Chapter 40
At first, Vee thought she wasn’t going to be able to enjoy Beryl’s fuddle because she was so jittery about how everyone would react to Finn when he announced to them all that he was definitely not her nephew, as they’d previously thought.
It was Finn’s idea to lay their cards on the table.
Vee hadn’t understood why this was necessary, at least not yet, but her son was turning out to be one of the most straightforward characters she’d ever met.
Even as the first drinks were being distributed, Finn had made his way to a place in the room where everyone could see him and clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention.
‘Hey, guys,’ he’d said, beaming around the room. ‘We haven’t been properly introduced, but I’m Finn Prescott-Barnes, and you may have heard of me as Vee’s nephew. Well, it’s a long story but she’s actually my mom.’
There followed several loud gasps as everyone except Rick and Beryl digested this shocker. Vee’s eyes were on her hostess. Beryl was clearly not surprised but she was smiling at Finn with the benevolence of one who fully approved of what he was saying. ‘About time too,’ Vee heard her murmur.
‘So, this lady here, it turns out, is one of the most generous people you’re likely to meet.
She gave birth to me solely because her sister and her partner couldn’t have a baby any other way.
My two moms, Cassie and Marissa, have brought me up with all the kindness and love you can imagine, and I think they’ve done a swell job,’ said Finn.
He did a twirl and a bow at this point, making everyone laugh.
Vee felt as if her heart would burst with pride as she watched her son commanding the room.
He had everyone eating out of his hand by now and began to briefly tell them about his life in the suburbs of Boston where he lived with Cassie and Marissa and was learning his trade, working alongside a carpenter who made much-sought-after furniture and the occasional wooden sculpture.
Vee opened her mouth to comment, but Finn held up a hand. ‘I think Vee is going to tell you I got into a prestigious law school but dropped out?’
She nodded. ‘That did take me by surprise at the time,’ she admitted.
‘I hated all that studying,’ said Finn. ‘I wanted to create beautiful things, not sit in a lecture theatre for hours hearing some boring dude in a suit drone on about dry-as-dust stuff. The moms weren’t happy, but they came round when I made my first test piece.
It was a bookcase for their study. Anyway, that’s my story.
Thought it was easier to tell it to you all at once.
Looking forward to hearing all yours now. I’m gonna mingle, guys.’
After that, Vee didn’t get chance to talk to Finn for quite a while.
He was surrounded by all the others who were keen to chat endlessly about their own experiences of a variety of subjects, including woodwork (Sid and Frank), New England recipes (Winnie and Rick), current American fashion for men (Maurice and Beryl) and holiday destinations near Boston (Anthea).
When Sam arrived with Elsie, explaining that she’d had a party of her own to go to first, Finn was more than ready to sit on the floor and investigate the pack of cards she’d found in her goodie bag.
He showed her how to play Strip-Jack-Naked, and she picked the rules up almost immediately.
When the game palled, Finn began to regale Elsie with tales of all his visits to Disneyland over the years.
‘You’ve been nine times? Really?’ Elsie said breathlessly. ‘Dad, when can we go? Could we visit Finn in America? I really want to see Disneyland.’
Vee was relaxing nearby at this point and was the only one to notice the sudden pause that followed Elsie’s question. She looked up and caught the look that passed between Finn and Sam. It was over as soon as it began, but the moment was electric.
‘Oh, you can come stay anytime you guys like,’ said Finn. ‘We’ve got spare bedrooms. We love guests.’
‘Can we, Dad? Can we really go?’
Sam made a noncommittal reply and the moment passed, but Vee was watching him more closely now.
When they were in the pub, he’d seemed dejected when he said his previous relationship was over.
Now, Sam’s eyes were shining as he helped Finn and Elsie to put the playing cards away, and Vee’s newly honed motherly powers of observation noted the split second when Sam’s hand brushed against Finn’s and the two sprang apart as if, once again, electricity was involved.
So that was the lie of the land. She’d wondered why her sister had never reported Finn having more than a couple of dates with girls.
Well, if Sam was going to strike up a relationship with someone from across the pond, he would have a lot to contend with.
Vee realised that her mind had been foolishly thinking ahead to a closer relationship with her son, and then with his future wife, and possibly even with the babies they would produce.
She let the vision slip away, replaced it with a somewhat different one, then inwardly berated herself for being so ridiculous.
She’d witnessed a moment or two of intense attraction.
It could come to nothing. But if it did develop…
if Sam and Finn were to get together… Finn might even move to England.
‘What are you thinking about?’ Rick asked Vee, as he passed her chair and bent to top up her glass.
‘Oh, nothing much. Just daydreaming,’ she answered, blushing.
How ridiculous to be acting like this. But that’s how regular mums sometimes think, I suppose, a silent voice in her head said.
I’m starting to feel as if he’s mine again after all these years.
I mustn’t let it happen. He’ll be going home soon.
The thought was depressing, and Vee forced herself to get up and go to the kitchen.
It must be time to start helping Beryl to serve the puddings that she’d spied on the worktop earlier.
But even as she passed round dishes and spoons, chatting on autopilot with the Saga Louts and the other guests, her gaze kept returning to where Finn and Sam were sitting on the sofa with Elsie between them.
Finn was reading to Elsie from a book that Beryl had produced.
With a pang, Vee realised that it must be an old one that had once belonged to Patrick.
She hoped Rick had made time to speak to Beryl as he’d planned.
The older woman certainly looked relaxed and cheerful as she listened to the story.
‘This is a great book,’ said Elsie, as Finn finished reading. ‘Did you like it, Dad? The girls in it were a bit wet though, weren’t they? They let the boys tell them what to do all the time. I don’t do that, do I? I play football with the boys most break times and I’m always the captain.’
