The Christmas Invitation

by Trisha Ashley

  ‘We do know, and DNA testing will take some time, especially since it’s so close to Christmas,’ Clara said. ‘But I’ve been thinking, and it occurs to me that your mother might have had some papers about her adoption, or even her birth certificate, since it was an unofficial adoption? Did she ever mention having anything like that?’

  ‘She did tell me once that she’d brought her birth certificate with her when she ran away, because she thought she might need it for a passport one day. It’s probably in the tin trunk she stored things in at the Farm.’

  ‘Well then, if so, we might find some information on it to confirm who her mother was,’ Clara suggested.

  I got up, fired by a sudden need to know for sure. ‘I’ll ring River and see if he’ll go and look.’

  Luckily, I got hold of him right away and he said he’d send Oshan up to the attic for the trunk and call me back shortly … which he did.

  And the mother’s name on the birth certificate was Vanessa Cassidy; father unknown.

  Suddenly it all seemed very real. Still holding the phone in a slightly shaking hand I relayed this information and then, prompted by Henry, suggested to River that he bring the birth certificate and any other documents with him when he came to stay.

  Typically, River hadn’t asked me why I was interested, but I told him anyway. ‘Thank you for finding the certificate, River. It means I know now who Mum’s biological parents were, and also that I’m related to the Doomes,’ I finished.

  ‘Karma,’ he said, placidly. ‘The Goddess works in mysterious ways.’

  Then he added that he’d be setting off early next morning for Sticklepond and to stay overnight with his friend Gregory Warlock, as planned, and would then come on to Starstone Edge on Tuesday afternoon.

  ‘How very satisfactory,’ said Clara when I’d rung off, handing me another glass of mead. ‘Here’s to the newest member of the family!’

  I found myself clinking glasses with them, while feeling as if I was trapped in the weirdest dream ever.

  We hadn’t heard the others come back, but now the door opened and Tottie said, ‘Carousing already?’

  ‘A little celebration – we’ll tell you and Den all about it later,’ said Henry as Teddy burst in, brandishing a long, foil-wrapped parcel like a slightly battered sword.

  ‘Look, Uncle Henry! Fred’s given us a pike he had in his freezer and Den says he’s going to cook it for New Year!’

  ‘I hope it’s only got one head, then,’ said Henry gravely.

  ‘I checked,’ Teddy said seriously, and then Den followed him in and took away the fish before it prematurely defrosted.

  ‘Pike are carnivorous,’ said Clara. ‘Do we want to eat a fish that eats other fish?’

  ‘A good point, my dear,’ said Henry. ‘But if we eat fish at all, then I suppose it makes little difference.’

  ‘I’ve never heard of anyone eating pike,’ I said.

  Den returned in time to catch that and said he had an old recipe for the fish he’d like to try out.

  Teddy asked if he could watch TV in the morning room till lunch was ready, and went off with Lass for company. As soon as he was out of earshot, Clara said to Den and Tottie, ‘I’ve got something to tell you!’ before explaining their discovery about me.

  ‘Don’t surprise me, does it?’ said Den.

  ‘How lovely,’ Tottie said warmly. ‘I mean, it was sad that your mother was adopted, but all’s well that ends well, because we’ve found you now!’

  ‘We’re keeping it quiet until we’ve told Sybil tomorrow, and Mark and Lex at the same time, we thought,’ explained Clara. ‘We’ll give Teddy a simple version a little later today.’

  ‘He’s going to be delighted,’ Henry said, but I thought the rest of my new-found family might not be quite as keen on the idea …

  ‘It did occur to me the other day that Meg and Mark looked as alike as two peas in a pod,’ said Tottie. ‘Only one was penny plain and the other tuppence coloured, as it were. Couldn’t miss it, though,’ she said, then searched out her pinafore from the collection stuffed under a sofa cushion and left with Den to help prepare lunch.

  I felt quite dazed for the rest of the day as everything I’d learned sank in. Since I found I couldn’t settle to do any work, I went out with Henry when he walked Lass.

  On my return, I felt like making a statement, even if I wasn’t quite sure what of, so I went straight upstairs and dyed my hair with the old-rose hair colouring I’d bought in Great Mumming.

