‘It will be interesting to see if this young lady follows family tradition and chooses a career in law,’ Ruth commented as she knelt back and looked from Amelia to Bobbie.
Bobbie took a deep breath. Here was her chance and she trembled in her shoes; Sam would not have sidestepped it and neither must she.
‘Joss told me a little about the family’s history. He said that the Haslewich branch was started by someone from Chester who broke away from his own family....’
‘Yes,’ Ruth agreed. ‘Josiah was the youngest of three sons. He quarrelled with his father over his choice of a wife and was in effect disinherited. As a result he began his own practice here in Haslewich and, I suspect, because of the reason behind the split, there has always in the past been a distinct degree of rivalry between the two branches, more keenly felt in my observation by our branch than the family in Chester.’ She gave Bobbie a friendly smile and asked, ‘Do you have any brothers or sisters?’
Bobbie hesitated briefly before replying. ‘I have a brother and a sister,’ she said carefully, keeping her voice as neutral as she could before adding, ‘As a matter of fact, my sister and I are twins. She’s called Samantha.’
‘Twins ...’ Ruth raised her eyebrows. ‘What a coincidence. Of course you know by now, that twins feature very heavily in our genealogy and in fact...’
Bobbie’s heart was thumping just a little bit too heavily as she listened to Ruth talk about the occurrence of twins in the Crighton family. But she was also obviously interested in finding out more about Bobbie’s parents.
‘Olivia mentioned that your father was a politician...?’
‘Yes, he is,’ Bobbie confirmed and felt pressured to add as Ruth waited patiently, ‘My father’s family are from New England—that’s where Sam and I grew up. But he and my mother spend a lot of time in Washington.’
‘Does your mother have a career?’
‘No...not now.’ Bobbie bit her lip as she heard the curtness in her own voice. ‘She...we... My mother hasn’t been very well lately,’ she said quietly. ‘And we...my...my father... No, she doesn’t have a career.’
Ruth eyed her young guest thoughtfully, sensing not just Bobbie’s reluctance to talk about her family and in particular her mother, but also her unexpressed concern and anguish over her mother’s health, remembering how she had felt when she had lost her own mother, her only support in a household that was ruled by her father and his prejudices—prejudices that to a great extent had been backed up and continued by her brother.
‘You’re obviously very concerned about your mother,’ she said with gentle sympathy. ‘If you’re worried about using Olivia’s telephone to ring home, I’m sure if you explained the situation to her, she’d be only too glad for you to do so. If she isn’t, which I can’t imagine, then you must certainly feel free to come over here and telephone from here.’ When Bobbie stared at her, she added quietly, ‘I do know what it’s like to be separated from someone you love, you know. How it feels to worry about them, to imagine all manner of horrid things happening to them when you aren’t there to help, to be with them.’
‘My mother had a serious operation last year and she still hasn’t fully recovered.’ Bobbie swallowed back the tears she could feel thickening at the back of her throat. What on earth had come over her?
The nature of her mother’s illness—the change in her from a positive, warm, happy person to someone who could, at times, be so desperately low—had shocked and frightened them all. It was regarded as a family secret they had all instinctively and automatically chosen to keep closely hidden in order to protect not just their mother, but their father, as well. Normally Bobbie would no more have dreamt of discussing her mother’s health with someone outside their immediate family than she would have taken off her clothes and walked naked through the streets of her home town. And now, feeling that she had not just broken some sacred rule but also, and even more distressingly, betrayed her mother into the bargain, she found it hard to both understand why she had mentioned her mother’s health at all and to forgive herself for having done so.
‘I must go,’ she told Ruth, standing up and picking Amelia up as she did so. ‘Caspar will be back soon and he’ll wonder where we are.’
‘I expect I shall see you on Sunday,’ Ruth said as she escorted her to the door, and then, to Bobbie’s shock, as she turned to leave, Ruth reached out and touched her arm lightly. ‘Try not to let your very natural concern for your mother make you over-fearful. I’m sure if there was anything you should know that your sister would tell you. It’s easy enough for me to say, I realise,’ she added ruefully, ‘but I was once your age and I do know how it feels to ... to worry about someone you love....’
As she spoke she looked down at Amelia and said inconsequentially, ‘Babies always seem so very vulnerable....’
‘Perhaps because they are,’ Bobbie returned curtly. ‘After all, they have no control over how they’re treated, have they? They’re totally dependent on the adults around them for everything. Protection...nourishment ... love!’
Bobbie’s head was aching by the time she had returned to Olivia and Caspar’s. Tonight was one of her evenings off and she intended to drive into Chester, ostensibly to call at the Grosvenor to check if there were any messages for her but, in reality, in order to telephone her sister.
At the Grosvenor the receptionist remembered her and greeted her with a warm smile. There were no messages but Bobbie hadn’t expected any, and fortunately the lobby was relatively empty as she went to use the pay phone.
Samantha answered her call so quickly that Bobbie guessed she had been waiting impatiently for her to ring. After giving her the pay phone number, Bobbie waited for her to call back, glancing around the foyer as she did so and then freezing as she spotted Luke on the opposite side of the room, standing by the entrance to the restaurant. Fortunately he had not seen her, and as the telephone rang, Bobbie turned her back on him and made herself as inconspicuous as possible, praying that he would not do so. He had been talking to another man, and Bobbie kept her fingers crossed that the pair of them were on the way to have dinner in the restaurant.
On hearing about the family gathering on Sunday, Samantha excitedly said that that would be the perfect time for Bobbie to stand up and say what they had rehearsed. She was quite adamant that the time for retribution had arrived.
‘I know,’ Bobbie agreed steadily, ‘but—’
‘But me no buts,’ Samantha insisted fiercely and then, relenting, Bobbie heard her twin saying in a softer voice, ‘Love you, Bo bo....’
Bo bo had been her childhood nickname and Bobbie felt her eyes filling and was torn between laughter and tears as she heard Sam use it now.
‘Love you, too, Sam,’ she returned shakily, her voice husky with emotion as she blew a kiss into the receiver before replacing it and then murmuring, ‘Oh, Sam, I miss you,’ before she started to turn round.
Bobbie stiffened apprehensively as she heard Luke saying cynically over his shoulder, ‘Joss, Max and now Sam ... You certainly like to share your favours around generously, don’t you?’
Unable to believe her ears, Bobbie shot back furiously, ‘For your information, Sam is...Sam is very, very special to me.’
‘Really.’ Luke’s eyes narrowed as he told her grittily, ‘You do surprise me. From the way you responded to me, it didn’t feel like there was anyone even special in your life, never mind very, very special.’
Bobbie could feel her face growing hot as she hissed back at him before turning on her heel and heading determinedly for the exit, ‘I did not respond to you. You made a grab for me.’
She pushed through the door and walked out onto the street, thankful to feel the cool night air on her burning face and even more thankful to have left