‘Is everything quite all right down there, m’dear?’ Beatrice’s face appears from her spare bedroom window next door. She’s opened it up wide and she can see clearly the trail of destruction I’ve just wreaked.
‘Quite all right,’ I tell her firmly.
‘We’re going to have quite a few bald patches around for the garden party,’ she presses hesitantly.
‘No worries. Um. The thing is – there isn’t going to be a garden party now.’ I look up at her impatiently. Damn it I never told her I. ‘We’re cancelling.’ ‘Just you hang on a second.’
When Beatrice reappears, this time through my side gate, she’s holding two large glasses of transparent liquid that I suspect holds something a little stronger than just water.
‘Just you sit yourself down and explain, young lady.’ My neighbour clears my gardening tools off the plastic ‘patio set’ chair and places it by me. She’s looking worried. But she needn’t be.
‘I was just trying to get rid of the Bindweed,’ I tell Beatrice calmly. ‘It looks pretty, but in the end it chokes up everything.’
‘What’s happened to Scarlett?’ Beatrice looks at me closely and I can see she isn’t fooled by my calm act for one minute.
‘She’s gone.’ I take a swig from the glass she’s just handed me and I was right. G and T. A stiff one. ‘I told her to go, mind,’ I add after a bit.’ And she’s…’I hiccup, ‘she’s taken my baby, Bea.’.’ I sit down on the chair at last and she takes a pew beside me.
‘She’s taken your baby’ she says gently. It is neither a question nor a statement, just an echo of my own words. ‘Do you know where she’s gone?’
I shake my head briefly.
‘To hell, I hope.’ I can’t forgive her. I can’t. ‘She wanted us to sell off this place,’ I gesture towards the cottage, ‘did you know? She was so desperate to get her hands on the money I believe she’d have done anything to get her hands on it. But in the end she wanted something else even more than she wanted that.’ I smile at Beattrice wanly, aware that I’m probably not making any sense to her but Bea doesn’t smile back.
‘I knew there was trouble brewing,’ she murmurs now. ‘And I knew I should have spoken up before this…’
Oh no. First Duncan. Now Bea. Don’t tell me Bea’s another person who knew what we were up to all along?
‘About what, Bea?’ I swirl the G and T around in my hand recklessly. If she does know, the realisation dawns on me – I’m past caring…
‘She told me about the promise that Flo extracted from you, never to sell up, my dear. Flo loved this old place. It’s been in the family for generations. She was named for it, you know. And I respect your reasons for honouring her wishes it’s just that…’
‘Just that Scarlett’s been round yours moaning that she was left out of the inheritance or some such? Oh, Bea, she’d have frittered it all away on…on a wing and a prayer. She never stops to think, that’s the trouble.’
‘Maybe so. But did you realise it was never really Flo’s to bequeath to anyone in the first place?’
‘Of course it was Flo’s. Don’t be absurd,’ I don’t care about any of that right now; the cottage, the inheritance, all those things…
‘It belonged to her brother and…my dear, this is the bit I’ve been meaning to tell you because I’m pretty certain Flo never did…’
‘What?’ I stare at her askance. If Flo had a brother she certainly never spoke of him to us. Bea just looks at me over the top of her spectacles and I can feel my own face reddening because it’s suddenly become obvious what she’s going to say next. No!
‘Flo’s brother – he…he wasn’t our dad was he?’
Scarlett
‘Eve, look, you’ve got to understand something.’ I leave my hand on her arm as she helps me out of the taxi. The cool interior of the Montana Hotel beckons enticingly and she turns her head, wondering why I’m not as keen as she is to go straight in. The midday sun is blazing down on our heads right now, I can feel the heat dancing on my scalp, but still I hold her back. After what I’m about to tell her she might not be so keen to buy me lunch.
‘I need to tell you something before this goes any further.’ I take in a deep breath and then I sock it to her all at once. ‘This isn’t Guillermo’s baby.’
The shocked look on her face says it all. ‘How could it not be?’ she gets out after a few moments. She sounds angry. Very angry. ‘You were going steady with him – that was my understanding? He’s as much as asked you to marry him. You told me that the day he brought you back on his boat…’
‘Yes. Yes, he did. Nonetheless, this isn’t his baby I’m carrying.’
