Chapter 36
It turned out that Brian Angelo the chef, not to be confused with Brian Angelo the rap musician, was incredibly easy to find. Not only was he easy to find, Jade discovered that he didn’t live very far away either.
Her investigations had led her to a semi-detached house on an estate on the outskirts of Salisbury. She and Finn had decided it would be better to call by in person than it would be to phone him in advance.
‘He’s obviously going to recognise me,’ Jade told Finn, ‘and if he doesn’t want to talk to me, well, he can say so, can’t he?’
Today was the day. It was now just gone three on an October Tuesday afternoon and they were sitting in Finn’s Toyota opposite Brian’s house while Jade gathered her thoughts.
‘Thanks for coming with me, Finn. I really appreciate it. I am quite nervous.’
He nodded, and she was relieved when he didn’t tell her there was nothing to be nervous about. They’d both done their share of digging up the past and it was nerve-racking. Because people were unpredictable and you never knew quite how they’d take it.
‘I’m right beside you,’ he said. ‘I can wait in the car if you like, or I can come with you.’
‘I want you to come. Presuming he’s happy to talk to me, I want to remember everything he says, and two sets of ears are better than one.’
‘So are you ready?’
‘I’m ready.’
Less than half a minute later they were standing by a neat blue front door and for the first time Jade realised that the house had a name as well as a number. It was called Arleston Court Cottage.
So he’d named it after her mother’s flagship hotel. That was interesting. She rang the bell and it chimed somewhere within. Jade’s stomach cramped as she saw the dark outline of a figure through the glass, coming down the hall to answer it.
And then he was there in front of them. He looked greyer than she remembered, and a little more thin-faced with deep lines around his mouth.
‘Hello, Brian,’ she began hesitantly. ‘I’m sorry to call without phoning but I wasn’t sure of your number.’
For a fraction of a second she wasn’t sure which way he was going to go. Was he pleased or irritated to see her? He didn’t look particularly pleased, but at least he hadn’t slammed the door in their faces. Neither had he asked them in.
‘I was wondering if I could ask you some things about my mother,’ she went on.
‘Will it take long?’
‘No, I don’t think so. Um, this is Finn, my husband, by the way.’
He nodded and indicated they follow him. The house was larger than it had looked from outside. They passed three doorways on the right before he led them through a messy kitchen and out into a conservatory that backed onto a patio.
‘Take a seat. Can I get you a drink?’
They both shook their heads and sat side by side on a rattan settee. The conservatory was full of house plants, filling the air with green. It was a very peaceful space with a newspaper and a dirty coffee mug on a nearby small table. This was obviously where he’d been sitting before they’d arrived.
Brian sat opposite them. ‘What is it you wanted to know?’
Blimey, this was even harder than she’d expected. Jade swallowed. She couldn’t just dive in and say, do you know why Elizabeth banished my father from my life?
But he was looking at her expectantly. She had to say something.
‘You were close to my mum, weren’t you?’ Maybe she should establish that first. She was relieved when he nodded.
‘So, I… I… was wondering why you never, er, got married.’
‘You came here to ask me why I didn’t marry your mother.’ He snorted and for a moment Jade thought she’d offended him somehow, but then she realised he was laughing.
‘Um, yes, partly.’ She waited for him to stop chortling, thankful that Finn was next to her, his leg touching hers. There was a world of reassurance in that touch.
‘Elizabeth wouldn’t marry me,’ he said at last. ‘Because of you. She had this fear that if we married and she died first I’d somehow change the will and cut you out of it and then you wouldn’t get your rightful inheritance.’
‘What?’ Jade stared at him in shock. It was so far away from what she’d been expecting. ‘Did she tell you that? She can’t have told you that. It doesn’t make sense.’
‘She told me it several times. Each time I asked her to marry me.’ He looked at her.
‘I hoped she’d change her mind. I hoped she would learn to trust me.
But I don’t think she ever did. Not when it came to money.
’ He paused. ‘And just for the record. I wouldn’t have done what she was so scared of.
I know we didn’t quite see eye to eye when you were younger but I would never have gone against your mother’s wishes where you were concerned.
Besides…’ He waved a hand. ‘We could have put things in place – legally I mean – so that she… you… were protected.’
Jade felt her head spin. She was glad she was sitting down. She hadn’t seen this coming at all. She paused. Beyond Brian’s head a bluebottle buzzed against the corner of a window.
