CHAPTER 37
I rang the Woods and to my surprise got Albert, now at home. There was only the slightest slippage to his speech to betray the trauma he had gone through, for which we were all grateful.

“Albert, is Darren within earshot?”

“He’s in the other room, killing reds”

“Pardon?”

“Enemies. Video game. I assume this is something you wish to ask about your son?”

Just like that. There was clearly nothing at all wrong with Albert’s mind, just the connections to his body.

“I haven’t really had a chance to discuss that with you, have I?”

“What is there to discuss that we haven’t already covered with Polly and the boy himself? Annie, he came to Naomi and me, he raised the issue, and asked if we would be upset. He is a boy of great sensitivity, my dear”

“Aye, that I know, but I didn’t want it to look as if I was, you know, snatching, aye?”

“Annie, sweet girl, I am giving you away at your wedding, am I not? So it is rather appropriate, isn’t it?”

I laughed. “I am a little too old to be adopted, aye?”

“No, you are not.”

“You are joking!”

“Perhaps, but we shall let events take their course, my dear. Now, what was it you needed the lad for?”

“It’s not me, it’s Chantelle, aye? I need to let her know that her grandmother has passed away”

“Ah. When are you telling her? I assume that you are to be the door-knocker”

“The girls are coming up by train a bit later…”

“And you would wish for Darren to be there? I will explain, and he will ride over, I am sure. Leave it with me. Oh, and thank you for your idea”

“Idea?”

“His genealogy. We have started the process off, and I may well come up with something interesting in short order. Polly is being very helpful”

“What time for Darren?”

“You would feed him?”

“Of course”

“An hour? I want to talk him through the situation. Chantelle is likely to have a confused reaction, he will need to be on his toes”

“An hour, then. Thank you, Albert”

“Not at all. Thank you, my dear, for all you have done for your son. You were evidently made to be a mother…er, I am sorry, but I trust you know what I meant”

I smiled, wishing the warmth could reach him down the telephone line. “And not at all for me, my love. I take it exactly as it was meant, and I will be proud to be on your arm”

“As I will be proud to have you there, Annie. I am off to tell the boy; let me know, yes?”

As good as his word, Darren was at our door in forty five minutes, and from his saddle bag he produced a small parcel. An hour later, the bell rang and the girls were there. Chantelle looked a little confused, but her smile was there at sight of Darren. Eric had the kettle on as soon as he heard the door, and I had started a vegetable curry with Basmati rice and some shop-bought naans. As the tea was brought in by my beloved, I spoke to the girl.

“Shan, your mums have brought you up here because I have something to tell you, aye”

“About you an’ Daz, yeah? He told me, think it’s cool”

“No, not just that, but yes, that is cool, we all think so. No…it’s your Nan”

Her whole body jerked, and her face tightened in anger.

“What about her? She getting out early or something? I see her, I cut her, yeah?”

That surprised me, the force of her anger for a start, but its openness was a shock. This was a far cry from the girl who had only lashed out in extremis in a courtroom. I looked across at Kate.

“We seem to have made quite a bit of progress in sorting out the guilt thing”

She put an arm around her daughter. “We have spent quite a while, with Sally’s help, addressing the whole victim concept. Right, Shan?”

The girl nodded. “Iss hard to explain, yeah. But my mums, and that, they tell me stuff, all about guilt stuff…”

She grinned. “We went on a slut walk, yeah? Rapist not victim, no matter what she wear? She the guilty one, my Nan, that bitch, not me, not me no more, never again. She, and those men, and I hope they die soon”

Darren looked at me, and I drew a breath. “That’s the point, aye? You won’t be stabbing your Nan, she’s already gone. She had a heart attack in prison, and I was asked to let you know. Look, love, we are all concerned about you, you know that, aye? We all love you”

Darren softly spoke. “Yeah, all of us, so I brung you someone you need, she done her job for my Granddad”

The parcel turned out to be Tabitha, of course, and Shan hugged her tight, as the confusion of her emotions tore at her. I could see her dilemma; she hated the old witch with a passion, but she had still been the only link she had to her blood kin, her original family. Her history was gone.

What to do, that was easily answered, as I led the way to the dining table for our meal. Shan was just settling into her seat when something clearly struck her.

“Daz, what you said…?”

Ah. He blushed, and looked quickly round the table as if to check if anyone would be laughing at him.

“Yeah…I did say it, an’ I meant it, yeah? Course I love you”

For an instant, we all seemed to have something in our eyes, and then Shan just rose and went over to him and kissed him very gently, smiled and just nodded. They needed no words, and neither did we. I coughed.

“Everyone for curry, then?”

There were lots of meaningful glances and smiling silences for a while, till I had to say something.

“Darren, spoke to your Granddad, aye? Says he is going to look into your ancestry, like we said in France. What do you say, should we do the same with Shan’s?”

He nodded, mouth full of food. He swallowed in a hurry.

“Yeah, he got a load of programmes off the net, lahk. And there’s all sorts of records on there, churches, stuff. We could do Shan, easy, if her mums OK, yeah?”

Ginny was already nodding. “Flip, yeah. Human needs roots, just like trees. Keeps you grounded. You want, kid?”

Shan looked around the table. “Yeah, I do. Been thinking, she must’ve had a mum, an’ stuff, and they can’t all’ve been arseholes, yeah?”

Daz was grinning now, his confidence back. “An’ if they was in the army an’ thing, we might find if they in France. Chicken Kiev, yeah?”

“An’ choccy mousse, yeah! We go again, Mums?”

Every time that word came out I saw a little reaction from each of the women, as if someone had just caressed them. Family life. Kate answered.

“I would love to, but we don’t have to go down to Portsmouth. How do you fancy a day trip? From Dover, find somewhere nice for dinner, bit of shopping, smelly cheese. See if Jim is free, yeah?”

That met with general approval, and a look from Darren towards me and Eric, who gave our reply.

“Don’t look at us, lad, we have a lot to do to get ready for the wedding. If you want to go, then fine. I think we can trust those three with you…well, two of them, at least, don’t know about the blonde, though. We’ll give Sar and Tony a call once you have a date, OK?”

That was a done deal. The evening carried on in a more normal manner, after that, Darren’s declaration having gone a long way towards relieving Shan’s anxieties, and as I watched her I realised that she had gained more than just confidence from Kate and Ginny, but a whole new concept: the future. Darren and Albert would add the past, what more could anyone want?

So they had their trip, and Jim went, and we got a delivery of decent goat’s cheese, and the smiles continued between them. I had no illusions; young love at their age is not normally the love of a lifetime, but they had done so much, together and separately, to pull each other back from the edge, out of the horror show their lives had been. I would condemn nothing, I decided, and have no expectations beyond the next day’s happiness and warmth. I had my own man to comfort me, and a son on the way; I had more than I could ever have hoped for as Adam, more than I had ever had a realistic chance of gaining.

And then, suddenly, it was the next day, or rather the day after, and I had a date at a church.