“Bella?” Sophie said, easing herself up onto the bed. “What do you think about me having a baby?”
Bella sat back on her heels and looked at Sophie.
“I’m not sure,” she said slowly. “I like things how they are. With just us. I like you looking after us.”
“I like it too, but that won’t change,” Sophie told her. “I’ll still look after you. I’ll still always be here for you. I promise.”
“But that baby will be your baby,” Bella said, pointing at Sophie’s middle. “You will love it more than us.” She glanced at Louis. “He will love it more than us because it’s your baby.”
“You are all my children,” Louis said. “I’ll love you all the same.”
“Even Seth?” Bella challenged him.
“Eventually,” Louis said. “Given the chance, then yes. I’ll love him too.”
Izzy sat up, watching Bella, her face still and thoughtful as she listened.
“And as for me,” Sophie told both the girls, “it’s not possible for me to love anyone more than I love you.”
“Isn’t it?” Bella looked uncertain.
“Mitchell Lambert in my class has four brothers and a sister and their mum loves all of them the same,” Izzy said.
“Yes, but Aunty Sophie isn’t our mum, is she?” Bella said. “She’ll be the baby’s mum, but she won’t be ours.”
“Oh, I forgot that,” Izzy said sadly.
Sophie rubbed her hand over her face and looked at Louis, who reached out and stroked Bella’s hair.
“The thing is,” she said slowly, “I know I am not your mum, but I feel like you’re my daughters. I feel like you are my girls. Carrie was your mummy, and she always will be—but when you were gone and missing and I didn’t know where you were, all I could think about was my girls, my daughters. About getting you back and keeping you safe. Artemis is lucky, she’s got an animal instinct to tell her how to be a mummy, the second that her first kitten was born. But I realize that I’ve been even luckier. I’ve had you two to show me what being a mummy is really about. So that when this baby comes, when your little sister or brother arrives, then I’ll be able to do nearly as good a job at it as Artemis.”
“Will you bite off its cord with your teeth?” Izzy asked her, in awe.
“Probably not,” Sophie said. “But apart from that, I think I’ll be better at looking after this baby because I’ve got you two. You’re my daughters and I love you and nothing, nothing on earth, will change that. I promise you.”
Bella peered under the bed again. “Now there are three!” she exclaimed. “This one looks tortoiseshell.”
“Anyway, I’ve been thinking,” Sophie went on, treading ever so carefully. “The last thing on earth I want for you and Izzy is to worry about anything, so if this is all happening too quickly for you, if you feel that everything is changing too fast, then Daddy and I don’t have to get married. I can stay in the B and B with the baby and things can go on as they are.”
Louis dropped his head.
“But if you do get married, then what?” Bella asked her.
“Well, then I’d come and live here, and the baby would live here too eventually, and we would all be together every single day.”
“And Seth would sometimes visit too,” Izzy added. “To teach us to whistle.”
Bella got up and sat next to Sophie on the bed.
“I don’t want you to move in after you’ve got married,” she said, and Sophie felt her heart sink with a disappointment that she hadn’t fully appreciated until she heard Bella’s verdict. “I don’t want to wait that long. I want you to move in now. After all, Artemis will need help with the kittens, and you’ll need extra looking after, and if you’re here then …”
“Then?” Sophie asked her with bated breath.
“Then we’ll be a family,” Bella said.
“And you’re happy for me and Sophie to get married?” Louis asked both of the girls.
“We are,” Bella and Izzy said together.
Louis looked at Sophie. “And what have you got to say?” he asked her.
“I have this to say.” Sophie’s smile was radiant. “Louis, Bella, and Izzy—will you marry me?”
• • •
Soon after Artemis’s fourth and final kitten was born, Louis sent Sophie and the girls back to bed, just before 8:00 A.M.
“You need rest,” he said, kissing Sophie on the forehead. “And you two could do with at least one day off from school what with all the excitement you’ve had. I’ll sort out Artemis, get her box ready and all that business.”
