Page 109 of One More Christmas at the Castle
‘It’s Sabine’s half-sister, Faye. I’ve seen her before in old photographs from when she was on Corfu.’
‘Well,I’veseen this photograph before – and she’s alsomygrandmother!’
31
Relativity
Xan stared at me, a blank expression in his eyes and his dark brows drawn together in a frown.
‘But … that’s impossible! Faye didn’t have any children and died quite young.’
‘She must have hadonechild, at least – my father!’ I told him. ‘Xan, I know it seems incredible, but Granny Celia has an identical print of that picture in a box of old photographs and she told me the girl was a distant relative and also Dad’s birth mother, but had turned out badly. She never would tell me any more about her, though.’
I remembered something else. ‘You know, when you and Nancy were telling us about Faye last night, I did think that was the name of Dad’s mother, too … but then I thought perhaps I’d misremembered and it was perhaps Gaye, instead.’
I looked down at the photo again and this time realized the family group were standing outside the door to the Great Hall. I could see the columns holding up the portico.
‘Youareabsolutely certain?’ Xan asked, but I think he already knew the answer from my stunned reaction.
I nodded. ‘But I still can’t believe this is happening! It’s justtoo much of a coincidence that I should have been hired to come here, where Faye once lived!’
‘Coincidences do happen … but you had no idea about the connection before this?’ He looked at me searchingly and then answered his own question: ‘No, of course you hadn’t!’
He was silent for a few moments while he seemed to be turning it all over in his mind. Eventually, he said slowly, ‘So … if we accept this is true, then Faye must have had an illegitimate child – your father.’
‘If you remember, I did once tell you he was the illegitimate child of a distant relative of Granny Celia’s, but I’m positive Dad has no idea about the connection with the family here at Mitras Castle, either. He doesn’t evenrememberhis real mother.’
‘Let’s try and piece this together,’ Xan said. ‘I know from Sabine that one of Faye’s guardians after her parents died was her mother’s cousin – so presumably that would have been your Granny Celia.’
‘Celia Sedley Jones,’ I agreed. ‘And you told us that Faye came back at twenty-one to claim her inheritance, didn’t you?’
‘I did, but not that she had an illegitimate child in tow, as she must have done,’ he pointed out. ‘Still, if you accept that, then it does all seem to hang together, doesn’t it?’
‘It all fits …’ I pressed a hand to my burning forehead. I’d been going hot and cold by turns, ever since I’d recognized the girl in the photograph.
‘But I still find it hard to grasp the incredible coincidence of Mrs Powys employing me, without realizing that I was related to her, through the half-sister she obviously hated!’
‘Itisabigask, isn’t it?’ Xan said, in an oddly dry voice, but I was now clutching his arm urgently.
‘Xan, she mustneverfind out! We’ll have to keep this a secret from her, or it will ruin her last Christmas at the Castle!’
He gave me a wry, but affectionate smile. ‘You always think of others before yourself, Dido. I don’t believe you’ve given a thought to what this might mean to you.’
‘Mean to me …?’ I echoed – and then the latch of the library door clicked loudly and we turned as one, to see Nancy, still in her outdoor coat and with her white hair even more flyaway than usual.
‘Hello, you two, we’re home,’ she announced gaily, and then something about our expressions must have alerted her, for she came right into the room and closed the door behind her.
‘What’s the matter?’ she asked.
I gripped Xan’s arm again and whispered: ‘No, please don’t tell her!’
He put his warm hand over mine and said, reassuringly, ‘It’s the best thing we can do, Dido. We need Nancy’s advice!’
‘Yes, do tell me whatever is troubling you. I can see something is,’ she invited.
Xan made a better job of explaining it all than I could ever have done, probably because he could fit my family history into Mrs Powys’s more easily, and by the time he’d finished, it did seem like a jigsaw that fitted perfectly together.
Nancy listened with an air of surprised interest and seemed to agree. When Xan had finished, she said that it all made perfect sense.
