Previously…

The rest of the evening went like a dream and I let what hair I had down, lost my shyness and really enjoyed myself.

The evening culminated with a carol singsong around the Steinway grand piano.

Most of the singers were in harmony, except for Sarah who was tone deaf. She did try. As her mother told that she was very trying sometimes!

Finally, after a swig of under age eggnog, I was persuaded to do a solo.

Samantha was a fine pianist and she accompanied me when I sang the all time favourite Silent Night.

As usual when I sung, my inhibitions went out of the window and as Fifi dreamed in front of the fire and snow started to fall gently outside, covering the mole holes, all be it temporarily, I started to sing:
 
 

Silent night, Holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in Heavenly peace
Sleep in Heavenly peace...
 
 

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

And now the story continues…

I was somewhat tired after the sing-along and it was obvious to the sensible adults that after everything that had happened to me, I needed rest and some quiet time.

I was taken for a twenty-mile hike by my aunt, through countless corridors with pictures on the walls of dear and not so dear departed ancestors, until I was finally ushered into a room.

‘There you are dear; you can sleep here. Don’t worry, we will be in rooms nearby, Sam and I are next door, Hannah across the corridor and Sarah next to hers, so if you have any worries, we’ll be nearby.’

She gave me a kiss on the cheek and left me too it.

The room was nice and not all that old fashioned. Mind you, the ceilings were high and the fireplace huge. It was nice though as there was a warming log fire glowing and the bed, although old, proved to be soft and comfortable. The room itself wasn’t wood panelled like a lot of others, but had a cheerful rose patterned wallpaper and a cream coloured carpet that my stockinged feet into sank into as I walked on it.

There was a door leading off the room and when I opened it, I saw that it was an en-suite with a toilet, and shower.

Over the sink was a large mirror and looking at my reflection, I could see the dark rings under my eyes that had not been totally hidden by the makeup.

I walked back out and went over to the window, which overlooked the pockmarked lawns, the lake and waterfall. Everything had a white covering except the running water and it all looked very Christmassy. In the distance was the village with its twinkling lights and the quay where the huge boat was moored and lit up like a Christmas tree. I wondered who owned such a huge thing and wondered once again why they had parked the ship or whatever it’s called, here?

I yawned, realising that I was very tired, so I went through to the en-suite and somewhat reluctantly took off my clothes and hung the dress on the back of the door. After removing my makeup, and wig, I put on a shower hat had a quick shower. After drying myself and trying to brush out my mutilated hair, I went back into the bedroom.

On the pillow was a nightie; it was made of pink satin, had spaghetti straps and was quite long. It looked lovely and I couldn’t wait to put it on and snuggle up in bed, and that’s exactly what I did. Before I even realised it, I was asleep.

I was awoken by the sound of curtains being drawn back. As I hadn’t closed them the previous night, someone must have come in whilst I was asleep and done it for me.

‘Morning Miss,’ said a young girl in a rather traditional maids uniform, complete with a frilly apron and cap.

‘Morning,’ I replied, yawning and stretching.

‘Breakfast will be ready in 45 minutes Miss, the instructions are, informal,’

‘Erm, thanks.’ I replied.

‘Do you need help dressing Miss?’

‘N…no thanks.’

She gave me a cheery smile and then left me to it.

It turned out that some clothes had been brought for me to wear today and they were on the back of the door on hangars. It all seemed a bit of a slick operation to me and I was impressed that everything seemed to have been thought out without my actually being aware of it.

I had been told informal. What did that mean here in this posh place; don’t bother with a tiara? I didn’t want to look an idiot and despite the fact that Lady F appeared to be a bit of a sweetie under that strict exterior, the last thing I wanted was for her to take a pot shot at me with her twelve bore or whatever it was called.

With a Holmes like accuracy, I assumed that everything on the hangars were allowable today and I had a quick look at what I could chose from, well aware that time was moving along and I didn’t want to be late.

There were a few dresses, some blouses and skirts, but nothing remotely like jeans. Mind you, I was always the sort of girl, given the choice, to wear skirts and dresses rather than clothes with legs, if you know what I mean.

I was scratching my head when there was a knock on the door.

‘Come in.’ I called.

The door opened and there was Sarah.

‘Hi Amy; did you sleep all right?’

‘Yes thanks.’

I saw that she was wearing a pink top and blue skirt that looked a little on the short side, but what did I know? I was a bit old fashioned about short skirts…well that’s a fib as I was always conscious of my knobbly knees and wouldn’t dare wear something like that.

‘Not sure what to wear?’

‘No.’

‘Let me help.’

In seconds, the clothes had been put on the bed and I was told to try everything on and then a decision would be made as to its suitability.’

A couple of dresses were immediately discarded as being too churchy, a few more as not suitable for my colouring. Similar things were said about other items and then my choices were whittled down to one dress, two blouses and two skirts.

