Christmas

by Emily Harvale

  'If you call ordering marble from Italy at some exorbitant cost, and having the ensuite to Mum's room completely rebuilt, along with having the entire house rewired, amongst other things, then yes, that's what he's doing.'

  'Marble from Italy?' Amias said. 'Why? I know it's still regarded by many as the best in the world but there are some very good marbles available at half the price. And some incredible artificial stone.'

  Natalia raised her brows and pulled a face at Amias.

  'Says the man who had to have the timber for his oriel window from a certain firm no one except him and the super-rich has ever heard of because they're so exclusive.'

  'Apparently only Italian marble is good enough for Mum. Which is odd, because although she's always been a bit of a snob, she always liked a bargain and if she could get something similar for half the price, she would, regardless of where it came from. Providing it was legal, of course.'

  'I'm not convinced Italian marble will add that much to the value,' Josh said. 'Although sometimes it's the strangest things that make a person determined to buy one house rather than another. But it's the view that'll sell Devon Villa more than anything, and its original features. Rewiring is a good move, as is replacing outdated fixtures and fittings from the seventies, like avocado bathroom suites and such, but only if what they're replaced with is either in keeping with the era, or so ultra-modern and luxurious that people simply must have it. Italian marble may fall into that category, but I still think it's an unnecessary expense for Devon Villa. And unless the rest of the fittings are in keeping, it just won't work.'

  'Perhaps you could tell Mum that.'

  'I'll happily tell her. If she asks. We both will, won't we, darling?'

  Natalia nodded vigorously. 'You bet we will. I wonder if perhaps it might be an idea for me to pop round. Just on the pretence of a catch up to see where we are regarding the sale. Would that be useful?'

  'Yes. I think it would. Or you could just pop in for coffee and I could say I'd invited you as a friend. That way, Jeremy won't think we're going behind his back and get all defensive.'

  'Does he do that then?' Amias furrowed his brow. 'Get defensive, I mean? Because that's an odd thing for a builder to do if he's genuine and above board. I'm not saying he isn't. But the builders Dad used for his house and Natalia's and the ones I used for this, were more than happy to have input from experienced people and other professionals. Obviously, no one likes to be criticised, but ideas and suggestions always went down well.'

  'From what I've seen of Jeremy, he seems to decide what he wants to do and then persuades Mum it needs to be done. I've kept out of it, really. It's not my place to come back after eighteen years and start to tell her what she should and shouldn't do in her own home. Well, hers and Granny Viola's. But I heard him asking her for more money. I won't say how much because that would be wrong, but it was rather a lot and I was surprised. But when I brought it up this morning, I got the Italian marble story and when I said I didn't like him, Kyra reminded me – and rightly so, that no one likes the person they love to be criticised by their family members. Mum was so excited about the engagement and I said I'd give the man a chance.' Now she did finally look at Amias. 'Kyra said you might ask around about him. Did you get a chance to do that?'

  Damn. He'd completely forgotten about that.

  'No. I'm sorry. I was so intent on finding out about Bailey Mitchell that it completely slipped my mind. I'll definitely do it though. And I'll let you know what I find out.'

  Cat returned her attention to her plate. 'Thanks. Or you could tell Natalia and she could tell me.'

  So that was it. Cat didn't even want to see him again. Was that going to be until she'd cooled off about whatever it was that had upset her? Or was this now a firm decision? She'd cut off all contact with him once before. And he hadn't seen her again for eighteen years. Well, not to speak to, at least.

  'Whatever suits you best. Would you like to hear about Bailey Mitchell now?'

  'That is why we're here,' Cat said, without looking at him. 'Although this pasta is delicious, Amias. Natalia, you must give me the recipe for this sauce. Unless it's a family secret.'

  Natalia threw a look at Amias. 'No. No family secret. I'll happily share it with you.'

  'Tell us everything you know about Bailey Mitchell,' Kyra said, grinning at Amias and rubbing her hands together. 'Including any sordid details.'

  He smiled at her. 'The RAF doesn't keep those types of details. But luckily for you, I know a man who does. That is, I know someone who knew your Bailey Mitchell.'

