Page 154 of The Christmas Invitation
‘All right by me. Got to get the food ready fer this bleedin’ party, ’aven’t I? And I need Teddy to ’elp me.’
Teddy, who had been looking as if he would object, now subsided.
‘We have a couple of hours until the first guests arrive,’ said Henry. ‘Plenty of time.’
‘This is all very mysterious,’ said Sybil, looking nervous.
‘I’d better stay here, too,’ River suggested.
‘No, River, I think we might need you,’ Clara said, and he obediently followed the rest of us into the drawing room. ‘Family’ seemed to be as infinitely flexible a term to the Doomes as it was at the Farm.
I looked at Lex as we went in and he smiled reassuringly at me, which made me feel a little better.
Mark had just arrived, and he and Zelda perched together on the window seat, while the rest of us spread out on the sofas and chairs before the fire, which was laid, but not yet lit. River discreetly removed himself to a more distant seat.
‘There we are, and you’re probably all wondering what this is about,’ said Clara. ‘Henry and I have had some unexpected news, which has put a fresh complexion on some of the things that have been happening lately.’
‘Yes, indeed,’ he agreed. ‘We were going to have a little chat with you this morning anyway, Sybil, but this news has clarified everything no end.’
Sybil gave a great start and looked about her, slightly wildly. ‘Withme?’
‘Yes, dear,’ Clara said, ‘because we’d realized even before Piers announced last night that you were engaged, that he had some hold over you. And given that, despite an ample annuity, you were always broke, we put two and two together and came up with blackmail.’
‘But until last night, we didn’t know what he’d got on you, as it were,’ said Henry, then added gently, as she remained transfixed, ‘We know the whole truth now, Sybil.’
‘You mean Piers wasblackmailingyou, Mum?’ demanded Mark, springing to his feet.
‘Oh, no, not at all … I mean, he wasn’t—’ stammered Sybil, incoherently.
Tottie said soothingly, ‘It’s all right, Syb.’
‘Mark, do sit down and just listen for the moment,’ said Clara. ‘All will be revealed, as they say.’
Mark subsided, glowering.
‘Meg gave me a letter last night that had got mixed up with the post for Preciousss, and which she’d subsequently forgotten till that moment.’
Lex, who was seated in a chair just behind me, leaned forward and whispered in my ear, ‘Do you know what this is all about?’
I shook my head. He didn’t sit back, but continued leaning forward, one arm across the back of my chair, and I was very conscious of him.
‘The envelope contained a letter written to me by Nessa Cassidy and found among her papers by her lover after her unfortunate early death in a car crash.’
‘It was marked to be forwarded to Clara if anything happened to her,’ continued Henry. ‘But for various reasons, it wasn’t, until now.’
‘And just at the right moment, too,’ said Clara.
‘Well, we’re all now agog to know what astounding revelation was contained in this letter,’ Lex said. ‘Spit it out!’
‘Quite simply, it stated that she’d married Henry’s brother, George, late in the Michaelmas term of 1959.’
‘He … married this Nessa?’ said Mark, stunned, and I felt my own mind turning over and over like a fruit machine, until it stopped with a resounding thud and more than a couple of lemons.
‘Yes. He thought he could get his hands on Nessa’s substantial inheritance once they were married, andshewas a very romantic and silly girl. In the event, after the wedding he discovered she couldn’t touch her capital until she was thirty andshe found that she was mistaken in her man. Or indeed, inanyman. They had a furious row and agreed to part and forget the marriage ever happened.’
‘Though since it actually had, it made his subsequent marriage to Sybil’s mother bigamous,’ Henry finished.
That was a curve ball I hadn’t been expecting, or anyone else, except Sybil, whose face told a different story.
