Free Unguarded Moment by Sara Craven

if the health farm had been her idea.
    Alix smiled temperately. 'Perhaps she's being a bit obsessive at the moment, but it's easy to understand why. This Francesca thing means such a hell of a lot to her.'
    'I know that.' Monty's brow was creased with sudden anxiety. 'Only too well I know it! She wants to be a girl again.' She stopped suddenly as if she was aware of saying too much, and that Alix was the enemy within the gate.
    As she still seemed to be in her own home. She had made a point of visiting her family several times, trying not to be hurt at the coolness of the welcome she received. She and her father had never been particularly close, as she had often realised, so she could not complain of any change in his attitude, but she was increasingly concerned about her mother. Margaret Coulter looked more tired each time she went, and seemed to be retreating into some inner kingdom where no one could follow. And Debbie's hostility hadn't abated one jot, she discovered to her dismay. To be sure, her sister was immersed in the details for her wedding, and had little time to spare for discussion about anything else, but there had been a time when Debbie would have shared her plans and excitement with her sister. As it was, Alix knew she was being deliberately excluded.
    It was upsetting to realise that she was far more welcome at Gemma's than she was in her own home. She had now met Gemma's husband, who was large, genial and easygoing, and found herself envying the evident satisfaction they derived from their relationship.,
    She confided to Gemma her growing concern about her mother.
    'I asked her if she'd thought of seeing a doctor, and she almost bit my head off,' she said ruefully. 'She doesn't seem to have any energy, and that isn't like her. I tried to drop a hint to Debbie, but she implied I was making a fuss about nothing, and that it wasn't really my business anyway. I don't know what to do.'
    'You can't really do anything.' Gemma added washing up liquid to a sinkful of hot water, and swished it into lather. 'You can't force her to see a doctor if she doesn't want to, and there may be nothing the matter with her. Debbie's wedding might be making her a bit uptight. Had you thought of that?'
    'You're probably right, but I just feel so—helpless, I suppose.' Alix could not suppress a pang as she mentally contrasted Margaret's rather grey-looking skin and shadowed eyes with Bianca's radiant appearance, fresh from her health farm.
    She'd tried to suggest gently to her mother that a week or two in a similar establishment would be of benefit to her, but Margaret had dismissed, the idea out of hand.
    'No doubt it's kindly meant, but I have no inclination to go to a place like that, or time to waste either,' she had said shortly, and Alix had been made to feel tactless for having mentioned it.
    'Do you want me to keep an eye on her while you're away?' Gemma rinsed glasses under the tap and put them on the draining board.
    'I'd be so grateful.' Alix's eyes shone. 'But it's difficult. I don't really know where I'll be, or how you can get in touch with me.'
    'I don't for one moment suppose I shall need to,' Gemma pointed out good-temperedly. 'I'm just trying to put your mind at rest, so that you can enjoy Italy.'
    Alix sighed. 'I keep telling you, I'm not going there to enjoy myself. I'm going to work. Bianca expects her pound of flesh, whatever the setting.'
    'All the same, you wouldn't swap with me,' Gemma grinned.
    'Who says?' Alix retorted instantly, but in her heart she knew that Gemma was right. The girl she had been might once have been contented with the small semidetached house, the amiable husband dozing in front of the television, but no longer.
    She wasn't even sure about marriage any more. In the circles in which she now moved it seemed little more than a transitory experience. When she had first joined Bianca's menage, her aunt was still married to Lester Marchant, and apparently happy, yet little more than a year