Chapter 47
Nella deleted the flight tracker app from her phone so no one would know she’d been secretly following Nick’s journey across the Atlantic to Heathrow. Like a groupie . He’d made it back safely, and that was all that mattered. Now, having guessed how long it would take him to get through customs, wait for his suitcase to appear on the carousel, find his car and drive down the M4, she thought he might arrive home at around seven in the evening.
Yes, sod’s law being what it was, seeing and hearing his ex-girlfriend on the Zoom call had made her want him more. It was like a box of chocolate truffles being waved in front of you then abruptly snatched away because they didn’t belong to you.
Or even more agonisingly, a bowl of perfect roast potatoes.
Anyway, she was ready for his return and looking her best, in a casual, not-trying-too-hard kind of way.
Which would have been great if Dora Catchpole, Nick’s neighbour on the other side, hadn’t called round to borrow a handful of tea bags. Well, Dora wasn’t the problem, but she’d brought her beloved eleven-year-old Labrador Benny with her. As Nella and Dora were chatting in the kitchen, a terrible smell snaked its way through from the hallway.
‘Oh no.’ Nella stared in dismay at the deposit on her hall carpet and Benny gave her an apologetic look.
‘Whoops, I tried him with some new dog food and he’s had a bit of an upset tummy today, haven’t you, boy?’ Whisking the tea bags from Nella’s grasp, Dora said, ‘Sorry about that. I’d stay and help you clear it up, but my hips are bad today – if I tried to kneel down, I’d get stuck!’
She carted poor Benny home, leaving Nella to fling open all the doors and windows in the cottage then get down on her hands and knees to scrub both the stain and the smell out of the pale grey carpet. So of course it wasn’t until she heard a voice behind her that she realised who was standing in the doorway watching her bottom waggle vigorously from side to side.
‘Someone’s had an accident,’ said Nick.
‘Hi!’ Scrambling to her feet and almost knocking over the bucket of hot soapy water, she peeled off her rubber gloves, wishing that things could just for once have gone according to plan. ‘Welcome home. Good flight? Yes, it was poor old Benny. I’ve been scrubbing away for ages, but it still smells. Is it really bad?’
‘Pretty bad.’ He hesitated, then pointed. ‘I think there’s some on your jeans.’
Aargh, no wonder she hadn’t been able to get rid of it. Twisting round, Nella spotted the smear she’d managed to get on the denim halfway between her right hip and the back seam. ‘Oh God, this is so gross.’ Dying inside, she added, ‘I need to shower and change . . .’
Nick gestured to the staircase. ‘You go ahead and do that. I’ll wait down here.’
Stripping off in the bathroom, Nella scrubbed herself thoroughly in the shower and washed her hair again twice. Tempting though it was to waft back downstairs in nothing but a thin silky dressing gown that would reveal her cleavage and possibly a flash of tanned thigh, she changed into a T-shirt and leggings and didn’t redo her make-up.
Maybe because she’d already heard loud laughter that belonged to someone other than Nick drifting upstairs.
The bucket and cleaning paraphernalia had disappeared, along with the smell. In the living room, Nick and Hugo had made themselves at home and Hugo was busy showing Nick photos on his phone of the number one love of his life.
‘You just wait until you meet her.’ He was visibly glowing with pride. ‘She’s the most beautiful baby you’ve ever seen. And the way she looks at you . . . it’s like she really knows you. See the way her fingers are curled round my thumb? You wouldn’t believe how strong she is!’
‘Wow.’ For a moment, Nick’s gaze met Nella’s and his mouth twitched. ‘So many photos.’
‘I can’t help it, she’s so photogenic. Look at those eyelashes . . . look at her ears !’
Nella hid a smile. Hugo was completely besotted.
‘And you said she’s called Eloisa? Nice.’ Nick nodded.
‘Eloisa May,’ said Hugo. ‘But we call her Ellie.’
‘Right.’ Now Nick was struggling to keep a straight face.
‘What?’ said Hugo.
‘Nothing. It’s just you sound pretty smitten.’
‘I can’t help it. I was there when she came into the world. I love her so much.’
‘How about Cami?’ said Nick.
‘Cami loves her too!’
‘Not quite what I meant.’ Nick started to laugh.
‘Oh.’ Hugo’s face reddened. Abruptly changing the subject, he patted his trouser pocket. ‘Anyway, showing you those baby photos isn’t the only reason I came over. Guess what I have in here?’
