A Perfect Christmas

Chapter THIRTY-ONE


It was gone eleven o’clock when an exhausted Jan sank down in an armchair opposite Glen to look worriedly at him. He was seemingly staring into space, looking absolutely shattered, though that wasn’t surprising with all that had gone on earlier and what he was having to deal with now. She desperately wanted to go over to him and put her arms around him and offer him comfort, but not as a friend which she knew was all she was to him.

Sensing Jan had returned, Glen looked over at her and flashed a wan smile. ‘Is she all right?’ he asked, though in truth he knew it was a hollow question as it would take Lucy far longer than a few hours to accept and come to terms with the truth of her birth.

Jan nodded. ‘She’s finally fallen asleep. Poor lamb was absolutely exhausted. She’ll need a bit of time but she will be fine you know, Glen. How could she not be with you as her father? You’ll make sure she is, won’t you?’

He nodded. ‘If it’s the last thing I do, I will.’

Jan then looked at him for a moment before asking tentatively, ‘Are you ready to tell me what it was Nerys didn’t want anyone to find out? I witnessed her signature on that paper you made her write out, giving you back legal possession of your business and the house, but I’ve no idea how you got her to do that.’

He said to her, ‘I’m sorry not to have explained before but I don’t want Lucy ever to find out what I’m about to tell you. She’s enough to cope with already, getting used to her new name, the fact that she’s actually a year younger than she thought she was, plus learning just what monsters her supposed mother and father were. I can’t believe she lived with them all those years, being treated so appallingly, when they realised they could not replace their own daughter.’

‘Monsters!’ Jan exclaimed. ‘But what secret were Nerys and her husband hiding, Glen?’

‘Oh, that man she lived with wasn’t her husband. He never could be, not in the eyes of the law anyway. He was her brother. But it’s worse than that. He’s her twin brother.’

Jan gasped with shock. ‘Oh, my God!’ It took a moment for it to sink in before she said, ‘No wonder she didn’t allow people to get close to her, she was afraid someone might guess their secret.’

‘Even after I had promised I wouldn’t take any further action so long as she agreed to do what I said, she still insisted on telling me their story in an effort to make me feel sorry for them! She was terrified I might break my word and go to the police, have them arrested and put in jail.’

‘So what is their story, Glen?’ Jan urged him, desperate to know what had driven Nerys to act as wickedly as she had.

‘She told me that right from when they were born Samuel and she shared an unbreakable bond. If their mother tried to part them, they would both scream hysterically until they were put back side by side. Samuel was born with a weak chest and heart, and Nerys always protected him. They needed no one else in their lives but each other. While they were growing up in Wales they were looked on as oddities because they were never seen out without each other and went everywhere hand in hand.

‘When they were about fourteen they knew that their love for one another was far stronger than that of normal siblings. They made a plan that when they were twenty-one and no longer under their parents’ jurisdiction they would run away together, go somewhere far away where no one knew them, and then they would live as man and wife.

‘Then Nerys discovered she was pregnant. They were nearly sixteen at the time. They were overjoyed and couldn’t wait to be parents to their baby, but they knew they’d never be allowed to keep it or raise it together once the truth got out.

‘They had no choice but to bring their plan forward and run away together. With what little money they had managed to save and what they took from their parents, they packed up their belongings and stole away in the middle of the night and eventually arrived in Leicester. They stayed in a cheap lodging house for a few days while they got themselves jobs and two rooms upstairs in someone’s house. For a short while they were blissfully happy, looking forward to the arrival of their baby.

‘But very soon Samuel lost his job because of poor health, and it fell to Nerys to support them on the small wage she was earning as a sock turner in a factory. Once the rent had been paid and a few shillings put aside for gas, there wasn’t much left over to buy food or anything else they needed. Samuel fell ill with a bad cold which turned to pneumonia. He had to be hospitalised. The doctors managed to save his life but the worry sent Nerys into early labour and the baby was born a month early. The child was small, with a weak heart and lungs. Samuel and Nerys were told that she wouldn’t live for more than a few days as there was nothing that could be done for her. She lived for three and they never left her cot side as their daughter gradually lost her fight for life.

