The Christmas Invitation

by Trisha Ashley

  She wrung her hands, which I’d never actually seen anyone do before, until River reclaimed the nearest one and patted it soothingly.

  ‘Since your announcement seems to have taken Sybil entirely by surprise, Piers, perhaps we should postpone your celebrations for another time,’ said Clara drily. ‘Let tonight just be for the young ones.’

  Piers glared at Sybil and she shrank back towards River, which hardly poured oil on the waters.

  ‘I thought we were in agreement yesterday that it was the best thing to do,’ Piers said. ‘But perhaps we can have a few moments together now, so I can make my proposal in form.’

  ‘I doubt there’s any form you can make it in that she’s likely to accept, Piers,’ said Clara. ‘So, come on, everyone, let’s all go into the drawing room.’

  Henry turned to Piers and said cunningly, ‘I believe there’s a present for you under the tree in the hall and it looks remarkably like a bottle of whisky.’

  Love – or whatever it was – went out of the window as Piers almost knocked his chair over in his eagerness to get his hands on this unexpected prize.

  Lex and I helped Den clear the table and load the dishwasher, to the accompaniment of Mark declaring to Zelda that he’d never let his mother marry Piers and he’d certainly never live under his roof.

  He sounded very feudal and lord of the manor. You could practically see the generations of squires lining up behind him, ready to horse-whip someone.

  ‘Oh, I agree with you, darling,’ Zelda said. ‘But I’m sure she doesn’t want to marry him at all.’

  Clara arrived in search of the coffee and, shutting the door behind her, leaned against it and said dramatically, ‘What an ending to the dinner!’

  ‘What’s happening out there?’ Lex asked.

  ‘Tottie and River have got Sybil between them on the sofa again, so ghastly Piers can’t get near her, and Henry gave him a large drink to keep him quiet. Now Rollo’s telling Henry about his poetry magazine, but as soon as we’ve had the coffee, I’ll get rid of the guesthouse contingent, though, of course, we don’t want to get rid of you, Mark.’

  ‘I’d like to get rid of Piers permanently!’ he said savagely. ‘I can’t imagine what on earth Mum is thinking of.’

  ‘Well, as to that, I meant to have a little chat with her after Christmas, because he does seem to have an unhealthy influence over her. But don’t worry, because Sybil doesn’t want to marry him at all. I’ll have to bring that little talk with her forward to tomorrow morning and get to the bottom of it all.’

  I sincerely hoped the little talk wouldn’t also cover the question of whether Sybil had tried to push me off the hill. Really, I thought, it would be best forgotten and I certainly didn’t want poor Mark to know about it.

  ‘I’m sure you and Zelda will be very happy, Mark,’ Clara said. ‘And Flora strikes me as just right for Rollo, don’t you think, Meg?’

  ‘Yes, I’m sure she’ll turn into a clone of his mother and they’ll manage him between them.’

  Zelda got up. ‘Come on, let’s take the coffee through and act out this final scene and then we can all relax.’

  The welcome sound of Flora’s car receding into the distance was music to our ears. Our farewells had been enthusiastic.

  ‘Thank God they’ve gone,’ said Clara, settling back by the fire with a sigh of satisfaction.

  Sybil had vanished up to her room in the flurry of the departure, but Tottie said she was all right and would be down later.

  ‘But she can’t possibly want to marry that man.’

  ‘No, of course she doesn’t. He must be holding some threat over her head but we’ll find out what it is tomorrow, before the party. I don’t want to upset Sybil any more tonight.’

  ‘I’ll come over early, then,’ said Mark.

  ‘Really, darling, it’s hardly worth your going back to Underhill,’ said Clara. ‘You might as well have come to stay when Sybil did.’

  ‘I know, but I hadn’t factored in falling for Zelda when it was arranged,’ he said, his scowl dispelled by an engaging grin.

  ‘I’ve given you lots of help peeling wallpaper off, so I haven’t held the renovations up,’ pointed out Zelda.

  ‘I don’t like Piers,’ announced Teddy, looking up from his castle. The towers had tiny lights inside and one of the dragon family was sitting on the tallest.

  ‘You have very good taste,’ said Lex.

