Chapter 23

Saturday, 26th November 2005

Abi woke to the sound of knocking at the door. She swore under her breath and nudged Gideon, who was snoring gently beside her.

“Gid, Gid, wake up! There’s someone at the door!” she whispered urgently.

Gideon groaned and rolled over. “Answer it, then.” His voice was slurred with sleep.

Abi tutted. “It might be the press!” she persisted, pulling the covers up to her chin.

Gideon sighed and turned over to face her. “Or it might be Judy,” he said.

Abi leaned over and picked up her phone to see the time.

“At eight o’clock?” she said dubiously. “She’d have had to leave at five to get here by now.” Reluctantly she climbed out of bed and pulled the quilt with her, wrapping it around her to cover her nakedness. Gideon protested loudly and tried to grab it back, but she slipped out of the room with a laugh.

At the door she called out, “Who is it?”

“It’s me,” came the muffled reply.

Abi opened the door a crack. “Judy?” she said in amazement. “It’s only eight o’clock.”

She opened the door fully and let her friend in, all the time clutching the quilt around her. Judy gave her a quick hug and raised her eyebrows at the makeshift clothing.

“Still in bed, then?” she asked with a grin.

Abi frowned, and felt herself begin to blush. “As I said, Jude, it’s only eight o’clock. Whatever time did you leave?”

She led the way into the living area, the quilt dragging behind her. Judy followed, sat down on the window seat, and looked around her.

“I haven’t been here for ages,” she said with a reminiscent smile. “I shall have to bring the kids next summer. D’you remember all those holidays we had here, Abs?”

Abi nodded and sat down next to her.

“’Course I do. They were magical.” She bent forward and let her hair cover her face. “And these last two days have been…pretty good, too…mostly.”

Judy looked around. “Is Gideon still asleep?” she asked.

Abi shook her head. “No, he was awake. Doubt he’s gone back to sleep without…” She got to her feet. “Would you like a coffee?” Without waiting for the reply, she scuttled into the kitchen and put the kettle on.

Judy grinned to herself in satisfaction. Things seemed to be working out, then. At that moment, Gideon appeared from the bedroom, dressed in boxers and a T-shirt and rubbing his eyes.

“Hi, Judy. You’re early,” he said with a yawn.

Judy rolled her eyes. “Stop saying that, you two,” she said. “I’ve got lots to tell you, and I think you have lots to tell me, so I thought we should have the whole day. I have to go back tonight.”

“Am I still top news?” asked Gideon, crouching down and lighting the fire.

“Hmmm…about page four now, I think,” Judy replied. “Some politician got caught with a prostitute, and he’s taken top billing. You’ll probably be safe to go back to your parents’ house tomorrow. I’m sure your mum is missing her car.”

Gideon ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, she has texted me once or twice about it. Said Dad keeps seeing it on the news.” He grinned.

Abi appeared just then with two cups of coffee, still attempting to keep the quilt wrapped around her.

“For God’s sake, Abi, get dressed,” said Judy in exasperation, relieving her of the cups. “I’m dying to know what was in your box, and I’m dying to tell you what I found out.”

Abi turned and hobbled back into the bedroom in search of some clothes, and Judy turned to Gideon.

“Is she okay, Gid?” she asked with a slight frown.

He nodded slowly. “Well, sort of, I guess. This has all been a hell of a shock to us both.” He gave her a lopsided grin. “Until Tuesday, I never even knew I’d had a child, and then I thought she was dead. Now I find she’s alive and nearly ten years old. Bit much to take in, to be honest.”

“I bet it is,” Judy said sympathetically. “I was hoping to tell you what I’d found out before you opened that tin. I guessed what was in there was something to do with the baby, after Mum told me what she’d found out.” She raised her eyebrows at Gideon. “And how about you and Abi? Are you okay together?”

Gideon grinned at her. “Yeah,” he said. “I rather think we will be. Actually, she’s not nearly so high maintenance as she was as a teenager.”

Judy giggled. “That’s true,” she admitted. “Although I do still seem to have to get her out of scrapes.”

“Get who out of scrapes?” asked Abi, suspiciously, as she emerged from the bedroom dressed in jeans and a bright green jumper.

