Whispers of Love (37 page)

‘Surely he would hand your baby's birth certificate over to whoever adopted the baby?' Stuart frowned. ‘So how is it that it is still here amongst his private papers?'

‘I've already told you, I don't know,' Christabel protested. ‘I suppose it wasn't collected by the people who adopted her.'

‘Or it could mean that your brother adopted your child and substituted it for his own child who had just died,' Stuart said, aghast. ‘If that's the case, then it means that Kay must be that child – which means she's your daughter.'

Christabel sighed, a long, drawn-out release of tension. ‘Yes, it does, doesn't it, Stuart?' she murmured softly. ‘It means that Kay really is my daughter.'

‘You used to act as if I was. Does that mean you have suspected all along?' Kay asked in a bewildered voice. ‘If it is true and you really are my mother, then who was my father?'

Christabel bit down on her lower lip. She was finding it increasingly difficult to talk about. What did it matter after all this time? she thought despondently. Then, as she saw the bewildered look on Kay's face, she knew she owed it to her to tell her the truth.

‘Your father's name, Kay, was Philip Henderson. He was a naval officer; we had been sweethearts for several years and we were planning to be married. My father insisted that we must wait until I was twenty-one before he would allow us to do so. A month after Philip set sail, on what was to be his last trip before our wedding day, his ship sank and all on board drowned. Afterwards, when I discovered I was expecting his baby, I was devastated.'

Kay stretched out her hand and took Christabel's. ‘What did you do?' she whispered.

‘War had been declared by this time and I managed to convince my family that I ought to do something to help and so I became a trainee nurse at Hilbury Hospital.'

Nervously she glanced across at Mark. So far he hadn't said a word but now he nodded as if corroborating her story.

‘By the time I was qualified I realised that I was pregnant. Abortion was out of the question, so I persuaded Lewis to help me and to agree that once I'd had the baby he would arrange for it to be adopted to save both me and our family from disgrace.

‘His own wife was pregnant at the same time, so probably because he understood the plight I was in, he agreed to book me into a private clinic as Mrs Montgomery for the birth and then afterwards, unknown to them, arrange for the baby to be adopted.

‘Before the baby was born I took several months off from Hilbury and lived in a squalid little room in Wilcock Court off Scotland Road. It was drab and I had only the money Lewis could spare me to live on. Immediately after I'd had my baby, I went back to Hilbury Hospital and carried on as if nothing had happened.'

‘And my father never discussed with you any of the details about what happened – not even after my mother died, even though, obviously, he must have known the truth about what happened to your baby?' Kay asked.

‘Surely Kay's mother must have known,'
Stuart said in a puzzled voice, looking enquiringly at Christabel.

Christabel shook her head. ‘Possibly not! You see, Violet's baby was born within hours of mine, only her baby must have been stillborn. She was desperately ill afterwards and Lewis must have thought that the kindest thing to do was to substitute my baby for hers and save her any heartache over losing her baby.'

‘Would it have been possible without telling her?' Stuart persisted. ‘Surely he would have had to persuade the doctor to swap the babies over and that would be illegal, wouldn't it, Mark?'

‘Lewis probably didn't ask anyone, merely acted on his own initiative, which meant that he was the only person who knew the truth about what had happened,' Christabel said thoughtfully.

‘I see. So where does this leave everything now?' Stuart asked worriedly.

‘I don't suppose it really makes any difference, does it?' Mark questioned. ‘It was highly irregular, but then so were a lot of things in wartime. As I see it now, it's a family matter, and even though Christabel has told us everything she can, we don't know for certain what happened, now do we?'

Kay was in shock but she shook herself and, partly to disguise the torrent of emotions raging inside her, she quipped, ‘Well, if I am Aunt Christabel's daughter, then it will make you my stepfather when you two get married,' Kay
pointed out. ‘You won't be expecting me to call you “Daddy”, will you?'

