'It gets a bit much when I can't do what I want in my own cottage,' she moaned, but she grinned at him as he poured her a glass of wine and put a huge bowl of Thai Green, chicken curry in front of her. It was her favourite dish, as Ella had probably told him.
'Good day in the attic, dear?' Ella joked.
'Yes, actually. I now know why Mattie was chucked out, and how she got involved with SIS.'
Ella gasped. 'And when were you going to tell us?'
Mia grinned. 'I'll tell you now. I didn't want to tell you anything until I'd found out something important and although I've been reading the diaries for a few days now and finding out horrid stuff, there was nothing really exciting until today. Anyway, as you know, they start when she was twelve and it's clear she had a rebellious streak. There are lots of mentions of her getting into trouble and her mum – who sounds a bit of a witch, and not in a good way – actually had her beaten. Can you believe that? She was beaten with a cane. She says she cried the first time but that seemed to please her mother so she never cried again.'
'What a cow. But that generation believed in punishment, not nurture. I remember my mum saying that even in her day her teachers often gave her a rap across the knuckles with a cane.'
'They believed it was character-building,' Gill said, pulling a face that made it clear he found it as distasteful as they did and then he smiled. 'But in Mattie's case it probably was. She learnt at a young age how to take pain and not show it.'
'Hmm. I'm not sure that's good. She then says "Mother found my new diary. She threw it on the fire. I lied and told her it was my first. I got six lashes. She will not find the others. No one will ever find the others." So that's when she started hiding things. She was fourteen at the time and it was January, so she'd started a new year.'
'Learning life skills along the way,' Ella said, sarcastically. 'Did her dad know what her mum was like?'
'I'll get to that. You wait until you hear that bit. I couldn't believe it.'
'Well, get on with it,' Ella said.
'Shouldn't we eat first?' Gill suggested.
'Okay. But hurry up. And Mia can still talk. Just not with her mouth full or I'll rap her across the knuckles.'
'Try it and see how long you live,' Mia joked. She took a mouthful of curry, ate it quickly, swallowed and continued: 'So. She's always getting caught for doing stuff she shouldn't. She gives a maid a dress that no longer fits and her mum finds out, burns the dress, sacks the maid, and, yep, more lashes for Mattie. She climbs a tree with her brother. He gets off scot-free, she gets lashes. She's seen walking in the stable yard, chatting to a groom and yep, more lashes, more sackings. They were wealthy, remember. They had stables, horses, a massive house. Anyway. There are pages of stuff like that. Up until then, she's had a governess but now she gets packed off to boarding school. She says she realises the importance of not being seen doing things someone may disapprove of, so she's more careful after that. She's happier at school but comes home for the holidays. She's still doing stuff but she's no longer getting caught and it seems she's doing more and more outrageous things almost to see what she can get away with. But she's also watching people to see who she can trust and who she can't. Then, when she's seventeen, her mum says they've arranged a marriage for her. Rich people still did in those days, but she's not having it and flatly refuses. She's locked in a room in the attic for three weeks with only one meal a day.'
'Bloody Nora. But what about the dad?'
'Patience. He's hardly ever at home. Except at Christmas and other holidays. The next big thing is one month after she's released from the attic. Her mum's still trying to force her into this marriage but it's now her brother's twenty-first birthday and there's a shindig at the house. Lots of people coming to stay for the weekend. You know, like those house parties we've seen on TV shows set in the 1930s. So, her dad's home and he's got lots of important friends staying. She's following them about, hiding in corridors, listening to conversations, basically having fun. Then when the party's in full swing, she goes up to that room in the attic, which is where she hides her diaries in a box, hidden beneath a type of window seat that's never used. Yep. That's obviously where the idea for the window seat upstairs came from. There's other stuff up there, including a bed, because this is the room she was locked in for three weeks, don't forget. But anyway. What does she see?' Mia took a mouthful of food. 'Oh, Gill, this curry is so delicious. Thank you.'
'What?' Ella shrieked, slapping her on the arm.