Her head buzzed too with a million more questions.
‘But I don’t understand. It doesn’t make sense. Why was she so fixed on me inheriting the hotels? She knew I wouldn’t want to work in them. Or even want them. She knew I’d probably just sell them.’
Brian shrugged. ‘Your guess is as good as mine, but I think she always felt guilty – for packing off your dad. And so she wanted to make it up to you. And Elizabeth’s raison d’être was money so that’s how she did it.
You were spoilt rotten when you were a kid.
The dog, the pony, the skating lessons, the swimming lessons, the best nannies money could buy.
’ His voice was ever so slightly scathing. ‘Don’t you remember?’
‘Of course I remember. But I didn’t ask for all that. I just wanted her. But she was never there.’
‘No.’ He looked at her assessingly. ‘She was too busy earning the money to buy you the things she thought would make up for never spending any time with you. The biggest bloody irony in the world.’
He gave another tiny bitter laugh and Jade realised that he must have had the same problem. Getting a slice of Elizabeth’s time had been all he’d wanted too.
‘It was different for me,’ he said, as if he’d read her mind. ‘I could see as much as I wanted of Elizabeth, as long as I worked in her kitchens.’
‘But you couldn’t have her totally.’
‘No. I couldn’t. No one could. She was married to her work!’
There was a pause as Jade tried to process this. It was impossible. She gave up.
‘I never understood why she banished my father in the first place,’ she went on haltingly.
‘That one’s quite easy. We had just fallen in love.’
‘You mean you knew her before she met my father.’
‘Of course I did. I was working for her. The attraction was there, but I think she was in denial. Appearances were important to Elizabeth. She didn’t want to be seen to be going out with her staff.
So she dated other guys through some high-end agency.
That’s how she met Hector. He was a far more suitable prospect than I was.
Banker, wasn’t it?’ There was a slight sneer in his words.
‘And of course she got pregnant and so they married.’
‘But you still kept working for her.’
‘I did. I adored her. And I didn’t think it would last with Hector. They were too different.’
‘And you were right,’ Jade finished. ‘Wow. I wish I’d known all this before.’
Brian met her eyes with a steady gaze. There were worlds of emotion in that gaze. Impatience, compassion, a hint of regret, possibly even a flicker of guilt. She didn’t understand the guilt at first, but then she caught on.
He could have told her all this when her mother had died. He could have answered a lifetime of questions. But why would he have done? He would always be loyal to Elizabeth. He always had been, and to be fair, he probably wouldn’t even have known she wanted to ask questions.
He had never treated her like a daughter and she had never treated him like a father. They had always just put up with each other and for the first time she was beginning to understand why that was.
She was so glad Finn was beside her, even though he’d said nothing at all. Somewhere during the conversation his hand had crept into hers though and now he squeezed it gently. I love you. I’m here, said that squeeze.
Brian cleared his throat and went on gruffly. ‘Well, you know it all now. Are you in touch with your father?’
‘Yes. I tracked him down last year.’
‘I hope it works out for you.’ He shifted in his chair and Jade was conscious that he’d had enough of this interview and wanted them gone.
And she thought it must be hard for him too, this digging up of the past when he hadn’t asked for it.
At least he’d let them in. At least he’d talked now. He hadn’t had to do that.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘Thank you for speaking to us. You must miss her.’ She stood up slowly, Finn stood up too, and then finally so did Brian.
They walked ahead of him, back through the messy kitchen to the front door, but he didn’t answer her question until they were standing by it again.
‘I miss her every day of my life. Your mother was a fine woman.’ His eyes looked a little watery as he stared at the coat hook by the door and then fleetingly back at her face.
‘Don’t think too harshly of her. She had her reasons for doing what she did.
Her parents were puritans. She once told me the only thing she ever wanted to do as a child was to impress them. But she never once managed it!’
Back outside in the bright afternoon light, Jade let out a breath.
‘Wow,’ Finn said. ‘That was…’
‘Enlightening,’ she finished for him.
‘I was going to say shocking.’
‘Yeah, that too.’ She grabbed his hand and tugged him across the quiet residential street, which looked the same as when they’d gone in. Cars parked nose to tail. Old trees that had been pollarded so often they were grey and twisted parodies of themselves. A white sky above red-bricked suburbia.
‘I need to get out of here,’ Jade added. ‘I need to get home.’