Chapter 14

Over dinner that night I met the colonel's two daughters. They were full of questions about who I was and where I got my funny accent. I explained to them that I came from Scotland which, though a country in its own right was also part of Great Britain. The older one wanted to know why the country was called great. I explained how it was made up of four countries welded into one kingdom and should really have been called Greater Britain because of that. Most people now call it the United Kingdom which was a truer reflection of what it was.

When it was time for bed the colonel took them upstairs. It was as he was doing this, I noticed that he had a pronounced limp as he ascended. By the way he had greeted me and got around using only a stick, I had almost forgotten he had lost the lower part of his left leg. He took the envelope I had given him upstairs with him so I guessed he was going to tell the girls the news about their half sister.

While I was on my own I went into my laptop and dispatched an email to Ginny and told her how things were going. I said that I found the Colonel to be a very approachable and likeable kind of guy. I suggested that perhaps we should invite the colonel and his two daughters to come out to us and she could meet him on her own turf. It would do two things. First it would let him see for himself that we in no way needed any financial help from him. It would leave Shirley the option of staying out of his way or choosing to meet him as little or as much as she wanted to. If Ginny felt this would be Ok then she could email me back?

When the colonel came back down sometime later, I remarked that he was getting around very well considering the nature of his wound. He told me he was being treated privately and wearing what amounted to just a bit more than an artificial foot for a bit longer each day. He went to the local hospital for and his physiotherapy and was getting him more and more used to wearing it. He hoped that over the next few months he would be able to dispense with the walking stick all together.

He then told me he had broken the news to the girls and they were very excited about having an older sister whom they had never met. Hannah, the younger one had wanted to go and see her and the next day would not have been too soon it seemed. Eloise, the older sister had been just as excited but realised we would have to make arrangements about the meeting because Ginny had never met daddy. The conversation eventually turned to the problem of where we would go from here.

I told him of my e: mail to Ginny suggesting that this time he travel to our place so that he could see for himself the situation in which his daughter now lived. He could come for a long weekend or longer if it did not interfere with his rehab. The colonel could see some advantages in that because it kept his mother out of the picture until we all knew where this was going to take us. In the end he agreed that if this was acceptable to Ginny then he would come to us the date and the length of stay could be determined later.

The rest of the evening passed with the colonel filling me in on some of his experiences as a marine officer. It had been quite a trying day so I excused myself and was in bed by ten o clock. I checked my email but as yet there had been no reply from Ginny. I guessed she was thinking about what I said and perhaps consulting with her mother. I wondered about phoning but decided to leave it till the morning.

After breakfast I checked my e: mails again and found that Ginny had replied accepting my suggestions that the Colonel be invited to visit us some time in July. When I met with the colonel for a short meeting before catching my flight home, I told him this. He felt it was a good idea and he would pick a date for middle to late July when the kids were free of school and let me know. I told him that we had plenty of room and would put him and the girls up in the main house. I felt the girls would enjoy the attic rooms and having this amount of advance warning I was sure I could convert them into the kind of girl friendly rooms they would enjoy.

Ginny and Shirley met me at the airport and were full of questions on the way home. What were the girls like Ginny had demanded to know. I told her that both of them were as bright as buttons. Hannah I thought was going to turn into one of those heartbreaking bubbly blondes who would be the life and soul of the party. Eloise on the other hand was going to be quieter and more serious but with her beautiful auburn hair and clever mind just as desirable as her effervescent younger sister.

Shirley had asked more quietly about the colonel himself. I said to them that I was very impressed by him. I told them how he had come to the conclusion about his mother's perfidy even before we presented him with the evidence. He had worked out in his own mind some time ago that she was behind what happened between Shirley and him. She had always planned that he should marry Natasha a very eligible and rich young heiress who was eminently suitable in her mind for her son.

He had the ability to acknowledge what his mother was and still accept her as his mother, but not necessarily as the kind of woman whom he would want to be influencing his children. I told them was because of this he had intended to retire from the marines even if he had not been wounded in Afghanistan.

He was doing this because he did not want her having too much influence on the minds of his girls. He wanted them to be able to value people for what they were rather than for what they possessed. His marines, he said came from every walk of life and almost everyone he would and had trusted with his life as they trusted him. A guy who was prepared to give up a career he loved for the well being of his children I told them had to be a guy you respected and admired.

Shirley was quiet for a time after I said this. When we arrived home, Ginny went into the kitchen to brew up some coffee and make some sandwiches and I turned to Shirley and said to her,

"Bill Lambert is very aware that he wronged you Shirley but he knows you cannot turn the clock back. He told me that he if it was possible he would love to be able tell you how sorry he was for what he had done to you. I think he can see that the way he hurt you is probably too deep for you to ever forgive him. If he and Ginny are going to have any kind of relationship he said to me that with time, probably the best he could hope for was that you and he would be able to rub along with it so that there would be minimum friction at things like Ginny and I graduating and or at our wedding and big events in our lives like that.

