Lizzie Marshall's Wedding (28 page)

‘And your husband? Or partner. I ... I noticed you don’t wear a ring.’

‘My husband ... died.’

‘Oh Jeez love! I’m so sorry.’

‘It’s fine. I’ll tell you about it sometime. It was just before Lily was born.’

‘So ... apart from Lily, you have no family here?’

‘No ... but I have a boyfriend! He ... he lives locally.’

‘And you’re happy?’

‘Yes. Very. He’s a truly wonderful man.’

‘I’m glad. I’ve got to go back, my life’s in Aus. but I’d really like to spend more time with you and ... may I meet Lily? I don’t have to leave for another week and –’

‘Of course! She’ll be thrilled to know she has another grandfather.’

‘You’ll tell her who I am?’

‘Yes! Unless ... unless you’d rather I didn’t.’

‘No! I mean, I’d love her to know. I just ... it’s been twenty-seven years. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I didn’t even know if you’d remember me – or want to see me. I just wanted to see you again. Talk to you. I wasn’t expecting anything.’

‘You’re my father! I’ve spent twenty-seven years of my life thinking you abandoned me, that you didn’t want me, that ... you didn’t love me. Today I’ve discovered all that was a lie. You don’t know how much this means to me. To find out that you did want me, you did love me ... ’

‘I still do want you Rebel and I’ll always love you. You’re my daughter.’

Becky burst into tears and her father hugged her close and stroked her hair. In the kitchen, Jess and Susie were crying and hugging too.

There was a knock on the door and Max marched in but he stopped in his tracks when he saw Becky in the arms of a man in his fifties and her friends sobbing. A cold sharp knife pierced his heart.

‘What’s happened? Where’s Lily? Is she hurt?’ he shrieked, terrified that something had happened to the precious little girl he’d come to love.

Becky raised startled tear-laden eyes to his. ‘Oh Max! No! No! Lily’s fine. She’s at Jenny’s.’

His eyes searched the room and came to rest on the man. ‘Then ... what’s going on? Who’s been hurt? What’s happened? Will someone please tell me before I go mad with worry?’

Becky sniffed and reached out her hand to him, pulling herself slightly away from the man she hugged. ‘Sorry Max. This is ... I’d like you to meet ... my father.’

‘Well I have to say, you’re one person I never expected to meet,’ Max said thirty minutes later.

Jess and Susie had left and Becky had gone to pick up Lily. Max had offered to take her but Becky said she wanted to explain to Lily that she was about to meet her grandfather and that was a conversation they needed to have alone – which both Max and her father understood.

 ‘I expect not but I’m very pleased we have. You’ll probably feel it’s none of my business as I haven’t been around for the last twenty-seven years of my daughter’s life, but I am her father just the same and I would like to know – do you love my little Rebel?’

Max grinned. They’d already explained to him the reason for her father’s pet-name for her. ‘That suits her, Rebel, I mean. I call her Fifi and in answer to your question, yes I do. More than she seems to believe, in fact. I love your granddaughter too.’

‘And ... does this have a future, do you think?’

Max held Peter’s eyes. He could see the genuine concern of a loving father. ‘It does if I have any say in the matter. I can’t speak for Becky but ... I’d like to think she feels the same. I believe she does. To tell you the truth, your coming here may have an even greater impact than reuniting father and daughter, although that’s pretty spectacular. Becky believes ... she expects actually, that everyone whom she loves will either abandon her or die. I can understand why she feels that way and so will you when she tells you more about the past twenty-seven years. It’s a deep seated fear, made worse by the fact that her mother, step-father and husband all died but it seems it stems from you abandoning her –’

‘But I didn’t! I’ve –’

‘That’s precisely the point I’m making. Not only did you
not
abandon her, you’ve continued to love her, for her entire life – even if you haven’t actually been around to tell her so. I think you may be the best thing that’s happened to Becky in a very, very long time.’

Peter smiled warmly at Max. ‘From the little I’ve heard so far about you, I got the distinct impression that was you.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Lily was almost as thrilled to discover she had another grandfather as she had been when Max had given her the pony for her birthday. She didn’t really understand why she was only getting this one now as she’d had her other grandfather for her whole life and she was five, so she was very old.