‘Grief-stricken for her dead baby, and in the knowledge that if she didn’t do something drastic she would lose Samuel too, which to her was unthinkable as without him her life would be totally meaningless, Nerys vowed that she didn’t care what it took, she would give him the kind of life the doctor had told her he needed to keep him alive and by her side. She knew her best asset was her looks. Told me she had nothing against me personally, in fact she quite liked me, but unfortunately I was the first man she came across who was an ideal candidate for her plan.

‘In a local pub she found the type of tough she knew would carry out the hijack. After charming him into believing they had a future together, she told him of a way she knew of to make a lot of money. The morning after the hijack she went to visit him, pretending to be in a panic. She’d seen the police swarming all over Rose’s, she said, and had found out from a young PC that someone had reported seeing the stolen goods being transported into an outhouse at the back of the factory. He’d given the police a very exact description. With his criminal background it wouldn’t be long before the police came looking for the hijacker, so it was best he take himself somewhere far away until the heat died down. Nerys said she’d let him know when it was safe for him to come back, which of course she never did. The man walking the dog who alerted the police to his suspicions was, of course, Samuel – and there was no dog. The rest you know already, Jan.’

Glen paused for a moment, heaved a deep sigh and said tiredly, ‘I’m just glad that Nerys is finally out of my life for good. And Lucy’s too.’

Jan sat silent for a moment as she digested this horrendous story. What Nerys had done to Glen had been selfish and wicked, but she felt a glimmer of pity for the suffering she had endured in losing her only child. Nevertheless she was overjoyed that Glen had finally got his daughter back as well as what rightly belonged to him. His and Lucy’s futures were now secure. But their good fortune would separate them from her. Glen would now be back in the circles he truly belonged in, far removed from the one she occupied, and Jan knew she would have to prepare herself to say goodbye to the man she had come to care for very deeply. His absence from her life would leave a big hole.

She asked him, ‘Do you think you’ll move into the Thomases’ house or sell it and buy another?’

‘Oh, I haven’t given anything like that a thought yet, Jan. I still keep pinching myself that I’ve got my daughter back . . . that she’s lying in your bed now fast asleep, and that come Monday I’ll have a business to run. I suppose I should give our living accommodation some urgent thought, though, as it’s not fair on either you or Lucy to be sharing a bed for long. I’ll see about putting the house on the market and getting us another one as soon as possible. In the meantime, we could always rent a bigger place while we look around for a new house to suit us. Oh, goodness me, to think that only weeks ago I never dreamed I would live in a house again, let alone be thinking of buying one.’

Jan felt selfish for dreading the end of their time together. It could even be tomorrow they parted company if he found a house that suited him and it was available. She realised Glen was looking at her searchingly and asked, ‘What are you looking at me like that for?’

Well, it’s just that now I’m a man of means, I can do something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and I was wondering how best to put it to you.’

‘Put what to me?’ Jan asked, puzzled as to what it could be.

‘I wondered if you would consider letting me take you for a proper night out – as more than just friends, Jan?’

She was so astounded by his unexpected proposal, she stared at him speechless.

He took this to mean he had insulted her and added apologetically, ‘Look, I’m sorry if I’ve offended you. We haven’t known each other long, but I’ve wanted to ask you if it was possible you could look on me as more than a friend for a while now, but I had nothing to offer you. I couldn’t even pay for a night out for us. Why should you look twice at me?’

She was shaking her head at him. ‘Oh, you silly man. I’ve felt the same way about you for probably as long. I didn’t care that you hadn’t two ha’pennies to rub together. It’s you I love, not your money.’

He gawped at her. ‘Did you say “love”?’

She flushed in embarrassment and said awkwardly, ‘Did I?’

‘Well, there’s nothing wrong with my hearing and I’d swear blind you did.’

‘Oh, in that case, I must have, mustn’t I?’

‘Oh, I see. Well, that makes all the difference.’

Her face fell. She was mortally disappointed that her declaration had put the fear of God in him and now he was backing off. ‘I’m sorry I frightened you by coming on too heavy. Can we forget what I said and still go out together as friends?’

Glen responded with conviction, ‘No, I’m sorry, I can’t.’ Then he looked at her earnestly and added, ‘Because now I feel free to tell you that I love you too. Let’s just cut out all the courting bit and get married, Jan.’

He received her answer to his suggestion when she jumped up in sheer delight and dashed over to him, throwing herself into his arms and hugging him tightly. It was apparent to him that she never wanted to let him go.