Every Mother's Son

by Val Wood

  He told Daniel again about his parents’ decision to arrange his marriage. ‘What could I do?’ His voice softened. ‘But I didn’t forget Rosie. You must please tell her that?’

  ‘I will,’ Daniel promised, and thought how pleased Rosie would be to know that he was still alive. And he’s handsome still, he thought, and his eyes are dark like mine. ‘Sir,’ he said. ‘Can I ask you a question – erm, I don’t mean anything too personal.’

  Marco shrugged. ‘I ’ave no secrets,’ he said. ‘Not now.’

  ‘It’s just that, well, your eyes are very dark, as mine are, and when I was at school sometimes other children would say that I was foreign, which I suppose I am. But not all Italians have such dark eyes, and I wondered – well, I wondered …’

  ‘Ah!’ Marco exclaimed. ‘I will tell you, Daniel, why it is. Italy is very close to Sicily and Sicily is close to North Africa. My mother was Sicilian, but you will know, yes, that over many centuries Sicily ’as been ruled by many nations including the Romans, the Spanish and the Greeks, and my mother’s grandmother had Moorish blood from when the Arabs were also there many centuries before.’ He sat back and surveyed Daniel, and then smiled, his eyes crinkling, and Daniel could see the vibrant young man that he had once been. ‘And this is why we are so ’andsome, you and I, just as Sophia said. You understand what she say, yes? I knew the minute I saw you that you had inherited ze same bloodline as mine.’

  Daniel laughed, embarrassed. ‘So how did your family come to be living in Italy?’

  ‘Ah, we ’ave always intermingled, but my father was pure Italian, and when ’e married my mother he brought her back ’ere to Italy. There has been much fighting in Sicily; even today there are – ah, leetle revolutions.’ He rubbed his fingers together significantly. ‘Pirates, you understand, and corruption too, and my father didn’t want to become involved. He was a very ambitious man and there were many temptations.’

  Daniel contemplated all he had been told. So I’m a mixture of nationalities. I’m English through my mother and Granny Rosie, but Italian and Sicilian through my grandparents and great-grandparents and whoever else went before.

  As if he could read his mind, Marco went on, in his halting English, ‘You should be proud. You are … multi-layered, a true citizen of the world. An Englishman as well as a descendant of a noble Italian family, which is what ze Orsinis were.’

  A noble family, Daniel thought. I can’t begin to contemplate that.

  ‘And so,’ Marco glanced towards the door into the house, where they could hear voices, ‘when you come to choose a wife you may tell her father you have excellent, erm – what you might say – providence? No, not that, provenance I think is ze word. Or pedigree, perhaps.’

  He broke off as Charles and then Beatrice came out on to the terrace and Daniel wondered if what Marco was saying was sheer coincidence or if he had seen Beatrice through the glass doors.

  ‘Come, come,’ their host called to them. ‘You must ’ave some caffè and biscotti.’

  They came towards them, and to Daniel’s surprise Beatrice bent and kissed Marco on the cheek before sitting down. ‘Thank you,’ she said sincerely. ‘Thank you for making us so welcome.’

  ‘Yes, thank you, sir.’ Charles gave him a short bow. ‘We are total strangers and yet you have welcomed us to your lovely home.’

  Marco lifted his hat, which he seemed to wear constantly when he was outside.

  ‘You are very welcome – indeed, as any of my grandson’s friends are.’ He indicated Daniel and said huskily, ‘You are good friends, I think?’

  Daniel’s lips quivered and he blinked rapidly as he realized that Marco was making a public declaration of his acceptance of him as his grandson.

  Beatrice looked at him and gave a trembling smile, her eyes glistening, whilst Charles gave a wide exultant grin. ‘I think I can speak for my sister as well as myself,’ he pronounced, ‘when I say that Daniel is the best friend anyone could hope to have.’

  They sat silently as Sophia brought in more coffee, brioche and biscotti. Last night there had been a celebration, but in the clear light of day Daniel, Beatrice and Charles all wondered if the knowledge of Daniel’s background would make any difference to him.

  Daniel knew for certain that there would be no changes for him when he got home, and he doubted that Granny Rosie would ever come to Italy. It would be too far for her to travel, but he thought that she would take great comfort from knowing that Marco accepted that she had given birth to his son and without any question had acknowledged Daniel as his grandson.

