The Wadhams E-Book

Karen Byrom

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: Family Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 171

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

The Wadhams: The Next Generation is an updated version of the beloved Life and the Wadhams series written by E.M. Holland in My Weekly between 1961 and 1989. Karen Byrom takes on the familiar characters, adding new faces, new loves, new conflicts and new stories for a new generation of readers. There's drama, excitement and romance as the family grows over the next few years.

Leseprobe

THE WADHAMS: THE NEXT GENERATION

VOLUME One

by Karen Byrom  

CONTENTS

The Story So Far

Chapter 1: Crowded House

Chapter 2: Colour Clash

Chapter 3: Three’s a Crowd

Chapter 4: Date Night

Chapter 5: Wedding Plans

Chapter 6: What’s in a Name?

Chapter 7: Say Yes to the Dress

Chapter 8: I Do, I Do, I Do

Chapter 9: A Family Christmas

Chapter 10: Weighty Matters

Chapter 11: Homes Under the Hammer

Chapter 12: Shoots of Spring

Chapter 13: Castles in the Sand

Chapter 14: Talking Shop

Chapter 15: Situation Vacant

Chapter 16: In Strictest Confidence

Chapter 17: Hopes and Dreams

Chapter 18: To the Rescue

Chapter 19: The Green-Eyed Monster

Chapter 20: Turning a New Green Leaf

Chapter 21: Santa Baby

THE STORY SO FAR

Our best loved family, the Wadhams, first appeared in Life and the Wadhams, written by E.M. Holland, in My Weekly, March 1961 and ran for almost 30 years, finishing in February 1989.

Newly married Mike and Polly Wadham were the stars of the show, along with crabby Aunt Clara, who occupied the granny flat at No. 23 Elderslie Terrace where the couple finally settled.

Soon they’d welcomed along three children, Jonathan, Drew and Jane (Pinky) along with a succession of dogs, cats, hamsters and goldfish.

Over the years they got up to all sorts of adventures, some fun, some thrilling, some sad, but always interesting as their lives reflected so many facets of readers’ own experiences.

By the time the series ended, Mike had gone from accounts clerk to estate agent to antiques dealer with his own shop, while Polly had found interests outside the home, including volunteering at Meals on Wheels.

Jonathan had married Anne and they were expecting their first child. Drew was studying to be a vet and Pinky had just got engaged to Jim Clark. Life couldn’t be rosier.

But what are the Wadhams up to now?

We were asked so many times to bring the family back that we decided to update the series for a whole new generation!

Our new Life and the Wadhams, featured in the My Weekly Specials, retained the charm of the original series, but firmly placed it in the 21st century, as we followed the adventures of Mike and Polly’s daughter Pinky Clark and her own large family.

The focus remained on No. 23 Elderslie Terrace, with Mike and Polly now living in the granny flat while Pinky, Jim and their children, Alex, Jennifer and Matty lived in the main house.

There’s been drama and excitement over the years – especially when Jim and Pinky welcomed surprise baby Ruby. Their family was also expanded by lively terrier Tyson and two rescue cats, Milly and Molly.

Jim and Alex work together at the family garage, while Pinky is a teaching assistant at a nearby school. Seventeen-year-old Jennifer, the drama queen of the family, is taking driving lessons, preparing for A-Levels and working as a Saturday girl at her grandfather’s antiques’ shop, which he has recently sold on.

Twelve-year-old Matty is a happy-go-lucky boy, into football and computer games, and has inherited his uncle Drew’s love of animals. Meanwhile, little Ruby keeps the whole household on its toes!

Alex and Natalie – The Next Chapter

But now Alex is engaged to Natalie and they are expecting their first baby, the house is getting just too small. It’s time to move on to the next chapter of Life and the Wadhams!

Though its focus will be more on Alex and Natalie, you’ll still meet all your favourite characters in Life and The Wadhams: The Next Generation. After all, what young couple starting out doesn’t need the wit, wisdom and support of their large, noisy, loving family in the background!

We hope you’ll enjoy the newest series!

CHAPTER ONE: CROWDED HOUSE

As usual on a Monday morning, there was pandemonium at No.23 Elderslie Terrace as the Wadham and Clark household got ready for a busy week – mostly by getting in each other’s way.

Downstairs in the main house, mum Pinky was banging on the bathroom door, exhorting 17-year-old Jennifer to get out of the shower, while beside her 12-year-old Matty hopped from foot to foot.

The door flew open and Jennifer stomped out wrapped in a towel, hair dripping soapy puddles of water onto Pinky’s cherished parquet flooring.

“Why can’t he use your en-suite?” She glowered as Matty flew past her into the bathroom.

