Chapter 10

Christmas Day

Once the turkey was washed, stuffed with sage and onion and wrapped in foil, and all the veg prepped, the four had sat around chatting on the sofa until just after midnight, when Daniel noticed that Marina was getting tired.

“Come on, it is time we all went to bed,” he said, “I’ll turn the oven on now, on a low setting and let us get some sleep after all the excitement this evening. Giles finishes at six in the morning, so when does he normally get in, Ginny?”

“We are only twenty minutes’ walk away, but the chances are that his relief will come in early, so he might be here for six. He’ll be tired and will need to get his head down for three or four hours.”

“That’s settled that then,” Marina declared, “if none of you have any objection, I’m sleeping in the guest room with Daniel, so Giles can have the empty couch when he gets in. Besides, it would be nice to snuggle up against the man I intend to sleep with for the rest of my life. Don’t look shocked, girls. See, your father is all smiles.”

Sophie put her arms around Marina and squeezed her.

“I am going to miss you as a room mate and occasional bed partner, Marina, you have been such a comfort to me, that I can never thank you enough. Make my Daddy happy, because he is a wonderful man who deserves you and I can’t think of anyone more deserving of him than you.”

“Thank you, Sophie, but any other time you want a cuddle, I will always be there for you. And it looks like from now on we are going to be a real family together.”

“I know, Marina, dear Marina. And I promise that I will speak to you in the morning, once I’ve slept on what you asked.”

They kissed and parted, Sophie to hug her father and Ginny, to release her Daddy and embrace Marina.

“I know I haven’t known you long and got to love you quite as much as my sister tells me she does, Marina, and you know that no-one could never completely replace my Mummy, but I do believe that I will want to call you my ‘Mum’, very soon.”

“Thank you, Ginny, I would never wish to replace your mother, but I couldn’t imagine having a better family and lovelier girls to call my daughters.”

The two girls disappeared into the bathroom, while Marina followed her fiancé out into the kitchen, where he was checking over everything before setting the low temperature on the oven.

“Hope I didn’t embarrass you then, Daniel, it’s just that you -”

He turned from making his adjustments and pulled her into him, smothering her words of apology with his lips. Marina melted into him, it was the most searing kiss she had ever experienced in her life and she barely held on to her consciousness as her knees went to jelly and Daniel crushed her to him.

“I love you, dear Marina,” as he broke off the kiss and she snapped back from her dreamy state. “I want to spend my every waking moment with you, so it follows that sharing all my sleeping hours with you immediately would be the answer to my prayers.”

“Oh my, I’ve heard of and read about kisses so wonderful that your legs turn to jelly, well, that just happened! And, Daniel, every kiss just seems to impossibly eclipse the previous best kiss ever.”

“Hey! Bathroom’s free you two,” Ginny poked her head around the door before disappearing, giggling, “sweet dreams, if you ever manage to get any sleep.”

“Go to bed, girl!” Daniel ordered, though his face was smiling broadly.

“Daniel...” she whispered, “tonight I am very tired and you know that I er, just want to ... sleep.”

“That’s fine with me, sweetheart, really it is.”

“I want our first time to be private, just ... us in the house, you know?”

“Marina, we have all the time in the world, the rest of our lives. We have a whole lot of relaxed courtship to go through before then, kissing, holding hands, touching, building trust between us to reinforce our love. I want us getting so used to touching and trusting each other that the act of not touching will seem empty, missing something. We’ll just let nature take its course, shall we?”

“Yes, that sounds heavenly, but Nature sometimes needs a little push, don’t you think?”

“Oh, I agree. And I want us to be man and wife as soon as. I will speak to the vicar next week and see when he can fit us in.”

“I suppose you have some influence?”

“Of course. The Medcalf pews used to be the Joseph pews and are somewhat grand, standing out from all the rest. Now, do you want to wait until we’re actually married and on our honeymoon? I -”

“No, of course not,” she laughed, “we’re not that old, or that old-fashioned, are we?”

“No we are not, but Ginny and Sophie will be out of our hair in a few days and then we can please ourselves.”

“Mmm, ‘please ourselves’, I like that. Come on, it’s gone midnight. Merry Christmas, darling, let’s go to bed.”

“Merry Christmas, my love, the first of many I hope. You have made me the happiest man on earth.”

Jenny Baker was up early on Christmas morning and made enough noise putting the kettle on in the kitchen to wake the whole household, with the exception of her brother, Andy, naturally.

Alex turned over and looked at the alarm clock, it was only ten more minutes before her alarm went off. She had set it last night, knowing that she had to take the prepared and foiled turkey from the cool conservatory and put it in the oven if it was going to be cooked in time for a three-o’clock dinner. She turned back over and cuddled up to Dave, who was, as he usually was, as warm as toast. ‘Mmm’, she thought, luxuriating in the warmth, ten minutes longer in bed on Christmas morning was too long a time to simply give up just like that.