Sam didn’t answer immediately, and Vee saw that he was having trouble focusing on his daughter’s comments, having been watching Finn intently for the whole time he was reading. This hadn’t gone unnoticed by her son, Vee observed. He was grinning at Sam over Elsie’s head.
‘Boys and girls are a bit different these days, I guess,’ he told Elsie.
‘Which do you like best, boys or girls?’ Elsie asked, leaning on Finn as she leafed through the pages to get back to the beginning.
‘That’s a tricky one,’ said Finn, his eyes still on Sam.
‘I like you, Elsie, and you’re a girl. And I like your dad, and he’s definitely a boy.
You’re both very cool. So my view is that it doesn’t matter whether you’re one or the other, it’s what kind of person you are that’s the important bit.
Same with the colour of your skin. We’re all the same underneath. ’
‘We’re not actually the same though, are we?’ said Elsie, frowning. ‘I mean, boys have willies and girls have—’
‘I think we’ll leave the biology lesson there, love,’ said Sam. ‘We’ve got the picture.’
Several of the others had stopped their conversations to listen in to the story and the following conversation. Frank was the first to comment.
‘That’s a very fine way of putting it, young man,’ he said. ‘I wish more people thought like you.’
‘I couldn’t agree more,’ said Winnie. ‘Girl or boy, black or white, rich or poor – we’re all family if we want to be. And you lot are definitely my family now. Life’s always better when you’re with people you love.’
‘Don’t give Winnie any more Prosecco,’ Beryl said rather gruffly. ‘She sometimes gets soppy when she’s had a few.’
‘Cheeky mare,’ said Winnie. ‘I’m as sober as a… as a… well, anyway, I’m perfectly sober, thank you. I can’t say the same for Anthea though. She’s a bit squiffy, if you ask me. Oh, my goodness!’
This exclamation had been triggered by Anthea rummaging in her handbag and then quickly putting on a pair of stylish diamanté-trimmed spectacles to have a look at the book Elsie was showing her.
Anthea glanced up and grinned at them all.
‘Well, I suppose you had to see them sometime. I had an eye test a couple of weeks ago and not only am I getting very short-sighted but apparently, I’ve got cataracts that need attention. So…’
‘…so that’s why you’re not driving!’ cried Beryl. ‘We were all wondering. I must say you look the dog’s b—’ She glanced at Elsie. ‘…the dog’s biscuits in them,’ she finished.
‘Thank you, Beryl. And for your information, Winnie, I’m not at all squiffy,’ said Anthea. ‘Mind you, I can’t say the same for the rest of you.’
The party degenerated into a babble of good-natured arguments about who was and who wasn’t squiffy, and Vee had just sat back in her chair to observe this entertaining spectacle when she realised that Rick was watching her intently.
The look on his face was an unfamiliar one.
It seemed like admiration mixed with a kind of puzzlement.
Vee raised her eyebrows at him in the hope that he’d explain the look.
She was still trying to get her head around the fact that he’d liked her so much back in 1985, when she hadn’t even known he existed, except as an unappealing person in the same year who didn’t make any effort to talk to her group.
Now, Rick had somehow morphed into the kind, generous man she’d come to rely on, but since the revelation about his version of what happened at the campsite and in the churchyard, they’d been avoiding any conversations that touched on those sensitive subjects.
‘You’ve pulled it off, haven’t you?’ Rick said.
‘Pulled what off?’ Vee asked. ‘I’m not a conjurer. I’ve not been doing tricks. What are you getting at?’
He smiled. ‘I was paying you a compliment, actually. You’ve already managed to integrate your son into Willowbrook society, or at least the part of it that matters to us, and I can see you’ve got a good relationship with him.
The friendship must have been there before, but you’ve developed it really quickly without trying to smother him. It can’t have been easy.’
‘Thank you.’ Vee wanted to say more but she was suddenly too emotional to think straight. She watched Finn and Sam organising a game of Consequences, asking Beryl for paper and pencils, sorting everyone out and explaining how the game worked to Elsie, who was hopping up and down on the spot.
‘Those are two very good blokes, you know,’ said Rick. ‘You don’t need to worry. Just let things happen. It’ll either work out, or it won’t. No harm done.’
‘You saw it too,’ said Vee. ‘I thought it was just me.’
Rick shook his head but didn’t expand on his previous advice. Vee let the soothing words sink into her mind as a strip of paper and a pencil was pushed into her hand by Elsie.
‘It’s a game about what happens,’ Elsie explained. ‘You write a boy’s name and fold it over, then you pass it on.’
The little girl carried on with her commentary, but Vee was still watching Finn.
He was making Beryl and Winnie laugh with a story about how Cassie had showed him how to play the game at one of their cocktail parties and he’d managed to work all the rude words he knew into it, thoroughly embarrassing Marissa in front of her very staid boss.
‘Consequences,’ she said to Rick. ‘Everything we do has them.’
‘But luckily, although it cost you a lot in heartache – yes, I know it did even though you haven’t said as much to me – luckily, the results of what you did over twenty years ago are amazing.’
Vee didn’t answer because, above the clamour, she’d just heard the doorbell.
‘I’ll get it,’ she shouted to Beryl, when she saw that their hostess had heard it too.
She wove her way through the group of friends who were settling down to write on their bits of paper.
When she reached the door, she could see a shadowy figure through the frosted glass.
She opened the door. There on the step stood a man of medium build, although he somehow gave the impression of strength.
He was wearing a long black coat and a black fedora and had a short grey beard and moustache.
Although his eyes were surrounded by fine wrinkles and laugh lines, they were the brightest blue Vee had ever seen.
‘Hello,’ the man said, politely doffing his hat. ‘I know this is going to sound very peculiar for someone of my age, but my name’s Benjamin Gale and I’m looking for my mother.’