I was awake again, planning the evening menu, when the phone rang.
"Charlie Priest."
"Hello Uncle Charles. It's me."
"Sophie!" One of those exploding birthday cakes went off inside me, with a great bang and a puff of smoke, and six dancing girls in silver lame costumes high-kicked down the hallway. "How are you?" I picked up the phone and slid down the wall to sit on the floor.
"I'm fine. How are you?"
"Brilliant. Where are you speaking from?"
"I'm on a train. I've tried ringing home but nobody's in. Could you possibly pick me up at the station, please?"
"No problem. What time do you arrive?"
"Ten to seven in Leeds, but I'm not sure about the connection to Heckley."
I looked at my watch and did a quick calculation. "Don't bother hanging about for the connection, I'll pick you up in Leeds."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
We chatted for a few minutes until I said I'd better be on my way. My instinct was to ring Dave and Shirley to tell them that their beloved daughter was coming home, but it occurred to me that Dave might insist on collecting her himself, depriving me of that pleasure, so I didn't. It would be all the more of a surprise when I produced her on their doorstep. I had a quick shower and teeth-clean, changed my clothes and set off for the station.
They'd made some changes there. The tunnel under the lines was gone, replaced by a bridge that linked the platforms. I was early, but by the time I'd worked out which platform she would arrive at the train was due in. I stood near the ticket barrier, watching as the bridge disgorged gaggles of travellers who flashed their tickets to the disinterested clerk, wondering how much Sophie had changed since I last saw her.
As soon as she appeared at the top of the stairs my legs turned to spaghetti. She was wearing a short skirt, high heels and a blouse with a high collar. Mandarin, I believe it's called. A bag hung over her shoulder with a leather jacket looped through it, and she turned slightly sideways as she came down the steps, feeling for each one, as if afraid she might topple over. Lovely Sophie hadn't quite mastered the art of walking in four-inch stilettos. She saw me and waved.
"You look sensational," I said, pecking her on the cheek. She was wearing Mitsouko, by Guerlain. The only perfume I recognise and one that brought back memories that I didn't need. Not then or at any other time.
"You don't look bad yourself, Uncle Charles," she replied.
I just stared at her, happy as a sandboy, and said: "Huh!"
"I've been reading about you in the papers."
"It's not true. I never touched her." She wouldn't let me take her bag as we wandered out of the concourse into the gloom of the evening. In the car I said: "Hungry?"
"Mmm, a bit." She drew her bare legs under the seat and tipped her knees in my direction.
"Nice suntan," I said.
"Thank you."
"Cap Ferrat?"
"That's right."
"With all the old folks. Will a pizza be OK?"
"Lovely!"
"Right. I'll show you that sophistication exists outside the hallowed groves of Oxbridge."
It was only a short drive to Park Square, where Terence Conran has one of his restaurants. The furnishings are art deco, the waiters and waitresses look as if they come from central casting and the pizzas are the only ones I've ever had that I could honestly say I'd enjoyed. Sophie beamed her approval, and that was good enough for me. We had a glass of wine each and she told me about Cap Ferrat and Cambridge over our quattro stag-gioni and pepperoni with black olives. Her blouse was made from a heavy silk material, embroidered with dragons and pagodas, and when I admired it she said it was a present from China. The pearls for buttons were in pairs, close together, and the high collar and her piled-up hair emphasised her height. Halfway through the meal, after she'd called me Uncle Charles for the tenth time, I raised a disapproving finger and said: "A ground rule."
"What?" she asked, suddenly serious.
"Well, now that you're almost qualified as a… whatever it is you're almost qualified as, I think you ought to start calling me Charlie. I know I'm old, but Uncle Charles really rubs it in. All these people think I'm a sugar daddy out with my girlfriend, and it would really destroy my credibility if they heard you call me Uncle Charles, so could you please indulge in an old man's whim and call me Charlie? Please?"
"Oh, OK then," she said, "Charlie it is," and kicked me on the shin.
I winced, and she said: "Was that your leg?"