There is a very deep sadness in him when he talks about you and I don't think it is all about the wrong he has done you, but also because he knows what he lost. I think he cared deeply for Natasha, but he knows that he did not love her as he would have loved you. What happened to him is much less than what happened to you, but in his own way, I think he feels his mother robbed him of the woman who would have been his soul mate."

I could see that Shirley felt the pain of this even more deeply than he did, because what might have been was so vastly different from what life had been like for her.

Things at home settled into a new routine because over breakfast one morning Shirley said

"I have come to two decisions. I am enjoying my computer course and I am taking in the material easily, so I am going to do as you said, Gibby. I am going to make enquiries about graduating high school. The second decision will please you even more. I am much more confident now and quite capable of staying on my own. I also see that you two are in this for the long haul. I was thinking about his after you spoke about the colonel feeling he had been robbed of his soul mate. I can see now that you two were made for each other and will have the kind of relationship that Bill Lambert felt he might have had with me."

There were tears glistening in her eyes as she went on to say,

"I think you two are soul mates and you have my blessing and I want you and Ginny to be together all the time now. You don't need to sleep at the flat anymore," she told her daughter.

I stood up, went round the table, pulled her to her feet and hugged her. I looked into her eyes and said,

"Shirley McPherson, a year ago, I would never have dreamed that this moment would come. In some ways you are becoming the mature woman that young girl would have become. You are reaching out for the life you have rather than bemoaning the one you have lost. I am so proud of you and what you are doing."

For the first time I felt a real warmth as she hugged me back.

"I could not have done it without the help and support you and Ginny have given me over the past year," she said.

"That may be true", I told her, "but you are the one who is achieving it and making the changes you need to make."

I could feel the tears prickling at the back of my eyes as I thought of the changes in this woman. I managed to smile, however, and I said to her,

"You know, in the best possible way, I am going to love my future mother in law. I just hope someday she will find someone to love and appreciate her as I love and appreciate her daughter."

As we broke apart I could see she was really moved by what I had said but she aimed a playful swat at my head and said,

"You just want someone to take me off your hands"

I grinned at her and replied, "Yes, that too!"

Ginny laughed and said,

"I don't think you two will ever stop having digs at one another."

The next day Bill Lambert phoned to say that he and the girls would come in the last week in July, so we started preparing for their visit. Over Breakfast I said to the girls,

"You know, I would like my two women to be looking their very best for this visit, so I think it calls for a bit of shopping therapy to prepare for it. I will book us into the Winter Palace for a meal for one of the nights they are here and that will be an excuse for you two to dress up."

Needless to say, Ginny and Shirley found this to be one of my better suggestions.

I picked up the colonel and his daughters from the airport. Ginny had stayed at home feeling it would be better to meet for the first time in a more private place than an airport concourse. As we drove back I explained this to him and he thought it was a wise decision. The girls were really excited, it was the first time they had been on holiday with their dad for a long time. When you added to that the fact that they were going to meet a sister they knew nothing about, then I wasn't surprised they were a bit hyper. As we stopped before the electric gates, the colonel said,

"It seems that you must have quite a mansion here, Gibby."

I laughed and said, "I think the previous owners meant it to look more impressive than it is. The main house is not huge but it is adequate for my needs, and I have converted the space above the coach house into two flats. Shirley lives in one and my Gardner and housekeeper live in the other."

No one was waiting at the door to greet us so I felt that Ginny would be waiting inside on tenterhooks.

As we got out the car, I said to the family,

"I suggest we leave your bags in the trunk for now and we will get the introductions over before settling you into your rooms. If I know my Ginny, she will be as nervous as a kitten right now."

I ushered them into the hall and through to the main sitting room where Ginny was waiting. She was standing nervously by the fireplace.

I turned to the Colonel and said, "Colonel Lambert, may I introduce you to your daughter. This is Ginny McPherson. Ginny, meet your father."

Ginny reached out and shook the colonel's hand, but when she had done so, Bill did not let her go. He looked at her and I could see the tears glistening in his eyes,

"You are a beautiful young woman Ginny and so like your aunt. I hear that you are also a very clever girl as well. Just Looking at you and from what I have heard about you, any man would be proud to have you as his daughter. I am so very sorry that I never knew you until now. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me for being so remiss in my duty of care to you. I know now, I should have sought you out long ago."

There was a sob in his voice as he said these last words.

Ginny said,