Chapter 47
‘Ah, feels like old times – doesn’t it?’ Edwin placed her suitcase down on the single bed in the spare bedroom. ‘I remember when you used to come and stay. It seems like a lifetime ago.’ He smiled. ‘Once you started university, and met Freddie, it was understandable that you’d be busy – too busy to visit your old grandpa.’
She glanced at him. He winked – just kidding!
‘So, I have to say I was quite surprised when you phoned out of the blue to say you wanted to catch the next flight here. What happened? I thought you were in the Galapagos Islands?’
Briony turned around and eyed him. He was standing in the bedroom doorway of his university-owned rental home.
When she’d phoned him at the airport to say that she was getting the next flight over, if he could buy her a plane ticket, because she was short of cash, he’d sounded surprised that she wasn’t on her research trip. But she could tell he was keen to see her, and was going along with her simple explanation – that she’d decided not to go. He hadn’t pressed her for a reason, probably not wanting to put her off with a bout of twenty questions about her cancelled trip, and lack of money, before she arrived.
She was intending to tell him what was going on, but she expected something in return – the truth, and the whole truth, about Blythe and their relationship, and Sebastian – everything, along with the answer to another question; did her dad really know she wasn’t his biological daughter? She wanted, needed, to be sure what she’d overheard was all true, and that she wasn’t imagining it all. And the one person she still trusted was him – even though it sounded as though he had a secret too.
Albert brought in a tea tray with cups of tea and English scones that he’d baked. As she took a scone, and looked at him – her grandfather’s lodger who’d lived with him for years, ever since he’d moved to Stanford – all the pieces finally fell into place. Why hadn’t she seen it before? Why hadn’t her mum? Busy in their own lives, they’d never stopped to look, really look.
‘So, what’s this all about?’ Edwin asked, ‘You, here.’
‘I’ve got something to ask you.’
‘You flew all the way here to ask me a question?’
Briony watched Albert pop a scone on Edwin’s plate too, his hand brushing Edwin’s shoulder before he left the room.
Briony called out, ‘Albert, why don’t you stay for tea too?’
He turned around at the door. ‘Oh, I couldn’t possibly. You’ve come here to talk to Edwin about family affairs.’
‘Yes, that’s right. That’s why you should join us too.’
Albert hesitated. ‘I don’t understand …’
Briony shook her head and smiled. ‘But I do. I should have known. All along, since I was little coming here for holidays, it was staring me in the face, but I just didn’t see it – until now.’
Albert exchanged a glance with Edwin, and said to her, ‘Darling, I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
Briony pointed at the seat on the sofa next to Edwin. ‘Come, sit down.’
Albert shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Well, if you insist, but I still don’t know what this is all about.’
‘Well, you’re in good company,’ commented Edwin.
Briony watched him take a seat, looking uncomfortable.
Edwin asked, ‘What is this all about, Briony?’
She stared at the couple before her. They’d hidden their relationship well. Briony smiled at them. She realised she’d done a lot of growing up in the past two weeks, finding out she was pregnant, and leaving home on her own for the Suffolk Coast. She’d changed. She’d found herself, and along the way she’d discovered that her family members were not exactly who she’d thought they were. But she could forgive them that – how could she not? They were only human with their flaws, their secrets, and their fears.
She looked at her grandfather and wished he hadn’t been afraid, all these years, of telling them all the truth.
Briony leaned forward in her seat. ‘Tell me about my grandmother, about Blythe. I’ve seen the photos you sent her over the years of me and mum.’
Edwin was out of his seat in an instant. ‘You’ve been to see Blythe! She told you, didn’t she? Blythe told you about … about us.’ He exchanged a glance with Albert.
Albert reached up and took his hand. ‘Sit down, you old fool, and stop getting so worked up. I guess she knows now, and there’s nothing you can do about it.’
‘Is that why you sent her all those photos over the years, of me and mum? An unspoken agreement that if you kept your side of the bargain – keeping her updated with our lives – she’d keep your secret?’
‘All right, yes. It was kind of an unspoken agreement.’
Briony sat chewing her fingernail. ‘Oh, Grandpa. Albert is right, you are an old fool. You didn’t have to hide who you are from us.’
Albert said, ‘See, I told you.’
‘I’m just so happy you’re not alone, and you have Albert in your life.’
The three of them sat quietly for a moment, drinking tea. Edwin wiped tears from his eyes, realising that the years he’d spent hiding his relationship with Albert, for no reason other than his own fears, were over. They were both right: he’d been a silly old fool.
Edwin put his teacup down, and asked, ‘Why did you go and see her, Briony? How did you even know where she was?’
‘Because she wrote me a letter, and asked me to go. She said there was something she needed to give to me.’
‘What was that?’
‘The truth – I guess. I haven’t spoken with her yet. She was in hospital.’
‘Is she all right?’
Briony caught the genuine concern in his voice. ‘Yes, she’s going to be okay. Mum is with her now.’
‘Your mother is there with her?’ he said in surprise. ‘Have they patched things up?’
‘I think so – yes. You shouldn’t have done it, though.’
Albert turned to Edwin. ‘What did you do?’
