Page 124 of The Christmas Invitation
‘I’d forgotten what a man-eater she is, under that cute fluffy-little-me exterior,’ Zelda said.
‘Just a little over-keen,’ Clara said charitably. ‘She does tend to think that going out for a drink with a man means you’re practically engaged, though I’m afraid Markdidgive her a little encouragement last time he was home.’
‘I’ve always thought she seemed a very sweet girl,’ Piers said. ‘I don’t know what you’ve got against her.’
‘We haven’t got anything against her,’ Clara said. ‘She was a very competent nanny, too, and I found her a good post in London when Teddy didn’t need her any more.’
Sybil was looking alarmed. ‘I really don’t want her as my daughter-in-law,’ she said. ‘And anyway, I thought—’ She broke off, her gaze resting on me in a baffled way.
‘It will all work out fine in the end, don’t worry, Sybil,’ Clara said. ‘Inever do.’
‘It’s like one of Shakespeare’s plays, where everyone is mistaken in everyone else’s character, and it takes a lot of untangling before it all comes right in the end,’ agreed Henry. ‘Christmas should beveryinteresting this year.’
‘I have no idea what you’re all talking about,’ Piers said testily. ‘Now, if I’m to stay here for dinner before being carted off to this godforsaken bed-and-breakfast place, I’d like to freshen up a bit and then have a lie-down. It’s been a very exhausting day.’
‘You can use my room,’ River offered generously. ‘There’s a bathroom opposite. I’ll show you.’
Piers didn’t thank him, but followed him out. In the hall, we heard him say to River, as if he were some kind of minion, ‘I’ll need that small Gladstone bag there.’
‘Fine, you bring it with you,’ said River’s voice gently.
‘River’s a kind and generous soul, but he’s nobody’s fool,’ I said.
‘I’d better go up and unpack and freshen up too,’ said Zelda.
‘Usual room, darling,’ said Clara. ‘I’m starting to think we’d all be better for a lie-down in a darkened room.’
Tottie heaped the tea things on to the trolley and Lex took them out to the kitchen. Lass slipped out behind him, probably hoping for leftovers, but Wisty was fast asleep in front of the fire and Pansy had climbed back on to my lap again, without my noticing.
River returned and, taking the seat nearest the fire that Piers had vacated, beamed round at us and said without apparent sarcasm, ‘Well, thisisjolly!’
Clara
Starstone Edge was exerting an ever greater pull on us and we discussed whether we might be able to afford a cottage in the valley, where we could spend time, either separately or together, without having to stay with George.
Then my beloved aunt Beryl died and left her considerable fortune to be divided between myself and my sister, Bridget.
What with this and Henry’s flourishing investments, we suddenly found ourselves surprisingly affluent, and travelled up to Starstone Edge to see the few houses that were for sale.
After inspecting a couple of claustrophobically tiny cottages and a thirties villa with some serious damp issues, we were beginning to despair, when we went to tea with Tottie Gillyflower.
She had been only a tiny baby when I’d left Starstone, but of course Henry knew her well and we had often met her on our visits. She lived at the Red House, a substantial Victorian house at the further end of the village from Underhill and, over tea, we learned that her attempts to turn it into a bed-and-breakfast establishment since her mother’s death had not been the success she had hoped. The upkeep of such a large house was expensive and she feared she would have to sell itand move away. It was the idea of losing her garden that seemed to upset her most.
Henry had always adored this bizarrely over-the-top Victorian Gothic relic and I also had a sneaking likeness for it – and also for Tottie, a no-nonsense, angular youngish woman with a passion for gardening and beekeeping. So we came to an arrangement and bought the Red House from her with the proviso that she was to continue to make it her home and take over the housekeeping, devoting the rest of her time to her garden and bees. Den, our loyal friend who had cooked and looked after us so well in London, would continue to do so there, but could have his own flat over the garage, once we’d completed a scheme of much-needed renovations.
Though the arrangement with Tottie might seem strange and fraught with possible difficulties to many, we soon all settled down into one happy family – and still are, over thirty years later.
Eventually, although officially still attached to the British Museum, I could divide my time between my work on epigraphy, lectures, and the writing of books, both erudite and fictional.
Of course, I am now retired, but I can’t say that it has made any great difference to my life, except that through the innovations of technology, I can do quite a bit of epigraphic reconstruction right here on my computer screen, via a wonderful program.
Our lives have been full and happy ones and though we had no children of our own, my sister Bridget’s have spent so much time here at the Red House that they have more than made up for it …
33
The Kissing Bough
Sybil had been huddling quietly in a corner of one of the sofas, but now looked up and said, in a distressed voice, ‘I’m so sorry about Piers trying to impose on you like this and, really, I know I should have made Mark take him back to Underhill … and gone with them.’