  ‘Gor blimey!’ said Den, sounding like an escapee from Mary Poppins, when he saw me coming downstairs. Then he threw open the drawing-room door and announced, ‘’Ere’s the bleeding Rose of Sharon, ain’t it?’

  After the initial surprise, everyone seemed to like the change, and Teddy said he was going to do a new portrait of me.

  Clara explained to him that we’d just discovered I was related to the Doome family and then swore him to secrecy until everyone else had been told tomorrow.

  ‘There isn’t anyone I could tell,’ Teddy pointed out.

  ‘Well, just in case we have a visitor, or a phone call, don’t mention it,’ said Tottie.

  ‘Does Mummy know?’

  ‘Not yet,’ said Clara. ‘We’ll give her a ring and tell her tomorrow, too.’

  An idea suddenly struck Teddy. ‘If Meg is Uncle Henry’s niece …’

  ‘Great-niece,’ amended Clara.

  ‘Then … does that make her my auntie?’

  ‘More of a cousin,’ Henry said. ‘By marriage.’

  ‘Good!’ said Teddy.

  I rang Fliss before supper and told her the momentous news. She was very excited, much more than I was, in fact, because I was still in a state of slightly disbelieving shock.

  ‘It’s like a romantic comedy film, isn’t it, with you as the heroine? The lost heiress!’

  ‘Except I wasn’t a lost heiress, just a lost illegitimate relative … and the only candidate for the romantic hero part other than Mark, who turns out to be my first cousin, is Lex, who hates me.’

  ‘It would all work out fine in a film, though, Meg.’

  ‘Yes, but I’m not in a film and tomorrow is probably going to be more like a horror movie, because Clara has arranged for Lex to be here in the morning when she breaks the news to Sybil and Mark. I’m dreading it, because I don’t think any of them are going to be as delighted as she thinks they will – why should they be?’

  ‘Why shouldn’t they?’ Fliss countered. ‘I mean, Henry and Clara are, aren’t they?’

  ‘Well, yes, but it wasn’t a shock to them and it will be to the others. And I don’t think Lex will like it in the least because I’m sure he’s just counting down the days till he can see the back of me for ever.’

  ‘But now you know you’re part of the family, you’re finally going to have to tell him the truth about what happened, aren’t you?’ she pointed out.

  ‘I don’t see why I should,’ I replied stubbornly. ‘Let him and Al think whatever stupid things about me they like! He probably wouldn’t believe me anyway.’

  ‘You know I’m right and he’d have to believe you,’ she insisted. ‘Ring me tomorrow, and tell me the next thrilling instalment. I’ll be at a loose end, because Cal’s not back from his business trip till early on Christmas Eve.’

  ‘I don’t suppose everything will have sunk in, even by then. Maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow and find I dreamed it all.’

  ‘No, I’m your reality check,’ she said.

  I googled Nessa Cassidy and spent a lot of time looking at old photographs online. There was no denying that, apart from the militant expression, she looked exactly like Mum.

  25

  Relatively Speaking

  Needless to say, I didn’t sleep well that night, what with everything going over and over in my head, and the thought of the scene next morning when Clara and Henry told Mark, Sybil and Lex what they’d discovered.

  We were all down to breakfast very early and Clara
outlined her plans: she and Henry would break the news to Sybil, Mark and Lex. I still didn’t see why Lex should be included at this stage, but my objections were overruled.

  ‘We might as well tell them all at once,’ she said. ‘Then you, Meg, can come in with Tottie and Den afterwards and we’ll have a little celebration together,’ she added comfortably. I suspected the scene would not be as cosy as she pictured it.

  ‘Not me,’ said Den. ‘I don’t want to barge into this family reunion till the dust settles, do I?’

  ‘There won’t be any dust, and you’re part of the family, Den,’ said Clara, ‘just as Tottie is.’

  ‘I’ll bring the coffee when yer give me the nod and see ’ow it’s going,’ he conceded.

  ‘What about me?’ asked Teddy.

  ‘You could come into the drawing room with Tottie and Meg,’ suggested Henry.

  ‘There, that’s all settled,’ said Clara. ‘Time for a little work before everyone gets here.’