Edwin turned to Briony. ‘How much do you know?’
‘Everything!’ But she still wanted to hear it from him. She wasn’t sure why – perhaps hearing it from the one person in her life, besides her parents, whom she trusted implicitly, would make it seem real – Lorna’s relationship with Sebastian, and the fact that they’d been kept apart. Besides, this was the only place she’d been able to think of going to clear her head and take on board what she’d found out.
On the flight, when she’d settled into her seat, and had finally had some time to finally think about things – after first rushing back to The Beach House to pack, and organise a taxi to Heathrow, and a flight to Stanford – something had suddenly dawned on her about Troy. Although they weren’t related –Sebastian had adopted Troy and wasn’t his biological parent – it did make them step-siblings. What did that mean for their relationship? Should it mean anything? She hadn’t spoken to Troy yet, although he had texted, checking she was okay, asking whether she had given the deeds to her mum, and when he could expect her back from Oxford.
That had been just before she’d caught her flight. She hadn’t answered him. Not yet. Not when she’d suddenly realised that Sebastian wasn’t all they shared; Frank was herbiological grandfather. He and his late wife were her paternal grandparents; not Andrew’s parents, with whom she’d never been that close.
And then it had dawned on her that there was someone else she and Troy shared. Willow – Sebastian’s other biological child. I have a sibling, a half-sister! She couldn’t wait to tell her. She guessed that little Willow would be so happy to find out she had a big sister.
But what would Troy make of finding out that Sebastian was her father? At least it explained one thing – why she was drawn to Sebastian, and why they had hit it off so quickly, and had so much in common, with their shared love of the sea.
The time she’d spent on the flight, thinking, had raised more questions than it had provided answers.
Briony put her hands together, looked at Edwin, and said, ‘Well?’
Albert turned in his seat to face him. ‘Edwin?’
Edwin breathed a heavy sigh. ‘I should never have married Blythe, obviously. I always knew I … I could never really love a woman, not in that way.’
Briony looked at her grandad in surprise. She was expecting him to talk about her mum and Sebastian’s relationship – not his own.
‘When I started work as a professor at Oxford, her parents, who knew mine – both worked in academia themselves – brought Blythe, who’d just come back with them from a European tour that summer, to meet me. We hit it off, as potential friends might, but that wasn’t what the meeting was about. Her parents were keen for she and I to tie the knot. So we did. I sensed she’d had her heart broken, as had I. In a way, we needed each other; were both fragile from breakups, and somehow our friendship was railroaded into marriage.’
Albert said, ‘You had your heart broken?’
‘He wasn’t the first. And wouldn’t be the last, before you came along.’
‘So, she didn’t know – at first?’ Albert asked.
‘I thought I could quash those feelings by marrying Blythe, but it was not to be. I had an affair. It didn’t last long, but I couldn’t hide who I was from her any longer, even though I didn’t want to lose her. She was … still is … my best friend.’
Briony understood. At the time they’d met, Blythe must have been broken-hearted, thinking Frank didn’t love her, and so she’d married Edwin. The marriage hadn’t been right for her either.
Edwin continued, ‘A few years later, after we divorced, I met someone else. It was a bit of a scandal, I suppose. At least from my perspective, as a professor falling for a student.’
Briony understood. ‘The university doesn’t allow personal relationships between staff and students.’
‘Oh, that was long before those new rules. But even so, I felt I had to leave, get away.’
‘I remember,’ said Briony. She’d been nine. ‘It all seemed so sudden. You’d been at the university for years, and suddenly, for what appeared to be no reason, you were leaving and moving to America.’
‘That’s right. But lucky me – if I hadn’t made that decision, I would never have met Albert.’ He took Albert’s hand and squeezed it tight. Edwin suddenly looked worried. ‘Does your mother know?’
‘Grandad, did you really think she’d look at you any differently? She, like me, would have loved to know you weren’t alone. Blythe was waiting for you to tell her yourself.’
‘But you both knew I had Albert.’
‘We thought he was your lodger. It’s not the same as knowing you were in a long-term relationship, and had someone who obviously loves you dearly.’
‘I really have been such a fool, haven’t I?’
Briony frowned. ‘Yes, in more ways than one. Let’s talk about Sebastian.’
Albert said, ‘Sebastian?’
Briony looked at Albert. She realised there were things he didn’t know about her family. ‘Sebastian is my real … biological father.’
Edwin looked at her, shocked. ‘I thought, after all those years of keeping you in the dark about it … that you’d never find out.’
So, that answered Briony’s question – he’d known all along too that Sebastian was her father.
‘Oh, right. But Lorna married Andrew.’ Albert looked at Edwin as if to say, That’s right – isn’t it?
Edwin looked uncomfortable. Briony could tell he didn’t want to talk about it. ‘Grandad?’
‘Yes, all right. You mother and Sebastian used to meet at The Beach House in the summer. I thought they were just friends until …’
‘Until she got pregnant.’
‘Yes.’ Edwin lowered his eyes. ‘Sebastian wasn’t academic. He loved the ocean, surfing, diving. I could just see that if she stayed there, living in The Beach House, she’d be sucked into a life that …’
‘Wasn’t you?’ said Albert.
