The next morning, Grace was standing in the kitchen flipping pancakes while whistling along to a tune on the radio.
‘Good morning,’ she chirped the second she noticed me. ‘Sleep well?’
I’d barely slept a wink and couldn’t even blame it on the rain hammering against the window all night. It was more down to my own conscience stopping me from sleeping, and the words of Mum’s text, ‘That’s all I needed to hear,’ had been playing on my mind.
‘You seem a little quiet, subdued,’ noticed Grace, before I had a chance to answer. She slid a plate overloaded with pancakes into the middle of the table, ‘Help yourself.’
‘Thanks,’ I said, blowing out a breath and pulling out a chair.
‘At least it’s brightening up now,’ she observed, taking a fleeting glance out of the kitchen window before sitting down opposite me. ‘Come on then, what’s eating you? Everything okay with Sam?’
Everything was more than okay between me and Sam, but I was beginning to wonder if that might change on Mum’s arrival when she discovered who Sam was and that we were getting close. Would she hold a grudge, like others did in the village?
‘Yes, all’s good with Sam. It’s just the arrival of Mum on my mind,’ I sighed, taking a pancake from the top of the pile. ‘I’m just feeling a little unsure about how it’s all going to pan out.’
‘Well, we’ll know soon enough,’ said Grace, drizzling lemon juice over her pancakes before shaking a teaspoon of sugar over the top.
‘As much as I’m looking forward to seeing her, I’m not actually looking forward to seeing her, if that makes any sense.’
‘I can imagine.’ She leant forward and touched my hand.
‘What did your mum say about my mum getting in touch again?’
‘She was surprised, but she’s kindly offered to pick her up from the airport and said she can stay in the annexe with her. But she did question whether your grandfather knew anything about it.’
‘And?’
‘And I told her you hadn’t had time to tell him yet … but you will.’
I didn’t say a word.
‘Alice, you’re going to have to tell him. It will be a huge shock for him to see Rose after all this time with no prior warning, he’s not a well man.’
‘I know, I will,’ I said, knowing that I wasn’t at all looking forward to that moment. ‘I don’t think he’ll be out of hospital before she arrives, which gives us all a little time to see how the land lies, what Mum’s mood is like and how I’m going to handle it all.’
‘Nervous?’ asked Grace.
‘Beyond belief. Did you let on to Connie how I got Mum here?’
‘No, you’ll need to tell her that too.’
‘Maybe it won’t come up in conversation?’ I replied, suddenly feeling very guilty.
I saw Grace raise her eyebrows at me, knowing the tangled web I was weaving.
‘Picture this … Ted and Rose come face to face for the first time in how many years?’
‘Thirteen.’
‘What’s the first thing they are going to say to each other?’ asked Grace, scrutinising me closely.
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and shrugged.
‘Ted will say, “What are you doing here?” And Rose will answer, “You asked to see me.”’
Grace was right. I looked up alarmed, placing my head in my hands, knowing I hadn’t thought it through. ‘I know I’m being dishonest but I’m hoping, praying in fact, that the second they set on eyes on each other it will all be forgotten.’
‘A rift that has festered for thirteen years isn’t going to be forgotten, but we can hope,’ said Grace, sounding unconvinced.
We polished off the rest of the pancakes and I switched the kettle on before helping Grace to wash up the dishes.
‘How did the rehearsals go last night?’ she asked, hanging the wet tea-towel over the oven door.
‘Yes, good! Everyone was enthusiastic,’ I answered, thankful for the change of subject.
‘And how did Dorothy take Sam being on board?’
‘Surprisingly well,’ I said, ‘after I explained that Village Day was for the whole community, which Sam is also a part of.’
‘It probably just needed saying out loud, but good for you! It must have been nerve-wracking for you. So, what are the plans for today?’
I slid a detailed schedule over the table towards her. ‘You are taking it seriously!’ exclaimed Grace, casting her eyes over the timetable and following me into the living room.
Slouching on the settee, I tucked my feet underneath me. ‘To be honest, I’m thankful for the distraction. If I was sitting here with nothing to do, I’d just drive myself crazy over Mum’s arrival.’
‘And my mum said something about her being in charge of the costume department?’
‘Yes,’ I answered, sifting through a pile of papers I’d left on the coffee table. ‘Here it is, everyone’s measurements and colours. I’ll nip it over to her later.’
‘Mum did mention something else and I’ve been meaning to ask you, but … I wasn’t sure whether it was a good idea bringing it up, with everything else you’ve got going on.’ Grace eyed me carefully.
‘Go on …’ my voice lifted.
‘Mum said you were asking about your father.’
I nodded. ‘I was wondering whether he had anything to do with the fall-out.’
Grace sat upright on the settee.
‘Have you ever asked your mum about him?’
I shook my head, ‘No, never.’
I’d reached the age of twenty-three and had never given it a huge deal of thought. It wasn’t something that had ever kept me awake at night, there was never a massive void in my life. My mum had been great and I’d never needed any more.