“You, of course,” said Judy, smiling. “That jumper’s nice. It sets off your hair.”

Abi sat down on the window seat next to her friend and looked at her expectantly.

“Well?” she asked. “What is it you’ve got to tell us, and how come you know something about this?”

Judy sighed. “Well, now you’ve opened the box, this isn’t going to be much of a surprise, but it might explain a bit more about what happened when your baby was born.”

“Natasha,” chipped in Abi. “Her name is Natasha.”

Judy’s eyes widened slightly, but she went on. “A few weeks ago a new midwife came to work at the hospital with Mum, and they kind of hit it off. They started meeting up in their breaks and chatting a lot about their experiences. Anyway”—she took a deep breath—“this nurse told Mum a really weird story from her past. Apparently the thing that made her think of it was when Mum saw the announcement of your mother’s death in the paper, Abi. She was reading it in the canteen at the hospital and happened to say what an unpleasant woman she’d been. The new nurse then said she wondered if it was the same Joan Thomson she’d come across many years ago, and proceeded to tell my mother your story. Apparently she’d worked in that clinic you went to, and she said she’d been worried about you, and tried to help you by phoning me…” She paused as Abi caught her breath. “But someone stopped her, and she was sent home, and denied any more access to you. She was told you were delusional and kept making things up about your pregnancy, about the father being famous.” Judy glanced at Abi as she spoke, and saw that her face was very pale and had a set expression on it. “She had no choice but to go home, but she vowed to come back early the next day and check on you. However, she received a phone call the following morning terminating her contract. She was allowed to go in later in the day to collect her things, but then she had to leave. When she returned to the clinic she immediately asked what had happened to you, and was told the baby had died and that you and your mother had gone home. She was devastated and asked for your address so she could go and say how sorry she was, but she was refused access to the records. When she collected her belongings, she went to see what had happened to the baby’s body but couldn’t find it. However, just as she was leaving the clinic, she heard a baby crying. When she attempted to go and see it, she was told it belonged to someone who had come in that morning. She realised that might be true, that there was no way she could check up on it. The whole episode has haunted her ever since, and she had always worried that your mother had somehow taken the baby away from you.”

Abi was silent for a long moment. “That was Sally,” she said quietly. “I always wondered why she didn’t come back. I just thought she’d let me down like everyone else.”

“Mum thought the whole thing sounded very strange, and when I told her you never got to hold the baby, she was most upset. She spoke to some of her contacts and managed to find out from one who’d also worked at that clinic at the time that a baby was born there in January ’96 and was then sent to a children’s home somewhere in Kent. I think that was your baby, and I suspect you might now have proof of that, from the things you found in the box?”

Judy sat back looking expectant, while Abi got up and went to sit by Gideon on the floor before she nodded and replied, “Yes. We found her birth certificate, and some letters from a children’s home in Tunbridge Wells, written to my mother.” She took a deep breath and glanced at Gideon. “Apparently my mother registered her birth and called her Natasha Storm Thomson.” Judy gasped. “And …”—Abi paused to swallow hard—“she seems to have visited Natasha at the home on several occasions over the next few years.”

Gideon reached up to the table and gathered the pile of documents they’d found in the box. He held them out to Judy.

“Here, have a look. The last letter from the home, dated in July, is most interesting.”

Slowly Judy took the pile of papers and began to look through them. Once or twice she gasped, and by the end she had tears in her eyes. She stared at Abi and Gideon.

“She forged your signature,” she whispered. “She knew she’d never get you to give up…Natasha, so she told you she was dead and forged your signature. But why did she do it? And why didn’t she go the whole hog and have her adopted? And why the visits? None of it makes any sense.”

Gideon shook his head. “No, it doesn’t really, does it? That’s why we need to visit the children’s home and talk to them.”

“And meet Natasha,” said Abi.

Gideon reached out and squeezed her hand. “And meet Natasha,” he agreed with a smile.

Judy looked worried. “Are you sure she’s still there?” she asked anxiously. “There hasn’t been a letter since July.”

“But that one said they would reassess the situation after a year,” said Gideon. “So she should still be there now. Unless she’s been fostered. But she can’t be adopted at the moment.” He looked at Abi. “I think we should go down there on Monday. What d’you think?”