  She and Henry headed for their respective studies and Teddy and I went into the studio. Of course, I still couldn’t settle to anything, so I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. How would Sybil – my aunt (or half-aunt? And is half an aunt better than none?) take the news? She must be only a few months younger than Mum … And Mark, now revealed as my cousin – would his attitude change towards me?

  Mind you, that might be a good thing.

  Then there was Lex … A thought occurred to me: would he think I’d already known about the connection? Then I realized that was silly, for how on earth could I have? Without Clara and Henry’s knowledge of the whole story, there was no way I could have found out.

  Teddy began another picture of me, this time with pink hair, while I checked my iPad and phone for emails, messages and missed calls.

  I certainly hoped I’d missed any that Rollo might have sent me, but to my surprise, the stream of communication from him had stopped dead. I hoped he’d finally got the message through his thick skull and wasn’t just too busy at his event in York to harass me.

  Then an even better scenario occurred to me: he might have finished his event by now and, having accepted there was no way I was going to play along with his plans, already be heading south, like a glossy, pouting homing pigeon.

  Lex, Mark and Sybil had been invited for ten and I went up to my turret room just before that and watched for them from the narrow window: first Mark and his mother in his big, black, four-wheel-drive monster, and then Lex’s familiar battered white pick-up.

  I gave them a quarter of an hour to settle in and then crept down to my studio again. I could hear voices from the drawing room, even though the door was shut.

  There were voices from the direction of the kitchen, too, including Teddy’s, so in my studio I felt I was alone in a kind of limbo. Just me, and the old clock ticking like a time bomb.

  Teddy’s latest painting of me was still there, pinned to his little easel, and was really surprisingly good considering his age. He was going to love the artist’s box I’d bought him.

  I put my portraits of Henry and Clara on adjacent easels and contemplated them. Of course, I wouldn’t touch Clara’s again, but I decided Henry’s still needed just a couple of tiny tweaks. Perhaps tomorrow …

  The door suddenly opened, making me jump, and Tottie appeared to summon me. ‘Come on! We’re to go in now, Meg.’

  When we entered the room it felt as if every eye was fixed on me and in that brief instant I recognized some far from joyful accompanying expressions.

  Sybil’s face looked both shocked and horrified, as if she’d reached the climax of a scary film (though perhaps a little of the horror was due to my pink hair). Mark’s stare was hard and angry, and as for Lex, he was regarding me in the darkly brooding way that was so hard to read. If there had been the beginnings of a tiny thaw in our relationship, then it had frozen over hard again.

  None of them was about to burst into rapturous welcome, that was for sure.

  ‘Come and sit here, Meg, between Clara and myself,’ said Henry, patting the seat next to him. Tottie took one opposite, next to Sybil, who was still gazing at me as if I had two heads, like the mutant pike.

  ‘So, here’s your new niece, Sybil!’ said Henry.

  ‘I … suppose she must be, if what you say is true, Henry,’ she said reluctantly, finally dragging her eyes away from me. ‘But the whole story seems so incredible that I’m afraid I can’t quite believe it. I mean, I know you’re sure who Meg’s grandmother is, but there’s no proof that Daddy …’ She trailed off into silence.

  ‘I think we’ve heard enough to know it must be true, Mum,’ Mark said. ‘I mean, now I know, even I can see Meg’s got the family features.’

  His hard expression turned into a twisted half-smile. ‘We’re first cousins, then, Meg.’

  ‘But with different grandmothers,’ said Sybil. ‘And Meg’s mother was illegitimate, of course.’

  ‘I’m so sorry if it’s all been a shock to you,’ I apologized to her. ‘I was stunned too, because I’d no idea at all.’

  ‘Apart from the unedifying light it casts on my brother, I’m sure we’re all delighted to welcome Meg into the family,’ said Henry, and he and Clara smiled warmly at me.

  Then Clara gave me a pat as if I was a nervous dog. ‘Henry and I have always known about Nessa and George’s affair and the baby, so once Meg arrived here it all quickly fell into place for us.’

  Sybil said, ‘Then I suppose it must be true … and I expect Daddy was a bit wild and thoughtless when he was young, but of course he was a wonderful husband to Mummy.’

  There was a short and respectful, if incredulous, silence after this remark.