Mark smiled and shook his head but Christabel could see he was still as flabbergasted as Kay by what had gone on. She wished she'd looked through the papers before handing them to Kay so that she could have at least had the opportunity to explain to Mark about everything that had happened in her past instead of it all being disclosed so blatantly.

Stuart seemed to be worried about the legal implications but surely, after all this time, there was nothing to worry about. Lewis hadn't been trying to break the law only to do what he thought was best for all concerned. It had meant that Violet had been appeased over the loss of her baby and at the same time Christabel's child remained in the Montgomery family.

It did answer a great many other questions, of course, Christabel reflected. It accounted for the very strong resemblance between her and Kay. Looking back, she wondered how much Violet had known about what had happened. Had Lewis ever told her that the baby was his sister's child, and was this why she and Violet had never really got on with each other? Or had there been some other reason why Violet had committed suicide? Was Violet so desperately unhappy because she really believed that Kay was Lewis's daughter by another woman?

There were so many questions to which none of them would ever know the answer that
Christabel felt bewildered. She wished the matter had never arisen because it was causing such an unpleasant atmosphere. She had looked forward to Kay and her family staying on for a few days, but now she sensed that all Kay wanted to do was to go home.

When a phone call came from Marlene who wanted to talk to Kay and apologise for not letting her know before she made the journey to Wallasey, Christabel felt a sense of relief.

She gathered from what she could hear of their conversation that Kay intended to go home and then they would return to Liverpool for Lilian's funeral.

Marlene must have said that it was their intention to bring her mother's body back to Liverpool so that she could be buried in the Montgomery grave and she heard Kay saying, ‘That's going to be very expensive, so why not have Aunt Lilian cremated where you live and then bring the ashes up to Liverpool for a service of interment?'

‘Aunt Christabel, Marlene says she will telephone you as soon as she knows what she has decided to do,' Kay stated as she replaced the receiver. ‘It is going to mean another long journey for us, I'm afraid,' she added in a vexed tone.

‘And when you decide on a new date for your wedding, we'll have yet another trip to make to Merseyside,' Stuart added.

‘We're very sorry about all this, but it is none of our making,' Mark told him.

‘I understand that,' Stuart agreed. He looked at his watch, ‘Look, we must leave. I need to be back at work tomorrow if I am going to take time off again next week.'

‘Would you like to leave Jill here with us?' Christabel suggested.

‘No!' the refusal came from both Kay and Stuart simultaneously. ‘I'll take all these papers that belonged to my dad home with me, Aunt Christabel, and I'll let you know if there are any more surprises after I've gone through them all again,' Kay added tightly as she scooped up the papers and put them all back inside the envelope.

The interment of Lilian's ashes in the Montgomery family grave took place ten days later in Liverpool. All the family, Christabel and Mark, Kay and Stuart and little Jill, Marlene and Bill, were there for the brief committal service.

‘Thank goodness that is over,' Kay commented as they went back to Rolleston Drive afterwards where Christabel had arranged a buffet meal for them all.

Christabel sensed that there was still an strained atmosphere between them all and as she made sure that everyone had food and drink she could hear Kay telling Marlene about the discovery of her birth certificate and what it implied.

She heard Marlene's gasp of shocked disbelief and the next time she turned round she saw that Stuart was deep in conversation with Marlene's husband and heard Bill's suppressed guffaw of laughter as they discussed the details.

Christabel knew they were all talking about her and her past and she was glad Mark was
there to give her support. Almost before they had finished eating Marlene and Bill were saying their goodbyes.

‘We must get back because we've left our two with a neighbour,' Marlene explained.

‘We'll catch up with all the rest of the news when we meet up again for the big wedding,' Bill told Stuart, giving him a broad wink.

‘Don't leave it too long, Mark,' Bill advised. ‘You've had enough disruptions and delays. The next thing we'll know is that you've called it off altogether.'

‘There's no fear of that happening but we'll probably leave it for a month or so since we've only just said goodbye to Lilian,' Mark replied, his mouth tightening.