‘More baby photos?’ said Nick.
‘Very funny. And no.’ Hugo pulled out a folded envelope and waved it at Nella. ‘Did you get yours today too?’
Nella had. When it had arrived in the post this morning, just the thought of what it could contain had made her feel queasy. She nodded, and his face lit up.
‘You haven’t opened it, have you?’
‘No, I haven’t.’ She’d been tempted to rip it to shreds and chuck it into the recycling, but the test wasn’t the cheaper kind that only told you which parts of the world your ancestors had come from; Hugo had gone for the far more detailed form of analysis, which had cost a lot more.
‘Come on then, let’s do it now.’
When Hugo was enthusiastic about something, there was no stopping him. She went into the kitchen and returned with the envelope.
‘Isn’t this exciting?’ He was all ready to go. ‘You could be about to find out you’re related to . . . I don’t know . . . Beyoncé!’
Nella blinked. ‘Wow.’
‘Or Taylor Swift!’
‘Okaaay.’
‘Or Giles Brandreth!’
She took a deep breath and began to open her envelope. ‘We can only hope.’
*
Six minutes later, the three of them were still staring at each other in shock.
‘This is crazy,’ said Hugo.
‘They must have made some kind of mistake.’ Nella shook her head. ‘It can’t be right.’ Apart from this one person with whom she shared the most DNA, there had been no other results of any significance, which she was glad about. But this . . . this one was blowing her mind.
Nick was poring over the information once more, triple-checking every last detail. ‘It isn’t a mistake. Something like that can’t be made up.’
‘But how . . . how . . .?’ Nella covered her mouth.
‘Oh come on,’ said Hugo, ‘you know how. We all know how,’ he went on. ‘You’re just scared to say it in case I haven’t figured it out for myself yet.’
This was kind of true. The shock was huge, but the ramifications were greater for him, and potentially way more far-reaching.
‘There is no mistake,’ he went on steadily. ‘You’re my closest DNA match. And I’m yours. We share twenty-five per cent of the same DNA. That means I’m your uncle.’
‘And I’m your niece.’ She checked with Nick for confirmation. ‘Is that right?’
Nick nodded. ‘That’s it.’
Memories of the time they’d first known each other as teenagers came flooding back. Nella looked at Hugo. ‘Just as well we never fancied each other!’
‘God, imagine. Bit awkward.’ He pulled a face, then was struck by a thought. ‘I mean, I never did feel that way about you, but Ma sat me down once and warned me off, big-time. I got this long lecture about getting involved with girls from the village . . . and I knew she meant you, because you were the only girl I hung around with.’
‘What did she say?’
‘That our family had a reputation to uphold . . . there couldn’t be any scandal attached to our name and young village girls had their own kind of reputation.’ Hugo flushed. ‘Sorry, I know how awful that sounds. I didn’t tell you about it because . . . well, it would have been embarrassing. Ma always was such a snob.’
Except knowing what they now knew, maybe not as much of a snob as they’d thought. Constance Peverell clearly hadn’t been averse to having an illicit relationship with one of the working men from the village.
It still seemed impossible to get her head around what had evidently happened. Nella pictured the few photos she possessed of her grandad when he’d been a young, handsome widower in his thirties, whose beloved wife had died in childbirth at the tragically young age of twenty-two. Her grandad and Hugo’s mother. It was blowing her mind. Another memory floated to the surface and she blurted out, ‘Grandpa warned me off you, too. He told me that if I ever so much as kissed you, word could get out and he’d lose his job, plus we’d both be evicted from Tin Cottage. And he was really serious about it. I just laughed and said nothing like that was ever going to happen because we didn’t fancy each other and you were like my brother.’
Silence fell. After a few seconds, Nick said, ‘OK, the only way to handle this is to ignore it. Pretend it never happened. None of us breathes a word about this to anyone, ever.’ He looked from Nella to Hugo. ‘Yes?’
Nella nodded. ‘Of course. Absolutely. Definitely, yes.’
In turn, Hugo looked at her, then at Nick. He shook his head. ‘Sorry, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to talk about it.’
‘What?’ Startled, Nella said, ‘Why?’ Was he out of his mind? What was he planning to do?
Hugo rose to his feet. ‘There are questions that need answering. I’ll call you in a bit. Time to have a conversation with my mother.’