I nodded confirmation between the waves of pain.
"Sorry, I thought it was the table," Sophie giggled.
I took a sip of wine, grimacing as I said: "Purely for anaesthetic purposes," and replaced my glass next to hers. She'd left a smear of lipstick on its rim. I'd never known her wear lipstick before.
"That was a lovely meal," she said, as we crossed the road outside an hour later. "Thank you. I'm glad Dad wasn't in."
"So am I. It's a nice place. Conran has them all over but that's the only one I've ever eaten at."
As we stepped on to the pavement I swapped sides and placed my hand in the small of her back as I crossed behind her. She took my left arm in hers and hugged it, resting her head on my shoulder, like Suze Rotolo on the cover of Freewheelin'. I felt like a teenager, didn't want the evening to end.
In the car Sophie retrieved her phone, pressed a button and held it to her ear.
"No reply," she said after a few seconds. As we approached Heckley she tried again, with the same results.
"Do you have a key?" I asked, and she said she hadn't.
After another try she said: "We could always go to your house for a coffee."
Why didn't I think of that? "Sounds a good idea," I agreed, switching lanes to head away from her home.
I filled the kettle, plugged it in, switched it on. Milk from the fridge, sugar from the cupboard, biscuits in the tin. Cups, saucers, plates. Was that it? No. Spoons. We needed spoons. Spoons from the cutlery drawer. I placed them all on the table, where I normally breakfasted, and turned to rest against the work surface as the kettle hissed and grumbled into life. Sophie was leaning on the doorframe, watching. She came over and stood before me, her head bowed. I'd a feeling that she was about to say something portentous. I reached forward, taking hold of her elbows and said: "What's the problem, Sophie?"
"There's no problem," she replied, looking up into my face. She'd slipped the shoes off and was back to her normal height, which was still tall. "Except…"
"Except? Except what?"
"Except, I've lied to you. Don't be mad at me, Uncle Charles."
"Charlie." V,
"Sorry."
"When did you lie?"
"Just now, in the car. And earlier. I didn't try to ring Dad, because I don't want to go home. I want to stay here with you, just for tonight."
I ran my fingertips up her arms and held her by the shoulders. "Why, Sophie? Why are you doing this to me?" My voice sounded like it was coming from a well at the far end of a tunnel.
"Because… I don't know. I wanted someone to talk to. Someone I loved, and I love you." She slipped her arms around my neck and I pulled her close. I leaned my forehead against hers, squashing her nose with mine, until we both turned our faces a fraction to bring our lips into that perfect, bewitching angle with each other's.;
Chapter Six
I brushed my lips across Sophie's, then lifted my face and kissed her on the forehead. I pecked her on the cheek and on her neck, and reached behind my head to find her hands and unlink her fingers.
"This isn't what I want, Sophie," I told her, shaking my head. "I can't. I'm sorry, but I can't."
She looked up into my face, bewildered and hurt. "Why not? Don't you love me?"
"Of course I love you. I love you more than life, but I don't want to start something we — I — couldn't stop."
"I don't understand."
"Neither do I." The kettle came to the boil and I bro
ke away, turning my back, grateful for the interruption, not wanting to face her. I spooned instant coffee into mugs, poured on the water, added milk and stirred them for longer than necessary. "Let's sit where it's more comfortable," I said, leading the way into the front room.
We sat on the settee, Sophie at one end, me at the other. Her head was bowed and I was aware that I'd probably just paid her the biggest humiliation in the repertoire. She was embarrassed and confused. This was not the way it was meant to happen. I shuffled sideways until I was next to her and placed my arm across her shoulders. She snuggled closer, her head on my shoulder.
"I'm tremendously flattered, Sophie," I told her, my voice a hoarse whisper. "I know it's the greatest compliment you could pay me and that it wasn't something you'd decided lightly, and I'll never forget it. But it would spoil everything, don't you see? Apart from us, I'd be betraying your parents. OK, I could possibly cope with that. Then there's the fact that I'm your godfather, and that's supposed to give me responsibilities, but I could live with that, too. But it would spoil things between us — you and me — and I'd find that unbearable. You'd turn against me, sometime in the future, when you were in a different frame of mind and whatever it was that brought you here" was forgotten. And for what? One night in bed together? We mean more than that to each other, don't we?"
