Two Loves

Chapter 40

CYMBELINE

Act One. The Family.

I did not plan to interrupt a family meeting. I wanted to talk to Ada about where my brother is and how I can find a new job. But now, here I am, fudged between Ada and Mary on a small couch in the salon (very pretty, by the way, with red curtains and book-shelves and a candelabra that could pay my wage for a year), and I am forced to answer all the questions about my life and work and family. Mary, of course, reads the gossip newspapers. It was a bad idea to tell her that my brother is a painter. Her eyes become even rounder.

"Ohh" she breathes with the dramatic attitude of a conspirator on his way to kill Caesar. "You are that Miss Haywood! Is it true that -"

Merciful Ada cuts her off by patting her hand on Mary's thigh. "Mary, how rude of you! Poor Miss Haywood is already suffering enough under all these lies! I can assure you, everything that is written in those papers is utter nonsense. You shouldn't ask such impertinent questions."

"But -"

"If you go further, I will tell Mama who spilled the tea over her needle-work."

That shuts Mary up. For approximately ten seconds, then she has caught one of the little nephews and begins telling him about her new book, and I can move my focus to the other Callaghans in the room. Ada gives me a short introduction, whispered between biscuits and tea-cups.

"That is my mom - don't mention the Queen, and she will like you - Fiona, over there – don't talk to her, and she will like you - and that is my older sister Bridget. Her husband has a factory in Birmingham."

"Sorry?"

"Birmingham."

"Oh no, I am just sorry."

She bites back a laugh. When I try to change my position, I see how much her hands are trembling. The poor girl. Her younger sister is engaged to a handsome and undoubtedly rich Frenchman, her older sister has three children - the youngest one is still a chubby little baby, currently asleep in the lap of his grandmother - Ada must seem to be so unwanted in comparison. And I doubt that her family would allow her to marry me, even if I were a man. Before I can lean over to her and express my pity, one of the cousins - a tiny boy of, I guess, five years, in a sailor suit, has already tackled me in the knees and demands to be taken up. Bridget hastily sets her tea-cup down.

"Tommy, please, let Miss Haywood alone! She has just arrived!"

"But Mama -" the child cries and looks up to me.

"Miss Haywood, I am terribly sorry - Tommy, get over here -"

Before the little fellow throws a tantrum, I just take him by the arms and pull him up onto my knees. "Don't worry, Lady Chester. I - uh - I like children."

Ada giggles into her tea and I give her a look.

"The sacrifices I make for your family" I mutter, but then the boy demands my attention by flapping his hands into my face.

Tommy grins at me. "I have already lost two teeth!" he says proudly and opens his little mouth. "Do you want to see?"

Children are demons. Luckily, his mother interrupts him again, while she tries to brush off the crumbles her other son has spilled over her skirt. "Thomas Habakuk Chester, no!"

At the shocking sound of his full name, the boy pouts and sits still. His mother finally stops brushing over her skirt and gives me an apologizing smile.

"I am terribly sorry, they are all so excited to see their aunts and grand-parents."

I am terribly sorry for Thomas Habakuk. He really doesn't deserve that name.