I must admit that although I had dressed as a girl in the past, before the hated John stopped me, but I didn’t have much of a clue as to what was acceptable. My mum, although I loved her dearly, wasn’t all that girly and preferred jeans and leggings and other casual clothes to dressing up, so she wasn’t much help in my choosing a wardrobe.

I had relied a lot on teen magazines and stuff on the Internet, not the best source of material. It didn’t help that when I went to the girls’ school, we all wore uniforms and I wasn’t in the ‘in crowd,’ where talking about clothes and makeup was de rigueur, being more of the geeky type and the few geeky friends that I did have, had less dress sense than me!

So, I was a bit of a novice when it came to clothes and as I still had a hated boyish shape, I tended to go for loose clothing that didn’t accentuate my bodily faults.

Sarah, now, she was different and would look pretty in a bin bag. But she wasn’t having anything to do with my shyness and lack of confidence. She wanted me to wear a cream satin top and a plum coloured pleated skirt that went down to mid thigh.

I was very reluctant to try it on and I told her about my deformed knees, but she was having none of that.

‘Who said you have dodgy knees? That’s rubbish, you are pretty and you will look prettier when your hair grows out again. Mind you, the wig looks great on you and you wouldn’t know it’s a wig. Just try the clothes on will you? We don't have much time and Mummy is a stickler for punctuality.’

I reluctantly went into the bathroom and put the clothes on. I was already wearing my bra with the inserts and my panties and tights, so it was the work of a moment for me to put the clothes on and then my wig. I brushed the wig through and then without really looking at myself in the mirror, I went back into the bedroom.

Sarah was looking out of the window, but turned as I came in and smiled.

‘Well,’ she said, ‘the only thing missing is your glasses.’

‘What do you mean, I have good eyesight?’

‘You said that you have knobbly knees. You must be short sighted cos if those knees are knobbly, I’m a Dutchman. You look really pretty and have great legs, you cow. My legs are like sticks; yours are great; I hate you now. When you start dating the boys or girls, if you prefer, they are going to love those legs. If I can wear short skirts with legs like a stick insect, then you can too.’

‘Won’t your mum have a go at me for wearing this?’

‘Not a chance. Mummy is great about what I wear and she will be the same as you. She draws the line at tart, grunge and Goth, but other than that, she’s cool.’

‘What about my aunt??’

‘What about her.’

‘Erm is she straight laced?’

I realised that I still knew very little about Auntie Abby and I didn’t want her to be annoyed with me.

‘Nah, she’s cool too. Look, slap on some makeup and then come downstairs. Not too much though, cos the olds don’t think that we should go overboard. See you soon and hurry up!’

She smiled and then left me to it. I could hear her running down the corridor as I quickly applied some minimal makeup, as per instructions, placed the locket with my mum and dad’s photo inside, slipped on my black, low heeled shoes and then with a final uncertain look at myself, I made my way downstairs, just as the breakfast gong went off.

There were people in liveried and servant type clothes all over the place and it didn’t take much to realise that Lady F employed an awful lot of people —probably half the village.

I was pointed in the right direction by the butler, Mr Jenkins who smiled politely and didn’t laugh at what I was wearing. Mind you; he was probably taught at Butler School how to keep a straight face under exceptional circumstances.

A servant type opened the door and he motioned for me to go in, so with a deep breath, I hesitantly did just that.

The room had several small tables rather than a large one. It overlooked the snow covered gardens with floor to ceiling glass and large French doors in the centre section.

I stood there, looking uncertain as to where I should go, when Hannah got up from a table and came over.

‘Wow, you look ace.’ she said enthusiastically. She was wearing a denim skirt slightly shorter than mine and a peasant type white blouse, She looked very pretty.

‘Come on,’ she said as she dragged me across the room, past the table where the adults were hanging out and over to the one where she had been sitting with Sarah and two other girls, instantly recognisable as the pony mad Phillipa and Jen.

There were ‘Hi’s,’ all round as I sat down and was immediately asked by a waitress/maid, whatever, what I wanted to eat.

‘Erm.’ I said intelligently.

‘Try the full English, its well wicked,’ said Jen enthusiastically.

‘No it isn’t,’ said Phillipa, ‘she’ll get fat.’

‘Not as fat as you,’ retorted Jen.

‘Girls,’ said Hannah with a grin, ‘she can make her own mind up.’

I turned to the very patient serving type person and said, ‘can I have the full English please?’

‘Of course Miss,’

‘Please call me Amy.’

The girl looked shocked.

‘That would never do Miss. I’ll get your breakfast. Tea, coffee or juice?’

‘Erm, tea please.’

She did a sort of bob motion and then left.

‘Mummy would string her up if she said that she wanted to be called Hyacinth,’ said Sarah with relish.’

‘Hyacinth?’ I enquired.

‘Yea, her mum is potty about flowers, poor kid.’

