Chapter 38
38
Finn took Sarah and Ben to meet Bridie one Sunday lunchtime a few days after Halloween. Jade had offered to stay at home. ‘It’s Ben she wants to see, not me. He’s her grandson. And won’t it be best if we keep it all low key? For Ben’s sake, I mean?’
‘You’re part of my family,’ Finn had told her softly. ‘As far as I’m concerned you always will be, and I want you there. So does Sarah.’
That was true. Sarah had told Jade the prospect of meeting Ben’s posh grandmother scared the pants off her. ‘I’m not good with posh people. I don’t know what knife and fork to use. I don’t even know what side the bread roll plate goes on.’
‘The left,’ Jade told her.
‘It doesn’t matter how many times someone tells me, I just forget again. I’ve got a complete mental block about it.’
‘There probably won’t be any side plates to worry about,’ Finn said, overhearing this conversation. ‘Bridie said something about having a barbecue outside if the weather was nice.’
‘A barbecue in November is flaming optimistic,’ Sarah said with a mock shiver.
‘Early November can be lovely,’ Jade said. ‘We’ve been to lots of firework parties where we’ve eaten outside.’
‘Yeah, but we had mugs of steaming hot soup to warm our hands on, and hot chestnuts roasted over a roaring fire.’
‘Maybe the Stones have a firepit,’ Jade mused. ‘It’s that kind of place. It wouldn’t surprise me if they had those patio heaters either.’
‘Not very climate friendly, those heaters. Anyway, what are they like – in general I mean? Did they strike you as fly-by-night builders or people of integrity?’ Sarah’s question wasn’t directed at anyone in particular, but now they both looked at Finn.
His face was reflective. ‘I think they’re generally an honourable company. Old man Stone built the company up from zero. And I liked Christopher too when we met him. He seemed pretty authentic. I did some digging around on the internet too. If you’ll excuse the pun.’ He grinned. ‘Rural Developments is a member of the FMB. That’s the Federation of Master Builders for the uninitiated. I couldn’t find too many people slating their houses. They have a decent reputation.’
‘Blimey.’ Jade looked at him in astonishment. ‘You are a dark horse. You didn’t tell me you’d done all that.’
‘I just have, haven’t I? It’s probably daft but I wanted to know if the family I’m getting involved with is generally a good bunch. And I think they are. I think Bridie is great, now I’ve spoken to her a few times, and I think that Declan is spoilt. And I think she probably spoilt him because she felt so guilty that she’d abandoned me and Dad.’
‘Wow,’ Sarah said, shaking her head. ‘You have been thinking about it. But yes, that would make total sense.’
‘And it explains a lot,’ Jade murmured. ‘A spoilt little mummy’s boy, who wants all the toys, no matter whether they’re his or not.’
‘That’s enough amateur psychology for one day,’ Finn said. ‘But yes, my thoughts precisely. Let’s hope the weather’s good enough for a barbecue. It would be a lot less formal for Ben and let’s hope Declan’s got something else to do and doesn’t decide to rock up and cause trouble.’
* * *
As it turned out, it was cloudy and overcast on the day they’d arranged, but it wasn’t actually raining. Bridie messaged first thing and told them all to dress for outside so presumably the barbecue was still on, despite the nip in the air.
There was still evidence of Halloween as they drove towards the Stones’ residence. There was still the odd pumpkin sitting on a table outside a house, and Ben pointed out a witch on a broomstick outlined in black on someone’s window.
There was nothing like that at the end of the Stones’ driveway. Maybe the locked ten-foot-high gates at the house end of the drive made ‘trick or treat’ expeditions difficult. Even though the gates swung silently open as they drew up without a person to be seen.
When they’d parked and had rung the bell, Bridie greeted them with her coat on. ‘Hello, everyone,’ she said as she opened the front door of her beautiful house. ‘Who fancies a barbecue?’
Ben, who was already wide eyed because of the ‘invisible man gates’, took to Bridie immediately. The fact he adored barbecues, no matter what time of year it was, helped, but he’d have liked her anyway, Finn realised, because she was totally on his son’s wavelength.
She chatted to Ben about school, instantly discovering that art was his favourite subject, and asking him if he’d like to see some drawings of animals they had in the garden.
‘We’ve got a barbecue hut,’ she explained to the adults, leading them across a wide lawn that looked like emerald felt it was so smooth, towards a paved patio section in one corner, where there was a circular wooden hut with a black bitumen roof, oblong windows all the way around it and a smoking black chimney protruding from the top.
Bridie opened a door on the front and beckoned them in. The inside of the hut smelled wonderfully of hot cedar wood and warmth. It was dominated by a circular central barbecue sprinkled with smouldering red-hot coals, covered by metal grills on which the food would be cooked.
A chimney led up from the centre of the barbecue, taking the smoke outside. Around the perimeter of the hut ran a low wooden bench, decorated with sheepskin rugs and a scattering of oversized blue and terracotta cushions, clearly meant for lounging. The inside of the hut was adorned with sparkling silver and gold fairy lights, lending the little space a touch of magic.
‘Wow,’ said Ben, and Finn knew his son spoke for them all. It was a breathtakingly cosy space.
