The Wadhams: Best Laid Plans

By Karen Byrom

Illustration: Shutterstock

We’re delighted to bring you the continuing adventures of Life & The Wadhams, featuring the younger members of the family. Not yet met the Wadhams? Read the background on My Weekly’s best-loved family, then come back and enjoy the next generation’s adventures as Mike and Polly Wadham’s elder grandson, Alex Clark settles into family life with wife Natalie and toddler son William in their flat above Pretty Polly’s, the hairdressing and beauty salon which Natalie runs. If you’ve missed any instalments, you’ll find them here.

Natalie Clark yawned and sighed as the alarm went off to signal the start of another day.

Normally she was bright and breezy, but since finally succumbing to Covid two weeks ago, hot on the heels of looking after an active toddler recovering from chickenpox, she seemed to have lost all her energy.

Today, though, she’d decided she had to get back in the salon. Her clients had been very understanding about their cancelled appointments, but she couldn’t expect them to wait for her forever, and she certainly couldn’t afford to lose them to rival salons.

Judging from the sounds in the bathroom, Alex was already seeing to little William.

Natalie sighed again, and smiled. What a fantastic husband and father he was. They’d never yet had an argument about division of labour – if anything, Alex did more than his fair share of housework and childcare.

She’d have to arrange something very special for their wedding anniversary on October 31 – though what that might be, she didn’t know yet.

Hopefully, getting back into routine would help clear her brain fog.

Iris was happy to see her young boss back behind the sinks, but reassured her that things had been going well at Pretty Polly’s in her absence.

Again, Natalie reflected on how lucky she was in the people around her. Having a dependable assistant like Iris, as skilled at hair and beauty treatments as she herself was, made running her business so much easier.

She knew couldn’t have taken all that time off without Iris at the helm, and was determined to reward her somehow.

But again, she couldn’t think how.

It was taking her all her time to fight down the nausea that had plagued her since she first fell ill.

The bell above the salon door pinged, and Natalie put on a brave smile as she welcomed her first client of the day, Jenny, a regular to the salon.

Against the background of Iris and her client’s murmured conversation about how Hallowe’en was becoming as big a deal as Christmas, Natalie applied hair dye and foils and then went to make her customer a cup of coffee.

Iris glanced after her anxiously. Natalie looked very white.

A crashing sound from the tiny kitchen made her drop the straighteners and rush through, to discover her employer on the floor, a broken jar of coffee around her. Natalie had fainted!

She was already coming to, and mortified as both clients peered anxiously from their chairs to see what the commotion was.

“Right, that’s it. Back up the stairs with you.” Iris took control with a decisiveness that belied her youth. “I’ll take you up, then come down and finish off Jenny’s hair.”

“But, my other clients…” Natalie protested.

“I’ll phone Evie,” Iris said. “It’s her day off today but I know she’s not got anything planned.”

Natalie closed her eyes in relief. Iris’s sister Evie was a trained hairdresser who’d helped out in the salon before, with her own employer’s permission.

Leaving the two ladies with hair in various states of repair to their own devices, Iris led Natalie back up to the small flat above the salon, settled her on the bed and made her a cup of extra-sweet hot chocolate “to raise her blood sugar” as she cheerfully said.

“Now, you stay there,” she ordered, “and I’ll phone Alex to come home.”

“No, don’t.” Natalie shook her head. “I’m feeling better already, honestly. I’ll just lie here for a wee while, then come back down.”

“Don’t you dare!” Iris said firmly. “If I see so much as your nose poking through the salon, I’ll… I’ll pinch it off with the straighteners.” Her hands flew to her mouth. “Talking of which, I think I left them on.

“I’d better get back, but I’ll come and check on you when I get a minute. If you’re no better, I’m phoning Alex. Now drink your chocolate, lie there and relax.”

“OK, bossy boots!” Natalie smiled. “I’ll behave.”

She’d told Iris the truth, she was feeling better, but nevertheless Natalie had dozed off when, an hour or so later, the door to her bedroom opened and an unexpected but very welcome face appeared.

“Keisha! What are you doing here?”

Her friend smiled.

“I phoned the salon earlier to see how you were getting on back at work, and Iris told me what happened. I just wanted to check you were OK.”

“I’m fine,” Natalie sat up and took herself off the bed. “In fact, I now feel better than I’ve done for a fortnight. Hopefully that was the bug’s final hurrah!”

“Honestly, Keisha,” she resumed, once they were both sitting with welcome cups of tea and the pastries that her friend had thoughtfully brought. “I’ve never felt enough sympathy for Covid sufferers before. I expected the cold and flu symptoms, but not this tiredness and nausea.

“I haven’t been able to do anything much. I haven’t even seen your new puppy. How is she doing?”

Keisha chuckled and pulled out her phone.

“Full of energy, unlike you,” she said, proudly showing off a photograph on an adorable looking 10-week old golden Labrador. “I’m so glad we got her.”

“So, what about baby plans?” Natalie asked.

“On hold for now,” Keisha said. “It was getting stressful so we’re giving ourselves a few months break from trying.

“Anyway I have enough on my plate with a toddler and a chewy, bouncy puppy – don’t know I’d cope with all the pregnancy tiredness and nausea on top –”

She stopped suddenly, and looked keenly at her chum.

“Natalie, are you sure it’s just Covid’s after-effects you’re suffering from? Because it sounds to me like you could be pregnant.”

Natalie had begun to shake her head when memories began to swim across her mind of how she’d felt when expecting William.

“We haven’t been trying –”

“But accidents happen,” Keisha pointed out. “Stay there, while I nip to the chemist. Won’t be long.”

When Alex arrived home with William, already half-asleep after a busy day at nursery, he was pleased to see his young wife was looking a little better. There was colour in her cheeks and a brightness in her eyes that had been missing for the last few weeks.

“How was your first day back?” Alex asked, settling himself beside Natalie on the sofa as little William cuddled in between them.

“Mixed.” Natalie answered truthfully. “I felt unwell in the salon, so Iris took over and I’ve spent the rest of the day here.

“But it hasn’t been a waste of a day,” she added. “I think I’ve solved the problem of what to give you for our wedding anniversary – and how to reward Iris for all her hard work over the past few weeks.

“I’m going to make her manager of the salon.”

“But you don’t need a manager,” Alex pointed out.

“Not at the moment,” Natalie agreed. “But I will in a few months’ time when I go off on maternity leave.”

“But I thought you wanted to wait another year before trying for another baby.” Alex was genuinely puzzled. “Have you changed your mind?”

Suddenly his expression was eager. Coming from a large family himself – and the Wadhams/Clark clan was huge! – he’d have been happy to have two children already.

“I did…” Natalie said, “But you know what they say about the best-laid plans. Happy early anniversary, Alex. I’m pregnant!”

If Natalie had had any doubts about her husband’s reaction to her news, they would have been squashed in the bear hug he bestowed on her.

OK, a new baby wasn’t planned right now, and there would be lots of things to consider about the impact the new arrival would have on every aspect of their lives.

But that was for tomorrow.

Tonight was definitely for celebrating!