‘Oh.’ I said, not knowing whether it would be nice to snigger about someone’s name and then thinking that it would be unkind to do so. Nice girl, aren’t I?

I looked over to the adult’s table and caught Auntie Abby’s eye. She smiled and gave me a little finger wave.

I waved back.

‘So,’ said Hannah, ‘what do you think about this place?’

‘It’s nice. I keep thinking that I might run into a load of photo snapping Japanese tourists taking a tour with a lady holding an umbrella up.’

They all laughed.

‘Mummy would never allow the house to be opened up to the public. She has strong views on that,’ said Sarah, and then with a creditable impression of Lady F, she continued, ‘Let the damn public in, trampin’ all over me Axeminster carpets, droppin’ priceless ornaments? What next, a café and gift shop and lunch with the Lady of the Manor? Over me dead body!’

We all laughed and then there was a cough, making us as one, jump.

‘What’s that yer saying you ungrateful whelp?’

Sarah didn’t look too scared as she mumbled, ‘sorry Mummy.’

‘Do not ‘sorry Mummy’ me, you spawn of the devil. Yer aren’t too old fer me ter put yer over me knee and give yer a good spankin.’

‘Ooh Mummy, you wouldn’t? I’d tell social services.’

‘You would too. In my day, yer took yer punishment and paid the consequences fer yer misdeeds. Now-days you get a pat on yer head and told not ter be a naughty girl.’

She shook her head.

‘I have a pamphlet somewhere about a school up in the frozen north of Scotland, maybe I should get it out an’ have a look at it.’

‘No Mummy please, I don’t want frozen knickers. I’ll be good,’ said Sarah with a feigned, horrified look.

‘Harrumph, that’ll be the day. Now girls I hope that yer treating young Amy well?’

‘Yes Auntie Dotty,’ replied everyone in unison.

‘Hmm,’

Then she turned to me.

‘We’ll chat later,’ she said with a kindly smile and then walked back to her table.

‘Gosh, what have you done to her?’ asked Sarah.

‘What do you mean?’

‘She looked all gooey at you and actually smiled. I could see cracks in her face where there weren’t any before. I didn’t know that she actually had a smile muscle.’

‘She smiles at me,’ piped up Hannah.

‘That’s because you crawl to her, “yes Auntie, no Auntie, three bags full Auntie.”’

‘I do not!’

‘Yes you do. And Jen and Phil, you are the same…’

You might think by the sound of it that they were all rowing about it, but they were giggling and laughing while arguing and I could tell that they were all really good friends. I hoped very much that I could be friends too!

After my excellent full English breakfast that could have fed a small village for two days and left me more than a little bloated, I felt a touch on my arm; it was Samantha.

‘Have you got a mo?’ she asked.

I nodded and after saying, ‘see you later,’ to the girls, I followed her out of the breakfast room, which I noticed had no adults left in it.

It didn’t help that as a parting shot, Sarah said, ‘deny everything!’

I was led down a corridor to another room and ushered in.

I stopped in the doorway, as there was a policewoman there, as well as my Auntie, Lady Fairbairn and another lady who I didn’t recognise.

‘Hi Amy,’ said my aunt,’ sit down for a minute, we have some news for you.’

I sat down and tried to pull down the hem of my all to short skirt. In the end I gave up and just sat with my legs clamped together and looked up expectantly.

‘Inspector, can you start?’ asked my aunt,

‘Of course; right young lady,’ said the policewoman turning to me, ‘I’m Inspector Pippa Thomsett and you need to be told what present position is regarding the assault on you. We will need a statement down at the station later, but as we had been told what has happened to you in the last few days by your aunt, so we took action.

‘Firstly, we put a search out for your step-father, this was important as we had prior knowledge of him and we knew of his violent nature.’

‘Has he been in trouble before then?’ I asked.

‘Yes, but I will get back to that later. Steps were taken to inform Reading Police of the position because we wanted to ensure that your step-brothers were safe.’

‘But he loved his children and just hated me.’

‘Perhaps, but we were not sure about his state of mind and in these situations, it is important that the children were protected. Two police officers went to your home and George and Robert, the twins were there.’

She stopped for a moment and then looked at Auntie Abby who nodded.

‘They were found locked in the garage and bound up. They had been there for two days and were not in as good condition, physically or mentally.’

‘Are they all right?’ I asked, feeling sick to my stomach.

‘Yes, they were treated in hospital for minor exposure and some cuts and bruises, but they are okay now and have gone to their aunt in Scotland.’

‘I didn’t know that they had an aunt.’

‘I think that you may have not known a lot of things. Evidently, when you left he took it out on them and blamed them for not making sure that you stayed in the house. People like that will blame anyone other than themselves.