  'Really?' Cat glanced at him and he smiled but she quickly looked at Kyra.

  'Yes. He knew Viola, too. And her sister, Ivy.'

  'Ivy? The pilot?' Kyra was very excited. 'That'll please Gran. She said she was always more interested to hear about Ivy than she was about her own mum's life in the war, but Granny Viola wouldn't talk about her sister. Or about any of it much.'

  'And I think I may know why.'

  'Why?' Cat looked directly at him.

  'Because Bailey Mitchell was engaged to Ivy Devon.'

  Chapter Five

  Cat couldn't have heard him correctly. Had Amias just said that Bailey Mitchell and Ivy Devon were engaged? But that didn't make sense.

  'I don't understand.' Cat tried to avoid eye contact with Amias. She had been trying to do that ever since they had sat down, but every time she glanced in his direction, his gaze seemed to be fixed on her.

  'Neither do I,' Kyra said. 'Both you and Gran said that Granny Viola was always hugging the photo and the letters. Unopened letters addressed to her. If Bailey was engaged to Ivy, why would he be writing to Viola? Unless he was writing about Ivy. You said she died in January 1945.'

  Cat nodded. 'She did. I remember seeing her death certificate once when I was searching for my birth certificate.'

  'Your birth certificate?' Kyra looked as if a penny had just dropped. 'But, Mum. Doesn't that give the name of your–'

  'No, sweetheart. It doesn't. And we're discussing Ivy and Viola.'

  Cat glanced at Natalia and Josh and hoped Kyra got the message. She shouldn't have mentioned her birth certificate. She wasn't going to discuss with Natalia and Josh that Mary was the only listed parent.

  It still astonished her that Granny Viola had allowed that. Information on birth certificates could be accessed by almost anyone, if they had a few details. The fact that both her mum and Granny Viola would rather people saw a blank than her dad's actual name, had always made her think that her dad must have been someone very bad indeed. That was one of the reasons she hadn't been that concerned about knowing who he was.

  And now, as she had just discovered, they would also have preferred people to think that Alwick Wells might be the father, rather than divulge the truth, that worry was only accentuated. Except her mum had said he had a wife, two children, and apparently a mother who had been willing to go to extraordinary lengths to keep his identity a secret. Cat still couldn't decide whether that meant the man was even worse than she feared, or just some unhappy soul who couldn't stay faithful to his wife and would rather people didn't find out.

  'So if Ivy died in 1945,' Natalia was saying, 'when did Bailey write the letters? Was it before or after?'

  Cat looked at Kyra and they both shook their heads.

  'I didn't really look at the dates,' Kyra admitted.

  'Neither did I,' Cat said. 'But I think I recall seeing a 1945 date, so either around the time of Ivy's death, or after. We'll check.'

  'And where did he send them from?' Amias asked. 'He was stationed at RAF Merriment and Viola was a WAAF. I discovered that, but I assume you already knew, from what you've said. They would probably have seen each other on a daily basis. Why would he write to her? If, on the other hand, they were posted from Canada, that's a different matter.'

  Natalia coughed. 'Perhaps he had something to tell her and didn't have the courage to say it to her face. Could that be it, Amias?'

  'Possibl
y.' He narrowed his eyes at his sister as if her comment had irritated him. 'But why didn't Viola open them? Unless she knew what they said and she didn't want to hear it. Or read it.'

  'Wow,' Kyra said. 'Are you suggesting that you think Bailey might have been in love with Viola even though he was engaged to Ivy? I don't know whether to be pleased or annoyed about that. I mean, on the one hand it's really romantic. But on the other, they were sisters. To be engaged to one, whilst writing love letters to the other is a bit crappy.'

  'We don't know if they were love letters,' Cat reasoned. 'We're just assuming they are because Mum and I saw Granny Viola hugging them and the photo too many times to count. But perhaps they were letters telling her that her sister had died and how much Bailey missed her, and as she already knew those things, she didn't want to read about them.'