Tracey decided to get up early too, before her parents went downstairs. She wanted to speak to Jenny about her condition as soon as possible, rather than have her hear it bellowed from her father. She wasn’t worried about her brother, he would take whatever revelation she made in his stride and barely mention it until she was obviously starting to show. Fortunately, she hadn’t had any problem with morning sickness, so far.

When Marina woke, Daniel was lying close up behind her with his arm draped over her, his hand nestling just below her left breast. He was hot and she could feel the light and restful rhythm of his warm breath on the back of her neck. She felt warm and comforted by his presence and embrace. She wanted to stretch and desperately wanted to pee, but at the same time she didn’t want to move. She took her mind off her bladder by thinking about the previous night. There had been none of the awkwardness she had expected, getting undressed for bed. Daniel had deflected all her anxieties as soon as they closed the door on their, she repeated the word ‘their’, lengthening the vowels luxuriantly, th-ei-r bedroom by wrapping his arms around her.

“Relax my love,” he had said, “this is how we’ll play our changing for bed for now, until you are comfortable. You go to the bathroom first, while I get changed, then we’ll switch, but, when we are at home all alone, we’ll step it up when you’re ready. I’ll put on a strip show for you, and I will expect a show in return.”

“Mmm, I’ll have to practice my moves, will there be music?”

“Music you want? Then music you shall have ... If we’ve nothing to play, then I’ll whistle. If we had the London Philharmonic in here playing you a tune, I expect I will still wolf whistle at the appropriate moments!”

Marina smiled to herself at her recollection. She had already been tucked up in the middle of the bed, the duvet pulled up to her neck when Daniel returned from washing and cleaning his teeth. She laughed out loud as he silently stripped off down to his silk pyjamas, extravagantly kicking off each slipper in turn, twirling the cord from his dressing gown like a propellor. Then he turned his back on her and slipped the dressing gown off one shoulder while looking over his shoulder at her, wiggling his eyebrows up and down, then repeating with the other shoulder before letting the gown slid off his shoulders onto the floor. Then he bowed to her, which she could only reward with a round of gentle applause.

“Oh boy! I am going to have to practice some moves to upstage you, my love!” she said, “Now, what side of the bed do you want?”

“Right now I would definitely prefer the middle, but for the moment I’ll take this side,” indicating her right.

She pulled back the duvet on his side, so he could get in. They settled comfortably in each other’s arms. It wasn’t long before Marina drifted off to sleep, her breathing matching her fiancé’s.

Now she was awake. It was still dark and quiet both outside and in. She couldn’t reach her watch to check the time without disturbing Daniel, so she continued to remain relaxed. Let the others get up first, she determined, while she was quietly comfortable, until she was reminded of her bladder again.

“Daniel?” she whispered almost as quietly as her breathing.

“Yes, sweetheart?” he replied instantly.

“Have you been awake long?”

Marina started to turn and face her fiancé.

“Quite some time. I didn’t want to move and disturb you.”

“Well, I must get up and go to the loo. I have been awake a few minutes but can’t hold on much longer.”

“Me too, go on you get in there first.”

They kissed briefly and Marina scooted out of bed and dashed across to the door to the hallway. The bedroom wasn’t that dark, because of the streetlights outside. She looked back as she opened the door, and saw him stretch himself out on the bed with a big goofy smile on his face.

“You look very relaxed, my darling.”

“And so I should be, I’m the cat that’s got the cream. Now hurry! I need to go too!”

When Marina had finished in the bathroom and came out, she almost bumped into Giles, just returned from work.

“Hi, Marina, I thought you were staying at your sister’s last night?” he whispered, the flat still sounded quiet.

“Change of plan, Giles,” she held up her left hand with the engagement ring flashing in the light from the sitting room.

“Daniel?”

“Yes. He sprung it on me last night. I didn’t see it coming.”

“Congratulations.” He put his arms around her and squeezed her, kissing her cheek, “that’s put the cat among the pigeons, I expect Ginny will be dropping hints to me now.”

“That’s a clear possibility, how long have you two been a couple?”

“Three and a bit years now, we’ve been going steady. We moved in together just over a year ago when Ginny leased this flat. Until we finally qualify in just under a year’s time, I haven’t got two pennies to rub together to get engaged.”

“You’ve got plenty of time to get around to all the legal niceties, Giles, honey. Anyone seeing you two together knows you’re both crazy about each other. I can’t wait to become your mum-in-law!”

The spare bedroom door opened, and Daniel squeezed past them, kissing Marina on the top of the head as he passed through the bathroom door.

“Sorry, Giles, but my need is greater than yours!”

“I’ll go put the coffee on then,” Giles grinned. “And congrats!”

