Annie turned to me and I saw she was crying, a tear trickling down one cheek as it always did when she was moved. She turned to the room full of her family; her half brothers, her children, the people who were, or had been, important to them all.
“Please fill your glasses, we need to make a toast.”
Carl and Charles, helped by Crispin, opened several bottles of champagne while Linda, Holly and Josie handed the glasses around. As Carl passed me a bottle and two glasses Annie gave him a quick hug before turning back to the room.
“To Max” she said “Thank you for everything.” We all sipped at our glasses.
Perhaps I wasn’t the only one to remember how many times we had drunk champagne in this house over the years. Charles walked to the front of the room.
“I must add a toast.”
He held his glass out. I could see him trying not to catch Susannah’s eye.
“It is undoubtedly a time for reconciliation. Many things have happened in this family that we cannot hope to understand until we have read these books. Perhaps we have been too quick to judge. Perhaps what Max has said is true ‘Do not judge us too harshly for things we could not know”. Not only have I judged too harshly I should not have judged at all. That is not my right.” He looked at his sister and smiled. “Susannah, I am so sorry I have never tried to understand.”
My Annie raised her glass towards him, accepting the apology for so many years of distance between them. ‘No one ever said life was fair’ she spoke silently to him
Charles’ voice changed as he raised his glass.
“My toast is to Monika.” He turned towards her. “We owe you so much. Please forgive us for not realising how great that debt has been.” He spoke with affection and we all repeated ‘To Monika’ as we took another sip from our glasses.
“And the last toast will be mine.” I said believing it was time to bring proceedings to an end.
“We are all one extended family, we have had our good times and our bad, as families must. There have been misunderstandings and misjudgements which is why you will all read these books, mine, Charles’s and Susannah’s, because they will, I know, make you realise the importance of the subject of this final toast.”
I paused, looking round at this disparate group of people. I felt the presence of the ones who were now dead but who had also stood in this house drinking champagne; David and Edith, Maureen and, most importantly, Alicia.
I held out my hand to Annie who took hold of it and squeezed it.
We raised our glasses and spoke as one.
“To family.”
INIQUITIES TRILOGY 1
Winner: David St John Thomas Prize for Fiction 2007
“Ted’s Book”
‘I couldn’t put it down”
“Cracking good read”
Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.
Oscar Wilde
Softback: ISBN 1-905237-731 Hardback: ISBN 1-905237-936
INIQUITIES TRILOGY 2
“Charles’s Book’
‘Brilliant!”
“Powerful page turner”
All that is necesssary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke
Softback: ISBN: 1-905886-517 Hardback: ISBN 1-905886-524
Runaways Page 39