Mia pulled a face and chewed her bottom lip. 'She sees her dad, having "intimate relations" she calls it … with one of her brother's best friends! A male, friend. And what's more, he's the very same man that her parents are trying to get her to marry!'
'Bloody Nora!'
'I know!'
'Being gay was illegal in the 1930s,' Gill said, as nonchalantly as if they were discussing the weather. 'It could mean a life sentence.'
Mia nodded. 'Yes. But her dad's having an affair with her brother's best friend and the man they wanted her to marry! That's even more shocking, isn't it?'
Gill shrugged. 'To her, I suppose it would've been.'
Mia tutted. 'To any woman. Anyway. She goes berserk. Completely berserk. Rushes downstairs and tells her brother, who tells the mum, who goes equally berserk – but not with the dad – with Mattie. For making such a fuss and causing possible embarrassment to the family! Her dad, obviously worried and trying to keep the whole thing quiet, agrees she doesn't have to marry and also agrees she can go off to finishing school in Switzerland, which is what she wants. She says she learnt the importance of knowing other people's secrets and using that knowledge to good purpose. Which is sort of blackmail to you and me.'
'You can't blame her though, can you? What a horrid family!' Ella said.
'Yeah. The sad part is, less than two years later, her dad shoots himself. He can't live with the fear of people finding out and her mum, of course, blames Mattie, and so does her brother, even though Mattie says she swore to her dad that she would never speak of it again. So that's when her mum tells her she's no longer welcome at the house and basically that if they never hear from her again, it will be too soon.'
'Does she have any money or means to support herself?' Gill asked.
'Nope. But at that weekend party, Mattie had met a friend of her dad's who works for SIS although she didn't know that, simply that he was something to do with the government and intelligence. They got on well that weekend – before the business with her dad – so when, almost two years later, she's kicked out, she goes to him to see if he can help her find a job. Anything really because she's broke. When she tells him she can speak fluent French, German and Italian, has no interest in marriage or having children, he sees her potential. I think her mum and dad's relationship, plus her almost-fiancé, have put her off marriage for life. Anyway, she's nineteen, and by the age of twenty, she's in Paris working as a spy. And then when war breaks out, she stays and after Paris is occupied by the Germans in 1940, she catches the eye of a certain German officer, and we know where that's going, don't we? That's all I've read so far. I can't wait to find out more.'
Ella sighed. 'It's hard to believe that by twenty, she'd had more excitement and adventure, pain and suffering than I've had in thirty-four years.'
'Different times,' Gill said.
'Rich people were different in those days too,' said Mia. 'I think. But she does actually say that she has her family, and particularly her mother, to thank for teaching her so many lessons in life that would prove useful in her future. But I don't think she meant it as a compliment. It makes me even more sad that I never met her.'
Chapter Sixteen
It rained all the following week, although it remained warm for the time of year, but the winds picked up and the sea was choppy. Mia had regained her confidence but swimming in rough waters wasn't something she was keen to try. Instead, she stayed indoors and read more of Mattie's diaries.
'You're becoming a hermi
t,' Ella said, but as she stayed in most days as well, either reading the diaries Mia had already read, or helping Gill with his research for his book, she could hardly talk.
Hettie still came to clean on Monday and Thursday, despite no longer needing the money now that Fred had moved in permanently and, having sold his own house within a matter of days, followed by a speedy exchange and completion date, they would soon have ample funds to live on.
'I enjoy the company of you youngsters, deary,' Hettie said, when Mia told her they would be happy to do the cleaning themselves. 'Besides, you wouldn't get the duster out for a month and goodness knows what the place will look like come Christmas. No. We'll carry on as we are, deary.'
Lori popped in regularly for coffee and she and Franklin came for dinner one evening in the week. Mia told them all about Mattie's upbringing and as she was now reading the war years, she regaled them with tales of secret codes and secret missions but the diaries were scarce on detail.
'It's because writing a diary in an enemy occupied country, was not a wise way to spend one's time,' Gill said. 'Most of it was probably written after the war, from memory.'