"I'm sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry about, nothing at all, but maybe you should tell me what's behind it all, why you want to snog with old Uncle Charlie when there's all these handsome young bloods at Cambridge falling over themselves to go out with you."
"Huh!" was all she said.
We sat like that for a while, then sipped our coffee. "Tell me about Cap Ferrat," I said, replacing my mug on the low table.
"It was fun," she replied, smiling.
"Thanks for the card. What's the boyfriend called?"
She bit her lip and glanced at me. "Promise not to laugh."
"Scout's honour."
"He's called Digby."
"Digby? That's a fine name."
"You're laughing at me."
"No I'm not, but it might raise a few eyebrows the first time your dad takes him down to the Mechanics' Institute for a Sunday lunchtime pint."
"I won't let him go to the 'stute for a lunchtime pint."
"You'll have to, it's a tradition. So is this one serious?"
"Yes."
"I have to know a bit more about him before I give my approval. It's one of a godfather's duties, did you know?"
"Is it? What do you want to know?"
"Is he a good bloke? Does he deserve you?"
Sophie giggled for the first time that evening. "He doesn't have any tattoos or body piercing, if that's what you mean."
"And does he deserve you?"
"I think so. He's asked me to marry him."
"Really! And what did you say?"
"I said that I'd think about it and tell him on Monday."
"And what have you decided?"
"I'll tell him that I'd be proud to be his wife, if he'll still have me."
I had to think about that. Eventually I said: "I admit I'm a bit slow about these things, Sophie, but if you're going to accept Digby's proposal on Monday why did you want to spend tonight with me? I don't understand."
She rested her head on my shoulder again and I took her hand in mine. "Have you ever fancied Mum?" she asked with all the subtlety of a rampaging cocker spaniel.
"Erm, your mum?" I asked, hesitation colouring my reply with guilt. "Well, er, she's an attractive woman. And she makes cracking apple pies, but unfortunately your dad found her first." I stood up and walked over to the CD player. Livin' La Vida Loca seemed appropriate. "What made you ask that?"
"I asked her if she fancied you and she blushed."
"You what!"
"I asked her if she'd ever fancied you. We had a long talk before I went to uni." The first bars of salsa invaded the room and her head nodded to the rhythm. "Ricky Martin, I bought you this."
"I know you did."
"Do you play it much?"
"All the time. I thought you and your dad had a long talk."
"Fibber. I bet this is the first time. We did, but he just said he'd come and duff up anybody who gave me aggro. You said much the same thing. Mum said that she loved Dad and wouldn't want to be married to anybody else, but she was young when she married and she'd known him all her life. Sometimes, she said, she wished she'd had a bit of a fling. Can I tell you a secret, Uncle Charles?"
"I think we're well into secret-keeping territory, Sophie."
"Well, once, when I was young, I imagined that you and Mum had been lovers and that you were my real dad. I thought it was ever so romantic." I heaved a big sigh and shook my head, not believing what I was hearing. "So," she went on, "I asked Mum if she'd marry you if anything happened to Dad."
"And what did your mum say?"
"She told me to mind my own business. But she was blushing as she said it."
"I think you've been reading too many… um, Penelope Teapots."
"Who's Penelope Teapot?"
"No idea." I took her hand in mine again. "Is that what this was supposed to be, Sophie? A bit of a fling?"
"Are you mad at me?"
"No, of course not. I'm flattered, but I'm still mystified, when you have all those handsome young fellows at your beck and call."
She leaned on me again and I embraced her, my face in her hair, breathing in that old familiar perfume. After a while she said: "Digby's not my first boyfriend, Uncle Charles."
"Good. There you are, then. You've had your fling."
"I went out with a boy from Bristol when I was in my first year. Then I started going out with Digby."
