‘We need to talk.’
Matthew was neck deep in paperwork about a potential takeover of a smaller cider maker in Herefordshire when his brother’s voice broke into his thoughts. Frankly, the distraction was welcome, as he’d been hard pushed to see the actual financial sense in it, anyway. It had been something Jack had wanted to do before his death, which had been put on hold for well over a year, and Matthew wasn’t really sure it was worth Carter’s time or capital.
‘What is it?’ he said, whipping off his reading glasses and gesturing to the cafetière on his desk. ‘Help yourself if you want one.’
‘Have you got anything stronger?’ Jonathan asked. ‘You might need it when you hear what I’ve got to tell you.’
Matthew blinked and gestured to a sealed wooden crate in the corner of his office. ‘There’s a case of the latest Calvados that the distillery sent over as a taster if you want some. I keep meaning to ask you to take it over to The Cider Kitchen to put on the wine list.’
‘That’ll do,’ Jonathan replied, hurrying to the box and snapping open the lid. ‘Glasses?’
‘There are some tumblers on the conference table,’ Matthew said, sensing Jonathan’s agitation. ‘What’s this all about, Jonno? Is it Caroline? Is she all right?’
Jonathan shook his head impatiently. ‘Caroline’s fine. Pissed off she can’t get into her clothes any more, and still suffering from morning sickness, but fine. Just let me pour this.’ Jonathan had filled Anna and Matthew in on Caroline’s pregnancy shortly after the twelve week scan had shown her fears about her former drug use were unfounded, and the family were looking forward to welcoming a new addition. The irony that they now also appeared to have a fully grown addition to the family in the shape of Alex Fraser was not lost on Jonathan, who was rapidly starting to regret his cavalier action at the gate.
‘Not for me, thanks, I’ve got a meeting with the charitable trustees this afternoon and I need my head on straight.’ The Carter’s Calvados had a deserved reputation for ruin if drunk in large quantities, and Matthew much preferred whisky, sacrilegious as it was to admit as a cider maker. Jonathan himself had steered well clear of Carter’s Calvados since the night of his father’s funeral, when he’d been rescued by Matthew on Wavering Down after getting blind drunk under a hawthorn tree in a thunderstorm. It was ironic, he thought, that yet again it was Jack who’d made him reach for the Calvados. Ignoring his brother’s refusal, Jonathan poured two large glasses.
‘Trust me. You’re going to need this one, trustees or no trustees.’ He hurried back to Matthew’s desk, passed his brother a glass and sat down heavily on the chair on the other side. He took a massive gulp of his Calvados and swallowed deeply.
‘Well?’ Matthew prompted. ‘I’ve not got a lot of time, Jonno.’
‘You might want to cancel that meeting,’ Jonathan said. ‘I don’t think you’re going to be in much of a mood for it when you hear what I’ve got to tell you.’
Matthew sighed. ‘Spit it out, little brother.’
‘You know how, when we were kids, just before Mum got ill the first time, Dad spent a summer abroad? Did he ever talk about why he was out of the country for so long?’
Matthew shook his head. ‘No, not really. As far as I remember, he was doing a kind of tour of international cider producers, gathering some ideas for apple varieties that might sit well with our heritage breeds. If I recall, he brought back some pretty good North American specimens and ended up trying to do some hybrids. I’m not sure if any of them actually took once they hit the Mendip clay soil, but to be honest I wasn’t really paying much attention at the time.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘I was far more interested in rugby and girls aged thirteen!’
‘Well, it would seem he wasn’t touring the world as much as he led us and Mum to believe,’ Jonathan said. ‘In fact, he pretty much stayed put once he got to the North American continent.’
‘What are you on about?’ Matthew snapped. ‘I haven’t got time for your amateur dramatics, Jonathan.’
‘Dad spent three months in British Columbia,’ Jonathan said. ‘And it wasn’t just apples that got his attention. He met a woman out there. Things happened, apparently. Alex Fraser was the result.’
Matthew nearly dropped his tumbler of Calvados. ‘Is this some kind of joke?’
‘I’m afraid not.’ Jonathan poured another slug into his glass. ‘I mean, it’s not like he’s had a DNA test or anything, but it all makes a kind of sense. Dad was away for a long time that summer. Alex even looks a bit like you in the right light.’
‘That’s hardly conclusive,’ snapped Matthew.
‘OK, OK,’ Jonathan said, seeing Matthew’s look of irritation rapidly turning into something deeper. ‘Look. He might be a con artist with a sob story, but something tells me, from what we both know about Dad, and what Alex has let slip about himself, that he’s telling the truth.’
‘How and when did you find this out?’ Matthew, unable to resist the Calvados any longer, took a deep pull from his glass.
‘About ten minutes ago. That twat Mark Simpson was brawling with Alex by the gates, shouting the odds about Sophie Henderson. Alex and Sophie have become a bit of an item in the time he’s been over here. Mark’s her ex, and obviously isn’t too keen on Sophie spending time with someone else.’