‘Anyway, we traced him to this area, but he gave us the slip. He was sighted in Bodmin where he dumped his car and stole another one. We got that on CCTV. However, he is pretty resourceful and we believe that he has changed vehicles several times since then. However, it appears that when he was last sighted, he was on the A303 at Wincanton, which is actually heading in the general direction of Reading. We lost him there as he abandoned that car too. At the moment, because of his actions, we have as a top priority, a nationwide search going on with all stations and airports on the alert as well as every police force in the country.’

‘I don’t understand,’ I said, ‘why is he known to you and why is he doing all this?’

My auntie came over and sat next to me and held my hand as the inspector continued.

‘What I have to say to you might — no will upset you, but you need to know. John Barnes has a record of abusing people close to him. When he was 22 he beat up a girl and put her in hospital, he was jailed for a year, because it was his first conviction, even though he had been linked to violence before. He was released after just six months due to him being a model prisoner. He went off the map for a few years and then his wife, Brenda started complaining about assault. Unfortunately, she withdrew the charges and did the same thing another two times over the next years. Whether it was because she loved him or was intimidated by him, I am not sure, but it is a not uncommon pattern.’

‘I’d kill the bugger!’ said Lady F rather forcefully.

‘I didn’t hear that My Lady,’ said the inspector with a strange smile on her face before returning to me.

‘Anyway, it appears that Brenda had some sort of breakdown and she ran off.’

‘Without the twins?’ I asked.

‘We have found out that she was threatened and had little option to leave, you must remember that she was in a hell of a state and not really responsible for her actions. This is where it all gets rather complicated…’

‘I was told that she had access to the twins.’

‘I’m sorry, he lied.’

I really knew nothing, didn’t I?

‘Shall I continue?’ asked my aunt.

The inspector nodded.

‘It appears love that your mum was deceived. John had not divorced Brenda…’

‘What!’

‘He was still married to her. Because the boys were kept out of contact with their mother by John; whatever poison he said to them was taken as the truth. He told the twins that Brenda and he had had a divorce and that she didn’t want to have custody of them.’

‘Oh my God!’

‘So after threatening Brenda to keep away and above all keep her mouth shut, or else, he weaved a web of lies and then saw an opportunity to marry your mum…’

‘But why did he want to marry Mum?’

‘He might have loved her, I don’t know, but he was aware that she had a large expensive house and that your mother had a lot of money in the bank due to your fathers life insurance pay out. When he “married” your mum, he, being next of kin, would inherit and he made damned sure that everything would go to him.’

‘Mum wouldn’t have let him do that.’

Auntie Abby looked sad.

‘The new will was made just after your mum became really ill.’

‘What if she hadn’t been ill, would she still have agreed to leave everything to him?’

‘We will never know. Your mum was a lovely lady, but I feel that she lost a lot of drive when your dad died.’

‘How come nobody knew that he was already married?’

The inspector answered.

‘He provided false divorce papers at the registry office when he married Mary. He couldn’t get a legal divorce, as Brenda is a devout Catholic and, as far as she was concerned, could not end their marriage that way. She was lucky as, in my opinion he was unstable enough take “till death us do part” as a means to get rid of her.’

I sat there for a minute as it all sunk in. I was beyond tears at that moment and felt numb. It was all too much for me to take in, but I needed to know everything so I looked up at Inspector Thomsett and asked what was to happen now.

‘Well, we will catch him, I am sure, but until we do, you need to be looked after and its great that you have the support of your aunt and family. We will keep an eye on you, but all indications are that he knows that the game is up and he will try to get as far away as possible once he finds out that the twins have flown the nest. We are keeping a watch on the house and if he comes anywhere near, we will arrest him. With all the CCTV about in public places, it’s only a matter of time before he’s caught.’

Samantha spoke up.

‘Sorry Amy we didn’t introduce Miranda. Amy, this is Miranda Cartwright from the social services. Don’t worry, she’s on our side and is one of our friends. She’ll give you the lowdown as to your position. Miranda?’

I was surprised that Miranda was from the SS as she looked as if she walked straight off the catwalk and wore clothes even to my untrained eye looked classy and very expensive.

‘Hi Amy, it must all be a bit of a shock to you, first having to leave that scumbag, sorry, I’m here officially, what I meant to say was that fine upstanding pillar of the community. Anyway, your aunt here is your next of kin now and not that slimy…I mean fine upstanding citizen, and as such he has no power over you. Officially and in law he was never your step-father and as such, any will that was produced is, I understand, null and void. The social services have no problem with you staying with your aunt, but I must warn you that she can’t cook and has a tendency to believe that she is some form of artist when all she can do is throw pots…’

‘Oy, I have you know that I am at the top of the tree in my field.’

‘Yes dear,’ replied Miranda smugly, who, despite her occupation, I rather liked.

We spent some time discussing what would happen to me and a few juicy interjections from Lady F spiced things up a bit. Eventually, it was left that I was now under the care, custody and control if Auntie Abby and that I would have to eat her food in spite of the possible health consequences.