“Your dad’s seeing to Ruby in there – she’s had an upset tummy and her nappy this morning –”

“TFI!” Jennifer groaned. “Well, what about Grandma and Grandpa’s? They’re not usually up at this time.”

Despite her exasperation, Pinky grinned. “No, but I think Natalie spends more time in the shower than you do. And I wouldn’t have thought that was possible. Now come on, get your hair sorted and get ready for school. It’s nearly eight o’clock.”

Jennifer shrieked and scurried down the hall into her bedroom moaning in her wake “Bet precious Natalie doesn’t have to come out of the bathroom with shampoo still in her hair … why couldn’t I have had the bedroom upstairs … I’ve got exams, you know …”

Pinky sighed and returned to her own room to begin the wrestling match that was getting toddler Ruby dressed. For two pins, she’d take the spare bedroom in her parents’ granny flat herself and leave them all to it!

By 9am, peace reigned. Jennifer and Matty were safely at school, Pinky’s husband Jim and their son Alex had gone off to work at the garage Jim owned. Alex’s fiancée Natalie had left for the hairdresser’s where she worked and even little Ruby was out of the house, her grandpa Mike having volunteered to take her and terrier Tyson for a stroll around the park.

***

Pinky’s mother, Polly Wadham, sitting at the kitchen table in her dressing-gown, smiled her thanks as she took a welcome cup of coffee from her daughter’s hands.

“Do sit down with me, Pinky,” she urged. “Leave the washing-up and everything for now and take ten minutes out.”

Pinky sighed and looked around the kitchen. Admittedly never pristine, this morning it looked as if a bomb had hit it. There were dirty plates, cups and glasses on every surface. Splodges of porridge and crumbs of toast bedecked the table. Empty milk and orange juice cartons lay on their sides in small pools of liquid.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then wisely took her mother’s advice, sitting down with an even larger sigh.

Polly’s eyes twinkled.

“Sorry that Alex and Natalie cut their world travels short to come home?” she asked.

“No, of course not!” Pinky loved nothing more than having her large family around her. “It’s just that I didn’t expect to be putting up Natalie, too. But she has nowhere else to go. Who’d have thought her mother would go off on her own travels, letting out her house for six months?”

“It’s so good of you to let them use your spare room, Mum. I hope they’re not being too much trouble.”

“They’re no trouble at all,” Polly said. “I just wish our flat was a little bigger. The kitchenette is fine for me and your dad, especially as we eat most of our meals with you anyway, but it is not really suitable for a family of four.”

“Which will soon be a family of five,” Pinky reminded her. The news that her first grandchild was on the way had come as a shock to her – especially as her youngest child wasn’t yet two. And yet, it was what had brought Alex and Natalie back from their travels in the far east.

“Come on, I’ll help you get this place cleaned up, then Dad and I will treat you and Ruby to lunch out. I think we all deserve a little break.”

***

“I need a break!” Natalie was bemoaning to Alex as they shared lunchtime tea and toasties in the small café near Natalie’s work. “I know it’s lovely of your grandma and grandpa to put us up, but honestly, Alex, I don’t know how much longer I can stand the crush and the noise. We’ll have to get our own place.”

Alex was in complete agreement. Much as he loved his big, noisy family, he was keen to find his own feet. Their months of travelling had made the couple independent – even without a baby on the way, they’d outgrown living at home.

Natalie looked at her phone. “We’ve still got fifteen minutes. Finish up your tea and we’ll go along to the letting agency. They might have something new in.”

“Since Friday?” Alex made a face, but nevertheless stood up.

“And we could look in the estate agent’s window, too.” She caught Alex’s hand. “I know we can’t afford to buy until we’ve saved up a deposit, but let’s dream a little dream, shall we?”

Caught up by her optimism, Alex grinned and took her hand. OK, so they couldn’t afford to buy a house. They could barely afford the rent and council tax on the lettings they’d seen, none of which so far had been suitable. But they were in love and they had a baby on the way and a large, loving family to support them.

He gasped inwardly as he remembered how near he’d come to losing Natalie, when he’d almost dumped her for his dreams of travel. Fortunately, Grandpa Mike had talked him round – he’d known true love when he saw it. After all, hadn’t he and Grandma Polly been happily married for 60 years?

Gazing into the estate agent’s window at the inflated prices of even the smallest bungalow, he caught Natalie’s eye in the reflection of the glass, and once again, despite his current “homeless” state considered himself the luckiest man alive.

***

Pinky might have expected Saturday to be less hectic, but no – the usual chaos reigned, with Jim and the kids all trying to get ready for work at the same time. Even Jennifer had to be up early for her Saturday job at the antiques shop Mike had only recently sold, and Matty had early-morning football practice.

