by Anne Baker
Millie was truly shocked by that and it took all the wind out of her sails. She hadn’t expected that; both Tom and Albert had praised Sylvie’s work, but that was before Pete had died. She should have guessed her work would suffer.
‘Please be patient with her,’ she choked. ‘Pete’s death has upset her dreadfully. She was with him when it happened and found it traumatic. She’s really quite competent.’
‘She deserves the sack,’ Marcus said belligerently. ‘If she was anybody else she’d get it.’
A movement caught Millie’s eye and she looked up to see that Sylvie had come in behind him. Her face was white and her mouth open in horror. It was obvious she’d overheard. Her glazed eyes were on Marcus. ‘Is that true?’
Millie threw her arms round her daughter and pulled her close. ‘Everybody’s work suffers when they’re upset,’ she tried to comfort. ‘Don’t let it worry you. You’ll be all right once you’re over this. It’s a bad patch for us all.’
‘Not that.’ Sylvie pushed her away angrily. ‘About me being illegitimate and Dad not being my real father? Who is this fraudster and thief?’
Millie felt suffused with horror. Sylvie had been listening for some time.
‘Didn’t you know?’ Marcus asked her contemptuously. ‘I thought it was common knowledge.’
Sylvie burst into tears and Millie turned on Marcus. ‘Please go,’ she said angrily.
Chapter Fifteen
As the door banged behind them, Sylvie wailed, ‘It is true, isn’t it? Dad wasn’t my father! Why didn’t you tell me, Mum?’ Sylvie felt the world as she knew it had turned upside down. ‘Why didn’t he?’
‘We should have done, I’m sorry.’
‘But you didn’t,’ she cried through a storm of tears. ‘Why not?’
‘It wasn’t that we meant to keep it from you, Sylvie.’ Millie was almost in tears too. ‘By the time you were growing up we all saw you as part of the family. You’d been accepted into it.’
‘But I thought we were a family. I didn’t know that Dad wasn’t my father.’
‘He thought of himself as your father. Legally he was because he’d adopted you. He was a doting father to you.’
‘But he wasn’t my natural father. Marcus said everybody else knew. Did you think I’d never find out?’
‘To start with we were waiting for you to grow up so you could understand. I didn’t think enough about telling you and I’m kicking myself now.’
‘Well, you left it too late. It’s important to know who your father is. He’s part of who I am.’
‘Yes, and I’m very sorry. There were always so many other things going on. I should have told you long ago.’
‘Do Valerie and Helen know?’
‘Yes, they knew me before you were born. Pete explained it all to them and they accepted you as part and parcel of me. They had no need to talk about it or even think about it. You were absorbed into the family.’
‘But I’m the cuckoo in the nest. It isn’t my family at all. Who was my father?’
‘Look, it’s nearly lunchtime. Why don’t you fetch your sandwiches and we’ll eat them here and I’ll tell you all about it now.’
‘I couldn’t eat anything, I’m churning inside. I feel sick. Connie and I were going to walk down to the river at lunchtime but I don’t want her to see me looking like this. She’d want to know what’s happened and I couldn’t possibly tell her, could I?’
‘No, but you’ll feel better if you eat. Get your sandwiches and—’
‘I don’t want anyone to see me like this,’ Sylvie screamed. ‘I look a mess, and my eyes feel terrible.’ They always looked red and puffy if she cried.
‘Give me the key to your desk. I’ll ask Denis to get your handbag and sandwiches.’
‘Mum! He’s heard it all. I know he has. He tried to stop me coming in, to divert my attention.’ Sylvie was appalled at the thought. Soon it would be all round the office.
‘No, James sent him out and he’s only just come back and he’s been crashing bottles about at the other end of the lab, hasn’t he?’ She knew her mother was trying to comfort her.
Millie handed Denis the key. ‘Sylvie, why don’t you bathe your eyes at that sink while I put the kettle on for tea?’ The cold water eased them but it didn’t really help, how could it?
