Chapter 37
37
In October, Finn went out for lunch with Eleanor Smythe, who confirmed that all the paintings that had been reserved at the fair had now been paid for and that she’d be transferring the remittance to his bank account shortly. They included the ones the Stones had bought, as well as another that had also been reserved and one that Henry the art dealer had sold to one of his clients. Eleanor was in very high spirits about all of this. Finn couldn’t bring himself to tell her that Bridie was his mother.
Then, a few days after the lunch, Bridie herself phoned to invite Finn round to the family house to meet his siblings.
‘It won’t be all of us because Molly’s still in Spain, but you can meet Alice, and you can meet my husband, Christopher, and Declan will be there too, of course. And by all means bring your lovely partner along. Ben too, if you’d like to, and if his mother thinks it’s appropriate.’ She paused. ‘Please come, even if you can’t bring Ben and Jade. It would mean a lot to all of us. Alice and Christopher are both really longing to meet you.’
Finn bet Declan wasn’t, but it would at least give him the chance to apologise for thumping him and hopefully come to some sort of a truce with his brother.
‘Bridie, I need to ask you something,’ he said just before they closed the conversation. ‘It’s about some paintings you bought recently.’
He heard her sudden intake of breath. ‘What about them?’
The edge of defensiveness in her voice told him all he needed to know. The fact that he’d painted them had been her main motivation for buying them.
She denied this as soon as he’d called her out on it. ‘It’s Christopher and Nick who are the art buffs. They wouldn’t have bought them if they hadn’t loved them.’
Finn had to be content with that. There was no way she was ever going to tell him the truth. That was for sure.
Finn, Jade, Ben and Sarah also went pumpkin picking in a local farm and bought two pumpkins to hollow out and make faces with for Halloween, one for Ben’s house and one for Duck Pond Cottage. The Duck Pond Cottage pumpkin had to be moved out of reception after a day because Mickey barked his head off every time he saw it.
‘He thinks it’s a baddie,’ Ben shouted in glee. ‘It’s OK, Mickey, it’s a goodie pumpkin. No need to bark.’
But Mickey wouldn’t be soothed so the pumpkin ended up outside the main gates on a wooden table out of the cockerpoo’s sight.
In the end, Finn and Sarah decided it would be best if Ben didn’t meet Bridie’s side of the family at the same time as Finn did.
‘Just in case it’s a disaster and we decide not to keep in touch,’ Finn told Sarah, only half-jokingly. ‘It would just be too confusing for him, wouldn’t it?’
‘I agree.’ Her blue eyes were cautious. ‘It’s not long ago he discovered he had a dad and a grandad he didn’t know he had. Not to mention a Dorrie,’ she added lightly.
Jade said she would go with him. ‘If you can bear it,’ Finn said. ‘I could really use some moral support.’
‘Of course I can bear it. It’ll be fun.’
Finn raised his eyebrows.
‘Like speed dating,’ she continued, ‘but with a family you didn’t know you had. Hey, that would make a good TV programme, wouldn’t it. You could swap places with a different brother, sister or cousin every three minutes. Well, you could in your case anyway, as there seem to be quite a few of them.’
Finn saw right through her bravado and hugged her.
Bridie had told them to arrive about 7p.m. and on the appointed Friday, having misjudged how long it would take, they got there far too early.
‘I think I’ll just park up round the corner for a while,’ Jade said as they cruised past an impressive set of electric gates that led up a long drive lined with tall yellowing poplar trees. ‘That was the right address, wasn’t it?’
‘Yeah,’ Finn said, craning his neck to look back. ‘Definitely. Bridie said they had a long drive. She didn’t say you couldn’t see the house from the road though.’
‘How the other half live,’ Jade murmured as she parked the Land Rover around the corner.
‘I know.’ Finn blinked a few times. ‘I didn’t realise they’d live in a place like this. Although I guess I should have done from what Declan said to me at the art exhibition.’
‘He’s a bit of a bad egg, isn’t he! Let’s hope he’s the only one.’
At just after seven, Jade drove them back to the posh address. Finn jumped out and pressed the button on an intercom and the black electric gates swung open silently to allow them entry.
A few minutes later, they were parking on the wide gravel frontage of an impressive-looking black and white Tudor-style house which seemed to have lights blazing from most of its numerous paned windows. There were several cars there already. They included Declan’s black Range Rover Sport and a couple of new electric black BMWs. Jade didn’t usually feel as though her Land Rover was old and dowdy, but today it was definitely the poor cousin. Not to mention the only car that wasn’t black! Sarah would have had a field day with that!
The front door swung open before they had a chance to ring the bell and Finn was relieved to see it was Bridie who’d come to greet them.
He was aware of Jade, standing a step behind him with a big bunch of flowers, as he held out the bottle of wine to Bridie that they’d bought en route. Thank God it was an expensive one he’d got especially. He’d very nearly brought one of the reds with a screw top from the cottage.
‘Thank you so much. Come in, come in. Welcome.’