‘You…you stupid, stupid girl!’ Her face seems to be getting redder by the minute.
‘Steady on, Eve! This isn’t what you think it is,’ I stammer.
She’s frowning and I can almost hear the cogs whirring round in her brain. ‘I can’t believe this is happening. No, I can’t believe it. You’re seriously telling me this is not Almeira’s child? Are you sure?’ ‘I’m…absolutely sure.’
‘Look.’ She pulls me in a little closer as our raised voices draw the attention of curious passersby. ‘Gillian Defoe backed down over my insistence that we keep you on instead of Emoto only because of the Almeira connection,’ my boss growls at me now.
‘I don’t understand.’ Maybe it’s the heat, stewing my brain, but I can’t fathom what she’s talking about.
‘Your connection,’ Eve spells out, ‘through pregnancy, to the Almeira family. In the long run, the European Alliance people are relying on Chiquitin-Almeira backing just as much as we are.’
‘What do we need them for then? If they have no money to run the outfit…’
‘Because they’re bringing in some money, obviously!’ she rants. ‘Enough to keep us afloat till some bigger fish come in. For God’s sake, Scarlett Hudson, I thought when I sent you off first at Christmas you understood I was hoping you’d be able to pull together the funds for us?’
I stare at her, stunned. ‘Well – that’s exactly what I was trying to do by having this baby, Eve! I’m acting as a surrogate for my sister, you see. I thought if I had her baby, then she’d be prepared to sell Florence Cottage for me and with the proceeds I’d be able to help save our patch of forest.’
Now it’s Eve’s turn to stare. ‘And what about Guillermo Almeira? Did you not once think about him?’ she says faintly.
‘About how he’d take it, you mean? I thought about it a lot. That’s why I didn’t tell him, in fact.’ I try to swallow but I’ve got a lump in my throat. Maybe I didn’t think this through enough? ‘I was hoping in the end he’d understand why I needed to do this. I wanted to help my sister and I wanted to help PlanetLove. I thought it was for the best.’
‘No, you didn’t, Scarlett, that’s the trouble. You didn’t think at all. You’re still not thinking. What I meant just now was -didn’t you ever consider just asking him for the money? Using your influence with him to get Chiquitin-Almeira back on board?’
‘Why ever would I?’
‘Because you could.’ She pulls me into the shaded area of the pavement and we both cower under a shopfront awning for a bit. ‘He’s mad about you,’ she continues now. ‘He’s made no bones about that. He’d give you anything you wanted. The moon, the stars. £400,000…’
‘I didn’t think about asking him,’ I tell her miserably. ‘I thought you said Chiquitin-Almeira had already pledged £250,000?’
‘Of course they have, but that’s from company funds. He could have pledged a lot more from his own pocket if he’d a mind to. Why didn’t you just ask him, you silly little cow?’
I blink back the angry tears that spring to my eyes now. I open my mouth but no words come out.
‘What did you think I was expecting you to do?’ snaps Eve. ‘I mean, how else could you have had a hope of getting the amount I’d asked you to raise? You agreed to do it. I thought it was understood that you’d have to ask him for the cas
h…oh, for Pete’s sake!’
The ramifications of Eve’s words are finally filtering down into my over-heated brain. ‘So that’s why you chose me over Emoto?’ I manage. ‘Because of my potentially useful connections with Almeira’s son?’
‘Precisely. Got it in one. I mean, let’s face it, you aren’t the brightest bunny in the basket when it comes to academic stuff, are you?’
‘I’m up for the Klausmann,’ I remind her. But she ignores that.
‘Look.’ She scrapes her hair back and I suddenly remember how much I’ve always been repulsed by her high forehead with its crisscross of tramlines etched into it. ‘Does Guillermo even know about this? You being up the duff, I mean?’
I shake my head slowly. Up the duff, she says. What happened to my ‘precious cargo’? This can’t be happening to me. A car horn blares out suddenly, the driver cursing a reckless pedestrian who’s just ran in front of him, and it nearly makes me jump out of my skin. I feel dizzy; I must still be on that plane and dreaming all this. Eve turning against me like this – it’s just unthinkable! I’m starting to think maybe I was just being used all along.