‘Thanks for filling me in,’ Matthew said dryly. ‘But I still don’t see how you get from there to Alex being our brother.’
Jonathan shook his head. ‘Sorry. Anyway, then it came out. Mark made a leap that none of us have been able to see all summer, and called Alex out on it. Alex looked as though he was either going to pass out or punch him, so I stepped in.’
‘And he didn’t try to deny it?’
Jonathan laughed grimly. ‘To be honest, he looked as shell shocked as I felt. I don’t think, on reflection, he intended us to find out that way. Of course, that begs the question when, and if, he was ever intending to level with us at all.’
‘So, then what? Where’s Alex now?’
Jonathan paused, noticeably unsure what Matthew was going to say when he found out. ‘I sacked him and told him to get off the site. And preferably out of the country.’
Matthew nearly spat out his Calvados. ‘Don’t you think that was a little impulsive, even for you?’
‘And what would you have preferred me to do?’ Jonathan challenged. ‘Sit him down for a civilised cup of tea and a chat? Need I remind you, brother dear, that he’s been working here under false pretences all this time? God only knows what information he’s had access to since he’s been here, about you, me, the business. What makes you think he’s not some con man up to industrial espionage? Have you done a full check of the vats lately?’
‘I think you’re missing the point, Jonno.’ Matthew’s voice was low, resigned as he finished his drink. ‘If what you’re saying is true, and he really is Dad’s son… we owe it to him to at least talk to him. To find out where all this has come from. Yes, he should have levelled with us from the start, but I can sort of understand why he didn’t. I mean, this isn’t exactly an easy family to get involved with, even without the fact that Dad kept this rather large bombshell from us.’ He shook his head. ‘Can you imagine how it must have felt to land in the middle of that?’
‘He still should have been honest with us,’ Jonathan muttered. ‘And what makes you think Dad even knew about Alex? Even if he’d kept it from us while he was alive, surely we’d have found out when he died – there would have been paperwork, evidence… something.’
‘That’s a fair point,’ Matthew mused. ‘Do you… do you think, perhaps, that he didn’t know? That maybe Alex’s mother kept it from him?’
‘Why would she do that?’ Jonathan asked. ‘What would she have to lose by telling him?’
‘Honesty isn’t the easiest thing to practise, as you and I well know,’ Matthew said wryly. The brothers had a long and tangled history, which only in recent years had begun to resolve itself. Jonathan’s affair with Matthew’s first wife, Tara, Meredith’s mother, had torn the family apart, and it was only when Anna had come into Matthew’s life that the brothers had begun to reconcile.
‘Touché, big brother. But now what?’
‘Well, seeing as you gave him his marching orders, perhaps we’d better try to get him back in case he actually decides to act on them. If nothing else, he deserves answers, and, if you think about it, so do we.’
‘Christ, I wish Dad was here,’ Jonathan mumbled gruffly. ‘Although I’m buggered if I’d know what to say to him.’
‘I can think of a few things,’ Matthew said archly. He blinked, focussing his gaze on the bottom of his glass. ‘Do you honestly think he didn’t know?’
‘I can’t see Dad not acknowledging Alex’s existence if he did know,’ Jonathan said. ‘He might have been unfaithful, but if a child had come out of it, I think he’d have done his best by him or her. It wasn’t Dad’s style not to take responsibility. That’s what doesn’t quite add up.’
‘Maybe we need to get Alex back in, find out what he knows,’ Matthew replied. ‘We might all be holding pieces of the puzzle without realising it.’
‘We’d better hurry,’ Jonathan said. ‘In case he really does take what I said at face value and leave the country.’ He put his tumbler down on the table. ‘He’s staying with Lily Henderson. I’ll nip round there.’
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea, given what happened at the gates,’ Matthew said. ‘Why don’t I head over there and talk to him? Although whether he’ll agree to open the door to me is a different matter. But we owe it to Dad to try.’
‘OK. Shall I meet you back at Cowslip Barn?’
‘Sounds good.’ Matthew stood up and grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair. ‘If Anna’s there you’d better fill her in about all this before someone else does. And Meredith. Christ.’ He shook his head. ‘When I got up this morning I had no idea something like this was going to happen.’
‘I think it’s knocked us all for six,’ Jonathan said.
They headed towards the office door. Before he opened it, Matthew paused. Reaching out a hand to his brother’s shoulder, he squeezed it gently. ‘I’m glad we’re doing this together, Jonno.’
Jonathan swallowed, touched by his brother’s intimate gesture. There had been too many years when they’d been separated by time, distance and conflict, and Jonathan relished their rediscovered closeness. ‘Me too. I can’t imagine what Alex must have been going through this summer. I feel a right twat for bawling him out about it all now, and in public.’
‘It’s understandable,’ Matthew replied roughly. ‘It’s as much a shock to me as it is to you. But we need to make sure we play this right; find out what the truth is, and, if we need to, do right by him now. Even though he hasn’t been entirely honest with us, it’s important that we all are from this point on. Agreed?’
‘Agreed.’ And with that, they prepared to meet Alex for the first time as brothers.