Abi looked up at him. “Seems a long way off,” she said. “It’s only Saturday.”

Gideon grinned. “We’ve waited this long,” he said. “We need to prepare for this. We must present a totally united and stable front if we want to have any chance of getting her back. That needs some work.”

Judy nodded. “Yes, use the weekend to formulate your plan. You need to decide whether you want to tell her who you are or not. Maybe best not, until she gets to know you.”

Abi got to her feet and walked over to the window. The day was overcast again, and the sea was crashing on the shore, sending spray all the way to the caravan. She turned and looked at the other two.

“I feel so strange,” she said eventually. “I’m really having trouble with this. In the space of just over a week my whole life has changed. Absolutely nothing is as I thought it was. It’s like I’ve been living someone else’s life for the last ten years and now I’ve been given mine back. I need your help, big time, guys.” She held out her hands to the other two. As one, Judy and Gideon got up and went to her, and the three of them clung together.

****

“Gideon just texted me.” Caroline came into the room holding her phone at arm’s length in an attempt to read what was on the screen. “Have you seen my glasses anywhere, Roger?”

Roger lowered his paper and shook his head. “No, here, have mine,” and he handed his reading glasses to his wife. She perched them on the end of her nose and peered at the screen.

“Oh, he says he’s coming back tomorrow, with my car. About time. And he says can he bring Abi with him.” She glanced at Roger. “That sounds promising, doesn’t it? I’ll say yes, of course.” She carried on reading. “He says he’s got some rather shocking news.” Her eyes lit up. “D’you think they’re getting married?”

Roger gave her a look. “That would scarcely be classed as shocking, surely?” he said. “Would you be shocked by that? I wouldn’t. It must be something more interesting.”

Caroline looked surprised. “That would be interesting! Our son arrives home for the first time in years, meets up with his girl friend of ten years ago, and then gets married. That seems pretty interesting to me.”

“But not shocking, darling,” said Roger patiently. “Trust me, it’ll be something else. Now give me my glasses back, and go and make them a cake.”

Caroline laughed and handed the glasses over.

“You know me so well,” she said and left the room in the direction of the kitchen.

****

When Simon arrived back at his mother’s house late on Thursday, he had taken to his bed and not re-appeared until Saturday lunchtime. Josephine came back from shopping to find him slumped on the sofa watching the racing, a can of lager in one hand and a joint in the other.

“Simon,” she snapped, dropping her shopping on the floor. “I told you I won’t have that stuff in the house. Put it out now.” Simon shrugged and stubbed it out in the ashtray without looking at her. She picked up the shopping again and carried it to the kitchen. As she put it away, she called to him, “And if you’re going to stay here, you can pull your weight a bit more. You stayed in bed all day yesterday, and the house is a tip.” She walked to the door and poked her head around it. “Did you find Gideon and Abi?”

Simon finally looked at her. “You should have told me he was at her house,” he said in an accusatory manner. “That was a fucking wasted journey.”

“I would have told you if you’d hung around to listen,” said his mother mildly. “Why was it wasted? Had they gone?”

“Yes, of course they’d bloody gone,” Simon snapped. “But that’s not the point. If he’d already got to her, then there was no point in my finding him. It’s too late now. He’ll already know everything.”

Josephine looked at her son suspiciously.

“Simon, what have you done? Were you trying to keep Abi and Gideon apart for some reason?”

“Yeah,” said Simon, after a moment’s hesitation.

His mother sighed and sat down on the sofa next to him.

“Okay. Tell me everything,” she said wearily.

Simon looked at her with dislike and shook his head. “None of your business,” he said rudely.

Josephine pursed her lips. “Well, if that’s your attitude,” she said sharply, “you can leave now. I will not be spoken to like that in my own home, by my own son.”

Simon sighed and attempted to smile at her.

“Sorry, Mum,” he said impatiently. “But you really wouldn’t be interested.”

“Try me. Maybe I can help,” she said, attempting to keep her temper. “I know you never liked Gideon seeing Abi, but surely you’ve got over that by now.”

