‘They should be here any minute. They rang too. They stopped for tea with the Sharps and they were coming on after that. Their rooms are all ready.’ Lyn had been dusting and sweeping and polishing in the attics, making beds and arranging flowers for the last two days. ‘No one else is coming tonight. Luke’s family are going to be here for lunch tomorrow, which is for family and godparents only, then everyone else will arrive for the christening itself and stay on to tea afterwards.’ She was obviously still ticking off items mentally as she stared round the kitchen.
‘You’ve been a brick Lyn. You’ve done everything.’ Joss opened the cupboard and rummaged for the bottle of Scotch. She found two glasses and poured herself and Janet a small drink.
Lyn stared at her. ‘You’re not going to drink that?’
‘Why not?’ Sitting down at the table, Joss picked up the glass.
‘Because of your milk of course.’
There was a moment’s silence, then Joss took a sip of the whisky. ‘I’m sure Ned wouldn’t begrudge me this,’ she said firmly. ‘And he may as well start as I’m sure he will go on. If he gets hiccoughs in church it’s too bad.’
‘Right. Well, I can see it’s none of my business.’ Lyn, tight lipped, made for the door. ‘I’ll see you later.’
‘Oh dear.’ Janet raised her glass at Joss and smiled. ‘Are you behaving badly, my dear?’
Joss nodded. She took another sip from the glass. ‘It’s not as though she’s had any kids of her own!’ she burst out suddenly. ‘She acts as though she knows the lot.’
‘She is their nanny, isn’t she?’ Janet leaned back in her chair, her eyes on Joss’s face. ‘She probably feels it’s part of her brief. Besides, she’s had training for it, hasn’t she?’
‘She’s had training for absolutely nothing except cooking.’ Joss stood up restlessly and walked round the table to the stove. She pulled the saucepan forward and peered into it. ‘She’s done a bit of temping, and she’s the kind of person who can clean and organise a house naturally.’
‘That doesn’t make her less intelligent or less sensitive, Joss,’ Janet put in gently.
‘Oh, I know.’ Joss came back to the table and sat down. ‘Oh Janet, that sounded so awful of me. It’s not as though I’m not grateful. We couldn’t survive without Lyn. It’s just that she makes me feel –’ she spread her hands helplessly, ‘so inadequate. In my own house. I take ages to sort something out and polish it. She comes in and does it in thirty seconds. But she does it in such a cold, efficient way. She doesn’t feel anything –’ she shrugged. ‘It’s hard to explain.’
Janet smiled. ‘No it’s not. You are just two very different personalities. And that has nothing to do with being adopted sisters. My sisters and I can’t get on either and one of them is my twin. Accept that you’re different, Joss. Martha and Mary, if you like. You should complement each other. But you are both, I think, feeling threatened by each other at the moment and that’s silly. Forgive a comparative outsider commenting, but perhaps I can see it. You’re too close. Lyn is feeling very insecure. After all, you hold all the trump cards. It’s your house, your children, your family, and you are the one who has a burgeoning career as a writer. All that.’ She reached for the bottle and poured herself another Scotch. ‘I won’t give you one, in deference to Ned’s hiccoughs. As his godmother I’m probably the one he’ll be sick over in church.’ She laughed loudly, one of her great guffaws. ‘Come on, love. Too much stress and not enough fun makes everyone miserable. Probably you and Lyn should leave Luke in charge one day and take yourselves out on a day off. That would sort it.’
Joss smiled wearily. ‘Would it? I wonder.’ She sighed. ‘Yes, you’re probably right.’
When Alice and Joe arrived Joss flung herself into her mother’s arms. ‘I was so worried! All those tests! Half the time Lyn didn’t tell me until it was too late, what was happening.’
Alice held her at arm’s length and studied her face. ‘I don’t need to see you every day to know you care, you silly child.’ She pulled Joss back into her arms and gave her a hug. ‘You’re a clever, clever girl. Another beautiful grandson is the best medicine I could possibly have! And a christening party is the best celebration. I’m going to enjoy myself here, Joss. And I want to see you doing the same.’
Lunch was a great success. Lyn had laid the table in the dining room, loading the sideboard with cold meats and salads, whole grain bread, cheeses and fruit and white wine from the bottles remaining in the Belheddon cellar. Tea was already prepared and ready in the great hall, the refectory table with its huge bowl of gladioli groaning under plates and cups and a vast array of cling film-covered sandwiches and cakes and biscuits. The pièce de resistance, the christening cake, made and iced by Lyn was standing by itself on a table near the window and beside it stood a dozen bottles of champagne, a contribution from Geoffrey and Elizabeth Grant, who had driven over from Oxford.
It was Joss who had taken them on a quick tour of the house before lunch. ‘My dear, it’s more beautiful than I ever dreamed!’ Geoffrey put his arm round her shoulders and gave her a hug. ‘You and my son have the luck of the devil.’
He did not notice the look she gave him as she led the way through into the great hall. ‘Nothing here is to be touched until later or Lyn will kill us,’ she said, staring round at the feast already spread before them.
‘That girl must have worked so hard.’ Elizabeth went over and examined the cake. ‘What a treasure. Why on earth hasn’t some man snapped her up?’
Joss shrugged. ‘I just hope they don’t. At least not for a while. I can’t live without her at the moment.’ She glanced round the room, frowning. It felt fine. Happy. There was no atmosphere; there were no shadows, no echoes in her head. She was beginning to wonder if she had imagined the whole thing.
Smiling she turned to Geoffrey. ‘You can stay a few days, can’t you? I’m afraid our facilities are a bit primitive, whatever it may look like on the surface, but we’d like it so much if you can. And Matthew. Luke misses him so much, you know, now he’s got the job in Scotland.’
Geoffrey nodded. ‘They were always close those two. Never mind. Life goes on. It makes occasions like this even more special, my dear. And this is the most special we’ve had for a long time.’
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