  It was broken by Tottie saying, ‘He treated her well enough when he was at home, but then, he didn’t spend a lot of time at Underhill until the last few years, did he? And even I heard the rumours about what he and that Piers Marten got up to abroad!’

  ‘Piers!’ suddenly exclaimed Sybil, sitting bolt upright with her eyes widening. ‘What on earth will he think when he knows about this?’

  ‘Why should it matter what he thinks?’ Clara asked. ‘He may even know already. After all, he was George’s oldest friend and they were practically inseparable for most of their lives.’

  ‘Oh, no, if Daddy didn’t know about the baby, then Piers certainly wouldn’t have.’

  ‘That’s true,’ said Tottie. ‘I suppose Piers might have known about the affair, though.’

  Mark’s scowl had returned in force. ‘Meg, I hope your mother won’t think she has some kind of claim on the estate when she finds out she’s related to us.’

  I stared at him, astounded. ‘I haven’t seen her for a few years, but unless she’s had a character transplant in that time, it would never even cross her mind! She’s never been interested in who her natural parents were and she’s the least materialistic person I know.’

  I met his angry and suspicious eyes straight on. ‘I can guarantee that she won’t make any claim on the estate, even if she’s entitled to – and nor will I.’

  ‘Of course you wouldn’t, dear,’ said Clara, and Lass, apparently feeling some tension in the room directed at me, came and shoved her wet nose into my hand.

  ‘I’m pleased to find I’ve got so many relatives, but I don’t need anything from you, because I already have a family at the Farm and a profession.’

  The black cloud slowly lifted from Mark’s brow and he got up from his chair, came over and kissed me on both cheeks.

  ‘Sorry, silly of me,’ he said. ‘I should have known you well enough by now to realize that.’

  Sybil, rallying, gave me a slightly watery smile. ‘I suppose we must welcome you into the family,’ she said, though I noted she was still looking a bit rabbit-in-the-headlights. She must have closed her eyes and ears to what dear Daddy was really like for her entire life.

  ‘That’s the spirit!’ encouraged Tottie.

  I’d forgotten Lex was in the room, since he was sit
ting slightly back in the shadows behind me, until Clara said, ‘What do you think of it all, Lex? You’re very quiet.’

  ‘It was a surprise, of course,’ he said in his deep voice, ‘but really, it’s nothing to do with me, is it? Meg’s no relation of mine.’

  ‘She is by marriage, and she’s now definitely part of the family,’ Henry said.

  ‘She’s my sort-of cousin,’ Teddy put in, from his perch on the camel saddle stool. ‘I’m glad! Uncle Henry, can Meg live with us here for ever?’

  ‘Of course, if she wanted to, but she has her own life to live, you know. But I hope she’ll always treat the Red House as her second home and come here whenever she wishes.’

  ‘Thank you,’ I said, deeply touched.

  ‘I’d better welcome you to the tribe, then, since clearly there’ll be no getting rid of you now,’ Lex said drily, though I’m sure everyone thought he was joking.

  Den rattled in with the trolley, loaded with coffee and hot cheese scones. He was whistling ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’ between his teeth.

  ‘All settled? The bleeding ewe lamb welcomed back ter the fold?’

  ‘Very biblical, Den,’ said Clara.

  ‘I was saved once, wasn’t I? But it didn’t take.’

  The conversation began to ease slowly into more everyday subjects and I let it ebb and flow around me as I sipped my coffee.

  I didn’t feel any sense that I was related to Mark or Sybil … and Mark had reacted to the news with anger, but once he’d accepted that his inheritance wasn’t in any danger from me or Mum, he’d been quite sweet.

  As for Clara and Henry, I’d felt a warm regard for them from the moment of my arrival; they felt like my family, and the Red House my home, rather than Underhill and its inhabitants.

  Sybil, clearly now thinking some gracious gesture was required, broke into my reverie. ‘You must come over to Underhill one day, Meg, and I’ll tell you something of the family history and about your grandfather.’

  I’d heard quite enough about George and I’d already had the guided tour of the house and the ancestors from Mark, but I smiled at her and said, ‘That would be lovely, though what I’m really longing to see is the ancient inscribed stone Clara told me about. It was moved to the grounds of Underhill when the valley was flooded, wasn’t it?’