A smiling Bridie ushered them both through a big square hall into a huge oblong lounge, which was dominated by three coffee-coloured sofas grouped in a three-sided square shape around a geometric-design yellow and brown rug. The room, which was lit by several tall standard lamps, smelled sweetly of something vaguely coconutty and there were dozens of pictures on every wall. Finn found himself praying none of his would be amongst them. It was bad enough that he himself was here on display. He had never felt more vulnerable in his life as he and Jade stood facing what looked like an interview panel of people, who were lounging on the middle sofa.
Declan was in the middle, and on his right was the woman Finn had seen him talking to at the exhibition. Could that be Alice, his sister? On Declan’s left was an older man with grey hair, who Finn thought was probably Bridie’s husband, Christopher. On one of the other sofas was an even older man with very bright blue eyes who could have been who Eleanor had referred to as old man Stone.
‘Meet the clan.’ Bridie introduced everyone and Finn realised he’d been spot on about who they all were. The atmosphere felt pretty tense, but at least they were all smiling.
A few minutes later, when he and Jade were seated comfortably on the unoccupied sofa and they’d been given drinks – he’d opted to drive and was drinking orange juice – Finn began to relax. His family felt less like an interview panel now.
Christopher Stone was a charming host. Finn could see the engaging and interested persona – one of the qualities that made up a great salesperson – was very much in evidence. Nicholas Stone was sharper, shrewder, less polished. Alice was lovely, a real sweetie with a genuinely warm smile. Finn felt oddly protective of this younger sister he’d never met.
Even Declan was on his best behaviour. Chatty and charming, he was a young replica of his father. There hadn’t been a chance for Finn to get him on his own and apologise yet, but he hoped there would be at some point in the evening.
They ate supper in a room everyone referred to as the snug, which turned out to be only slightly smaller than the lounge, but with a mahogany dining table and ten chairs. A coordinating but not matching mahogany bar with a rolled wood surround and optics behind took up the whole of one corner.
There were even tall stools by the bar, which Christopher told Finn proudly he’d had shipped back from Egypt when he’d taken a liking to it after a business trip there. The meal was served in several big-lidded bowls which contained rice and various fragrant delicious-looking casseroles, a couple of which were vegetarian, Finn was relieved to discover.
He’d somehow forgotten to mention Jade was vegetarian, but Bridie had pre-empted this. She might have abandoned him as a child, but there was nothing callous about her actions this evening. She was thoughtful, kind, and hugely interested in both his and Jade’s lives. It was impossible not to warm to her.
Finn finally managed to get Declan alone towards the end of the evening when Bridie, Alice and Jade were carrying the dirty plates through to the kitchen and Christopher and Nicholas had excused themselves briefly.
They were back in the big lounge again and the two brothers were sitting close to each other, albeit on different sofas.
‘I’m sorry I hit you,’ Finn said quietly to the younger man. ‘It’s not the kind of thing I usually do.’
‘Mmm.’ Declan’s voice was noncommittal, and he leaned back slightly on his sofa.
‘I hope we can be friends going forward.’ Finn held out his hand.
Declan frowned, but didn’t take it. And then he jumped and looked guilty and Finn realised Bridie had just come back into the room.
‘I hope you two are playing nicely,’ she said in a soft voice shot through with steel. ‘Remember that Finn is our guest, Declan, and should be treated as such.’
Finn realised she was completely aware of Declan’s hostility and wasn’t going to stand for it. That was something at least.
‘I’m sure we’ll be best buddies,’ Declan said cheerily, even if his eyes didn’t quite match his words.
‘Me too,’ Finn agreed.
Bridie nodded approvingly. It was the best he was going to get for now, Finn thought, and it was definitely better than the bristling resentment he’d got from Declan at the exhibition.
They finally left just after ten thirty, having thanked their hosts profusely and promised a delighted Bridie they would bring Ben to meet her another time.
As they went back down the drive, Finn glanced in his rear-view mirror. The oblong of light shone out from the open doorway, silhouetting Bridie’s slender frame and her waving hand. The door didn’t close until the electric gates had shut behind them.
‘What did you think?’ Finn asked Jade as they headed for home.
‘They all seemed very nice. More importantly, what did you think? How do you feel?’
‘Like it’s all still a bit surreal. Like I still might wake up and discover this is all some weird dream.’
‘Yes, I bet.’ She touched his knee. ‘I’m really proud of you.’
‘Proud? Why?’
‘Because of the way you handle yourself. You never seem fazed. You’re always the same wherever you are. You never seem to put on an act.’
‘That’s a really nice thing to say.’ He caught hold of her hand. Then he told her about Declan. ‘I think I’ve made an enemy there. I did try apologising but he’s definitely not up for any brotherly bonding.’
‘Maybe he will be in time. You’ve only just met, and it was unfortunate, that first meeting. You’ll joke about it one day, I’m sure.’
Finn wasn’t at all convinced of this and he could see by Jade’s face, even in the darkened car, that she wasn’t either. It was still early days, though. Only time would tell how his relationship with Declan would pan out.