  The landline rang and it was Radnor Vane, calling to wish Teddy a happy Christmas. Teddy thanked him for his gifts and said, with the frankness of childhood, that he liked them much better than the Mickey Mouse slippers.

  After this call, Teddy was quiet for quite a while and must have been thinking, for he suddenly asked if he would have to live at Underhill if his mummy married Mark.

  His tone made it clear that he was not keen on the idea. Zelda, slightly taken aback, said that she and Mark would be so busy getting the business up and running that he’d probably stay at the Red House for the immediate future.

  ‘I expect eventually you’ll have a bedroom there as well as here and can divide your time between the two,’ suggested Henry, and Teddy cheered up.

  Mark left after we’d had a simple supper of Welsh rarebit followed by trifle or Christmas cake, Den having long since retired to his flat and his telly for a well-deserved rest.

  Teddy was distinctly flagging by then and made no objection to going to bed early, so long as he could take a selection of his favourite presents upstairs with him.

  I went into the studio to email Fliss and wish her happy Christmas, then told her about the two engagements, especially the amazingly speedy one of Rollo and Flora.

  She pinged one right back: There’s still one romantic lead left in this rom com, and we all know who he is!

  And I hadn’t even told her about Pansy, or the kissing …

  When I returned to the others, Henry’s mind must have been moving along similar lines, because he suddenly announced, channelling Mr Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, ‘I’m going to my study now, but if any man should come asking for Meg’s hand in marriage, I’m entirely at leisure to receive him.’

  ‘I think you’ll be quite safe from interruption,’ I said, and then caught Lex’s eyes on me and went pink, though I hoped no one, including Lex, noticed.

  On my way to bed I passed Clara on the landing, who had just looked in on Teddy, and thanked her for a wonderful Christmas and all the gifts and the stocking.

  ‘I hope we have many more like it, because you’re part of the family now, Meg,’ she said, ‘even if we do have to share you with your family at the Farm.’

  ‘If you talk to Sybil in the morning, you won’t mention about what happened at the Solstice, will you?’ I asked anxiously.

  ‘I might, if it helps me to get to the root of what’s happening with her,’ she said. ‘This Shakespearian comedy of errors needs all the knots untangling, and the sooner, the better.’

  Then she startled me by saying warmly, ‘I’m so happy that you and Lex have become such good friends! I realized there must have been some misunderstanding in the past and that you’d finally cleared it up. I haven’t seen him so much like his old self for years. Bless you for that, Meg.’

  I felt myself blushing again, but fortunately the landing lights were quite dim. I had my tapestry bag slung over my shoulder and suddenly, something made me remember the letter that Flower had given me to deliver to Clara.

  I rooted round in the bottom of the bag under the iPad, a sketchbook and a dozen other odds and ends, and apologetically proffered an even more crumpled envelope.

  ‘I’m so sorry, I entirely forgot about this! It went to Preciousss by mistake with their post and Flower gave it to me to bring back.’

  ‘Oh, not to worry. I see it’s from America and probably one of those long round robins from an old acquaintance, because anything important seems to come by email these days.’

  She kissed my cheek. ‘Goodnight, dear Meg: we are so
glad you are a Doome!’

  39

  A Family Affair

  None of us was up early next day, except Clara, who emerged from her study to join us at breakfast and seemed to be in an unusually quiet and thoughtful frame of mind.

  As soon as we’d finished, she said that she wanted us all to come into the drawing room for a big family pow-wow and that Mark would be arriving at any moment to join us.

  This didn’t sound at all like the quiet little talk she had proposed having with Sybil and I wondered what on earth was to come. Would she bring up my fall and our suspicions about Sybil being responsible?

  ‘I want all of you there, though Den, perhaps you wouldn’t mind staying here with Teddy and we’ll fill you in later?’

  ‘All right by me. Got to get the food ready fer this bleedin’ party, ’aven’t I? And I need Teddy to ’elp me.’

  Teddy, who had been looking as if he would object, now subsided.

  ‘We have a couple of hours until the first guests arrive,’ said Henry. ‘Plenty of time.’

  ‘This is all very mysterious,’ said Sybil, looking nervous.

