Jodie stared desperately at her to-do list. With moving day getting closer and closer, surely more things should have been ticked off by now?
Ah, she’d boxed up the books from the sitting room ready for moving. Tick. Anything else? Empty the wardrobes of clothes – not yet, that could be this morning’s job, after she’d done the urgent press release Tina wanted her to send to a publisher. Pack the stuff from the airing cupboard. Make Ben’s birthday cake. Walk Tess. Take the last of the publicity down to Nicola. Pack up the stuff in the spare room – not forgetting the boxes in the bottom of the wardrobe.
Jodie took a deep breath. She was so tired and, if she was honest, the only thing she felt like doing was curling up with a book and dozing the day away. This virus she’d picked up couldn’t have come at a worse time. She had so much to do and so little inclination to do any of it. But do it she had to.
Annette was coming over at the weekend to help with things and Ben had promised to stop work two days before the move and take the following week off to help settle in, so perhaps she’d tackle the things he couldn’t help her with – basically Tina’s and Nicola’s work.
And make Ben’s birthday cake – for tomorrow. For which she’d forgotten to buy the extra eggs she needed. Right, if she took the publicity down to Nicola she could tick that off the list and buy some eggs and come home and bake the cake. At least that would be two more things off the list.
Nicola was busy dealing with a customer when she arrived at The Taste of the Countryside, so Jodie picked up the eggs she needed and a couple of packets of butter and browsed the card stand while she waited.
‘Hi. All ready for the big move?’ Nicola said when she turned to serve her.
‘I wish! So much to do. This is the last of your paperwork,’ Jodie said, handing over a large envelope. ‘I’m afraid I won’t be able to do anything else for a couple of weeks. Moving house is taking all my time – not to mention energy.’
‘Thanks for these. Any chance you’ll have space for another client when you’re settled in?’
Jodie shook her head. ‘Not really. Ben has already said I’m doing too much and wants me to cut back. Hopefully when we’ve moved and sorted everything out things will improve day by day. Although, to be honest, French days don’t seem to be as long as they should be. I think it’s the two-hour lunch effect. Why d’you ask anyway? Was somebody asking?’
‘Gilles is in charge of the village Christmas fete. He was talking at breakfast this morning about asking you to do some publicity for it.’
‘Oh, that’s different. I have to help with that, don’t I?’ Jodie said, knowing how important it was for her to be seen to be integrating into the local community. ‘Tell him to give me a call once I’ve settled into the new house and I’ll certainly try to sort something out.’
She took the small carrier Nicola handed her with the eggs and butter. ‘Thanks. Better get home and get baking.’
Driving home, Jodie thought about how her life had changed in less than a year and how happy she was now compared to back then. This time last year she hadn’t even met Ben and look at her now: happily married, living in a foreign country, in business with Tina and about to move into what she hoped would be her forever home.
Turning off the main road onto the quiet lane that led to the cottage, Jodie smiled to herself. Life was good and far better than she could ever have imagined it being in the aftermath of her mum’s death.
As she drew up by the cottage she caught her breath. Ben was on the doorstep talking to a man. A silver car was parked nearby. Instantly all her good feelings disappeared.
Slowly, she picked up her things and got out of the car. Resisting the urge to slam the door, she walked across to the cottage.
‘Jodie, this is Travis…’ Ben said.
‘I can guess who he says he is,’ Jodie said. ‘But I know he’s a hoaxer who has turned into a stalker.’ She stopped. Coming face to face with Travis Saville was a surprise. She’d seen him before. Had even spoken to him.
‘You’re the Australian who was in The Taste of the Countryside a few weeks ago, asking for directions. Visiting friends, you said. On your way to London.’
‘To find you – only you’d left to come here. What a pity we didn’t talk more then,’ Travis said. ‘Would have saved me a lot of mileage.’
‘Stop right there,’ Jodie said, holding up her hand. ‘I have no idea what you hope to gain with this stupid “we’re related” stunt, but for the last time – before I report you to the gendarmes for harassment, which I will if you don’t stop – you’ve got the wrong woman.’
Travis regarded her silently and shook his head. ‘No, I haven’t.’
‘Goodbye, Mr Saville – have a good trip back to Australia.’ And Jodie turned her back on him and prepared to go indoors.
‘Before I go I need to tell you something. Your father was Thomas William Saville?’
Jodie stopped, turned around, narrowed her eyes and glared at him.
‘He was born in l952 in a small village in Somerset,’ Travis said. ‘He died a year ago in Victoria.’
‘Yes, he was born in Somerset but he died twenty-six years ago in London,’ Jodie snapped. ‘Basic family research would have uncovered a death certificate to that effect.’
Travis shook his head. ‘There is no recorded death certificate for him – until last year in Australia.’ He took a deep breath and held her gaze before continuing in a quiet voice.
‘As hard as you might find this to believe, the truth is he didn’t die when you think he did. He emigrated to Australia and started a new life. Your mother was never a widow. She was a divorcee.’
As Jodie gasped, Ben moved swiftly towards her and was just in time to catch her as she fainted.
‘How are you feeling now?’ Ben asked, giving Jodie a concerned look as she sat on the sofa in the sitting room. ‘You’re still rather white.’
‘I feel a bit shaky to be honest.’