‘You weren’t married when you had me?’ Sylvie asked. ‘I can’t believe you’d do such a thing.’ This was a real shock, everybody knew it was the greatest sin a girl could commit, and it would ruin her whole life.
‘Wait until Denis comes back with your sandwiches, then I’ll explain everything.’
Sylvie couldn’t look at him when he returned to slide her things on to Millie’s desk. ‘I’ll go to lunch now, shall I, Mrs Maynard?’
Millie nodded. She opened her sandwiches, her face anguished and her lips tight. ‘Eat,’ she urged, ‘and I’ll tell you.’
What she had to say came out like a confession. Sylvie listened avidly to her mother’s story, it horrified her. ‘I was your age and I loved your natural father. His name was Ryan McCarthy . . .’
‘Was he Irish?’
‘Well, Liverpool Irish. His family had come here in the years before he was born. I believed him to be a decent person. We’d grown up together in the same street and he had a job here with Maynard’s as a salesman. He said they were a good firm to work for and persuaded me to apply for a job, that’s how I first came here.’
Sylvie’s head reeled. ‘So Dad knew him? Everybody here knew him? Was Dan Quentin working here then?’ Quentin was their present sales manager.
‘Yes, no, I can’t remember.’
‘And is it true that he was a thief and a fraud?’
‘I’m afraid it is. He treated company stock as though it was his personal property.’
‘That’s awful! And to think he’s my real father. What did Dad do about him? He must have been furious.’
‘He didn’t have to do anything because Ryan went away. He left Liverpool, disappeared.’
Sylvie could see her mother’s face twisting in remembered pain. He’d deserted her when she found she was pregnant. ‘You’ve heard nothing of him since?’
Millie shook her head. ‘Even worse, I wasn’t the only one to find myself with a baby before I had a husband. My mother did the same thing. My mother’s family threw her out and didn’t want to know her or me. She’d had to bring me up single-handed and it was only when she was dying that I understood why we had no other relatives. We were poor, really poor, but Pete came to our rescue and gave us a good life.’
It was a lot to take in but Sylvie understood now just how much she owed him. ‘And I caused his death,’ she said bitterly.
‘No you did not.’ Millie rounded on her. ‘Haven’t I told you half a dozen times it was Dad’s decision to sail home in that storm?’
But to Sylvie, it was only too obvious that, but for her, Pete would still be alive today. She’d persuaded him to sail back because she’d wanted to have dinner at that posh hotel, the Buckley Arms.
‘Whatever you do,’ Millie gripped her wrist, her eyes burning with intensity, ‘make sure you don’t make our mistake. It can land you in terrible trouble.’
Sylvie let out a long, slow breath. ‘Ugh! A baby is the very last thing I’d want. But if it happened, I know you’d help me,’ she said.
‘Of course I would, and I understand how you must feel now suddenly hearing all this, but it’s better if you take life’s big milestones in the right order.’ She sighed. ‘Do you feel better now you’ve eaten?’
‘Yes.’ She did a bit. ‘The girls in the typing pool said I was lucky to come from a rich middle-class family like the Maynards and I was proud of it. Now I find I’m Liverpool Irish,’ she knew she sounded bitter, ‘and my father was a scoundrel
.’
‘It all happened years ago, it’s ancient history. It changes nothing in your present circumstances.’
‘It does, Mum. It’s not just me who knows, everybody else does too and they’re talking about me.’ Sylvie shuddered at the thought, it scared her. And on top of that, there was Marcus, she’d never be able to take shorthand from him again, not after hearing him say she was rubbish and should get the sack. And she knew she’d been making mistakes for others and her typing was messy. She’d done a bit for Mr Lancaster recently and most likely he thought the same way about her.
‘Right,’ Millie said, ‘perhaps you’d better take the rest of the day off.’