I eventually left the olds to it and went upstairs to pack. We were leaving in an hour as Auntie Abby and Samantha wanted to get back to the cats and Heather was due to go to a toddler’s party, somewhere or other.

It turned out that Hannah wanted to stay with the other girls, but I declined the invitation as I was, after all that had been said, a bit drained, mentally and physically.

When we were ready, we went downstairs, to be met by the unflappable Jenkins and Auntie Dotty who called me over.

‘Now, you must come here whenever yer like. I have an open house here for me friends and family. You are family now, so come when yer like. Sarah likes the company and she gets ratty if she doesn’t have people of her age around. When I was a sprog, yer didn’t have friends, we weren’t allowed ter have them. Being the local nobs, we couldn’t consort with the peasants, or so I was told. I did have a thing for a farmers hand…but that’s another story. The nearest thing to friends were me dog Sheba and also Lilibet and Margaret Rose, although she hated to be called Rose. Anyway, enough of that nonsense, orf yer go and I’ll see yer soon.’

With that, I got the imperial hug and kiss on the cheek and we were off with Gabi and Heather being carried to the car and then eventually, despite a number of wriggles, strapped in. Auntie got in the drivers side and I was riding shotgun, very apt that what with Auntie Dotty and her Purdey gun being close by.

Samantha went in the back with the little ones and with a wave we were off down the wide snow covered drive. I looked back and waved and Lady F, who had been joined by Fifi who sat at attention, waved back and then they both went into the house.

‘She’s nice.’ I said.

‘Mmm, we like her. Her bark is worse than her bite.’

‘Who Fifi?’

‘No, Mummy Dotty.’

I giggled.

‘She said that she didn’t have many friends but said something about Lilibet and Margaret.’

She briefly looked at me and smiled.

‘That would be our present queen and her sister.

‘Oh,’ I said.

We arrived back at Jellicle Cottage shortly after. The roads were still quite icy, but in the Range Rover it didn’t seem to matter.

I made my excuses and went upstairs to my bedroom. I think that they realised that I wanted to be alone and I was thankful for their sensitivity.

The bed had been made and the clothes, which I had left strewn all over the bed, had been tidied up by some unseen hand.

I lay down on the bed looking up at the ceiling and went over and over what had been said about John. It had all been a shock to me. I knew nothing about him really. He was a man who came into our lives on a falsehood. He even deceived his own children. What sort of man would do what he had done? The only good thing, if good was the right word, was that at least Mum didn’t know the truth about him.

I must admit to having a little cry then. It was so hard to take in but I had to accept that it had all happened.

The tears helped and I felt a little better after that. I must have dropped off for a minute or two, but I awoke to a soft knock at the door.

‘Come in.’

Auntie Abby came in and walked over to the bed.

‘How are you doing, dear?’

‘Better for a good cry and a nap.’

‘Fancy a bacon sarnie?

‘Yes please.’

‘Well go and clean up your face, you look a bit panderish, and then come down.’

‘Okay.’

She left me too it and when I looked at myself in the mirror, I grimaced, as I did look a bit worse for wear!

Fifteen minutes later I was ready to go down and I followed my nose to the kitchen.

‘Hi Amy,’ said Samantha with a smile, ‘feeling better?’

‘Yes thank you.’

‘Good, here’s a sandwich. Do you want something to drink?’

‘Gin and tonic, please.’

‘In your dreams, sunshine,’

‘Okay, coke then please.’

‘Try the fridge.’

I went over, pulled out a can, poured it into a glass and then I was told to take it into the sitting room as Auntie Abby was there with Heather.

‘Hi Auntie.’ I said.

‘Hello dear.’

Heather was in her own dream world, playing with her dolly so I didn’t disturb her. I just sat by the fire and looked at my auntie who was reading a book.

Shortly after I sat down, a cat came up on my lap, purred a bit, dug her claws into me, meowed and then settled down and got herself comfortable.

It was nice and peaceful there. I had had enough of upheaval and things going wrong. All was quiet except for the occasional squeals of delight from Heather, the turning of a page from Auntie Abby, the crackle of the fire and the purring of a contented cat.

I was just dropping off again — it must be the sea air — when the phone went off in the hall and I could hear the click of heels as Samantha went to answer it.

A few moments later she came in.

‘Abby, the alarm has ringing again.’

‘Oh no,’ she said and then turned to me. ‘The alarm for the pottery has gone off; it’s the third time this month. I’ll have to go and sort it out.’

‘I would go, ‘said Samantha, ‘I but I have the joint in the oven and Gabi will need a feed soon.’

‘No problem, I’ll go.’

‘Can I come?’ I asked.

‘Are you sure? I’m going to walk. I need waking up and a blowing out of the old cobwebs.’

‘I feel the same, if I stay here, I’ll nap and not be able to go to sleep tonight.’

