Chapter 8: Clearing the air

My father looked at me with raised eyebrows, “Take a seat on the settee, son, and tell me about your girlfriend.”

“Well, there’s not much to tell, until we’re all together because we have an announcement to make to you both.”

“Really?” he said, raising his eyebrows even higher. “She’s very young, early 20s I’d guess?”

“Spot on, she’s 20,” I replied.

“She’s a very pretty girl, fresh and innocent, I can see that, not flashily dressed and if she is wearing any make-up at all it is quite understated. And she seems a bright and intelligent girl. Does she know about your ... previous lifestyle?”

“She knows everything, Sir, everything. I am not stupid, she knows at least in outline about my sexual history and about where I stand regarding income and ownership and what is tied up in trusts that she would not see any of if our relationship ended. We haven’t discussed it, but I would ensure that if anything happened to me or to us as a couple that she would be taken care off. I haven’t spoken to Butch and discussed with him what I should do in that respect but I have sent him an outline email so he can be prepared for when I see him next week.”

“If you are in a relationship that looks as serious as I believe you are, then you will also need a Will, Drew. That is not my forte, nor your mother’s, but I can put you in touch with someone who is used to dealing with a complicated financial situation like ours.”

“Thanks, Dad, I will take you up on that.”

“So, are we talking about eventual wedding bells here, Drew, or are you taking the ‘modern’ option of flying by the seat of your pants?” he chuckled. “I mean there is a question I should ask but I’m sure you’ll tell us the answer when you have both your parents present for your announcement, is that right?”

“All announcements on my part in preference will be with both of you present,” I said, “but to be honest I didn’t expect you to be here today, so I had planned on telling Mum first and calling you immediately after I dropped Kay-Lynn off at the hospital for her night shift.”

“So the girl’s living with you now, even though she said she was sharing a flat with other nurses?”

“She was technically correct as she has only stayed with me the last two nights but she has committed to move in with me permanently. I have booked movers on standby Thursday or Friday to make the full move. She has a series of night shifts starting tonight, so she will sleep at my place during the day and we will probably pack her stuff up on her first free day at the end of the week.”

“Well, son, I must say that your mother and I will be delighted that you are settling down. Just on first impressions, she certainly has the outwardly attractive looks that would make every male envious of you and her generally natural appearance and demeanour are positive points in her favour. I can see she’s shy but I see a lot of steel in her, too. I will hold my final verdict in reserve for a few more meetings, but on first impressions I will say that I think she looks an excellent choice for you. And I’m not worried about the age difference, I see you as an amiable chap who will treat her well and as an equal partner, while she seems sensible and sensitive to your situation. I wish you luck for the future, son.”

I thanked him for his wishes and we spent a few minutes on exchanging pleasantries as I asked about how the Public Inquiry was generally going and its projected schedule, and he asked around updates of my current projects that he knew about.

In the meantime, although I couldn’t be present in the dining room as my mother gave Kay-Lynn an expected grilling, I got enough of an update from Kay-Lynn later to know that their conversation was pretty much along the following lines.

The dining room was only a dozen or so steps down the passage with a couple of turns, as the small dining room where we usually lunched was at the back of the East Wing quite close to the kitchen. Grace led Kay-Lynn into the room and I expected that she saw the small dining table would had already had the two extension leaves removed so it was a more intimate table that could comfortably seat six but would just have the four chairs for us around it. The room has a blue and white William Morris wallpaper that is original and a perfect backdrop to a comfortable family dining room.

“What a lovely light room,” Kay-Lynn opened the conversation with, “that pair of tall windows at the back of the room, that I presume faces south, they give this room such a beautiful setting.”

Grace laughed, “It is lovely at this time of year, at the start of autumn, but in the summer we have to close the shutters as it can get very hot indeed in here. It is usually cool enough early in the day to breakfast here all year round as it is conveniently close to the kitchen, and we tend to only eat our evening meal in here during the autumn through to spring. However, in the summer, if it is just the two of us we dine in the library which is next door to the front parlour that we just left; it is on the north side of the house and is always cool in the summer but downright cold in the winter. The central heating of this old house is very inefficient, even though we have modern boilers and heat is supplemented by new ground source heat pumps, but the house is so big that the distribution system struggles to cope. Anyway, if we have a few guests and want to lunch or dine in here during the summer, we have to have the shutters closed for hours before the meal, and therefore shut all morning if we want to lunch here.”

“Ah the trials and tribulations of having a large house,” Kay-Lynn smiled as she was feeling comfortable with my mother still holding arm-in-arm with her. After all, she wanted to feel close to my parents, especially with the news we had to convey to them, and from her experience of working in a caring environment, she knew that to help me, the whole family had to work as a team to support what we hoped would be a successful outcome. “In the flat that I share with my girlfriends, the original dining room has been converted to a bedroom which helps with us all paying a reduced amount of rent, but it does mean that we normally eat our meals off our laps.”