  'Nope.' Kyra shook her head. 'That can't be the case. It would've been incredibly rude of her not to reply to her sister's fiancé. From what you and Gran have said about Granny Viola, she wouldn't have done that. She would've opened at least one and replied. And if the contents had upset her, she could've simply asked him not to write to her again. I think he loved them both. And he couldn't make up his mind between them. That happens, doesn't it, Mum?'

  Kyra was obviously referring to Cat's confession about being in love with Amias and also with Kyle, and she shot a look at Amias before frowning at Kyra.

  'Yes, sweetheart. That does happen.'

  Natalia refilled her glass, along with Josh's and pointed at Cat's and Kyra's glasses as if telling Amias he might like to do the same with theirs. He clearly got the message because he picked up the decanter and did so.

  'What I don't get,' Cat said, 'is why Viola would constantly hug the letters, and more importantly, Bailey's photo, unless Kyra's right about him loving them both, and Viola loved him back. She wouldn't hug a photo of her sister's fiancé for more than seventy years, would she? Unless she really loved him. And perhaps, felt guilty about it.'

  'There's one way to find out,' Josh said. He had been looking thoughtful but hadn't said a word for a while. 'Now that you know who the man is, and that he was engaged to Ivy, you could open the letters.'

  Cat immediately shook her head. 'No. I can't do that. Knowing this, somehow makes those letters even more private.' She glanced at Amias. 'You said you have Bailey's address? May I have it, please? I'm going to write to him and tell him we found his photo amongst some unopened letters. I'm not going to say that we know about him and Ivy. I'll simply tell him about Granny Viola and say that we believe they were friends during the war and we thought he might want to know. The rest is up to him. And if Granny Viola ever does wake up from her coma, I'm going to say the same to her. I'm not sure if we should tell Mum about this new development just yet, Kyra.'

  Kyra shrugged. 'That's fine with me. Gran can hardly tell us off for keeping secrets.'

  'I've got some photos of Ivy and Bailey if you'd like to see them.' Amias pushed his chair away from the table.

  'Photos? Photos of Ivy and Bailey?' Cat glanced from him to Kyra and back again. 'When were you going to tell us about these?' She laughed, despite herself and the fact that she was still annoyed with him.

  'I was going to tell you when the time was right. Which is now.'

  'Really? Where did you get these photos from? Were they in the archives at the museum?'

  'A couple were. But most of them I got from men and women formerly stationed here. Now don't get mad.' He gave her a little grin. 'I didn't mention any names and I didn't show Bailey's photo to anyone. I simply posted on the museum website that I was looking for photographs, and details of people who were stationed here, for a project I was working on for the anniversary of The Battle of Britain, which will be eighty years ago in 2020. RAF Merriment played a part in that. An important part. Will and I are going to be holding some sort of celebratory event, so it wasn't a lie. Anyway, the response was amazing. I still haven't been through all the letters I've received, so there may be more photos and more details about Ivy and Bailey. He may even have written to me himself. Although I have been checking the envelopes for Canadian postmarks since I discovered his name and where he lives.'

  He handed Cat a pile of black and white photos, some badly faded and some almost pristine, as if they had been taken just a few days ago.

  'These are amazing!' Cat carefully looked at one after another.

  'Ah. Here are the ones of Ivy and Bailey.' He laughed and gave her a sheepish smile. 'I'd put them somewhere safe.' He also handed those to Cat.

  She recognised Bailey immediately, but tears welled in her eyes as she studied each one in turn. Ivy was beautiful. Far more beautiful than Viola had been in her twenties, from photos she had seen of her. She was almost as tall as Bailey, and she had a perfect figure as she posed in different outfits. They ranged from her pilot's heavy flight jacket and the Attagirl uniform she wore beneath it, to casual trousers, a blouse and cardigan, to a pretty floral summer dress and sandals.

  'She's really beautiful. Sorry. She was really beautiful. And she looks so full of life. So happy. So excited. As if she had the whole world at her feet. Who sent you these? They must've been a person, or people who knew her well, and clearly liked her enough to take a photo or photos, of her and her fiancé and keep them all these years.'