Bridie smiled in delight at their reactions. ‘It’s one of my favourite places,’ she said, spreading out her hands. ‘Welcome.’
On the walls where there were no windows hung a selection of black and white framed sketches of badgers and deer and hares.
They’d been drawn by a talented artist, Finn observed, wondering if they were part of the Stones’ collection and trying to see the names.
‘Molly draws,’ Bridie told them. ‘My middle daughter,’ she explained to Sarah and Ben. ‘A talent for art definitely does seem to run in the family.’
She didn’t elaborate too much. They had told Ben he was going to meet Finn’s mum who he hadn’t grown up with but who had lived with Grandpa Ray a long time ago, and had left it at that.
Bridie had also agreed that for now the rest of the family wouldn’t be present. The others could be introduced as and when Ben was ready.
Sarah and Finn had thought it was enough for now, to ease Ben into the idea of having yet another blood relative pop up out of the woodwork.
It was a magical afternoon. They gathered around the central barbecue, and coats definitely weren’t needed in the hut. They ate sizzling brown sausages, a mixture of vegetarian and meat, and kebabs on sticks with glistening yellow and red peppers interspersed with chunks of fragrant monkfish and chicken. All this was washed down with fizzy drinks that Bridie had brought down from the house.
Ben was now telling Bridie about the puppies that had lost their mother, and how he’d been instrumental in saving their lives by helping to hand feed them until they were properly weaned.
‘I did, Dad, didn’t I?’ He turned to Finn for reassurance.
‘You did, son,’ Finn confirmed.
The three pups were now ten weeks old and wriggling bundles of mischief, and Ben was totally besotted with the brown female, who he’d named Chocko, and who Finn, Sarah and Jade had agreed he could take home to keep. He was old enough for his first dog, and he’d have all of them on hand to help.
‘I love them all, but Chocko is the cutest and she’s coming to live with us next week.’
Bridie clapped her hands in excitement. There was something very childlike about his mother, Finn thought. No wonder she was on Ben’s wavelength.
‘How fantastic. Will Chocko be her forever name?’
Ben scratched his chin and looked serious. ‘I think so. I thought it might just be her baby name. I was gonna call her Banksy, but it doesn’t really match.’
‘Because she’s a girl?’ Bridie asked.
‘No, because I don’t think she’s a graffiti kind of pup. I called one of the other pups Banksy though,’ he said happily, drawing his knees up to his chest on the bench seat. ‘Grandpa Ray is taking Banksy home. And Dawn, who helps Auntie Jade, is having the other one. I called her Monet.’
‘Artistic names,’ Bridie said. ‘Lovely. But Chocko is great as well. You two are going to have such fun together.’
‘I know.’ Ben sounded completely sure of himself and Finn blinked a few times.
He was thrilled Ben and Bridie were getting on so well, although it was bittersweet watching her with his son. Ben wasn’t much older than he’d been when she had left him and his father, and it had taken him some soul searching before he’d agreed to bring Ben to meet her.
‘I won’t have him let down,’ he’d said to Bridie with steel in his voice. ‘So you’d better be pretty damn sure you want him in your life before I bring him anywhere near you.’
She had taken that. She’d bowed her head slightly and bitten her lip.
‘I won’t let him down. I can promise you that, Finn. And I won’t let you down again either.’
‘Can we come again to see Bridie, Mum?’ Ben asked when they were finally ready to go home.
‘We can if Bridie invites us,’ Sarah told him. It was obvious that she too had been a bit blown away by how well her son and his new grandmother had clicked.
‘You’d be very welcome anytime,’ Bridie said. ‘All of you. It’s been a delight to have you here.’ The truth of this shone out of her eyes and Finn, who’d been standing on Ben’s other side, squeezed his son’s hand.
‘We’ll arrange something soon, I’m sure,’ he told Ben.
‘Yay, yay, yay,’ Ben shrieked, and Finn and Jade swapped glances.
So far so good, their look said.
With the possible exception of Declan, things had gone very well with the meeting of his family, Finn thought as they finally waved goodbye to Bridie and the barbecue hut.
He hoped Declan would come round too. They might never be best buddies, but some acceptance from Declan’s side would be good.
‘Rome wasn’t built in a day,’ Bridie said when he’d phoned her the day after the barbecue to say thank you. ‘But I’m really hoping we can have a relationship going forward, Finn. If you want that. I also understand if you decide that it’s all too much.’
‘I do want it,’ he told her. ‘I want to get to know all of you properly.’
‘That’s fantastic. Tank you, tank you.’
He could hear the relief in her voice.
‘Although I’m not so sure Declan’s as keen,’ he added.
‘He’ll come round. All this has been a shock for him.’ She paused. ‘And Finn, I’m partly to blame for the way Declan is. I’ve spoiled him terribly. I’ve let him have his own way far too much… But he has a good heart. Beneath the arrogant front. Baby steps, hey?’
Finn had agreed baby steps were definitely the way forward.
He wished things could be different for Jade and her father. But he was realistic enough to know that not all estranged families could have happy-ever-after endings. They’d both suffered enough heartbreak in their past to know that fairy-tale endings when it came to families were the exception, and not the rule.