“And I’ll get dressed.” Marina disappeared into the spare bedroom.

By the time the coffee was brewed, Marina and Daniel were dressed and in the kitchen, Giles got up from sitting on the sofa, stretched and yawned.

“Right, I’m having a quick wash and will crash on the sofa for a couple of hours.”

While Giles was washing, Ginny came into the kitchen, still yawning herself.

“Merry Christmas you two lovebirds,” she said.

Marina was nearest, so she embraced the young woman first, then Daniel gave her a hug.

“Coffee, sweetheart?”

“No, tea, please, I never touch coffee in the morning anymore, too harsh. I’ve just spoken to Giles, he’s going to crash in our bed, so we can use the lounge this morning. Soph’s just getting dressed so we can vacate the room and will be here in a minute. She’ll have a cup of tea as well.”

“That’s good,” Daniel said, “we’ll get our drinks, I’m just putting the bacon under the grill, I assume it’s bacon butties all round?...”

Marina and Ginny nodded vigorously.

“ ... Then we can eat these in the lounge and open a few presents.”

“I’ll go switch the lights on,” Ginny said, “but we need to keep a couple of pressies back for each for when Giles opens his.”

“Of course.”

“Right, then, out of my kitchen until I’m done.”

In the lounge Ginny switched on the lights on the tiny tree in the corner. It was the only Christmas decoration in the room. Then she grabbed Marina and pulled her onto the sofa next to her.

“Soph has got me up to date with, you know, what happened,” she whispered to Marina, “it’s a terrible thing but, thanks to you, she seems so calm and balanced about it. We did have a good cry while you were at your sister’s, and then again during the night. Thank you so much for being with her, Marina when she needed you so badly.”

“Sophie’s a remarkable girl, Ginny, I think most girls would have collapsed and given up. I, I think at one time I might have done so. But I think we do need to keep a close eye on her, especially when she goes back to Cambridge and tries to face this on her own.”

“Oh, Marina, I am so glad you are with Daddy. Will you be moving in with him from now on?”

“You know, we haven’t even discussed that, or dates or anything. He’s going to speak to the vicar next week.”

“I think you should move in immediately and so does Sophie.”

“I have nothing to keep me from Daniel, nor do I want anything to prevent me from doing so. That brings us to the subject of Sophie and her problem. Now that your father and I have a relationship, it needs to be based on trust, so I am reluctant to keep anything secret from him. Why do we need to protect him any more as he will not be left on his own to brood? I believe he is stronger than all of us, but how much do we tell him and when?”

“You’re right, Marina. Until yesterday Sophie was more worried about Daddy than herself. Neither of us thought that he would ever recover from losing Mummy. But yesterday it was like seeing him back as he ever was. I saw the news clip on YouTube that Soph sent me, which gave me so much heart, but knowing he is love with you, now makes me feel so good about his future. You must have had so much to do with his recovery.”

“I don’t think it’s me. I think that finishing that book about your Mum is what has carried him through. It is a lasting monument to her work and the love that he had and still has for her. When I saw him in the village hall and spoke to him for the first time in 33 years, it was as if I was a teenager again and he was only 21. He was just as warm, generous and vibrant as he ever was. If I wasn’t still in love with him all that time, I would have fallen for him again in an instant.”

They were interrupted then by Sophie, who bounced into the room with a beaming smile on her face.

“Merry Christmas you two, when can we open our presents?”

Marina and Ginny looked at each other and burst out laughing.

“Once we’ve had breakfast,” Daniel said, who was following immediately behind her, “I’ve got bacon under the grill, who wants an egg with it?”

“I will, Daddy,” Ginny said.

“Not for me,” Marina laughed, “the bacon roll, though please, just smelling it cooking is enough to make a scarecrow hungry.”

Daniel went back to the kitchen.

Sophie put her arms around Marina and looked her in the eyes.

“Yes, Marina, I have thought about nothing else, tossing and turning part of the night, until I made a decision and then I slept better than I have for weeks. Tell him for me please, tell Daddy everything tonight, so we can face this thing as a united family tomorrow morning.”

They were halfway through their bacon butties before Sophie decided it was time to start opening presents.

“A mobile phone!” Marina was surprised at the gift from Daniel. “I’ve never had one before.”

“It means, wherever we are, my love, we can be in touch, I never want to lose you again for a minute, let alone 33 years,” Daniel said, “we can send each other messages, or talk whenever we want. And I know Tracey was concerned, worried, all last week when she couldn’t get hold of you. I’ve entered all our immediate family numbers in your directory and Tracey wrote down all the Baker kids numbers for me last night, so you can practice entering the new numbers.”

Marina rang Tracey to wish her Merry Christmas and find out how her father Dave took the news of the baby.