Edwin looked at his hands. ‘I made a mistake. I thought, my daughter can’t be in love with him.He’s not right for her. But how was I to know who was right for her? I didn’t know what love truly was until I met you, Albert.’
Albert smiled at Edwin.
Edwin continued, ‘That summer, when I thought I’d fallen in love with this student – it was an infatuation – and Blythe found out, it knocked her for six. The timing couldn’t have been worse. She’d lost both her parents that summer, one after the other. But I’m afraid that worse was to come. Blythe discovered that they’d left The Beach House to their only grandchild. Lorna was eighteen, she could do with it as she pleased, live there, bring up her child – you – with Sebastian.’
Edwin slowly shook his head from side to side. ‘I did not want that. I thought I knew what was best for her. Blythe could no longer live a lie, with me. So, we hatched a plan, or rather I did, for Blythe to go and live in The Beach House. It was what we both needed, to separate – and what I wanted; for Lorna to stay with me, in Oxford. Lorna would never find out The Beach House belonged to her. I told Blythe to hide the deeds. We both knew that Lorna would get the house eventually, just not … straight away.’
‘You lied to your own daughter?’ Albert said.
‘Yes, about a lot of things, obviously – about The Beach House. And … about me and the real reason Blythe and I couldn’t stay together.’
The room fell silent.
Briony stared at her grandfather. ‘I could have had a different life, with my mum and Sebastian, growing up in that house.’
‘Yes, and Blythe could have known you instead of just second-hand through me and those photos I sent of you. How was I to know Lorna would cut her out of her life – and yours?’
‘But you still didn’t tell my mum anything.’
Edwin studied his hands intently. ‘No, because I didn’t want to rock the boat. She’d met Andrew soon after starting university, and he was the most loving dad and dutiful husband that any father could have wanted for their daughter.’
Briony frowned.
‘What is it?’
‘I think my mum and dad, they stayed together all these years because of me. My dad … he’s met someone else.’ Briony paused. ‘He knew, all along, didn’t he?’
‘Yes. Your mum told Andrew. I didn’t want her to, in case they split up. She said that he was in love with her, but she wasn’t going to trick him and let him believe you were his. Two wrongs don’t make a right, that’s what she said.’
Edwin looked up at Briony. ‘I thought she was happy in her life with Andrew, and she’d mend bridges with Blythe, eventually – which she has.’
‘Only because I—’ Briony stopped short.
‘Because you …?’
‘The reason why I didn’t go to the Galapagos Islands, why I ran away to Suffolk, was because I found out I’m pregnant.’
‘You’re pregnant?’ Edwin slowly stood up. ‘Really? Are you sure?’
Briony threw her grandfather a deadpan look.
‘Oh, how wonderful! I’m going to be a great-grandpapa.’ He walked over and held out his arms.
Briony stood up and walked into his embrace. She hugged Edwin. And then stepped towards Albert. ‘I hope you don’t mind being a great-grandpapa too.’
Albert burst into tears, stood up and gave her a hug too.
When they all stood back, looking at one another, Edwin said, ‘But how can you ever forgive me?’
‘I can. I have. You see, Grandpa, I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but I’m not going to repeat the same mistakes that you and Grandma – and my mum and dad – made. I’m not staying in a relationship just for convenience, or for my child.’
Edwin sat down. ‘You’re leaving Freddie, aren’t you?’
‘I have to. I’ve met the love of my life. Do you understand?’
Edwin glanced at Albert. ‘Of course I do. Who is he?’
Briony thought what a small world it was. Years earlier, her mum had fallen in love with Frank’s son. It wasn’t just Edwin who had wanted to keep Lorna and Sebastian apart, but Frank too, believing that Lorna would break his son’s heart, just as Blythe had apparently done to him.
‘It wasn’t just your fault, all of this, Grandad. Speak to Blythe about her parents – and Frank.’
Edwin looked at her blankly. ‘Frank– who is Frank?’
As Briony suspected, Blythe had never told him about the young man she’d thought had broken her heart. The mess had gone down the generations, but it was stopping with her. Nobody, certainly not her parents, was going to interfere with her life, and the person she hoped she was destined to be with.
‘I’m sure Blythe will tell you one day soon.’
Edwin nodded. He asked, ‘Who is he – the young man you’re going to marry?’
‘Going to marry?’ Briony stared at her grandfather, her lips suddenly parting in a huge grin. ‘Yes, I suppose I am.’
Edwin was still looking at her, waiting.
‘His name is Troy. I’ll tell you all about him when you meet him.’ Briony had decided that just then, Edwin had enough to take in without her telling him that she’d quite randomly fallen in love with Sebastian’s adopted son. And how it had turned out that her paternal grandfather was her grandmother’s true love.
Albert said, ‘Life has a funny way of leading us to where we’re meant to be.’
‘And to whom we’re meant to be with,’ added Edwin.
Briony grinned. ‘Yes, I suppose it does.’ It hadn’t been planned, obviously, having Freddie’s baby, and marrying someone else, but then again, what family wasn’t without its complications? She rested her hand on her tummy and thought of the future. There would be no more secrets in her family.