‘I haven’t told him yet,’ I tell her numbly.
‘And you don’t think you could get away with passing it off as his? Don’t be selfish here, Scarlett. I’m looking at the bigger picture – the future of the Amazon, not just one more spoiled brat.’
I just stare at her, aghast.
‘Well, OK, OK,’ she concedes, seeing my expression and misinterpreting it. ‘He’d want DNA-testing no doubt, seeing as he’s worth a bob or two. Unless we just strung him along for a bit – keep him sweet and then you “lose” it? Oh, but then the timing would be out though, wouldn’t it?’
‘How can you be so callous?’ I breathe, horrified. I put aside for the minute that I’ve harboured thoughts of termination myself.
‘Of course, I forgot.’ Eve puts her hand to her chin thoughtfully. ‘It’s your sister’s child, isn’t it? She’ll be expecting it back. But hang on a minute – didn’t you tell me your sister chucked you out of the house?’
I nod dejectedly.
‘Bit ungrateful, wouldn’t you say?’
‘I slept with her husband,’ I put in miserably.
‘Ouch!’ Eve laughs out loud. I shoot her a killer stare from behind my sunglasses. For all her high ethical principles about saving the planet, it appears this kind of immorality doesn’t rank too highly in her list of cardinal sins.
‘It was the biggest mistake of my life,’ I say through gritted teeth.
‘Well, does she want the child or doesn’t she?’ Eve’s suddenly become very businesslike. ‘If she’s chucked you out…’ And then, before I can answer, she continues: ‘We need to retrieve the situation here, Scarlett. If you’re only twelve weeks gone, then termination is still an option, isn’t it? It might be the best option, under the circumstances. I’ll tell Defoe that you miscarried. She need never know it wasn’t Guillermo’s child – and you can carry on going out with him and still be the golden girl, can’t you?’
I remain silent for a few minutes while she thinks this all through.
‘Don’t you see – it’s the Yanomami I’m thinking about here, Scarlett?’ Her attitude changes, becoming suddenly solicitous. ‘You do realise what a dire situation they’re in at the moment, don’t you?’
I feel a trickle of sweat run down from my scalp and across my cheek. I wipe it away with the back of my hand.
‘Maybe it was a mistake to keep the worst of it from you,’ she muses now. ‘Let me just say there’s a certain amount of division in the tribe at the moment. Yes, your tribe…’ she says deliberately, seeing my frown. ‘The elders know they’re being threatened with obliteration. Some want to leave the forest, to go and work in the shanty-towns…They’ll lose all their heritage, all their plant lore will disappear…’
‘No!’ The plastic water bottle I’ve just put to my lips slips in my sweaty hand and a trickle of warm water dribbles down my chin. I feel limp, helpless.
‘I see you get the picture. That isn’t all. There’s been a bout of measles within the tribe, Scarlett. Many of them have perished.’
‘How many? Not…José?’
She shakes her head. ‘Seventeen, last count. José wasn’t affected. They’ve no natural defences, have they? Look, I know you think I’m being callous but the truth is I’m trying to save these people, that’s all. I thought that’s what you were committed to doing too?’
‘I am,’ I say faintly. ‘They’re my friends.’
‘Then,’ she takes hold of my arm firmly, ‘you’re going to have to make some difficult choices here, Scarlett. You have to look at the bigger picture in all this. We could still save this patch of ours – I’m certain of it. With the right backing, we could even save a larger area. It’s got to be purely a matter of time before the world wakes up and sees that we can’t afford to hang about any more, don’t you know that? But if we don’t all do what we can it’ll be too late. Let me take you down to our old base camp and show you the damage that’s already been done…’
‘You don’t have to, Eve,’ I shake my head. ‘I get the picture.’
‘Look, I know I’ve come across as harsh today. You’ve had a shock today, right? Well, I’ll be honest, so have I. We need political muscle and leverage now more than ever and I honestly thought you might be pivotal in helping us attain that. I suggest we go in and have a drink and wait for Guillermo in the cool of the hotel – what d’you think?’
‘He’s coming here?’ I say in surprise.