Pinky had instigated a bathroom rota, which no-one stuck to, and a rota for chores, which worked marginally better under Jim’s eagle eye – though by the time she’d listened to everyone’s moans and grumbles she often felt she’d have been better off doing things herself.

What had happened to her cheerful, happy family? They all loved Alex, and had welcomed Natalie into their fold with open arms, but everyone living together in such close proximity just wasn’t working out.

Pinky worried all day, and by five o’clock had decided she’d speak to Jim when he came home. Maybe they could lend Alex and Natalie the deposit to buy a flat. She knew Mike and Polly had already offered, and been declined, the couple preferring to stand on their own feet. But surely they’d take it from her and Jim?

The back door banged open, and Jennifer sailed through, bringing with her a burst of fresh air, energy and barely suppressed excitement.

“Guess what, Mum? You know the flat upstairs from the antiques shop? The one you and Dad used to live in before we all came along? The tenants have moved out and my new boss, Bob, has said Alex and Natalie can move in if they want. I was telling him all about them, see, and he thinks they’ll be ideal. He says he’d rather have people he knows, and he won’t charge too much rent. Do you think they’ll be keen, Mum? Can I tell them?”

She whirled round as Alex and Natalie came in through the door.

“Guess what? I’ve found you a flat – and you’re going to love it! Just you wait and see.”

CHAPTER TWO: COLOUR CLASH

It was a typical morning at No. 19a Grove Crescent – as usual, Alex was up with the lark and whistling as he showered, while Natalie lay in bed, duvet pulled firmly around her ears. She was emphatically not a morning person!

Sadly for her, Alex refused to make allowances for her reluctance to rise.

“Come on, lazybones, rise and shine!” he yelled, coming back into the bedroom. “It’s a beautiful day and there’s plenty to do!”

“Like what?” Natalie grumped, one eye squinting against the light as her tousled head emerged from the bedclothes.

Alex paused, considering.

“Well, you could get online and start looking for ideas for decorating the spare room,” he said. “It won’t be long now before we need it.” He threw himself on the bed and tenderly rubbed her slightly swelling stomach.

Natalie snuggled her head into the crook on his elbow. “Halfway there already. And I’ve finally stopped feeling sick.” She sighed, and reached for the small black and white photograph on the bedside cabinet. “It looks more like a baby and less of a blob now, don’t you think? Should we have asked if it’s a boy or a girl?”

For the hundredth time, Alex gazed at the printed outline of his progeny-to-be, trying to make sense of what looked for all the world to him like a deformed tadpole.

“I don’t think even the radiologist could have told us, looking at this! We’ll just have to paint the nursery in blue and pink stripes.”

“Uh-huh!” Natalie shook her head firmly. “It’s going to be light grey – that’s what all the books recommend for a baby’s nursery.”

“Grey! It’ll look like some dreary old industrial office. I was thinking more a cheerful yellow. Or white – that’s always a good blank canvas.”

“I want grey,” Natalie said firmly.

“Well, I don’t,” Alex said equally obstinately. “Grey is a depressing colour. It will make me feel I’m at the garage 24 hours a day. Talking of which – ” he jumped from the bed. “Better get a move on or I’ll be late. What are you going to get up to today?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Natalie considered. “Shopping downtown, a trip to the cinema, maybe I’ll meet Jan for lunch. I wish …” She sighed. “I’ll probably Facetime the family then go online like you said, and look for grey paint.”

“Yellow,” he retorted.

“Grey!” she yelled at his retreating back as he exited the bedroom. “Honestly, how can anyone be so stubborn!”

***

Two hours later, with Alex gone to the family garage – still open to motorists with emergencies – Natalie banged down the cover of the laptop with frustration.

Grey, white, yellow, pink with blue polka-dots – she wasn’t going to be able to buy paint today or any time soon if the websites she visited were anything to go by. The best had put her 987th in a queue of people all eager to do home improvements.

Sighing, she gazed around the tiny flat. She and Alex had been so lucky to be offered it at a bargain rent, and to get moved in just before lockdown, but there was no denying it needed plenty done to it. The previous tenants’ taste had stretched to the exotic and the sitting-room walls were a profusion of tropical flowers that did actually hurt the eye if you gazed at them long enough. She and Alex’s bedroom was painted a vivid purple, and the bathroom was done out in oranges and yellows. At least the suite was white, she reflected with a slight shudder.

The plan had been for Alex’s large and noisy family to pitch and help them redecorate, but that had been put on hold, of course…

Never mind – just the thought of the happy household at No. 23 Elderslie Terrace was enough to lift Natalie’s spirits. An only child, she didn’t even have her mum to turn to at the moment – she’d Facetime her in-laws-to-be group, she decided. Alex’s sister Jennifer could always cheer her up.