‘What about John?’ asked Samantha.

‘He’ll be miles away by now.’ I said.

‘We thought that last time.’

‘Oh I can’t go hiding away for the rest of my life. If he comes, I swear that I will scream my head off and run a mile.’

They both laughed.

‘Okay, you’ve convinced me,’ said Auntie, ‘go and get your coat on. You can borrow Hannah’s boots; they’re by the front door.’

We closed the door behind us and I shivered slightly as it had grown cold since we came home earlier.

Our boots crunched on the snow as we walked down the hill. It started to gently snow again, but it didn’t bother us, as there was no wind, for once.

‘I hope that you will settle in all right here Amy.’

‘I’m sure I will. Thank you so much for taking me in.’

‘Hey, you are family and that’s what families do — well nice ones anyway. We will have to get you into school. Don’t worry, the schools in this area are LGBT friendly and also have zero tolerance stance against bullying.’

‘That’s good,’ I replied, ‘I would like to thank the Gotobed’s for taking me in, by the way.’

‘We will see them tomorrow so you can thank them then.’

‘Hello Abby; young Amy.’

In front of us stood a woman and a man that looked slightly seafareish. The fact that he was wearing some sort of naval uniform was a bit of a giveaway, as was his peaked hat, which had more gold braid on it than the dress worn by Lady F earlier and had the words Penmarris Surprise emblazoned on it.

‘Oh Hi Katie,’ said Auntie, ‘This is Katie our friend and solicitor and her, erm fiancé Harry Carpenter, captain of the little tub down in the harbour.’

‘Hello,’ I said shyly.

‘So, where are you two off to?’ asked Auntie.

‘Going to see Marcia. She promised to crack a bottle of wine to celebrate our engagement. Want to come?’

‘Sorry, we were sent a text about it, but things are up in the air at the moment. We will have a drink down The Toad and Tart later in the week though.’

‘No problem. When will we get the invites for your wedding then?’ asked Katie.

‘Soon, it’s in April, so we will have to get cracking. We are going to have matching wedding dresses and Heather is going to be a bride’s maid and maybe someone else?’ she said looking at me with raised eyebrows.

‘Cool,’ I replied, not realising that my Aunt and Sam were getting married. With every minute that passed I was learning something new about them.

‘Look, we have to dash, the blasted alarm has gone off again and I have to switch it off.’

‘Right, see you soon then. Bye Amy. By the way you look very pretty. I don’t know where you get your looks from, but it certainly isn’t Abby.’

‘Bloody cheek,’ said Auntie laughing as we walked away.

‘She’s nice,’ I said, ‘the captain didn’t say much though.’

‘Under the thumb; the best place for him,’ said Auntie.

We both laughed and carried on down the hill, around a slight bend and there was the quay with the sea beyond and the two beaches, one either side of it. The visibility wasn’t too good, because of the snow, but it was all very pretty and I wondered if anyone had made a jigsaw puzzle out of that scene, if they hadn’t, they should, as it would sell by the thousand.

The ground was a bit slippery, but the fresh snow helped to give some grip to the soles of our boots as we walked along the quay to the pottery. From some distance we heard the sound of the alarm.

‘Evidently, there are no signs of entry according to the police, so it’s just a question of me going in, keying in the number and switching the damned thing off. I will get it repaired after the holidays.’

We reached the pottery and Auntie Abby used a key to open the door.

‘Coming in?’ she asked as she pushed the door open.

‘No, I’ll stay outside and look at the view if you don’t mind.’

‘Okay, but be careful.’

‘It’s all right, he’s miles away.’

‘I know, but even so…’

‘Don’t worry, if he turns up, I’ll scream blue murder and come into the shop.’

She looked doubtful and then said, ‘well I won’t be a minute anyway, so don’t wander off will you?’

‘No Auntie.’

She looked up and down the road and then went in, leaving me to my thoughts.

I crossed the road and looked over the harbour wall. There were quite a few boats, yachts, fishing boats and the big boat/yacht/ship thingie, moored up on the opposite side of the harbour. I could make out its name now, The Penmarris Surprise. So the “little tub” mentioned by Auntie earlier was that thing. It must have been worth millions. Katie was a lucky woman to be hitched up to the captain of that ocean going liner. I wondered if she got a discount on the tickets?

There was the sound of a car engine in the distance coming closer. I paid little attention though, as I walked back to the pottery and looked in the window. Auntie had finished keying in the code for the alarm and it was silent now, hence the reason for hearing the car engine. She was picking up bits of pottery, left from when John did his infamous bull in a china shop impression.

She finished doing that and then mouthed toilet, pointing to a room at the back.

I nodded, knowing that old people needed to go to the toilet a lot and as she was over thirty, that was to be expected.

The engine noise grew a bit louder as it came nearer and then stopped abruptly out of sight.