  ‘I’d better stay here, too,’ River suggested.

  ‘No, River, I think we might need you,’ Clara said, and he obediently followed the rest of us into the drawing room. ‘Family’ seemed to be as infinitely flexible a term to the Doomes as it was at the Farm.

  I looked at Lex as we went in and he smiled reassuringly at me, which made me feel a little better.

  Mark had just arrived, and he and Zelda perched together on the window seat, while the rest of us spread out on the sofas and chairs before the fire, which was laid, but not yet lit. River discreetly removed himself to a more distant seat.

  ‘There we are, and you’re probably all wondering what this is about,’ said Clara. ‘Henry and I have had some unexpected news, which has put a fresh complexion on some of the things that have been happening lately.’

  ‘Yes, indeed,’ he agreed. ‘We were going to have a little chat with you this morning anyway, Sybil, but this news has clarified everything no end.’

  Sybil gave a great start and looked about her, slightly wildly. ‘With me?’

  ‘Yes, dear,’ Clara said, ‘because we’d realized even before Piers announced last night that you were engaged, that he had some hold over you. And given that, despite an ample annuity, you were always broke, we put two and two together and came up with blackmail.’

  ‘But until last night, we didn’t know what he’d got on you, as it were,’ said Henry, then added gently, as she remained transfixed, ‘We know the whole truth now, Sybil.’

  ‘You mean Piers was blackmailing you, Mum?’ demanded Mark, springing to his feet.

  ‘Oh, no, not at all … I mean, he wasn’t—’ stammered Sybil, incoherently.

  Tottie said soothingly, ‘It’s all right, Syb.’

  ‘Mark, do sit down and just listen for the moment,’ said Clara. ‘All will be revealed, as they say.’

  Mark subsided, glowering.

  ‘Meg gave me a letter last night that had got mixed up with the post for Preciousss, and which she’d subsequently forgotten till that moment.’

  Lex, who was seated in a chair just behind me, leaned forward and whispered in my ear, ‘Do you know what this is all about?’

  I shook my head. He didn’t sit back, but continued leaning forward, one arm across the back of my chair, and I was very conscious of him.

  ‘The envelope contained a letter written to me by Nessa Cassidy and found among her papers by her lover after her unfortunate early death in a car crash.’

  ‘It was marked to be forwarded to Clara if anything happened to her,’ continued Henry. ‘But for various reasons, it wasn’t, until now.’

  ‘And just at the right moment, too,’ said Clara.

  ‘Well, we’re all now agog to know what astounding revelation was contained in this letter,’ Lex said. ‘Spit it out!’

  ‘Quite simply, it stated that she’d married Henry’s brother, George, late in the Michaelmas term of 1959.’

  ‘He … married this Nessa?’ said Mark, stunned, and I felt my own mind turning over and over like a fruit machine, until it stopped with a resounding thud and more than a couple of lemons.

  ‘Yes. He thought he could get his hands on Nessa’s substantial inheritance once they were married, and she was a very romantic and silly girl. In the event, after the wedding he discovered she couldn’t touch her capital until she was thirty and she found that she was mistaken in her man. Or indeed, in any man. They had a furious row and agreed to part and forget the marriage ever happened.’

  ‘Though since it actually had, it made his subsequent marriage to Sybil’s mother bigamous,’ Henry finished.

  That was a curve ball I hadn’t been expecting, or anyone else, except Sybil, whose face told a different story.

  Henry said, into the stunned silence, ‘George had lied about Nessa being of age and other details on the marriage licence and he told her that made it illegal.’

  ‘It only occurred to her later to wonder if it had been legal or not,’ Clara said. ‘Of course, it was, as I’m sure George realized, but I expect he thought no one would ever find out. And he never knew about Nessa’s baby.’

  ‘It’s all true!’ wailed Sybil suddenly. ‘I found the certificate among Daddy’s papers after he died, though something he’d said towards the end made me wonder …’

  ‘But Piers knew?’ Lex said.

  She nodded. ‘He was actually at the wedding and it was his sister’s flat they went to afterwards. And then, when Daddy died, Piers told me he knew, but that he’d keep it a secret for my sake, and for Mark’s.’