  How trusting he is, he thought. I could have been anybody, a fraudster worming his way into his family, though I suppose the coincidence of being Leo’s nephew must have added to my credentials. But he felt satisfied that he had found out about his grandfather, and for the first time ever he wished that his birth father, Noah, could have known what he was doing. Neither could he wait to give his mother the news that he had found her long-lost brother and his daughter.

  Although Beatrice felt light-headed this morning – too much sparkling wine and sunshine yesterday – she was scheming and planning. Father wouldn’t want me to marry for money alone, she thought, for he’s kind and not mercenary by any means, and in any case would not require a prospective husband to be rich. He has money of his own he could give as a substantial dowry, but perhaps he would like to think I was marrying into a family of status: a noble family, no less. A small smile played around her lips, but an involuntary sigh broke through. The barrier is Daniel himself, for I know for a fact that he won’t declare himself to Father. He’s far too proud, and yet so very humble. And, she thought, perhaps I’m wrong, perhaps he won’t declare himself even to me, because he thinks of me only as his friend.

  Charles kept glancing towards the staircase, hoping that Calypso would appear. I wish I could remember what Signor Orsini said to Beatrice. Something about the day made brighter? Something lumino? I’m in love. I haven’t met many young ladies, it is true, but it doesn’t matter how many one might meet, I just know that Calypso is the only one for me. She is the most beautiful creature I have ever seen, and she seems kind and gracious too. I will come back to Italy. I shall ask my father – tell my father that my chosen profession is art and that I would like to study in Italy. Where else? He continued to debate in his mind. Where else would anyone wish to study art? Except, yes, I agree, I’d first thought of Paris, but I was wrong. Italy is the only place.

  ‘We must move on soon,’ Daniel was saying to Marco. He wasn’t sure what name to give him. Grandfather seemed to be very personal and he didn’t think he yet knew him well enough, but he couldn’t call him Signor Orsini when they were related, while just Marco was, he thought, perhaps impolite.

  ‘No! Not yet!’ Marco said. ‘Why? Why must you go?’

  ‘Well,’ Daniel fidgeted, ‘I don’t mean today, but perhaps tomorrow or ’next day. We must collect ’hosses and then make our way back home to England.’

  Marco frowned. ‘Your horses? You have horses? Where are they?’

  ‘They are being well looked after,’ Daniel assured him, ‘and they were in need of a rest after their long journey.’

  Marco was astounded, just as Leo had been, to hear that they had ridden across the Alps. ‘And you will ride back?’ he asked.

  Daniel looked at Charles. ‘We’ll sell them,’ Charles said. ‘Although we’ll miss them. They are beautiful animals, Haflingers, but we used the emergency fund and Daniel insists we must put it back before we go home.’

  Daniel stood firm. ‘Well, I must sell ’one I’m using and put ’money back, no matter what you and Beatrice do with yours.’

  ‘And, erm, this emergency fund,’ Marco asked. ‘This was given to you, yes?’

  ‘Yes,’ Charles admitted. ‘My father said we should have it in case we got into difficulties.’

  ‘I see, but instead you decided to ride across ze Alps rather than take the train, yes?’

  ‘There was no
train from where we started, and we couldn’t afford to come all the way by carriage,’ Daniel told him. ‘We’re travelling on a shoestring.’ He broke into laughter at Marco’s bemused expression. ‘On very little money,’ he explained. ‘But we haven’t spent everything, so we can go part of ’way back by rail.’ He glanced at Beatrice. She hadn’t said what her plans were, but he was fairly sure she wouldn’t be going back to the academy, even if they would have her back after this escapade, and he added, ‘Mebbe as far as Switzerland. We haven’t talked about it yet.’

  ‘We didn’t expect to find any clues about Daniel’s beginnings so quickly,’ Charles said. ‘We half expected we’d have to travel to Rome.’

  ‘Well, why not do that?’ Marco suggested. ‘It is not only a beautiful city but also Daniel’s ancestral home.’

  The three of them looked startled, Daniel with astonishment and wonderment written on his face.

  ‘Oh, yes, do let’s, Daniel,’ Beatrice pleaded excitedly. ‘We can go home and boast about Signor Orsini living in a castle by the Mediterranean and seeing the family palaces in Rome.’