Sophie and the two girls curled up in Louis’s bed and drifted off to sleep the moment their heads touched the pillows.
It was midday when Sophie finally woke, feeling refreshed for the first time in ages. The girls had already gone, as she found them down in the kitchen, cooing over Artemis and her kittens, who Louis had put in a box next to the boiler.
“Good morning, Sophie,” Louis said, encircling her with his arms. “Good morning, beautiful woman and bride and mother-to-be. The vet popped in to take a quick look at Artemis and he says she is fighting fit. Tango even turned up for breakfast and tried to have a look at his offspring but Artemis sent him away with his tail between his legs, which is pretty much all he will have there soon. The vet says we have to have them both done really soon if we don’t want a repeat performance.”
“That’s great that she’s doing so well,” Sophie said as she sat at the table and looked into the box at Artemis with her kittens. “That’s really, really wonderful.”
“Well, probably not for Tango, the poor fellow,” Louis said, wincing. “But I have got more good news. We have been busy, haven’t we, girls?”
“Yes!” Bella jumped up excitedly, resting her palms on Sophie’s knees. “We have got surprises,” she said, wriggling her fingers in what Sophie assumed was an indication of mystery.
“Really?” Sophie asked her, a little cautiously. “Not entirely sure that I’m up to surprises.”
“I called Fineston Manor this morning and they still have New Year’s Eve free,” Louis told her.
“They don’t!” Sophie exclaimed delightedly before her brow furrowed. “But why do they? Is it a rubbish place where no one wants to get married?”
“No, it’s a wonderful place where lots of people want to get married. It just seems that very few people have a ceremony a mere three months after they decide to get married, and no one else has booked it. They’re thrilled we still want it, they’ve promised me candlelight and music and they’ll do all the catering—we just need to look at menus and give them numbers.”
“That’s a fantastic surprise—but New Year’s Eve—it’s only a couple of months away—there’s so much to do. I need to find a dress that won’t make me look like a house.”
“Or a horse,” Izzy interjected.
“Ah well, that’s our other surprise,” Louis said, grinning at Bella. “I phoned Carmen earlier to tell her about the kittens and Fineston Manor and to ask her about the cake and all that and I asked her if she knew of any dressmakers in the area who might help us.”
“Did she?” Sophie asked.
“She did better than that. She knows the dressmaker, the one who designed the dress you saw and loved at the fair? Apparently, after it all kicked off, Carmen decided to phone the organizer and find out about the designer, got her number, address—everything. She said she would have mentioned it sooner but everything seemed a bit up in the air.”
“A long way up in the air,” Izzy commented as she gazed happily at the kittens.
“Anyway, they’re a small outfit based in Plymouth. I called them today and Ellen, that’s the designer, said if you go in tomorrow they can fit it for you extra loose and then just before the wedding, take it in or let it out so that it flows perfectly over all of your curves. I tried to get her to tell me what it would look like, but she refused.”
“Quite right too,” Sophie said, and then, �
��Oh my god, I’m so happy.”
“I should have known it would be a fashion item that would make you happy,” Louis said, smiling.
“But what about invitations?” Sophie said suddenly. “We need to invite people in a couple of weeks, which means we need invites now.”
“I know,” Louis said. “And I’ve got the perfect idea for them. I’ll take a photo of all of us, the whole family. I’ll get my mate Steve down at the printer’s to print us up the invites with the photo on the front. We’ll be telling everyone that this is a new start, not just for you and for me, but for all of us. That we’re a family now and that’s the way it’s going to stay forever.”
“I love that idea,” Sophie said, reaching out to touch his face.
“I’m glad, because the girls and I have been talking. And there is one more person we’d like to ask to be in the photo.”
Sophie nodded. “Seth.”
Wendy’s house was remarkably unlike the bawdy bordello that Sophie had imagined. It was a modest duplex in a suburban part of Newquay, tastefully decorated in pastels and white. Her kitchen, where Sophie sat opposite Wendy as she sipped a cup of tea, was largely painted lemon yellow, with glittering white units. Wendy might be an evil old relationship wrecker, but it turned out that she liked to keep a clean home.