  ‘And then proceeded to blackmail you,’ said Tottie. ‘What a rotter!’

  This old-fashioned term seemed to sum Piers up perfectly: rotten to the core.

  ‘Piers didn’t put it like that. It was more that I’d be helping out Daddy’s old friend, by having him to stay and—’

  ‘Bleeding you for increasingly large sums of money?’ suggested Lex grimly.

  ‘How horrible for you, Sybil,’ said Zelda sympathetically. I don’t think she’d quite grasped the implications of this news yet, but I had begun to, and I could see from his face that Mark had, too.

  ‘When Meg turned up and we worked out who she was – though of course we thought her mother was illegitimate – you realized it would give Piers an even bigger lever for his blackmail,’ said Clara.

  Tears were now running down Sybil’s face and she was wringing her hands. ‘Yes, because Meg became such a threat to Mark’s inheritance! Since her mother had disappeared years ago I thought she was probably dead, so that just left Meg. And then, I thought—’

  She came to an abrupt stop and did that hand-wringing thing again, staring at me from wide, anguished blue eyes. Doome eyes.

  ‘Yes, we know what you thought, Sybil,’ said Clara. ‘That it would be better if you got rid of Meg. So you tried to push her over the steep drop on the bonfire ledge, on the night of the Solstice.’

  ‘What on earth do you mean, Clara?’ Mark demanded angrily. ‘Mum couldn’t possibly have—’

  He came to a sudden stop as Sybil just looked up and said quietly to Clara, ‘How did you know?’

  ‘I was certain someone had shoved me,’ I explained, ‘though I’d no idea who. But then, you were wearing that very distinctive perfume again the other night and I realized later that it wasn’t the Gathering it was associated with in my mind, but the moment you tried to kill me.’

  ‘You mean, you really did try to push Meg off the hill, Mum?’ demanded Mark incredulously, going white.

  ‘Now, now, Mark, we’re sure it was simply the instantly regretted impulse of the moment,’ said Henry soothingly.

  ‘I thought I was protecting you, darling. I was confused and didn’t know where to turn,’ pleaded Sybil.

  ‘You should have told me the truth the moment you found that wedding certificate. Then none of this
would have happened,’ Mark told her.

  ‘I … expect I should.’ Her voice quivered and Tottie put an arm round her shoulders.

  ‘Steady, Syb!’ she said, as if Sybil was a nervous horse. It seemed to have the right effect, for she sat up straighter.

  ‘I deeply regret it, Meg. I didn’t really mean to do it, but something desperate came over me. It must have been a moment of madness, for I was totally appalled the second I’d done it.’

  But not, I thought, appalled enough to stop and see if I actually had fallen over. But then, I suppose the instinct for self-preservation had kicked in and she’d darted off ahead of the others down the path.

  ‘You must have been mad, because it would have been a much better idea to try and kill Piers off, instead,’ Clara pointed out. ‘Still, Lex luckily spotted Meg hanging on to that gorse bush for dear life, and came to her rescue.’

  ‘My hero,’ I said to him, trying to lighten the mood.

  ‘I didn’t believe anyone had pushed you at first, though, Meg,’ he said. ‘It seemed so incredible.’

  Sybil shuddered and said, ‘I went back to Underhill, not knowing what had happened, and it was such a relief when you walked into the Gathering, Meg. And then I thought Mark seemed to be seriously interested in you and that perhaps you’d get married, and then … well, that would make everything all right.’

  Mark turned slightly pink and Zelda looked at him quizzically.

  ‘Mark and I were only ever friends,’ I said.

  ‘I can see why you thought Meg and Mark marrying would be the best solution,’ Henry said.

  Sybil nodded. ‘Even if Piers told everyone the truth about the marriage and Meg’s mother being legitimate, it wouldn’t matter, would it? Meg would be in her rightful place at Underhill and part of the family.’

  ‘Then I turned up for Christmas and spoiled it all,’ said Zelda.

  ‘There was nothing to spoil,’ I assured her.

  ‘It’s not that I don’t want Mark to marry you, dear, but you can see how easy his marrying Meg instead would have made things,’ Sybil told her earnestly.