‘I thought you’d be pleased so I told him you were arriving. I couldn’t think why you hadn’t rung him to say so yourself. Listen, when you arrived to take up your post with us nearly two years ago now, I sensed from the start you were something special, you’d bring something special to your work here. And you have. You’ve done some great work here, you know I think that. More than that, you’ve opened up great possibilities with the Almeira connection. We can’t afford to lose that, Scarlett.’
‘I’m aware—’ I begin.
‘Sometimes, things are just meant to be,’ she says grandly. ‘They work out just how they’re supposed to. You have a mission to accomplish which only you can.’
What if she’s right? I stare into her serious face while I digest the import of her words. It’s true that Hollie doesn’t want me in her life any more. Maybe if I stay here and build on what I’ve got I could still make a go of it here. All the bad things I’ve done will just go away – be forgotten about.
Eventually.
Hollie
‘Beatrice Highland, will you please just answer my question?’
Bea takes a large swig of G and T, for fortification. Then she nods slowly.
‘Flo’s brother was your dad, my dear. It’s true. Though never acknowledged, you understand. He was already married to someone else at the time…’
I stare at Beatrice for a few moments, getting my voice back.
‘She only ever held this house in trust for you two. I’m not sure quite how Heinrich her laywer would have explained the position to you but…’
‘Heinrich…read out a letter with a lot of legal terms in it and asked me if I knew what it meant, if anyone had explained it to me. I told him Flo had…’
‘Perhaps she hadn’t explained it adequately then?’
‘Bea,’ I lean forward, stopping her. ‘This is all besides the point. I can’t believe you knew all along – you both knew – who my father was and nobody ever said…’
‘I was never comfortable about the secrecy, dear, but it wasn’t my place to say. And Flo had her reasons. Her brother was a well-respected barrister. He had a wife and two sons, and he stood to lose more than Helen if the truth ever came out,’ Bea runs on. ‘Helen loved him desperately, you know. He was part of the reason she carried on working in South America. He had a lot of business over there…’
‘So you’re saying Flo really WAS our aunt after all?’ I h
ave to concentrate on that. Her having a brother – the father that I never knew, who nobody ever even spoke about seems too much to take on board right now.
‘Does Scarlett know?’
‘Not from me, if she does. Hollie, dear…’Bea puts her hand over mine.
‘And does he have a name?’
‘Geoffrey,’ she says baldly, as if hanging on to the last vestiges of his anonymity. As if it matters anymore.’ Perhaps I should have told you sooner. It’s just that I saw his obiturary in the Times recently. I thought maybe, now would be a good time to say…’
So he’s dead? Here and gone in the space of a few seconds.
‘Flo’s brother was our dad?’ My mind is spinning. ‘And now he’s gone. Just more water under the bridge.’ He fathered us and he left us the house but he managed to get away without being our dad, I think, a sudden storm of fury in my head. Just like Scarlett thought she would get away with everything…
‘You dad’s gone, Hollie. But your baby has yet to be born, remember, and if you can’t find a way to re-establish contact with your sister – no matter how badly you feel about her just now – then you lose the child as well.’
I blink and the chaos I’ve just wreaked in Florence cottages garden comes suddenly into sharp focus. Good God, what have I done? I blink back a tear.
‘I’ve made a mess, here, haven’t I?’ Huge swathes of broken foliage are piled high at various points along the flower beds. I’ve cut off heaven knows how many branches in full bloom and many more with their ripening buds just about to open, like some kind of maniac with shears.
‘This will recover,’ Beatrice pats my knee encouragingly. ‘You’ve given it a drastic haircut, that’s all. Plants grow back though. They’re forgiving.’
Just like I’m going to need to be.
Scarlett
‘Choose what you like,’ Eve’s saying. We’re sitting in the palm-decorated bar area at the Montana and she’s persuaded me to change out of my jeans into the pretty white dress she’s brought along just for the purpose. She’s trying to be nice to me, to retrieve the situation, just as she said. I can entirely understand her reasons for everything and yet I know I’m never going to feel the same way about her again. She apologised, as we sat down, for her earlier ‘over-zealousness’. She said that’s just how you get after so many years of being ‘committed to the cause’. And it’s a good cause. I know this. I believe this. I believe in the same cause.
A Sister’s Gift Page 30