I walked next door and looked through the window at Samantha’s gallery. I understood that she was a fantastically talented artist and a lot of the paintings hanging there were hers.

One of the pictures that caught my eye was one of my aunt. It had pride of place on one of the walls and was lit from above. Sam had caught my aunt perfectly. It was almost photographic in its perfection and I could see by the way it was painted that she loved Auntie Abby very much.

I sighed, it made me go all gooey just thinking about it and I had been asked if I wanted to be a bride’s maid — Short of being married in a wedding dress, the one thing I always wanted was to be a bride’s maid and I had been so jealous whenever I saw photos of girls being dressed so prettily and being part of a wedding ceremony. Now I had the chance to be one and it was just another thing to look forward to. Things were looking up!

I went back to the pottery and as I reached it, I looked up. There was the sound of a car starting up and the revving of the engine. As there was a slight bend in the road I hadn’t seen it.

The car appeared, it was red in colour, but I wasn’t that interested as I was getting cold now and I hoped that Auntie would finish her extended toilet break so that we could go home and have some hot chocolate or something.

I peered through the window. Still no sign of her; then I looked up, as the sound of that engine was rather strange —sort of as if the drivers foot was hard down on the accelerator, revving like mad.

I gasped, as I looked straight into the face of John as his car hurtled towards me.

I was like a deer in the headlights and stood routed to the spot as the car came ever nearer at a neck breaking speed.

The expression on his face was unreal.

Everything seemed to be in slow motion.

The car was nearly on top of me now.

I couldn’t look away. There was no one else in the world; just me, John and the red car that he was driving like a man demented, streaking towards me.

I just couldn’t move.

I closed my eyes at the last moment, knowing that I was about to be killed. I fleetingly wondered if it would hurt…

…I was roughly pushed to the side and someone landed on top of me.

A dog was barking loudly.

There was a metallic, crunching, crashing sound which was incredibly loud.

I looked up and I saw that the car had crashed into the pottery and virtually disappeared inside it.

‘Are you all right?’ said the man breathlessly. I looked at him and realised who it was.

‘Vicar?’

‘That’s me; any bones broken?’

‘N…no I’m f…fine.’

David Gotobed looked at me, helped me up and then nodded.

‘Can you look after my daft dog while I go and have a look at things?’

‘Yes,’ I said taking the lead of the Labrador, who despite everything, looked pretty calm.

Then I realised.

‘Auntie Abby,’ I screamed, ‘she’s in there!’

He looked grim.

‘Don’t move’ he said.

I stayed put, worried out of my mind that I might have lost yet another loved one. I was jinxed. Everyone who loved me — just died…

I sunk to the ground, my back up against what was left of the wall, barely aware that a lot of people had appeared. Someone put a blanket around my shoulders and attempted to take the dog away, but I had been told to look after her and that was what I was going to do. The dog stayed with me and wouldn’t move anyway.

I was bracing myself for bad news of my darling auntie…

‘Amy!’

I looked up and there she was hugging me tight.

‘Are you all right?’ she said.

I nodded unable to speak through my tears of joy. She was alive!

Journal entry 1st of March.

I was taken with my aunt to the cottage hospital. We were both suffering a bit from shock but allowed to go home after a strong cup of tea and some tender loving care.

John had died at the scene of the accident. He should have been wearing a seat belt.

He had evidently doubled back to Penmarris when he realised what had happened. It was a pity that the police hadn’t been able to catch him before all that carnage happened.

We will never know if John just saw us by chance or if he arranged things. A wire to the alarm had been cut and that set it off. He could have done that. He might have thought that Abby would have to go to the shop to turn the alarm off. The fact that I was there may have spurred him on to exact some sort of revenge against me and or Auntie Abby. We will never know what was going through his head at the time, but he must have known that the police were on to him and that he had lost everything.

The vicar, David Gotobed had been walking his dog and as soon as he saw what was happening, he rushed over and despite the incredible risk, pushed me out of the way. I didn’t know at the time but his arm had broken been broken in trying to save me. He said afterwards that he didn’t feel the pain until some time later.

CCTV showed how brave he actually was as it was only the fact that a tyre burst as it hit the curb, making the car swerve slightly that prevented him from losing his life whilst trying to save me.

David was awarded the George Medal for bravery in saving me and then going into a petrol soaked pottery to extract my aunt, who had been sitting on the loo and evidently, to her embarrassment, had her knickers around her ankles at the time of the crash!

I love him a lot, together with his wonderful wife Jocasta and dippy but nice children, Phillipa and Jen. It turned out that he was a member of the RNLI lifeboat crew and had shown extreme bravery before. Who would have thought that the mild mannered, genial David was a Super Vicar in disguise?

Shortly after all this, Samantha (call me Auntie Sam) contacted a tame solicitor of hers who sorted out the financial mess left by John’s misdeeds. It turned out that I owned the house and what was left of the money in my mothers’ accounts. There was still quite a bit despite some extravagant spending by John. I was evidently now the proud owner of a flash Audi, even though I was too young to drive it. It was now at Mr Potts’s garage being sorted out for a ding caused by John’s erratic driving.