“Thanks for inviting me in,” Sophie said, keen to break the silence that hung in the air between them. “Louis would have come in too, but we thought that under the circumstances he and the girls had better stay in the car.”
Wendy nodded. “I can see why. I was going to call today anyway, to say thank you to you and Louis for helping sort things out with the police. When I got Seth home and he realized just exactly what he’d done, all the thoughts that must have been going through your head and how frightened you must have been, he was gutted. He is gutted. He knows he’s blown it.”
“Blown it?” Sophie asked her. “What do you mean?”
“Blown getting to know Louis and his sisters; he knows that after yesterday there is no way you will want him anywhere near them.”
“But that’s not true,” Sophie said. “Yes it was stupid and frightening and if I’d had the chance to get my hands on him yesterday, then I probably would have killed him. But nothing has changed. He’s still Louis’s son, he’s still the girls’ brother. They—we—want him in our lives.”
“I see,” Wendy said, pursing her lips briefly. “Did Louis tell you?” she asked Sophie. “Only I think if we’re going to move on from this, then you should know.”
“Know what?” Sophie asked uneasily.
“In London, that second night, the night that he left you and came to help me. After the police had Seth, it was god knows what time, really late. Louis took me back to my B and B. I tried to get him to stay with me, tried to get him to come to bed with me. Threw myself at him really, made a right fool of myself. But he didn’t want anything to do with me, not even for a second. He told me he loved you, he told me he’d sleep in a chair downstairs, and he did, all night. I got into my bed and I thought about Seth in a police cell and Louis downstairs on the chair and it hit me, what a bloody stupid selfish cow I’d been, putting Seth and Louis and you through a lot of pain. I’m sorry, Sophie.”
Sophie sat back a little and glanced down at her lukewarm tea wondering if this was all some sort of evil mastermind confession and that in a second Wendy would announce she’d sweetened the tea with cyanide.
“You’re sorry?” Sophie felt it was best to check.
“I got angry and jealous and insecure. Angry that suddenly my nice stable little life was going to be turned on its head, jealous that you seemed to have everything I never had without even having to try, and furious that Louis was about to waltz into my son’s life, and get to be his dad without having to do any of the hard stuff, without having to go through the years and years of struggling that I did. It didn’t seem fair, and I blamed it all on you. It’s me Seth gets his rash and angry side from.”
“Oh, right,” Sophie said, cautiously. “I’m sorry, Wendy. I don’t know exactly what to say. I mean I know this must have been hard on you. But you’re the one who turned it into a fight over Louis; I still don’t really get that. Why?”
Wendy sighed. “Look, my life’s been what it’s been and I can live with that. It’s my choices that have brought me here. I chose not to tell Louis about Seth, although I think my dad probably had a lot to do with that. I chose to keep him when I could have had him adopted. And it’s been tough. Mum and Dad were there for me, but I never had those years of being young that everyone else had. No nights out down at the pub, no real boyfriends to speak of. It’s really hard to get a boyfriend when you’ve got a baby to look after. Never went to college. I loved Seth, with all of my heart. But I never felt like I lived my life. I didn’t realize it until I saw Louis again.”
“You’ve been through a lot,” Sophie agreed. “Seth told me how much he admires you, how much you’ve done for him. I don’t know if that quite gives you the right to try and steal my fiancé.”
“I know that now,” Wendy said and shrugged. “When I saw Louis that day, all of those carefree teenage feelings came back to me, the way I felt with him, how happy I was, and I suddenly realized that I had his son. I didn’t want those feelings coming up and dragging me down again. I’d gotten used to my life, I was content. But then you saw us at the fair and put two and two together and I realized I didn’t have a choice anymore. I’d have to face the way I used to feel about him. And I thought I wanted those feelings back, I thought I wanted him back. I used this whole thing with Seth to try and get him back. I thought the more time he spent with me and worried about Seth, the more likely it was that he’d start to feel about me the way he used to. But that was never going to happen. He was never going to leave you. I’m sorry.”