They told her that he lived a long way away, so she assumed it must have taken him all those years to get here, although her friends often went on holidays to places they said were a long way away and it didn’t seem to take them very long at all.

She did get a little more excited when he said that one day soon, if she and Mummy wanted, he would pay for them to go and see where he lived and, as it was a long way away he said they would have to go on an aeroplane to get there. She liked that idea a lot, especially because she would then be able to tell her friends that she had been on an aeroplane.

Mostly though, she liked the cuddly toy sheep he had brought for her. It was soft and warm and she could carry it on her back because it wasn’t just a cuddly toy sheep, it was a bag too.

‘Where are you staying?’ Max asked when Becky took Lily up to bed.

‘At The Beckleston Inn. I arrived this morning.’

‘It’s nice there; Trisha and Terry are lovely but unless you’d prefer to have your own space, which I completely understand, I’d be really pleased if you came and stayed at my mum’s. No. Don’t worry, I’m not still living with my mum at thirty-seven, I have my own place in town, I just stay at mum’s to be near Becky – although most of the time I’m here.’

‘Most of the time?’

‘We’re adults – and we’re in love,’ he said, grinning but not entirely sure he should be. ‘As I said, it’s up to you but you’re very welcome at the Hall. Mum’ll be happy to have you. Trisha and Terry won’t mind either. Discuss it with Becky and let me know.’

‘Discuss what with Becky?’

‘Ah Fifi. I’ve suggested your dad might like to stay at mum’s. I’ve got to pop out for about an hour; something I need to discuss with Ben but I’ll be back by nine and you can let me know then.’ He kissed her briefly on the lips and left father and daughter to catch up on twenty-seven years of one another’s lives.

Peter decided that, as his bags were already in his room at the Inn, and as he was beginning to feel the effects of jetlag, he’d spend his first night there but warmly accepted Max’s offer to stay at the Hall for the remainder of his stay.

‘I still can’t believe it,’ Becky said when she and Max were lounging together on the sofa after her father had gone. ‘How mum managed to convince me, so completely, that dad had abandoned us. I always thought my mother was the victim and that dad must have done something horrid when he left and all the time, it was mum who’d lied and done something horrid and dad who was the victim.’

‘Actually sweetheart, you were the victim. Your mum shouldn’t have left like that and she shouldn’t have lied – and I’d still like to know how she managed to marry Horace when she was already married; I must ask Gerald about it – anyway, neither should she have kept you from your real father but, your dad didn’t help himself by saying she couldn’t take you or making false threats. Unhappy women do very nasty things, we’ve seen it ourselves with Kim and what she did to Lizzie and Jack and her own husband, Ross. The point is, they were adults, and you were a child. They should have thought how their actions would affect you but they didn’t. You were the victim and it’s affected your life more than they could ever have imagined.’

‘You’re right. Just think how different my life would have been if they’d separated amicably.’

‘Very different. At least now though, you know that not everyone you love leaves you. That must surely be a good thing.’

‘It’s a very good thing. A very good thing indeed. What’s happened with Kim and Ross by the way? Last time I asked you said you hadn’t heard anything. Lizzie and Jack didn’t mention it either, other than to say Ross was trying to sort things out.’

‘That’s all I know too. When Ross got back from his business trip, Jack told him what she’d done. Needless to say, Ross wasn’t too pleased. The last I heard was that Ross was thinking of leaving her and trying to get custody of their son. That should, in theory be straightforward; Kim’s not really interested in the child but if Ross leaves her, she is just as likely to try and get custody just to spite him. Unhappy women doing nasty things, as I said and another child’s life affected by adults who should know better.’

Becky was feeling even happier the next day – and only twenty-fours before, she would have said that wasn’t possible. But she now had a father who loved her and that made her part of a real family; it wasn’t just her and Lily any more if Max did leave her. She wondered why it should make such a huge difference, after all, he lived thousands of miles away so it wasn’t as if she was going to have him just around the corner, but it did make a difference and a very big one. Because Max was right. Not everyone she loved left her.