‘And in all these years your mum has never mentioned it?’
I shook my head. ‘I was taken a little by surprise when Grandie told me about him. I don’t know what I was expecting – maybe a one-night stand or a low-life, which doesn’t make it sound like I think very highly of Mum … but there wasn’t a huge mystery, just a set of unfortunate circumstances. She’d met a guy, a decent lad, Grandie said. They’d had a couple of dates, but he emigrated to Australia with his parents and she only discovered she was pregnant after he’d left. Unfortunate timing.’
‘So, he never knew?’
‘It appears that way.’
‘How are you feeling about it all?’
‘In a way, kind of relieved he’s just a normal guy.’
‘Did your grandfather tell you his name?’
‘William Hall,’ the name left my lips.
The name turned over in my mind, William Hall.
‘The question is then, I suppose, are you going to do anything about it?’ probed Grace.
This was the very question that had been on my mind since Grace had brought up the subject. What could I actually do about it? Australia was a huge place and there must be hundreds of William Halls in the world, and who knows, he might not even be in Australia any more.
‘Not sure what I can do, even though I’m kind of curious what he looks like. Do I even look like him?’
‘Talk to your mum, surely it can’t hurt? Maybe she would have an old photograph of him?’
‘You never know. It’s worth an ask.’ I nodded, ‘And I’m definitely now intrigued to discover more about him – what’s his background, what does he do for a living? And not forgetting the possibility that he has his own family, which is more than likely.’
‘You could have brothers and sisters,’ Grace’s eyes widened.
‘I could,’ I paused, the same thought crossing my mind.
Reaching for my iPad, there was a message visible on the screen. ‘It’s an update from Mum, details of her flight and that she’s looking forward to seeing me.’ I raised my eyebrows. ‘Hopefully when she finds out I’ve told a weeny white lie, that won’t change.’
‘My guess is, you’ll be in for a rough few days but I’m sure once they come face to face, it would be silly not to forgive and forget,’ said Grace, clearly keen to smooth the way.
I put on a brave smile. ‘I hope you’re right,’ I said, forcing a brightness into my voice I didn’t feel.
After typing a reply back, I began to scroll through my homepage on Facebook, and Grace carried on talking but for a second I didn’t hear a word.
‘Earth to Alice … earth to Alice. What’s so interesting on there?’ Her voice was gently enquiring.
Aware of the tiny knots forming in my stomach, I didn’t know how to respond. My eyes pinged open and when I looked back at her, my heart was thundering in my chest, and I could barely breathe.
‘What is it?’ she asked slowly, placing the rehearsal schedule on the table. ‘You’ve got a funny look about you.’
My stomach clenched, ‘It’s Facebook, the “People you know” suggestion.’
‘And?’
I cast my eyes back towards the screen, then turned it towards her.
Grace shuffled up next to me, taking the iPad from my hand. ‘William Hall,’ she read out loud. ‘You daft thing,’ she said, laughing, ‘that will be a freak coincidence, just one of those things,’ trying to make light of the situation.
‘That’s what I thought, but look, we have one mutual friend,’ I emphasised, pointing at the screen. ‘Rose Parker,’ I said simply, ‘my mother.’
‘Go on then, tap on the profile,’ said Grace with urgency.
For a second, I hovered over his name before tapping on his profile picture. ‘William Hall lives in Perth, Australia.’
Grace and I stared at the face looking back at us.
‘Wow! This is amazing,’ Grace gave a whistle, and flicked a glance between me and the screen. ‘What do you think?’
‘I think that’s him. Right age, lives in Oz and appears to be friends with my mum, and there’s no mistaking …’
‘The eyes and the nose,’ Grace interrupted, ‘it’s uncanny, that’s you.’
I was speechless. Adrenalin shot down my spine and my stomach was now performing double somersaults. ‘I don’t know what to think.’ I thought today was just another day, but it turned out it was the day I found out what my father looked like for the very first time.
‘Do you think she has been in touch with him all this time?’ I asked Grace, feeling a bit dazed. ‘Do you think he knows anything about me?’
‘I’ve no idea, Alice,’ Grace replied softly.
My pulse was racing as I stared at his profile, then I took a deep breath and began clicking on his photo albums.
My eyes welled up. ‘Look,’ I said, turning the screen back towards Grace. ‘There’s his family, a wife and two beautiful girls.’
I could feel the emotion rising inside, a mixture of fear, happiness and, of course, the unknown.
I rubbed my eyes.
‘You’re tearful … here,’ said Grace, passing me a tissue.
‘What do I do now?’
I had a thousand questions swimming around in my mind and it was difficult to make sense of it all. I’d no idea how I was going to get through the day, knowing I’d potentially stumbled across my father, but there was nothing I could do until Mum arrived.
‘Alice, you have sisters,’ Grace said softly.
This caused my heart to squeeze a little and I managed a glimmer of a smile. Keep calm, I told myself, crying softly into Grace’s arms.