He knew more details, having had the benefit of hearing the stories from his grandfather, but even so, there was a lot that was probably left out.
'Mattie was now working for the SOE,' Mia said. 'Her duties were sabotage and subversion. Winston Churchill's orders were to "set Europe ablaze" and that's what Mattie and Will, Gill's grandfather tried to do, by blowing up bridges, buildings, factories and even trains.'
Lori shook her head. 'It's so difficult to comprehend what life was like for her. From what you've both told us, she would go for days without food, have to move at a moment's notice, be constantly on her guard, risk her life on a daily, if not hourly basis and all that from the age of just twenty until the war ended when she was twenty-six. It's astonishing. Truly astonishing.'
'And don't forget,' Gill said, 'she was captured and interrogated. We won't tell you what she endured because it's pretty grim reading, but at least she was rescued from an even worse Fate by Grandfather and some of the group.'
'And your grandad told you that his lover, Margot Voss died in 1945?' Lori queried. 'Do Mattie's diaries say what really happened?'
Mia nodded. 'But not in great detail. She says he proposed and she was torn. She loved him but hated the idea of marriage and unlike him, she didn't want kids.'
'A bit like Fiona,' Ella joked. 'Sorry.'
'Don't worry,' Mia said. 'But yes, she was adamant about that. Will wanted a family but he said he'd give that up for Mattie. She wouldn't let him do that, so she lied and said she didn't think their love would last. That without the excitement and thrill of completing their missions, and the fear of death each day, their passion would peter out. He assured her his wouldn't. She said she knew hers would. Another lie because she said in the note she left that she loved him still and always had. But he was only twenty-four at the time, because he was two years her junior, and she thought he'd get over her. That they'd get over each other. I think she realised many years later that she should've taken the risk and married him. She says that Will loved her so much that the only way he could move on with his life was to act as if the woman he adored, was dead. And in a way, she was. Margot Voss no longer existed.'
'I can't wait to hear more,' Lori said.
Mia grinned. 'I can't wait to read more. I'm hoping the rain keeps up next week as well so that I've got an excuse to stay indoors and read.'
It did. And the wind increased even more and the temperature dropped, so much so that Gill lit the fire in the living room each evening. It wasn't really cold enough to have the heating on all day but the evenings did get chilly and the fire warmed them until they went to bed. They had got into a habit now of having dinner at seven-thirty, then curling up on the sofa or the chairs, with a glass or two of wine while Mia read from the 'latest' diary. By the end of that week, they had got to 1992, the year before Mattie moved to Little Pondale and on Monday, Mia started reading 1993.
'What did Mattie do in the intervening years?' Lori asked, on Monday morning when she popped round for coffee.
Hettie was there too, Monday being one of her mornings to clean and they were sitting in the kitchen as they always did when Hettie had finished for the day.
'When she returned to England, she worked for MI6. Oddly enough, her diary-keeping dwindled even more. There're loads more blank pages between 1945 and 1955. She had a couple of lovers, but no one special, that's obvious from the way she writes about them. She and Will are in contact, but he's married now, believing of course that Mattie didn't really love him. Gill says that his grandad made it clear to him that even though Margot Voss was dead, he still adored her and had never got over her. Gill, of course, had no idea that Mattie was Margot, and she was alive and well in England. He now thinks that if Mattie had said the word, Will would've left his wife and kids for her. That's kind of sad, isn't it?'
'Men shouldn't leave their wives and children for another woman, deary, no matter who she is,' Hettie said. 'Look what it did to Sarah Cross, and to Jet. Mind you, that's not a good example because they were better off without that man, deary. They just didn't know it at the time. And Sarah, poor dear, never stopped loving him. Not even on the day she died.'
'I think that's why Jet's so anti-relationships. He saw how it destroyed his mum. But I'm not going to start thinking about Jet. Needless to say, I haven't seen or heard from the man since your engagement party.'
Hettie puffed out her cheeks and clasped her hands beneath her chest. 'Haven't you, deary? Why he's been popping in and out all the time. He always asks after you. But he does ask me not to mention it, now that I think about it. Oh dear. I just have. Forget you heard that, deary. Tell us more about dear Matilda.'
