile on her face, but who was obviously not amused. They stopped laughing. Carter looked down at the ground and shifted his feet whilst Abby sucked on her lower lip nervously.

This almost feels like getting caught making out by your girlfriend's parents, Carter couldn't help but think. The silence was deafening and seemed like it was going to last for a while when Abby suddenly perked up as if she had suddenly remembered something.

"We've met Cathy!" she said to Judith. "Richard really is lucky. She's lovely. I hear her little boy is quite a character as well!"

"Oh yes, she's an angel isn't she?" Judith replied, momentarily stirred into animation. "You couldn't ask for a more perfect daughter-in-law. Richard's father and I adore her. Richard hasn't always had such good taste on women," she said pointedly.

Abby had managed to ignore the cold demeanour and general rudeness, but she could no longer ignore the obvious venom in Mrs Lockhart's words. She had never got on well with Richard's parents, but she had never realised they disliked her this intently. She felt Carter tighten his grip around her waist, and she looked up to see his lips were tight shut, a sign she had come to recognise meant he was trying hard to keep his anger contained. She gave him a look that begged him not to say anything for the sake of peace, and braced herself for the next

"Come on, Abby, let's not talk about past unpleasantness. We both have something to celebrate now. You're newly married and I'm *finally* a grandmother. Let's have a little drink to celebrate." Judith held up her hand ceremoniously and waved over a waiter who was walking past carrying a tray of champagne flutes. She picked up two glasses and handed one of them over to Abby with a sardonic smile.

"I don't drink, thank you Judith," Abby replied tersely. Judith knew very well that she had been an alcoholic, so why was she handing her a drink?

"Do you not?" said Judith, affecting surprise and withdrawing the champagne flute. "I seem to recall it being almost impossible to drag you away from the drinks table at family functions. Every memory I have of you is with a drink in your hand."

Abby snapped. She knew that Richard's mother was trying to provoke her and that she should ignore her, but she couldn't stand looking at the malicious smile on her face. "Judith you know very well I'm a……" she began to say, but she was cut off by Carter who had also seen this as the final straw.

"Abby's not drinking because of the baby." He turned to Abby and put a finger over Abby's lips in a sshing motion to stop her replying. "I'm sorry honey, I know you didn't want to say anything because you didn't want to overshadow Richard's big day, but I don't like people talking behind your back," he said pointedly, directing everything he said to Richard's mother who he knew was listening. He turned to her, the anger evident in his voice, and continued his speech. "You see, that's the kind of person Abby is, always thinking about how what she does and who he is appears to others. Some people would do better to do the same thing," he finished meaningfully, looking directly at Richard's mother. "Come on, Abby, let's get out of here." He grabbed Abby's hand and made to move past Mrs Lockhart.

The sudden movement woke Judith from the stunned silence his comments had put her in and she started to admonish Carter. "Now you listen here…"

This was too much for Carter. He could bear the sycophants and the hypochondriacs, but he knew Abby was sensitive about her past and he couldn't stand somebody using it against her. He snapped, REALLY snapped, and swung round to confront Mrs Lockhart with a force that made her take a step back.

"No, *you* listen!" he shouted, his voice rising with his anger. "We didn't have to come here today, nobody expects the ex-wife to come, but we did to show there were no hard feelings. We didn't come here to be insulted by a pretentious, social climbing, mean-spirited old witch like you! Richard has moved on, but you just can't bring yourself to do the same, can you? I don't know why you can't let it go but personally I'm glad that their marriage didn't work out, otherwise I would not be standing here, married to the most wonderful woman in the world. I've had some terrible things happen to me in my life but I forget them when I'm with Abby, and I can honestly say that I have never been happier in my life. So maybe you should start to think that the problem was never with Abby but with your precious Richard! If you want my opinion it's probably more to do with the way he was brought up!"

He left her standing there, unable to speak, and again turned to leave with Abby, who was unsure whether to laugh at the expression on Judith's face or stare in shock at Carter. She decided it was best under the circumstances to remain quiet, they could laugh about it later, so they said their good- byes shortly and walked out of the hotel side by side.