‘There's no need to delay things because my mother's died,' Marlene assured him. ‘We don't mind how soon it is. Or are you putting it off because of all the revelations in Uncle Lewis's papers about Kay being Aunt Chrissy's daughter? I must say, it has come as a tremendous shock to us all.'

Christabel saw the look of annoyance on Mark's face and hoped he wasn't going to say anything that might upset Marlene; the atmosphere was strained enough as it was.

Marlene's words brought a sharp intake of breath from Kay, and Christabel waited on tenterhooks for Mark's reply.

‘Christabel's relationship to Kay has nothing
at all to do with when our wedding takes place,' Mark said stiffly.

‘Kay says this house is hers now,' Marlene persisted. ‘I suppose by rights it has always been hers.'

‘No, Marlene, my dad stated in his will that Aunt Christabel could live here for as long as she needed to,' Kay told her. ‘After that the property would become mine. When Aunt Chrissy and Mark move to their lovely new house in Formby after their wedding then the house will be mine.'

‘I was hoping Kay might decide to come and live here,' Christabel murmured with a little sigh. ‘There's no rush for you to decide, of course,' she said quickly looking across at Kay. ‘You can take all the time you need.'

‘In actual fact, Aunt Christabel, as soon as your wedding is over we will be putting the house on the market,' Kay stated decisively. ‘We'd like to have it all done and dusted, signed and settled, as soon as possible. It will be a chance to draw a line under all that has happened in the past and hopefully help to clear the air.'

‘So will you still be having Jill as a flower girl at your wedding, Aunt Chrissy?' Marlene asked.

‘Of course she will,' Kay said very firmly, giving Christabel a warm smile. ‘It matters more than ever now that I know Aunt Chrissy is really my mother and Jill's grandmother.'

Once more Marlene and Bill said goodbye to everybody and Christabel breathed a sigh of relief when the front door closed behind them.

‘We must be on our way as well,' Kay murmured. ‘Jill's out in the garden, isn't she?'

‘Yes, I fixed a swing up out there for her and she's having a great time playing on that,' Mark said with a broad smile. ‘The sun is shining, so why don't you go out there and take Christabel with you while Stuart gives me a hand to make some coffee. The minute it is ready we'll bring it out to you.'

Christabel smiled gratefully at Mark. He knew she was hoping to have a quiet chat with Kay and she appreciated the tactful way he had manoeuvred it.

They watched Jill playing on the swing for a few moments or so and then they went to the bottom of the garden and sat down on the bench under the willow tree. Christabel reached out and took one of Kay's hands and squeezed it.

‘It's been quite a difficult time lately with one thing and another,' she sighed.

‘Yes, but I'm glad everything is out in the open now,' Kay told her. ‘I'm sorry I was so horrid to you after Dad died. I feel so guilty about the way I behaved; you must have felt terribly hurt.'

‘No, I wasn't so much hurt as worried because I felt such a dreadful failure.'

Kay looked puzzled. ‘Failure? What on earth do you mean? I don't understand.'

‘I felt so frustrated because you failed your exams. I wasn't able to make sure you had the sort of academic education that would prepare you for the sort of future Lewis would have wanted you to have,' Christabel explained.

‘You didn't know I was your daughter then, so why did it matter all that much?' Kay mused.

‘I still felt you were my responsibility; I wanted to do the very best I could for you. In some ways I felt that it was an opportunity to repay Lewis for all he had done for me in the past.'

Kay glanced at her sideways. ‘Are you talking about when you had me?'

‘Yes, Kay, I am. When I was growing up, to have a baby out of wedlock was considered to be the ultimate disgrace. My parents would have been horrified and probably they would have disowned me if they had ever found out about it.'

‘Surely you weren't still feeling guilty about what happened; it was all so long ago.'

‘No, not exactly guilty; I suppose in some ways I was hoping that whoever was bringing up my own little girl would be doing a better job than I was and making sure that she was well educated and had a promising career ahead of her.'

They sat for several minutes in silence, each
of them contemplating the situation in their own way.

‘We've wasted so many years; if only Dad had told us both the truth after my mother died,' Kay sighed.