Twenty-six
Molly took a deep breath and waited.
‘Oh! Hello, dear. This is a nice surprise. We’ve just got home from our nephew’s. We’ve been on a cruise, you know. It was such fun. Although the Captain did say that he’s never been so worn out in his life, and when we said we wanted to book another, he suggested an alternative ship. Such a lovely man though. And so handsome too. Anyway, what can we do for you?’
‘May I come in and have a chat?’
‘Of course, dear. Vera! It’s Molly. She wants to have a chat.’
‘Hello, Molly,’ Vera said. ‘We’ve just got home from a cruise.’
‘I’ve already told her,’ said Rita.
‘Oh. Well do come in, dear.’
‘I’d like to ask you some questions about our conversation two weeks ago.’
‘Conversation?’ Rita queried. ‘Do sit.’
Rita indicated an armchair and Molly sat down.
‘Yes. You mentioned that my great-grandmother had a condition and then you refused to say what it was and told me to ask my dad.’ She saw the guarded look they exchanged.‘Well, Dad has no idea what you were talking about but I’ve been worrying myself sick, so I’m here to ask you if you’ll please tell me everything you know about my great-grandmother and her condition, and also whether my grandmother had it, and … whether there’s a chance it might be passed on to me. I’m sorry to be so direct, but we’re also going away on a cruise. Tomorrow in fact. And we won’t be back for a month. I can’t spend my holiday worrying. Please. Please. I’m begging you. Tell me whatever you know.’
Again they exchanged a look but this time a slightly bewildered one.
‘Well, dear,’ said Vera. ‘I don’t know what to say. We certainly didn’t mean to upset you and we never intended you to worry. How about a nice cup of tea?’
‘No thank you. How about some answers? Please.’
‘Oh dear,’ Rita said. ‘This is not something we like to talk about. I remember how upset she was about it. People can be so cruel, you know. So unkind.’
‘Was she … was my great-grandmother … mad?’
Vera nodded. ‘Well she certainly wasn’t happy. And yes. She would often lose her temper. But then they wouldn’t let her out, you see, and being stuck indoors isn’t healthy.’
‘What? I meant, was she insane? Or did she have some sort of affliction? Or something contagious?’
Again the looks passed between the sisters.
‘It’s not contagious, dear,’ Rita said. ‘And of course she wasn’t insane. Why would you think that? She wasn’t a pleasant person but life had treated her so badly. And she looked after her mother for her entire life. Just like your grandmother looked after your great-grandmother. That’s enough to make anyone miserable and cruel and unkind, without anything else. You do know your grandmother married her first cousin who was also a Law, don’t you? You were allowed to do that in those days.’
‘Yes. I did know that. Dad saw the marriage certificate years ago.’
Vera tutted. ‘That cottage was jam-packed with Laws from floor to ceiling. Cousins marrying cousins left right and centre. Anyway, the Laws held great store in other people’s opinions, and that’s why they kept your great-grandmother inside and wouldn’t let people visit unless they were invited. Because of her … deformity. They didn’t want anyone to see it, and they always covered her up from head to toe.’
‘Deformity? What deformity?’
‘She had a twisted arm and leg,’ Rita said, ‘Which meant her arm hung at her side and she dragged her left leg. She wasn’t born with it. It happened due to an accident. Until then she had been a perfectly normal healthy woman. It was terribly sad and she had an unhappy life. We were all forbidden to speak of it as children, and we were sworn to secrecy as we grew older. The laws weren’t … friendly people. Apart from your father, of course. But then he isn’t a true Law, is he? Not from the paternal line. He is your grandmother’s son so he is a Law from her side. But Millicent’s husband wasn’t his father. We thought your father knew that. Are you saying he doesn’t?’
‘What! What are you saying? That grandmother cheated on her husband?’
‘No dear,’ Vera said, with a tender smile. ‘She was already expecting your father when she married her cousin. That’s why she married him. The real father had a wife so he couldn’t marry her, could he?’
Molly’s head was spinning. She had come here to find out what dreadful affliction her great-grandmother had. Instead she’d been told the woman had been involved in a life-changing accident that left her body twisted, and that her family treated her like some sort of leper. Someone to be hidden away.
And then to discover that her grandmother had been pregnant when she married. That was a shock. Molly’s dad thought he was premature. That’s what his mum had told him. Now Molly had to tell her dad the truth. That the man he thought was his father, wasn’t.