Mia had to force herself not to ask Hettie to elaborate. Jet had been asking about her? That was a good sign, wasn't it? She and Ella hadn't been to choir practice for the last few weeks, in fact Mia hadn't been since before Garrick left, and they hadn't been to The Frog and Lily since Hettie's party either. Reading Mattie's diaries was beginning to take over all their lives.
'Okay. Where was I? Oh. 1955. She goes to the launch of The Fountain restaurant at Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly and amazingly, bumps into someone she helped rescue in the war but she doesn't give any details of how, merely that she hadn't seen her since the day they helped her get out of France. The woman's name is Esther, and she's in London on vacation. And this is the best bit. It seems Esther has also gone into the intelligence business, but as an independent and in the States. They get talking and the following year, Mattie leaves MI6 and she and Esther start a business together. They call it Durieux Ward Associates, because Esther's surname is Durieux and Mattie's is Ward. Mattie runs the London office and Esther runs the one in Washington. All she says about it is that they're in the business of intelligence. I can only assume it means they're spies for hire and it's anyone's guess exactly what that entails. She also mentions Dad a few times over the years, Mum, and I'll give you the diaries where she does, because it's clear she loved him, even if she never knew him. She also mentions her brother – my grandad, and the fact that, despite being ostracised, when her mum dies, she's left some of the family jewellery. It seems the family solicitor still knows how to get in contact with her even though the family wants nothing to do with her, not even her own brother. Which is very sad, I think. I didn't realise Grandad was like that. She also mentions me a few times too in the later diaries, but I'm really young, of course. Anyway, the business clearly had a lot of clients, or whatever over the years, because at the end of 1992, when Esther dies, Mattie, along with Esther's children, sell the business for a fortune. Annoyingly, she doesn't give details of who to, but I suppose if you're dealing in secrets, you keep stuff about your business secret too.'
'And I had no idea about any of this, deary,' Hettie said, shaking her head. 'Matilda never said one word about it. Any of it.'
&n
bsp; 'Good heavens, darling,' Lori said. 'What a pity we can't find out what she did for all those years.'
Mia smiled. 'That's exactly what I said when I was reading it to Ella and Gill. Naturally, Ella was over the moon because she always knew Mattie's money came from nefarious activities and she said you can't get much more nefarious than being a spy for hire. But Gill said it would make a good plot for a novel and Ella said it would be a very sexy novel if two women are the heads of an international spy organisation, and the next thing we know, we're agreeing we should write one. So guess what? Me, Gill and Ella are going to use the pseudonym, M.E.G. Ward, get it? Mia, Ella and Gill and Ward for Mattie. It may come to nothing, but it'll be a lot of fun.'
'Oh deary!' Hettie said. 'That's so exciting. And it'll give you something to do when you're in this cottage on the long cold winter nights, especially as you haven't got a man to cuddle up to.'
Lori grimaced and shook her head. 'Thank you for pointing that out, Hettie. I think it's wonderful, darling. I really do.'
Mia grinned. 'Yes, Hettie. Thanks for reminding me. And guess what we're going to call the male hero? The one the female spies keep saving.'
'What, darling?' Lori looked anxious.
Mia grinned. 'Jet. Jet De Fonteneau.'
'Good gracious, deary!' Hettie said. 'Are you sure that's wise?'
Chapter Seventeen
Mia didn't have quite as much time for reading that week, but she still managed to cover several years. Again, there were lots of blank pages. A diary wasn't top of Mattie's to do list, obviously. Mia had reached 2005 and Little Pondale was as lively then as it was now. Basically, nothing much was happening. But Mattie did write about Hettie and all the others in the village. And she wrote quite a bit about two people in particular. One was Grace Tyburn, Tom's gran; the other was a cheeky child, growing up over the years, called Jet Cross and it was clear that both of them had found a place in Mattie's heart, but for very different reasons.
The Cottage on Lily Pond Lane-Part Four: Trick or treat Page 10