  'Most of those came from one person. Her name is Sarah and she became a photographer after the war. She sent those and lots of others, not just of Ivy and Bailey, but of everyone who was stationed at the base. Strictly speaking, taking photos, other than for official use and propaganda, wasn't allowed. But everyone did. Well anyone who had a camera, that is. Not everyone had one of those. But photography was Sarah's passion. She said in her letter that she has a great many photos from that time. The ones she sent are just a selection, so I was astonished to see so many of Ivy and Bailey. She put her number on the letter and I called her up and she said exactly what you did just now. That Ivy was incredibly beautiful and so full of life that the camera simply loved her. She said she probably took more photos of Ivy than she did of anyone. But that Ivy was only here from time to time because she was always flying here, there and everywhere, delivering planes in varying states from brand new to in serious need of repair and in all kinds of weather. But whenever she was here, she was always with Bailey. Sarah said it broke her heart when Ivy died. And she also said it broke Viola's and Bailey's too. If Viola and Bailey were in love, they were either very discreet, or they hadn't acted on it because Sarah clearly didn't know anything about it. I think she would've mentioned it if she had.'

  'That's so sad.' Kyra rubbed her eyes. 'I've got to know what happened. I really need to know. Can't we just open one letter, Mum? Just one. So that we get some idea of what was going on.'

  Cat shook her head again. 'No. Would you like someone to open letters that you had kept for years, just because they wanted to know whether or not you did something with someone you shouldn't?'

  'No. I wouldn't.' Kyra let out a sigh of disappointment. 'OK. You need to write the letter to Bailey tonight and post it first thing tomorrow. The sooner he gets it, the sooner we can find out. I don't suppose you know if he's on social media, do you?' She looked hopefully it Amias.

  'No. I did look but there are no Bailey Mitchells in the Vancouver area. Lots of Mitchells. Some of whom may be related to Bailey, but none that made it obvious. And you can only see a limited number of photos in a general search, unless you're friends with the account holder. You'll have to wait, I'm afraid. Unless, of course, Bailey Mitchell looks at our website and responds directly to my request for photos for the celebrations.'

  'This really is amazing, Amias,' Cat said, giving him a grateful smile. 'I hadn't realised you had gone to so much trouble. Thank you. I really appreciate it.'

  'It was a pleasure. And I've discovered things about the base, I didn't know. I've even been sent some photos of my own granddad. Photos my dad, Natalia and I had never seen before. So it's been pretty amazing for
me too. For all of us. More have been sent by email. It's going to take a while to go through them but I'll let you see any others I find of Ivy or Bailey. Or Viola. And if I find out anything else, I'll let you know. Here's Bailey's address. You'll be needing that if you're going to write that letter.'

  She took it from him and as his fingers brushed against hers she felt the usual thrill. How could she be so in love with this man and yet at the same time be so cross with him?'

  Perhaps that's how Viola felt about Bailey. Perhaps that's why she couldn't open his letters. Did she feel guilty about Ivy's death? Was that what this was all about? Only two people could answer that question. One was in a coma in Eastbourne District General Hospital. The other lived thousands of miles away and was ninety-five or older. But at least he was still alive. Or as far as any of them knew, he was.

  Chapter Six

  Cat wrote the letter to Bailey Mitchell, with Kyra's input, the moment they got home. It took several drafts and almost two hours but just before 1 a.m. Cat finally licked the envelope and wrote his address on it.

  There had been no sign of Mary or Jeremy when she and Kyra had returned from dinner. They had probably gone to bed, but Cat had half expected to find them both sitting up waiting, so that they could all celebrate their engagement.

  What a strange day it had been. Cat was still a little irritated with Amias and definitely felt betrayed somehow, but he had gone to so much effort in tracing Bailey Mitchell that she was finding it difficult to be cross, or to justify feeling betrayed. That was the thing with Amias Wells. One minute he was her dream man; the next, he was her nightmare. Well maybe not a nightmare. More of a thorn in her heart.

  She didn't sleep. How could she, with so much going on in her mind? But she got up early, showered, dressed and went downstairs for breakfast to find Mary searching through the kitchen drawers.

  'Morning, Mum. How are you today? Can I see the ring?'