Sylvie was relieved. She couldn’t have faced working this afternoon. She listened when her mother rang the typing pool and thought it was Connie Grey who picked up the phone. Millie left a message for the supervisor. Then she rang Helen but she wasn’t at home, so she tried Valerie’s number. Sylvie heard her answer, and thought she said, ‘Poor kid, send her to me.’
‘I’d rather go home,’ she said mutinously, getting to her feet.
‘No,’ Millie said. ‘You’ll feel worse if you go home and spend the afternoon alone. I’m afraid you’ll cry on your bed. Come on, get your coat, I’m coming with you.’
They’d come to work on the bus this morning because of the shortage of petrol, so they had to wait in the drizzle at the bus stop to go to Valerie’s, but Sylvie found the cool damp air calming although the name Ryan McCarthy was going round in her head on a loop like Kenny’s toy train.
Millie felt ready to weep, she ached in sympathy for Sylvie. She was furious with Marcus for throwing all that in her daughter’s face. She had come very near to enlightening him and his father about their own origins.
Valerie was very understanding. She said to Sylvie in matter-of-fact tones, ‘Dad fell head over heels in love with your mother. He couldn’t wait to marry her and you came as part of the package. You were the prettiest, most engaging baby ever, and we all loved you. In fact, the whole household fussed over you and continued to do so until Simon arrived. Dad adopted you legally, and always treated you as one of us. So what is there about that to bother you?’
‘Uncle James was nasty about it,’ Sylvie still had a sob in her voice, ‘he called us names.’
‘He said I was a slut who hooked your dad to make my fortune,’ Millie said.
‘It wasn’t like that at all.’ Valerie was indignant. ‘The truth is, Dad was making all the running and we encouraged him because we liked playing with you.’
‘But Dad wasn’t my real father. Uncle James said he was a fraudster and a thief.’
‘We never knew him,’ Valerie told her. ‘But he deserted your mother when he’d got her in a mess and when she really needed his help. He wasn’t a kind man so he wouldn’t have looked after you as well as Dad. You were far better off with us,’ she looked up and smiled at Millie, ‘and so was your mother. So it all turned out for the best, didn’t it?’
Millie could hear the twins waking from their after-lunch nap upstairs. ‘There they go,’ Valerie said to Sylvie. ‘Come and help me sort them out and bring them down.’
Millie lay back on the sofa, closing her eyes in gratitude and relief. As they were coming downstairs, she heard Valerie say, ‘Have you heard the news? Princess Elizabeth has become engaged to Prince Philip of Greece, isn’t it exciting? Where did I put the newspaper?’
It was produced and Sylvie’s interest was captured by the pictures and the article about the royal wedding plans. It said it would take place in November and provide a welcome touch of romance for the country, struggling as it was with austerity and shortages of every sort.
It was said that Princess Elizabeth would not be able to have a trousseau because she hadn’t enough clothing coupons, although other members of the royal family were said to be giving her theirs. There was speculation about her wedding gown and where she and Prince Philip might go for their honeymoon.
The long summer school holidays were about to start and Simon and Kenny would be home at the end of the week. Valerie and her husband had planned to spend the next week at Hafod and some time ago had offered to take the boys with them. They had been keen to go.
‘Why don’t you come with us?’ she suggested now to Sylvie.
‘A good idea,’ Millie said. ‘You might feel better if you had some time away from work.’ She’d tell James she thought it advisable for her to start her two weeks summer holiday straight away. As a family they’d always taken their holidays together and Millie had booked them to start in another week’s time.
‘I don’t want to go to Hafod,’ Sylvie was alarmed, ‘I never want to go there again.’
Valerie took hold of her hand. ‘You need to go back,’ she said seriously. ‘It’ll lay your ghosts. When you see the house, the mountains and the beautiful beaches again, common sense will tell you they had nothing to do with Dad’s death. It was the storm …’
‘And the boat.’
‘It was just a terrible accident, Sylvie. You must see it as that. Yes, it happened on the boat but a lot of other things caused it. We haven’t had the boat out since, but Roger has always loved it and it will need to be checked over anyway. He’ll be happy to take Simon and Kenny out if they want to go.’