She thought about Max and her heart seemed to swell in her chest. She loved him so completely, so utterly and yet she rarely told him so. He knew she loved him, of course, she realised that, and you shouldn’t have to constantly tell people you love them but neither should you constantly tell people that you thought they would leave – and that she did say – often.

She sat in her garden drinking coffee, listening to the birds chirping and a soft early morning breeze rustling the leaves of the trees, and wondered why she did that. Why she constantly thought he would leave her. She knew it was because of her past experiences but now, sitting here with the sun playing hide and seek through marshmallow clouds, she realised how absurd that notion was.

Yes, he might leave her and if he did, there was nothing she could do to change that; constantly worrying about it wouldn’t help, constantly expecting him to go, wouldn’t make him stay. And wasn’t it also true that she could leave him? She wouldn’t of course, because she loved him so much – but he didn’t know that. There were no guarantees and yet he didn’t automatically assume she would end their relationship one day.

She watched a butterfly land on the purple buddleia and thought about how fleeting time is, how none of us can know what life has in store for us and worrying about what the future may hold is not a good way to spend your present.

Max brought his coffee out and joined her at the table. His thick blond hair was still wet from the shower and little drips of water marked his T-shirt where they fell. He smiled at her and his eyes were full of love; pure unquestioning, undoubting, trusting love.

‘It looks like it might be a lovely day,’ he said nodding towards the sky.

She smiled and turned in her chair to face him. ‘Yes it does,’ she said. ‘And it’s the perfect day to tell you I love you – completely, thoroughly, utterly – I love you.’ Then she kissed him just to make sure he understood.

‘Wow!’ he said when she finally moved away. ‘It really is going to be a lovely day. Perfect in fact.’

The day just kept getting better. Her father arrived at nine a.m. and as it was such a gloriously sunny day and Peter was now going to be staying at the Hall, Max suggested they all go there and get him settled in.

‘We can have a picnic at the pond,’ Max said. ‘If the grass is still wet from yesterday, we’ve got matting and blankets so it won’t be a problem. Lily can ride her pony and I’ll watch over her while you two get to know one another a little better.

‘A family picnic,’ Peter said, ‘I’d like that very much.’

Margaret and Victoria were in the kitchen and Max did the introductions then took Peter to his room to settle in. It didn’t take him long; he was anxious to spend as much time with his daughter as he could.

Just over an hour later, they were settled near the pond, feeding the ducks and basking in the sunshine. Lily was giving Max and her pony, which she’d named Magic – because it was – precise instructions as to where she wanted to go, and where she wanted to go was for a ride right around the grounds of Beckleston Hall.

‘It seems she wants to survey her empire,’ Max said. ‘We may be some time.’

In their absence, Becky told her father everything that had happened to her over the past twenty-seven years and he was furious to learn of Jeremy, his suicide and more importantly in his eyes, the theft of her inheritance.

‘Well,’ he said when she’d finished, ‘I wish I could have been here for you but there is one thing I can do for you. I called my solicitor last night to tell him I’d found you. You’ve always been in my will but as I didn’t know where you were, a trust was set up until you could be found.’

‘Dad! I don’t want your money! I mean ... I didn’t mean it like that but you know what I mean. Just having you in my life again is the best thing you could ever give me.’

He reached out and took her hand in his. ‘I know love but you’ve always been provided for, I just need the terms changed because I’ve now added Lily. I’m not a millionaire but we’re not badly off. Not that I think you’ll need it.’

He glanced towards Max who was some way off with Lily and Magic and his implication was clear.

‘That’s really lovely of you, dad. Thank you. And thank you for telling me.’

‘I’m telling you because ... there’s something else you need to know. I didn’t mention it yesterday because I thought you’d had enough surprises for one day. I told you I stopped loving Lily long before she left. Well, it gets lonely on a sheep station especially for a young man and about four years after she left, someone moved in with me. Her name’s Gilly,  Gillian and she’s a lovely woman; I love her dearly.’

‘Dad that’s great. I’m so happy for you!’