Page 77 of Don't Believe A Word

Glancing to the coffee James was holding out, she took the mug, saying, ‘Black is fine, thanks.’

She watched as James stirred two lumps into his father’s World’s Best Grandpa mug and passed it over.

‘I’m going to tell you what I know,’ Edwin said, ‘for the girl’s sake – Sadie? Is that her name? – and for no other reason. I’m afraid it will cast me in a very poor light, and to be honest I’d rather my grandchildren didn’t know anything about how I behaved towards their dear grandma during those shameful times.’

‘We’ve already agreed,’ James came in gently, ‘that we’ll talk to them before this goes out. And they’re quite grown-up now, at least they like to think they are,’ he added wryly to Cristy, ‘so I’m sure they’ll be able to handle it.’

‘How old are they?’ she asked carefully. They weren’t in the business of destroying someone’s cred with their grandchildren – unless they deserved it of course.

‘Fifteen and twelve,’ James replied.

‘They’ll look at me differently,’ Edwin said, ‘and that’ll be hard. On the other hand, they’ve had a very loving and stable upbringing, while Sadie … I’ve no idea what it’s been like for her growing up with those sisters, but I do know that she deserves to get to the truth of who she really is.’

*

A few minutes later, carefully hiding her excitement and having received Edwin’s permission to record, Cristy began by asking Edwin how he’d first met the sisters. Yes, they were keen to get to the crux of things, but backgrounds had a funny habit of throwing all sorts of unexpected and intriguing information into the mix.

EDWIN: ‘I used to own a wine shop on Kensington Church Street. The sisters were regular customers and we always enjoyed some banter when they came in. Lottie was especially flirtatious, while Mia was … quieter, not shy exactly, just not as extrovert as her sister. I, on the other hand, was a foolish and arrogant dupe who should have been able to see through what was going on, but I’m afraid I didn’t, not at first anyway. All I saw was two rich women who seemed to like me, and then were prepared to share some of what they had with me. I was too stupid, too greedy to realize that I already had what really mattered – a woman, a wife, actually, who truly loved me, a son who needed me … but I was dazzled by those sisters. I’d never known anyone like them, especially Lottie. She was captivating, exciting, reckless, irresistibleand I was ready to do anything she asked of me. Including marry her sister.’

Cristy allowed a moment for the bombshell to drop for her and the listener before picking up again.

CRISTY: ‘But you were already married?’

EDWIN: ‘Indeed I was.’

Silence fell over the room as Edwin’s rheumy eyes stared into the past, perhaps seeing all that he’d done, the people he’d clearly hurt and betrayed, and those who’d apparently done the same to him.

CRISTY: ‘We’ll get into the illegality of it in a minute, but tell me first, why did Lottie want you to marry Mia?’

Edwin nodded slowly, staring at the fire as he considered his response.

EDWIN: ‘Mia wasn’t a beauty. She didn’t sweep people off their feet or even particularly interest them the way Lottie did. She existed in Lottie’s shadow and was so terrified of losing her sister and being left all alone that Lottie thought it would be a good idea to make her a gift of me. That way Mia would have someone to call her own, and Lottie would be free to live the life she wanted.’

CRISTY: ‘But surely they knew you were already married?’

EDWIN: ‘Lottie did, but not Mia, and apparently she’d – to quote Lottie – developed a passion for me. I’m sure Mia wouldn’t have gone through with anything if she’d known about Yolanda, butinconveniencessuch as an existing wife didn’t matter to Lottie. If something stood in her way she simply removed whatever it was and carried on with no regard for what she might be leaving in her wake. Keen though I was to take her money, I made it clear that I didn’twant to divorce Yolanda; but even that wasn’t an obstacle for Lottie. She simply said that it would take too long anyway, so I should just go through a ceremony with Mia and we’d sort out the finer detail later. Oh, and of course I wasn’t to mention anything to Mia about my wife. It would upset her, she said.’

Edwin gave a mirthless laugh, clearly still incredulous at the comment even now.

EDWIN: ‘You’re no doubt asking yourselves why on earth I agreed to it and the answer is Lottie was very persuasive, and very clear about the difference she was prepared to make to my life, financially.’

CRISTY: ‘But how did you get away with it? Weren’t the sisters quite well known in society circles?’

EDWIN: ‘I don’t know what they told their friends, it’s possible they knew nothing about Yolanda anyway so no questions were asked.’

CRISTY: ‘Did you tell Yolanda?’

EDWIN: ‘Oh yes, she knew, and I can tell you she wasn’t happy about it. Well, of course she wasn’t. But I explained what Lottie’s investment could do for us, how it would grow my business beyond our wildest dreams and make us comfortable for the rest of our lives. I assured her I’d pull out of the fake marriage once everything was in place, and she mustn’t think I had any feelings for Mia because I didn’t. It still hurts me terribly to remember what I put her through, and how much she suffered when she finally agreed to go along with it. The only surprise is that she didn’t end up despising me as much as I despised myself.’

Edwin fell silent again and put a shaky hand to his mouth. It was clear that his emotions were getting the better of him. Cristy glanced at James expecting him to ask them to stop now, but he was staring at his father, not with disgust or condemnation,merely as though he pitied him for the weakness that had caused him to behave the way he had all those years ago.

Edwin’s voice was hoarse as he continued to speak.

EDWIN: ‘The whole time I was “married” to Mia I continued seeing Yolanda and James, regularly, and I was soon able to move them to a very nice house in Hammersmith. My official address, of course, was in Kensington, with Mia and Lottie, when Lottie was there, but she travelled a lot. I never liked being alone with Mia, and I certainly didn’t treat her well. Looking back I was cruel to her and I’m not proud of that either. Of course, we were pawns in one of Lottie’s grand schemes, not that I ever knew, or found out, what she was trying to achieve. It just seemed it was more than getting a husband for her sister so she could be free of her … I thought there might have been a man, but she never mentioned one and no one ever came to the house. In fact, I’m not sure she ever had any real feelings for anyone, apart from Mia, I guess. And I can’t even swear to that.

‘I’ll come on to Sadie now and the first, the only time I saw her. To be honest my only real surprise when I found they had a child in the house was that she wasn’t black or brown. I’d long suspected something like it would happen, that they’d somehow smuggle a child out of Africa or Asia and sort the legalities of it later. It was never going to be difficult for someone with Lottie’s contacts and their resources. And it would be someone for Mia to call her own. It didn’t occur to me until after I saw Sadie that of course they’d choose a white child, it would be so much easier to pass her off as a relative, a niece, the child of a distant cousin – that’s what they tried to tell me – but I knew very well that the child was no relative of theirs.’

CRISTY: ‘At this point we’ll edit in some of what Lottie wrote about the day you went to the house on Exmoor, just to remind listeners of what happened. Is there anything about it you’d like to correct, or challenge … We can play it back for you if you like?’

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