Helen missed Matthew. It would be good if he were there all the time, but she was too busy to be miserable, both at work and in her leisure activities. Business was quite brisk at the estate agency, although the boss said there would probably be a lull around the Christmas and New Year period. The choir at St Michael’s was practising special music, firstly for the harvest festival and then for Christmas. Harvest would be celebrated the following week, the first Sunday in October, then Christmas would be upon them in what would seem like no time at all.
Robert Kershaw told Helen that he and Pam had decided it was time to tell Jennifer and James the truth about Alice – and they both wanted Helen to be there when they broke the news.
‘Are you sure?’ asked Helen. ‘Isn’t it a private family matter?’
‘And who are you but part of their family?’ said Robert. ‘If it hadn’t been for you coming to live in your aunt’s cottage and finding all the clues to her story … well, who knows? We might never have got round to telling them about Alice, and it’s only right that they should know.’
James was in his final year at university and Jennifer had completed her training and been fortunate in finding a post as a junior school teacher in the market town of Helmsley. She was living in digs there but the journey home to Thornbeck took only half an hour or so. She would be home for a couple of days at the end of October when it was the half-term break and, fortunately, James would be having a short break from his university course. Jennifer had passed her driving test and now had a little runabout Mini, by no means new but it served its purpose. James was still dependent on public transport but was determined to catch up with his sister soon.
Helen had been invited round for a meal on the Saturday evening: she was not meeting Matthew that weekend. Jennifer and James did not seem surprised to see her. They knew that Helen had become a close friend of their parents, and they both liked her very much.
After a satisfying meal of a homemade steak and kidney pie, followed by an apple meringue pudding, they settled down in the lounge with coffee and mints.
‘Quite an occasion, Mum,’ said Jennifer. ‘Is it something special we are celebrating?’
‘You could say that,’ replied Pamela. ‘You are both home, of course, which is always a reason to celebrate, and we invited Helen along because we have something important to tell you.’ The brother and sister looked at their parents enquiringly.
‘It’s about Alice,’ Robert began. ‘Helen’s great-aunt and the lady whom you two became very fond of.’ He paused. ‘You two have known for a long time, of course, that we adopted you because your birth parents were so tragically killed. And you also knew that your father, Jonathan, was adopted when he was just a baby, by Pamela’s parents. He knew that as well but he never knew, or tried to find out, who was his birth mother. Well …’ He paused again, before saying, ‘It was Alice.’
Jennifer and James both gasped. ‘I don’t believe it …’ breathed Jennifer, but of course she did. ‘That’s incredible.’
‘And did our … father, Jonathan, not know?’ asked James.
‘No, because Alice wanted it to be that way,’ said Pamela. ‘She was a very private sort of person, as you know. She had found her son, and she had the pleasure of seeing him grow up – he was about ten when she found him. And she seemed to be content for it to stay that way. She didn’t want to upset the apple cart, so to speak, and she knew he’d had a good upbringing with lovely parents. They knew, eventually, but not at first.’
‘And then he was killed,’ said Jennifer. ‘Oh! How dreadful for poor Alice!’
‘Yes, it was dreadful,’ said Robert. ‘And that was the time that I found out her secret: she was so distressed at the funeral. But Alice was a very brave woman. She carried on with her life here; she had lots of friends and she took consolation in watching you two grow up. That was why we asked her to babysit for you and to take part in your activities and your interests.’
‘Yes, she was lovely,’ said Jennifer. ‘Just like an extra grandma – which was what she was, of course.’
James looked at Helen. ‘And you are her great-niece,’ he said. ‘So … you are some sort of a relation to us, aren’t you? What are you? A second or third cousin?’
Helen laughed. ‘I couldn’t possibly work it out. It would take a genealogist to do that. It’s certainly very complicated. And since I came to live in Yorkshire I’ve met Matthew, another relation I didn’t know I had. And we have become … well … rather friendly.’ She smiled fondly at the thought of Matthew.
‘We saw you with him a few weeks ago,’ said James. ‘He looks a nice sort of chap.’
‘I can assure you he is,’ said Helen. ‘I was devastated when Aunt Alice died, but what a legacy she has left behind! I think she would be very happy to know how things have worked out.’
‘And maybe she does know,’ said Pamela quietly. ‘Who can tell?’
‘I think this calls for a celebration,’ said Robert. ‘Get out the glasses, Pam, and I’ll open a bottle of prosecco.’
‘Here’s to us all,’ said Robert, raising his glass. ‘To us and to our family members in other parts of the country. And … God bless Alice.’
They all raised their glasses, repeating ‘God bless Alice’ before taking a sip.
Helen felt a tear pricking her eyes, but the few tears she shed would be tears of happiness as well as sadness as she remembered her dear aunt.
‘When I think about it,’ said Jennifer, ‘I suppose I am not really all that surprised. Well, I was stunned at first, of course.’
‘And so was I,’ called her brother.
‘But … Alice was always so special to us, to me and James, and we really did come to think of her as a member of our family.’ She turned to Helen. ‘And there was something about you, too, Helen. I can’t explain it, but it was so easy to get to know you and to talk to you. And I think there is a family resemblance too, inherited from Alice. We’re both quite small – like Alice was – and fair-haired.’
‘And very pretty too,’ said Robert. ‘And James, here, has inherited Jonathan’s sharper features and dark hair.’
Pamela looked a little pensive.
Jennifer broke in quickly, ‘But James and I have had a wonderful mum and dad. I can’t think of you any other way. My memories of … Jonathan and Rachel are so hazy, and James does not remember them at all.’
James nodded. ‘I suppose it was a typical story of that time, wasn’t it? Two young people falling in love in wartime. How very tragic, but I suppose there must have been many more just like them.’
‘Hundreds and hundreds,’ said Robert. ‘I don’t remember this war. I was born towards the end of it, as Jonathan was. Tony was part of a bomber crew; a wireless operator. Alice told me when the truth came out. I suppose he knew that he might not survive the war, so many planes were shot down over Germany. And Alice said she knew too. She had a feeling when she didn’t hear from him for ages that the worst had happened. Then Tony’s mother wrote to tell her. Alice was a very brave lady, but there must be many more just like her.’
‘I was born well after the war,’ said Helen. ‘I’ve heard a little about it from my mum and gran, but Aunt Alice never mentioned it. It was only since coming to live here that I’ve found out the facts of it all. But the good thing is that I’ve found all of you.’ She smiled round at them, Robert and Pamela, Jennifer and James.
‘And Matthew as well,’ said Robert with a sly grin at her.
‘Oh, yes, Matthew too,’ she said with a happy smile.