‘Can I get you anything?’
‘A cup of coffee – no, make that tea – would be nice,’ Jodie said. ‘I can’t believe I fainted. I’ve never done that before in my life.’
‘Shock makes you do funny things. Luckily, I managed to catch you before you hit the ground,’ Ben said. ‘Travis helped me get you in here.’
‘Has he gone?’
‘I thought it best if he left,’ Ben said.
‘Good. I really don’t feel up to seeing him right now,’ Jodie said, closing her eyes and lying back. Or any other time come to that.
‘I’ll get you that tea,’ Ben said, going through to the kitchen. ‘You know you can’t keep refusing to talk to him,’ he called through.
Jodie sighed but didn’t answer. Her rebellious thought, ‘Why can’t I refuse?’, remained unspoken. She didn’t need a brother – or even a half-brother – at this stage of her life.
Just why had Travis Saville travelled thousands of miles to find her and destroy her world? Because that was what was now happening. Accepting that he probably was her brother was nothing compared to the fact going round and round in her mind – her mother had lied to her all her life. Why had she never told her the truth? That the father she believed to have been dead for most of her life had been alive and living with another family on the other side of the world.
She took the cup of tea Ben was holding out for her. ‘Thanks. I’ll drink this and then I’ll make your cake for tomorrow.’
‘You don’t think you’d be better resting?’ Ben asked. ‘I don’t mind not having a birthday cake.’
‘I feel bad enough that you have to wait until we move for your present,’ Jodie said. ‘The least I can do is bake you a cake. Oh! I didn’t smash the eggs when I fainted, did I?’
Ben shook his head. ‘No, they’re in the kitchen.’ He caught hold of her hand. ‘I know it’s upsetting but you can’t keep running away from Travis. I really think you have to hear what he has to say, look at the research he’s done, and accept the truth – however hard that proves to be. And then move on with your – our – life.’
‘I can’t – not just like that,’ Jodie said. ‘If it is true, it means my mother – who brought me up believing that lying was a deadly sin and something I must never do – lived a lie herself for the last twenty-six years of her life. That’s what I find so impossible to believe or accept.’
Ben was silent for a moment. ‘I think in the beginning she probably started out with the best of intentions – protecting both of you. Saying your father was dead, rather than just gone away, meant you would be sad but would accept the fact and wouldn’t keep pestering her with questions about when was he coming back. Questions that would upset her as much as you.’
‘She should have told me though, when I was older,’ Jodie said. ‘Treated me like a grown-up.’
‘You don’t know that she didn’t intend to, some day,’ Ben said. ‘If the accident hadn’t happened.’ He shrugged. ‘Didn’t the two of you ever talk about your father?’
Jodie shook her head. ‘Not much. Whenever I mentioned his name Mum became upset, which I hated.’
‘Could she have been feeling increasingly guilty for not telling you the truth, do you think? Maybe feeling she’d simply left it too late to confess her lie?’
Jodie was silent before sighing. ‘I’ll never know now, will I?’
Ben insisted she take it easy that evening and after she’d made his cake, an easy Victoria sponge rather than the more elaborate one she’d planned, they sat together on the sofa and watched a film. Or rather Ben watched; Jodie couldn’t concentrate.
Halfway through the film Ben glanced at her. ‘You’re not really watching this, are you? Why don’t you just go up to bed? Even if you can’t sleep straightaway, you’ll be resting.’
Upstairs, Jodie put on her pyjamas and cleaned her teeth. Coming out of the bathroom a sudden thought struck her and instead of going to the bedroom she went into the spare room and opened the doors on the old armoire. Carefully she pulled out the boxes from the bottom.
The first box she opened was the one containing the envelope full of official papers, including the birth, marriage and death certificates of her grandparents – no one else. Not even her parents’ marriage registration. And definitely no death certificate for Thomas Saville.
Frustrated, she pushed the box away. These boxes of Jacqueline were beginning to haunt her. Her regret about not sorting them years ago was mounting. She vaguely remembered holding and looking at one envelope in particular when packing up the papers from her mother’s flat. It was made from insubstantial brown paper, the words ‘Personal, private and confidential’ scrawled across it in her mother’s handwriting. Sealed, she’d turned it over and over in her hands, hesitating to open something so important to her mother and nothing to do with her. The grief was still too raw and she’d quickly stuffed it away with some other paperwork. Did that envelope contain papers her mother hadn’t wanted to share with anyone – including her? Where was that envelope?
A quick rummage through the box she’d found her Filofax in failed to unearth the envelope. Pushing the next box containing paperback books to one side, Jodie opened the last one. It had to be in here. Halfway down she found it. Her hands trembled as she picked it out.
Gently she pulled at the sealed flap, easing it open before emptying the envelope’s contents onto the floor. Ah, her parents’ marriage certificate, Jacqueline’s birth certificate, her own. No death certificate in this envelope either. Sighing, Jodie picked up another official-looking piece of paper and knew in that instant that everything Travis had told her was the truth. Her father hadn’t died. Her mother had lied. This piece of official paper with the heartbreaking words ‘Decree Absolute’ across the top confirmed that.
Ten minutes later when Ben came upstairs to bed, he found Jodie sitting rocking on the floor, arms clasped around her body and tears streaming down her face.