  Daniel frowned and lifted his hands in an almost Italian gesture, she thought.

  ‘But who would I boast to? And why would I want to? I onny wanted to find ’Orsini family and tell Granny Rosie that I’d found Noah’s father. On ’other hand, I suppose we might … seeing as we’re here. I might not ever get ’chance to go there again.’

  ‘Ah! Tsk, tsk,’ Marco said. ‘I ’ope that you will be ’ere often.’

  ‘I didn’t mean …’ Daniel chose his words carefully, not wanting to offend. ‘I want to come back and see you, Grandfather.’ The designation slipped out without intention. ‘And I’ll come back when I can, but I’m a working man and if I’m not there on ’farm, pulling my weight, then someone else has to tek my place.’

  ‘I understand,’ Marco nodded, ‘and it’s Nonno,’ he added mildly. ‘It means grandfather. But let me think. There must be a way round this.’

  He gazed at Beatrice and then Charles. ‘I think you also understand, but sometimes forget, that Daniel has to make a living, yes?’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Beatrice said, her cheeks flushed. ‘Yes, we do forget, and we forget also how spoiled we’ve been and take it for granted that we can do what we want, more or less; yes we can, Charles,’ she admonished him, seeing the dispute in her brother’s expression that said that he couldn’t. ‘At least as far as finance is concerned. Of course, there are times when we have to do what is considered to be socially correct. To conform.’

  ‘We have to toe the line,’ Charles added gloomily.

  Marco laughed heartily. ‘Toe ze line, and travel on a string, these English expressions I do not know until now. You must write them down for me, per favore.’

  Then came a clattering up the steps and Calypso appeared on the terrace, followed by her father.

  ‘More caffè,’ Marco shouted towards the house, and in response a long stream of unfathomable Italian words from Sophia came spilling out through the doors. Marco ducked as if something was being thrown at him, and Calypso and Leo laughed uproariously.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  It was decided that they would go back to Genoa by ferry, collect the ponies and bring them back the same way. In the meantime Leo would arrange terms with a local grower who had a small acreage of land down near the village and would allow them to let the ponies graze, so that they could stay on for a few more days.

  ‘Oh, Papa. Can I go to Genoa too?’ Calypso pleaded. ‘It’s such a long time since I was there.’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m too busy to come with you right now.’

  ‘She’d be perfectly safe with us, sir,’ Charles said eagerly. ‘We’d look after her; Beatrice has travelled all this way with us and felt perfectly at ease, haven’t you, Bea?’

  Beatrice put on a frail and winsome expression that fooled no one as she agreed she had felt quite safe and not at all threatened, with such strong and capable male escorts to take care of her, and privately wondered what her father would have to say about it once she arrived home.

  ‘It’s different in Italy,’ Leo argued. ‘It wouldn’t look good, even though Calypso has more freedom than most unmarried young women.’

  ‘I think it wouldn’t hurt, Leo,’ Marco broke in. ‘She would be travelling with a cousin, after all – your nephew who is also my grandson!’

  ‘How would you get to and from this lodging house,’ Leo asked briskly, ‘if it’s not in Genoa but outside in the hills?’

  ‘Well, if you’d agree,’ Daniel offered, ‘the Haflingers are very strong and Calypso could ride behind me. It’s not a long journey from our lodgings, fifteen minutes at most. We walked into the town on two occasions.’

  ‘Please, Papa.’ Calypso pouted her lips. ‘I do so want to ask Beatrice about English ladies.’

  ‘Oh, very well.’ Leo realized that he had been overruled and admitted also that his views had changed since he had lived in Italy. Had he lived in England and in the same circumstances he’d once known, his daughter would probably be working for a living, unlike the fair gentlewoman Beatrice, travelling with her brother and Daniel. How has that been allowed? he mused. She must have very liberal parents.

  Calypso gave her father a smacking kiss on his cheek. ‘Thank you. I’ll get my hat,’ she said, jumping up to dash into the house. ‘It will be very hot in Genoa.’

  ‘Whoa, whoa!’ her father and grandfather chorused. ‘You’re not thinking of going now?’

  ‘It will be too hot for Beatrice,’ Daniel said, flushing slightly. ‘She’s so fair, as is Charles,’ he added.