Simon looked directly at her. “Okay,” he said in exasperation. “You want to know what it is, I’ll tell you. When we first went to America on tour in ’95, Gideon was madly in love with her, and he wrote to her nearly every day. It was pathetic. She was only just sixteen, as if it was going to last anyway.” He glanced slyly at his mother. “She wrote to him via the record company, you know, like you did, and I used to collect the mail they sent across to us. I didn’t give Gideon the letters from her. I kept them all, so he thought she never wrote to him.”

Josephine sat up and stared at him. “Simon Dean, how could you do something so wrong?” She gasped in horror. “You let that poor boy think his girl had deserted him? And what on earth would she have thought? She must have known he hadn’t received her letters.”

Simon was silent for a moment. “Actually, she didn’t get his, either, but that wasn’t my fault. I don’t know why that was,” he said defensively.

Josephine frowned at him. “How d’you know that?”

Simon shook his head. “Doesn’t matter,” he muttered, leaning back and staring at the television again. His mother picked up the remote control and turned it off.

“Simon, how do you know? Did you read her letters?” she demanded, her face like thunder.

Simon looked slightly nervous. “Not at the time,” he said at once. “But when he said he was going to look her up again last week, I opened the first one.” His mother gasped. “And then I had to open the last one, ’cause of what the first one said.”

“What did the first one say, Simon?” Her voice was icy.

“She told him she was pregnant,” he said bleakly.

There was a long silence. Josephine stood up.

“I have never been more ashamed of anyone in my entire life,” she said coldly. “You realise you may have ruined two people’s lives, their whole chance of happiness, with your meddling?” She paused. “So Abi and Gideon have a child?”

Simon shook his head. “No,” he said slowly. “In the last letter, she said it died.”

Josephine took a deep breath. “I remember some story about Abi way back then. Never did know what it was.” She stared at her son. “So she went through that whole tragic time on her own, believing Gideon had left her?”

“Not my fault she didn’t get his letters,” whined Simon.

“But it was your fault Gideon didn’t get hers. If he’d known about the baby, he would’ve been over here like a shot, if I know him,” Josephine said firmly. “Now get out of my house at once. You’re no son of mine.” She turned her back on him, walked into the kitchen, and closed the door.

****

“So you’ll call me when you reach Gideon’s parents’ house, then?” Judy asked as she gave Abi a hug at the caravan door. “And let me know what you’re planning to do on Monday?”

Abi nodded and grabbed Judy’s hand. “Yeah, of course I will. And Judy, thank you. You’ve been marvellous. I couldn’t have got through the last ten years without you.”

Judy grinned. “Believe me, you couldn’t have got through the previous ten years without me, either,” she said with a chuckle. “I’ve spent my whole life getting you out of scrapes.”

Abi laughed and nodded. “Yes, you have. I love you, Judy.”

The two friends hugged again briefly, and then with a wave Judy disappeared down the steps and got into her car. Abi closed the door and wandered back into the living area. Gideon was sitting on the floor in front of the fire again, setting up a game of Connect 4.

Abi stared at him. “What are you doing?”

He looked up and grinned. “Got to break the curse of Connect 4,” he said. “Come on, sit down.”

Abi laughed and sat down cross-legged opposite him.

“Okay, then. Bring it on,” she said beaming affectionately at him.

As they played, Abi watched Gideon. He had finally got dressed, in black jeans and a black T-shirt, and was looking dark and moody. His shoulder-length hair was clean and shiny, and the sight of his muscular brown arms reaching out towards the game made her tummy tingle. She dropped her counter in the top of the grid and smiled shyly at him.

“D’you realise,” she said, “that last night was the first whole night we’ve spent together?”

Gideon dropped his counter in on top of hers.

“I win,” he said with a self-satisfied smirk. “Yep, I had realised. Fun, wasn’t it? Shall we do it again?”

Abi crawled round to the other side of the grid and kissed him on the lips.

“Yes,” she said simply. “I think we should. And again…and again…”

She wound her arms around his neck and began gently nibbling his earlobe. His hand came up and brushed lightly across her breast before sliding round and cupping the back of her head. Their lips locked and they both moaned with pleasure as they sank to the floor to consummate their love.