Sylvie blew her nose in her wet handkerchief. Millie offered her a drier one from her own pocket. ‘Hafod is a lovely place for a holiday, you used to enjoy it.’
‘We’d all like to go somewhere different for a change,’ Valerie said, ‘somewhere warmer and more exotic. But right now that’s impossible. There’s rationing and austerity in Britain and we are allowed to take only twenty-five pounds in foreign currency. Anyway, half Europe is in ruins. I think we’re lucky to have Hafod. At least we can get away from home once in a while. Why don’t you come with us?’
‘There’ll be plenty for you to do,’ Millie tried to persuade her. ‘You know what Simon’s like, he always wants to be out doing things.’
She was rewarded by Sylvie’s snuffle, ‘All right.’
As they left the laboratory, Marcus felt his father take his arm and hurry him up to the privacy of his office in the turret. Nigel was there, still brooding over what had happened at the meeting. All three of them were furious at what Millie had said.
‘That was humiliating, she made me look a fool,’ Marcus complained. ‘She flew at me.’
‘Losing your temper with her and shouting and waving your arms around is not the way to go about getting what we want,’ Nigel said firmly. ‘You’re all aggression. What could be more stupid than to say Pete wasn’t running the business properly and deny it was making a profit?’
‘That was Father’s idea.’ Marcus was ready to scream with temper. ‘He was hoping to buy Millie’s share for less than it was worth.’
‘We thought we could get rid of her quickly by offering to buy her out,’ James said, trying to calm his sons. ‘That is the fair way of doing it.’
‘But we don’t have any money, Father. Do you?’
‘No, I haven’t. You know doctors’ bills have taken a huge bite out of my income. And ill luck and the war have dogged our efforts.’
‘You shouldn’t have told her the firm was losing money and tried to get it on the cheap,’ Nigel said. ‘That was the wrong way to go about it. She knew it was a lie and so did the rest of the staff. She’s no fool, you know, and she was married to Uncle Peter for eighteen years, she’s bound to have picked up a few pointers from him.’
‘This business was started by our grandfather and it’s all wrong that half of it has been given to her.’
‘But it has and she’s refused our offer to buy her out.’
Nigel was losing his temper too. ‘Perhaps that’s just as well.’
‘Don’t be silly, Nigel, we could have taken a loan from the ban
k, but anyway, she’s not going to budge on that.’
‘All right, as Millie has refused to let us buy her out, we’ll have to find some other way to get rid of her.’
‘I’m going to demand an apology.’ Marcus was belligerent. ‘The nerve of her, telling me what I should do.’
‘Don’t go near her until you calm down,’ Nigel advised. ‘In fact, it might be better if it was the other way round. You apologise to her.’
‘I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. I feel more like kicking her into the middle of next week.’
‘Leave her to me,’ James said. ‘I could try and talk her round. We’ll get nowhere if we descend to shouting at each other. We can make things difficult for her, can’t we? Two can play at that game.’
‘We’ll have to think of something,’ Nigel agreed.
‘Yes.’ James nodded. ‘She makes out she knows a lot about the business but I find that hard to believe.’
‘Don’t underestimate her,’ Nigel said. ‘That’s been your problem from the start. The staff seem to think she knows more than we do, they turn to her.’
‘Why don’t you do something then?’ Marcus snapped. ‘You’re supposed to have the brains.’
‘Right, I’ll make a friend of her, disarm her and think of some way to loosen her control of this company.’
‘Particularly financial control,’ his father said. ‘It gives her too much power.’
After she’d seen Sylvie settling down with Valerie, Millie felt she really had to return to work. As usual, Tom Bedford had sent her a copy of the factory schedule and for the next two weeks they’d be making soap with the wild rose perfume. She needed to check through her aluminium drums and arrange for a sufficient amount of that perfume to go down to the factory floor.