"So you've known him a long time. What — two years?"
"No, nearly a year. I wish you still knew Annabelle. I could talktoAnnabelle."
"Annabelle's long gone, I'm afraid." Except it was her perfume Sophie was wearing and it felt like only yesterday that I'd almost drowned in its headiness. "Can't you talk to your mum?"
"Not about this."
"I don't know what to say."
"Do men always enjoy sex, Uncle Charles?"
"Well, um, usually," I mumbled, taken aback. Sophie inherited her dad's forthrightness as well as his height. "Not always, but usually." Ricky Martin was urging someone to be careful with my heart in case you break it. "Is… is that what the problem is?" I ventured, and I felt her nod her head against my shoulder.
I sat in silence for several minutes, practising opening lines and abandoning them. It was Sophie herself who broke the ice. "I enjoy it, but…" That's all she said.
"But it's not worth all the fuss," I suggested, and felt her nod again. "So you thought it might be different with an older man? Someone more experienced?" Another nod. "Well, it might have been, but I doubt it. Sometimes you have to learn about a person. Sometimes you have to be married to them before you can really relax and enjoy it. When you're young, a young man, that is, you tend to be impatient, not as considerate as you ought to be. Talk to Digby, I'm sure he'll understand. The important thing is not to worry about it: don't develop any hang-ups and don't believe everything you read in Cosmopolitan. If you love each other the sex bit is just a bonus. You're a lovely lady, Sophie, and I suspect you're just too much for young Digby, but he'll settle down once he realises that you're not going to run away from him."
"Am I being stupid?" I heard her whisper.
"No, you're not being stupid. You'll be OK, just don't expect perfection every time." I decided that sex therapist was not my calling and changed the subject. "What's Digby's second name."
"Merriman-Flint."
"'Struth! With a hyphen?"
"Yes."
"Blimey. So will you be Sophie Merriman-Flint or Sophie Sparkington-Merriman-Flint?"
"Sophie Jennifer Sparkington-Merriman-Flint," she replied.
"Of course. It suits you." I held her for a while, swaying gently to the music, then said: "Do
you love him, Sophie? Really love him?"
She turned to face me and I was alarmed to see tears welling up in her eyes. I pulled her back into my arms and hugged her tight, but the tears turned into full-scale weeping.
"What is it, Sophie?" I whispered. "What's the problem? I'm sure it's not as bad as it seems. We'll work ifout."
"I'm pregnant, Uncle Charles," she sobbed. "I'm having a baby."
"Oh Sophie, Sophie." I wanted to say I was sorry, rocking her back and forth, then decided it might not be appropriate. Every thought that came into my head sounded more fatuous than the one before. "How… how…" I began, stumbling for words.
"The usual way," she sniffed with a tearful smile. "Clever clogs, know-it-all Sophie has gone and got herself pregnant. It's right what they say: It's always the nice girls that get banged up."
"I meant… how long have you known?"
"Since Friday morning."
"And how… how long..?"
"How far gone am I? About four weeks."
"That's not long. Are you sure?"
"Positive."
I wiped her cheek with my fingertips. "So what are you going to do?"
"Have a baby, I expect. Not what I'd planned but I'm growing used to the idea."
"Does Digby know?"
"No. You're the only person I've told. I don't know what Digby will say. Maybe he'll be mad at me, not want to see me again. I'm scared, Uncle Charles, really scared."
I gave her an extra squeeze. "He won't be mad at you," I assured her. "If he's the sort of person I would expect you to go with he won't be mad at you. He'll be surprised, confused, for about twenty seconds. Then he'll be the happiest man in the world, believe me."
"What if he isn't? What if he doesn't want me?"
"In that case, you come back to me and we'll run away together, to somewhere where your dad would never find us."
"Like where?"
"Antarctica, but I'm sure it won't come to that."
"That would be nice. I do love you, Uncle Charles."
"And I you. So when will you tell him?"
"Tomorrow, and when he gets over the shock I'll ask him if the offer still stands."
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