“So you are still sharing with the nurses?” Grace asked.

“No, but I am still in the process of moving out. I only moved in with Drew a couple of days ago, I know we are not married but—”

“—but that is how relationships develop nowadays, my dear,” Grace interrupted with a smile, squeezing her arm affectionately with her linked-in arm, “I am aware and I do accept that times have changed a lot since George and I first moved in together, which was after we married. However that had to be that in those days. I have no wish at all to appear old-fashioned and disapproving of Drew and your cohabiting. In fact I think, with the availability of effective contraceptives nowadays that it makes perfect sense to try living together until you are certain that you can actually live together and make it work is a practical way of moving onto the next stage of your lives. However, I do believe that having the security of a marriage contract that ensures you are not adversely affected should the relationship end, as so many do, especially if it ends badly. Don’t worry, my dear, George is also a pragmatist and I know that he would agree with me that what you and Drew do to develop your relationship is sensible and reasonable. George and I grew up with parents and grandparents who were Victorian and Edwardian, so society, certainly in the circles we moved in, stuck to those old-fashioned values far longer than most.”

“Phew, that’s a relief that you feel that way,” Kay-Lynn admitted, “I hope my mum will be as understanding when I tell her next week.”

“Why are you waiting? Will she be upset with you moving in with a man, especially one who is so much older than you?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Kay-Lynn laughed, “I think she’ll be mostly shocked because of all her kids I have always been the most responsible, the one she could leave to look after the behaviour of the others, including my older brother. She would expect me to be bossy and she will probably sympathise with Drew on any point of disagreement. My older bother was always a bit of a rebel and caused the family most mischief and disruption during his teen years, while I always felt protective towards my younger sisters and considered that I should always show them a good example. My dad? Well, I think he will react a lot like you expect George to react. I think Dad will see Drew as a confident and powerful personality and, while he’ll appear just go along with what I have done, he will have quiet words with me afterwards to make sure that I am not under pressure against my will.”

“So you are a willing girlfriend of Drew’s then, my dear?”

“Oh yes, I definitely am,” Kay-Lynn said emphatically, “I mean he’s just gorgeous, isn’t he? And, while first impressions on looks alone have to taken with a pinch of salt, every other handsome men I have ever got close enough to talk to, actually turn out to be rather shallow and, quite frankly, not worth getting to know, let alone considered appropriate material to share a life and experiences with. Ideally, I want a partner who is for the long haul, death unto departing mortal coil level. I really only want to go through this process once in my life. I certainly won’t waste my life on someone who maybe charming but shallow and flighty, one who isn’t worth investing time in, that way leads to a lifetime of regret. But Drew, well Drew is deep, so deep, he’s like Brighton Rock but has ‘thoroughly decent bloke’ in bold letters running all the way through him. He’s sweet, he’s sensitive, he’s generous to his friends and strangers alike and he’s so calm ... yet is commanding in a crisis.”

“Crisis?” Grace enquired.

“Yes, I met Drew at his nightclub and he noticed that someone had spiked my drink. I wasn’t aware of it but Drew suspected that I had been affected by something, so he kept watching the table, saw another drink being spiked while everyone was watching me react to what I assume was the first spiking. Drew just took charge. He called all the tunes, got the culprits arrested, he gathered up all the evidence, took me and my girlfriends out of the scene and helped me through the doctor and nurse interviews, including the police procedures and everything. He took care of us, all of us complete strangers. And, well, I was so impressed that I was hooked n him and wanted to know him. And he seemed to like me too, even after the drug wore off and I was my quiet normal self. Drew cared and protected me and never took advantage of me or anything. He just seems the perfect boyfriend, I mean, who wouldn’t want to invest yourself in someone who could turn out to be the best person that you’ve ever known in your whole life.”

“So you’re into this relationship one hundred percent?” Grace laughed.

“I am, Grace, I am,” she laughed,” and I know that my prime job over the next few months is to make sure he thinks I am so indispensable to his happiness that I can stay ahead of the opposition that is definitely out there waiting for me to slip up.”

“And you know the opposition, dear?” Grace asked, “do you know his ... love-life history?

“I do Grace, he’s been as open about his past as you would expect a person of his honest self-confidence to be. I know that I’ve got to look at both sides of the coin as far as competition for his affection goes, and I’m fully aware that I’m naturally a girly-girl and can’t possibly bridge the gap by developing bicep muscles or whatever has attracted Drew to men in the past, nor would I even consider gender realignment doing anything at all to improve my chances. However, I trust him when he promises me exclusivity during the learning process of us getting to know each other over the next few months. We’ve already discussed it but I hope he will extend our trial relationship to at least a year before we decide if we are going somewhere together or not. So I trust him implicitly that he will allow us this time and let me know when the first three months are up that he will extend it to at least a year.”