The twins were still with their aunt, who became their legal guardian. John’s wife Brenda still had issues, but was, at last, coming to terms with her problems and she had started to see her children on a semi-regular basis in the hope that some time soon, she would have them back again.

I went to school with Hannah, Sarah and the others and was soon enjoying some sort of normal life, at last!

So that brings me up to date. I am happy to be where I am now and I look forward to having a less exciting life from now on. The trauma of all that had happened to me still comes back to me at times, but the nasty dreams are getting less and less and my counsellor Jane is sure that in time they should fade away.

I heard that the twins are doing well and in fact they wrote to me to say sorry for what they did. They want me to meet up with them sometime and I might do that, as they were as much victims as I was in all this.

My counsellor asked me to write this journal, as it can be helpful. I suppose it does help me come to terms as to what happened to me.

More later.

I put my journal down and wondered if I should show it to my auntie. I was told that I didn’t need to show it to anyone, but I thought that it would be nice to show her and get her reaction.

Standing up and stretching, I went over to the guardrail and stared out to sea. In the distance was Jersey. It was quite warm, despite the fact that it was still only March. We were all on The Penmarris Surprise as a birthday present for me from my two favourite aunts. I was 16 now and legally able to be a bit more independent, but I didn’t want independence, I wanted to belong to a family, my family. I felt a little hand in mine and I looked down and there was Heather, looking gorgeous in a little girl’s sailor dress.

I had missed out on that entire little girl thing, but I was luckier than a lot of gender-confused people. I had the love and support of my family and that counted so much.

‘Ook, boat!’

‘Yes Heather look at the nice boats.’

We were approaching Elizabeth Marina in St.Helier on Jersey and it all looked very nautical with lots of boats and yachts all lined up on piers. I wondered if The Penmarris Surprise would have a space to park itself, but the captain seemed to know what he was doing, well I hoped so anyway.

‘Miss, you are wanted on the bridge,’ said a female crewmember called Alicia, as she came up to me.

‘Oh, what about Heather?’

‘Leave her with me Miss; we can play games can’t we Heather?’

‘Pease!’ she said enthusiastically, letting go of my hand and grabbing Alicia’s.

‘Fickle child,’ I murmured as I made my way to the lofty heights of the bridge. I had been there before and was impressed by it’s interior and all of the state of the art equipment. I was still getting around the fact that this was the family yacht and that we were evidently loaded with doubloons. Mind you, I could get used to it!

I opened the door leading into the bridge and was surprised to see, as well as my aunts; Hannah, Sarah, Phillipa, Jen together with Jocasta and David Gotobed and the formidable but wonderful Lady Fairbairn.

‘They you are dear,’ said Auntie Abby coming over and giving me a quick hug’ ‘the captain needs you.’

‘Me?’ I squeaked.

The captain came over and led me to the steering wheel thingie. We were quite close to the entrance to the marina now and I could see people on the harbour wall looking at us and pointing. Others were fishing or just walking along admiring the boats.

‘As you are the birthday girl, here is a special sailors cap for you to wear and then you can hold the wheel for a moment and then you have a very important job.’

‘I have?’ I said as he put the cap on my head and then gently put my hands on the wheel.

I made absolutely sure that I didn’t move the wheel, even a millimetre. The last thing I wanted was a Titanic moment.

‘Right pull that lever back two notches.’

I did as I was told, in a seaman like fashion, and the engine sound seemed to get lower. This was great; I was driving the boat, all by myself!

‘Damn good piloting!’ said Lady F, ‘Durin the war…’

I zoned out, I had heard “during the war” from her on countless occasions now and to be honest, I wondered if it was true that she single-handedly influenced Churchill with suggestions that changed the course of the war. Thinking about it later, I thought that she probably did!

We were getting closer now and I was rather relieved when a sailor took over from me.

My friends over to the side were all giggling and pointing at me. I didn’t know why, I was doing a great job. Not everyone could drive a thing this big.

‘Well done Amy,’ said the captain flashing his glaringly brilliant white teeth and nearly blinding me,
‘Just one last thing, could you just press this button?’

It was a big red button and I just pressed it.

The noise of the ships horn was immense, making me almost wet myself. The people on the harbour wall seemed to jump as one and more than a few fishing rods dropped into the sea. The noise reverberated around the harbour and my ears were ringing.

When my hearing returned, I noticed that everyone was removing earplugs.

‘Thank you very much!’ I said hotly.

‘That was your initiation ceremony,’ said Auntie Sam, ‘you’re really one of us now.’

I looked at them all, grinning insanely at me and then smiled.

I was glad that I was one of us!

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FIN

Please leave comments…thanks! ~Sue