  Calypso turned back. ‘Oh, of course,’ she murmured. ‘I’m so sorry. But Papa, you won’t change your mind, will you?’

  ‘No,’ he promised, ‘I won’t. You could go later this afternoon and catch ’last ferry back.’

  ‘But then we can’t look at Genoa,’ Calypso objected. ‘Tomorrow morning then,’ she decided, ‘and I will show you the sights of Genoa.’ She smiled at Beatrice. ‘And we’ll catch the late ferry home.’

  During the hottest part of the day they all adjourned inside. Beatrice chatted to Calypso and Charles hung on to every word that Calypso uttered, and whilst Marco went to his room for an afternoon nap Daniel answered as many of Leo’s questions as he could, about his mother and how she came to be living in a country district and married to a farmer.

  Daniel only knew that his mother had married Noah in Hull, and he had then taken her to live with him and his family by the marshy estuary land near Brough.

  ‘Harriet was a town girl,’ Leo said. ‘I can’t imagine her living on a farm.’

  ‘Ma told me she was on her uppers when she met Noah,’ Daniel told him. ‘She’d lost her job – at a mill, I think – her mother had just died, and then Noah offered her marriage. He said he needed a wife.’ He paused. ‘I gather that, erm, well, I don’t think there was any love between them. It was convenient for them both.’ He paused, and wondered how anyone could marry without love in their lives.

  ‘Ellen Tuke, who’d adopted Noah, showed her how to milk a cow and look after ’hens, and taught her to cook and bake, but after I was born and when Noah died, my ma left, cos she felt she wasn’t wanted, and went to live with a friend in her cottage.’

  Daniel had always wondered what had gone wrong between them for Granny Tuke to take such a dislike to his mother. There had always been a mystery that his mother was unwilling to talk about. ‘It’s history,’ she used to say.

  ‘And your brothers and sisters,’ Leo said. ‘They’re your stepfather’s children?’

  Daniel frowned. He never thought of them in that way. ‘Y-eh,’ he replied reluctantly. ‘But I’ve onny ever known Fletcher as my father, so there’s never been any difference between us. They’re all fairer than me, except for Lenny.’ He smiled. ‘Ma has allus said that he looks like you, wi’ same dark hair and brown eyes.’

  ‘And she named him after me?’ L
eo had a catch in his voice, as if overcome that he hadn’t been forgotten after so many years.

  ‘Yeh.’ Daniel laughed. ‘I can’t wait to tell them all that I’ve met you.’

  ‘I was thinking about that onny this morning before you were up,’ Leo said. ‘I was talking to Marco and Calypso and trying to plan when I – that is Calypso and I – could come to England, and we thought that December might be best. Marco wouldn’t come, as it would be too cold for him. Probably too cold for me, too, after living in this climate. But the olive harvest will be over apart from some of the pressings, and that can be left to the locals, who know more about it than I do, being a mere newcomer. I negotiate the sale of the products.’

  ‘So you really will come?’ Daniel was overjoyed. He had nurtured doubts.

  ‘Of course.’ Leo expressed surprise at the question. ‘But I had to think it through, and think also about Marco. Sophia has said she’ll stay with him. Her father’s an old friend of Marco’s, which is why she’s so familiar with him: she’s known him all her life. She also says that her parents will watch over him or even come to stay, though don’t tell Marco I said so. He’s very spirited and independent, but his legs let him down. Still, I’m sure he won’t mind us leaving him, and maybe one of his daughters might come to stay too. He could be inundated with friends and family.’ He hesitated. ‘But just in case … I have been wondering, might it be better not to tell Harriet – your mother – about me just yet? Then if we can’t leave Marco for any reason, she won’t be disappointed, and if we can come over it will be a wonderful surprise. What do you think?’

  Daniel pondered. Harriet would be so happy to know that Leonard was still alive – would it be fair to keep the news from her for even a day? On the other hand, Leo’s reluctance to risk disappointing her was understandable too. ‘What about this?’ he said slowly. ‘I tell her that I’ve met you and that you’re planning to come to England at some time in ’future, and then you can write to me and arrange a date and then we could surprise her, without worrying that she’ll be terribly upset if you do have to cancel.’