Page 86 of The Christmas Invitation
We were all down to breakfast very early and Clara outlined her plans: she and Henry would break the news to Sybil, Mark and Lex. I still didn’t see why Lex should be included at this stage, but my objections were overruled.
‘We might as well tell them all at once,’ she said. ‘Then you, Meg, can come in with Tottie and Den afterwards and we’ll have a little celebration together,’ she added comfortably. I suspected the scene would not be as cosy as she pictured it.
‘Not me,’ said Den. ‘I don’t want to barge into this family reunion till the dust settles, do I?’
‘There won’t be any dust, and you’re part of the family, Den,’ said Clara, ‘just as Tottie is.’
‘I’ll bring the coffee when yer give me the nod and see ’ow it’s going,’ he conceded.
‘What about me?’ asked Teddy.
‘You could come into the drawing room with Tottie and Meg,’ suggested Henry.
‘There, that’s all settled,’ said Clara. ‘Time for a little work before everyone gets here.’
She and Henry headed for their respective studies and Teddy and I went into the studio. Of course, I still couldn’t settle to anything, so I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. How would Sybil – my aunt (or half-aunt? And is half an aunt better than none?) take the news? She must be only a few months younger than Mum … And Mark, now revealed as my cousin – would his attitude change towards me?
Mind you, that might be a good thing.
Then there was Lex … A thought occurred to me: would he think I’d already known about the connection? Then I realized that was silly, for how on earth could I have? Without Clara and Henry’s knowledge of the whole story, there was no way I could have found out.
Teddy began another picture of me, this time with pink hair, while I checked my iPad and phone for emails, messages and missed calls.
I certainly hoped I’d missed any that Rollo might have sent me, but to my surprise, the stream of communication from him had stopped dead. I hoped he’d finally got the message through his thick skull and wasn’t just too busy at his event in York to harass me.
Then an even better scenario occurred to me: he might have finished his event by now and, having accepted there was no way I was going to play along with his plans, already be heading south, like a glossy, pouting homing pigeon.
Lex, Mark and Sybil had been invited for ten and I went up to my turret room just before that and watched for them from thenarrow window: first Mark and his mother in his big, black, four-wheel-drive monster, and then Lex’s familiar battered white pick-up.
I gave them a quarter of an hour to settle in and then crept down to my studio again. I could hear voices from the drawing room, even though the door was shut.
There were voices from the direction of the kitchen, too, including Teddy’s, so in my studio I felt I was alone in a kind of limbo. Just me, and the old clock ticking like a time bomb.
Teddy’s latest painting of me was still there, pinned to his little easel, and was really surprisingly good considering his age. He was going to love the artist’s box I’d bought him.
I put my portraits of Henry and Clara on adjacent easels and contemplated them. Of course, I wouldn’t touch Clara’s again, but I decided Henry’s still needed just a couple of tiny tweaks. Perhaps tomorrow …
The door suddenly opened, making me jump, and Tottie appeared to summon me. ‘Come on! We’re to go in now, Meg.’
When we entered the room it felt as if every eye was fixed on me and in that brief instant I recognized some far from joyful accompanying expressions.
Sybil’s face looked both shocked and horrified, as if she’d reached the climax of a scary film (though perhaps a little of the horror was due to my pink hair). Mark’s stare was hard and angry, and as for Lex, he was regarding me in the darkly brooding way that was so hard to read. If there had been the beginnings of a tiny thaw in our relationship, then it had frozen over hard again.
None of them was about to burst into rapturous welcome, that was for sure.
‘Come and sit here, Meg, between Clara and myself,’ said Henry, patting the seat next to him. Tottie took one opposite, next to Sybil, who was still gazing at me as if I had two heads, like the mutant pike.
‘So, here’s your new niece, Sybil!’ said Henry.
‘I … suppose she must be, if what you sayistrue, Henry,’ she said reluctantly, finally dragging her eyes away from me. ‘But the whole story seems so incredible that I’m afraid I can’t quite believe it. I mean, I know you’re sure who Meg’s grandmother is, but there’s no proof that Daddy …’ She trailed off into silence.
‘I think we’ve heard enough to know it must be true, Mum,’ Mark said. ‘I mean, now Iknow, even I can see Meg’s got the family features.’
His hard expression turned into a twisted half-smile. ‘We’re first cousins, then, Meg.’
‘But with different grandmothers,’ said Sybil. ‘And Meg’s mother was illegitimate, of course.’
‘I’m so sorry if it’s all been a shock to you,’ I apologized to her. ‘I was stunned too, because I’d no idea at all.’