Sophie nodded. “Well, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry too for turning your life upside down when you asked me not to.”
“I don’t suppose you had a choice,” Wendy said.
Sophie shrugged. “I probably didn’t have to do it quite so abruptly. I’m the one who started this whole roller coaster. I’m sorry for that.”
The two women sat in silence for a moment and Sophie looked toward the front door, thinking of Louis and the girls waiting in the car.
“What about Seth?” Sophie said. “Will he come down? I’d really like to talk to him.”
Wendy went to the foot of the stairs and called up them.
“Seth, come down and talk to Sophie, love. Come on, she’s not angry.”
Sophie waited for the heavy footfall on the stairs and finally Seth emerged into the bright kitchen, the sleeves of his sweater pulled down over his fingers. His eyes looked red rimmed and swollen; he looked pale, scared, and very, very young.
“Hello,” he said, unable to look Sophie in the eye as he sat down at the breakfast bar. Wendy put the kettle on.
“Are you okay?” Sophie asked him gently.
“I am,” he said. “I’m fine—are you okay? I’m so sorry about what happened. No one at the school said I couldn’t take the girls. I mean I thought if it was a problem, they would have stopped me. But no one did.”
“I know,” Sophie said. “Look, I’m not going to pretend that yesterday wasn’t the most horrible, stressful, and sickening two hours of my life ever, but I understand why you did it, I think. And Louis understands too. We just want to put it behind us all and move on.”
“I know,” Seth said. “And you don’t have to worry. I won’t be hanging around anymore. I’ll stay away, I promise.”
“No …we don’t want you to stay away. We want to get to know you …if that’s okay with you. I know it will be really strange to begin with, but Louis is a good man and a great dad and …” Sophie glanced at Wendy. “I’m going to marry him on New Year’s Eve.”
“That’s quick,” Wendy said. “You pregnant?”
“Yes I am, actually,” Sophie said, making Wendy spit out her tea. �
��But that’s not why we’re getting married. We’re getting married because we love each other.”
Seth grinned and then his face fell. “God, you’re pregnant and I put you through all that; I’m such a sod.”
“Well, it wasn’t your finest moment, but I’m fine and the baby’s fine and now we all want to move on. Focus on the wedding and the baby. Focus on this strange and wonderful new family that we’re creating and which will hopefully include you.” She looked at Wendy. “Both of you.”
Seth and Wendy exchanged glances, the meaning of which Sophie couldn’t quite determine.
“I came here to ask both of you to the wedding, and Seth— Louis and I would love it if you would be in our wedding-invitation photo along with me and Louis and his other children. Would you think about it at least?”
“Where is he?” Seth asked her.
“He’s in the car with the girls,” Sophie said. “We didn’t want to rush you or crowd you. I think you’ve had a bit much of that recently.”
“They can come in for a bit if you like, can’t they, Mum?” Seth asked Wendy. “Have a cup of tea?”
Wendy nodded. “Of course,” she said. “Of course they can.”
“I said I’d teach the girls to whistle,” Seth explained. “Got to start somewhere. It’s a complicated business, whistling.”
“I’ll go and get them,” Sophie said with a smile. Glancing at his mother, Seth followed her into the hallway and stopped her at the door.
“Listen, Sophie, this person you’ve seen, the person who kisses his dad’s fiancée, gets drunk, gets into brawls, and wanders off with his kid sisters, that’s not me. That’s not all of me, anyway. It is a part of me, but it’s a part I’m sorting out, you know, getting under control.”
“I know you are,” Sophie said.
“Being a big brother is going to be cool,” Seth told her. “Having little kid sisters to be there for and another one too, maybe it’ll be a boy and me and Louis will be able to take it fishing and stuff.”
“Do you like fishing?” Sophie asked him in surprise.
“Can’t stand it, but that’s big brother territory, isn’t it?” Seth replied with a smile.
The Accidental Family Page 34