One by one, their faces appeared on the screen as they picked up their phones and tablets – 17-year-old Jennifer in her bedroom, Alex’s mum Pinky in the lounge, his grandma Polly beside her, holding wriggling toddler Ruby. Grandpa Mike was nowhere to be seen for now, and of course Jim was at the garage with Alex. But even young Matty appeared on screen – it looked like he was in the kitchen – and from the state of his face, he’d been raiding the chocolate biscuit barrel!

“Natalie!” Pinky smiled in pleasure while little Ruby jumped and down in her grandma’s lap. “What a nice surprise. How are you?”

“Bored!” Natalie said honestly. “Fed-up! And I want to kill Alex!”

“What’s he done?” Jennifer asked gleefully just as Matty finished chewing his biscuit and spluttered though a mouthful of crumbs, “Why?” and Polly exclaimed “Oh dear!”

“One at a time,” Pinky counselled as Matty disappeared from view and returned waving a wooden spoon. “Me first, I’ve got the talking spoon!”

“Not fair!” Jennifer wailed “You were in the kitchen.”

“Snooze, you lose.” Matty grinned. “Natalie, look at Tyson …” He moved his phone so she could see the small Jack Russell sitting patiently by his side. “Do you think he needs a haircut? I think he does, but I can’t take him to the groomers, and Dad won’t let me use his clippers and –”

“Never mind Tyson –” Jennifer interrupted.

“You don’t have the spoon!” Matty roared.

“I’ve got the talking hairbrush!” Jennifer waved an oversize paddle brush in the air. “And I want Natalie’s advice about my hair, it’s more important than –”

“Mum! Tell her I’ve got the spoon!” Matty shouted indignantly.

Overcome with laughter, Natalie could only wait until Pinky had picked up Ruby’s fairy wand and waved it threateningly in the direction of her elder offsprings’ screen faces.

“Both of you, come into the sitting-room and we can take turns having a civilised conversation without taking Natalie’s ear off.”

“OK,” There was a joint response then the sound of tramping feet as Jennifer and Matty disappeared, to reappear with the familiar sitting-room walls behind them.

“I’ve still got the spoon!” Matty yelled gleefully, as his sister made a swipe for it.

Natalie held up her own spoon in reply. “Matty, don’t touch Tyson’s coat. It’s not too bad honestly – at least he’s not a poodle or a Shih-Tzu.”

“A what? Did you swear?” Mike had appeared on the screen behind Polly, and his innocent remark had the whole family dissolved in laughter again.

“It’s a breed of dog, Grandpa,” Jennifer explained, snatching the talking spoon from her brother. “Natalie, do you think I’d suit a fringe? I was thinking I could try it out.”

“Jennifer, don’t touch your hair,” Natalie warned. “Remember what happened last time.”

Jennifer blushed, remembering the disastrous time she’d tried to turn her red locks blonde. “OK, but I’m fed up of it.”

“What have you all been up to?” Natalie asked.

Solemnly, the spoon was passed from hand to hand.

“Walking Tyson and playing on the computer,” Matty said. “But Mum’s making me do schoolwork, too.”

“I’m not doing any studying,” Jennifer confided. “The exams are cancelled, but hopefully my teachers should recommend good grades for me. Me and Grandma have been knitting – ” In confirmation, Polly held up a pair of pins from which dangled a delicate lacy square, destined to be a scarf. “Hey, maybe I could knit something for the baby – I’ve got a couple of balls of yellow wool.”

Natalie groaned. Was the whole Clark family fixated on yellow?

“I’ve been baking,” Pinky said. “I made a chocolate cake this morning. I wish you could have some.”

“Oh if only I could bake!” Natalie exclaimed. “But Alex can’t get flour anywhere.”

“Oh no, and I’ve just used up the last of mine!” Pinky exclaimed. “Or I would have given Jim some to pass to Alex to give to you. I didn’t know you enjoyed baking, Natalie.”

“Oh, yes, me and Mum loved to bake,” Natalie confided.

“How is your mum?” Mike yelled. No-one could abuse him of his impression that you had to shout at the screen to be heard.

“Still quarantining in the hotel since she managed to get a flight back from Durban,” Natalie said. Her mother had been travelling abroad when the coronavirus outbreak struck. “She’s hoping to get back to her own house soon. But I still won’t be able to see her,” she added disconsolately.

“No, you mustn’t take chances,” Pinky agreed. “Never mind, darling, this can’t go on forever – we’ll have such a party when it’s over.”

“With orange juice for you!” Jennifer teased. “Unless the baby’s here by that time!”