“Aunt Em!” Tracey screamed and breathlessly continued, “the book from your dishy fiancé, did you read it?”

“Yes, well, no, not exactly. I skimmed through someone else’s book before he started talking about it and showed some slides. I was in tears it was so beautiful a presentation. So I bought the book and Daniel signed it as a gift for you.”

“So you never saw the inscription?”

“No, it should just be something like, ‘To Tracey, from your Aunt’, I think. Really lame, I was caught on the hop and didn’t want to give out my name as it would look like I was a celebrity whatsit -”

“Stalker, Aunt, a Celebrity Stalker. You can say it but Daniel would never believe it. He wrote ‘To Tracey with love from your Aunt Marina’. See, he knew who you are straight away and continued, “Tracey, this book is all about one of the two great loves of my life. I have been blessed in I’ve and I love my mother and my two girls more than words can express. I could write another whole book about my first love, my eternal love, your lovely aunt, but maybe one day I can tell you everything I feel about her, hopefully as your Uncle, Daniel Medcalf.’ Isn’t that beautiful?”

“If I’d seen it, I would’ve got you something else.”

“Well, I’m not giving it back, it’s a gift I’ll treasure and dream I’ll meet my own true love one day.”

“You will, Trace, I’m sure of it. And you won’t have to wait so long.”

Sir Philip was delighted that he had persuaded Lady Barbara to stay. Christmas Day lunch with all the Sands’ family together was a special day, especially when Phil Junior announced his engagement to his long-term girlfriend Andrea and the added news that they were having a baby in the summer. Their first grandchild. Now they had some celebrations to make, planning for a spring wedding and come to terms with becoming grandparents.

As they did the kitchen clean up together, Sir Philip thanked his lucky stars that he had his family together and his perspective on life was changing. He still wanted to build that road, he had to, many families depended on him for work, not just construction, but maintenance for lifetimes to come. There was the wider picture of the economy, the easing of congestion and the freedom of movement and the boosting of local markets and traders. He decided he was in a mellow mood and if the Government were too stingy to protect the environment they were charged to protect, maybe he could afford to be generous and compromise for the greater good.

Lady Barbara declared that she was determined that she wanted to collect all her remaining clothes from Sussex on Boxing Day, so she could give her rent-free cottage back to Daniel to rent out, but James the driver was off throughout the festivities.

Sir Philip took her to his private car park below their apartment. There was her 2-seater Mercedes sports car that they had bought in the early years of their marriage when their business started to lift off. Bought second hand as an indulgence before they started their family, she had loved that car. Sir Philip had kept it in a lock up store in one of his maintenance depots ever since they replaced it and had it restored within the last couple of years. Once reacquainted with it, they planned to drive it down to West Sussex early in the morning.

After their Christmas Dinner, and a couple of hours’ rest, the revamped Medcalf family set out on their journey home to the country. Sophie insisted on going down to Sussex with her sister in the back of Giles’ rather battered old Renault saloon, so that Marina and Daniel could drive down together and enjoy their own company. They piled most of the presents and the hamper containing the crockery into the roomier Jaguar.

“I’ll be going at an average 55 in my old car, Daniel, so you drive on ahead and get the kettle on,” Giles said cheerfully.

So Daniel set out on Christmas Day late afternoon onto near-deserted North London streets.

“We did a similar exercise last Christmas,” he said to Marina once they got under way, “although both Ginny and Giles had to work all Christmas Day, so we actually ate our Christmas Dinner on Boxing Day. This worked out well as they had the week after Christmas off, like this year. We had quite a pleasant time of it, considering that it was our first Christmas we had to get through without their mother.”

“Did Penny, during her illness, ever bring up the subject about what you should do after she was gone? I mean, did she push you towards her best friend Lady Barbara?”

“Penny and Barbara were always thick as thieves but no, she didn’t do any pushing in that direction, not that I recall anyway. It seems strange but I never thought of her like that, she was ‘Auntie Barbara’ to the girls for so long, that I thought of her more as Penny’s older sister.”

“Poor Barbara.”

“Not so poor, she’s back with Phil.”

“On the rebound?”

“No, well, not from me anyway. She sent me a text yesterday about getting out of the cottage in the next day or so, which will make it available to let. Apparently Phil had organised the snow ploughing that cleared our lane, so that she could get out and accompany him to the company Christmas Ball. She tells me that she would be collecting her stuff from the cottage in a day or two, a week at the most, and moving back in with Sir Philip.”

“I’m pleased for her. A marriage that ends in divorce because the love has gone seems so much worse than like yours where you and Penny loved each other without end. Although you have your loss to contend with, at least you know your love goes on beyond, if you believe that love continues after living.”

Daniel reached across and squeezed her hand briefly before returning his hand to the wheel, negotiating empty London streets.

“I do.” He paused, then, “She knew all about you, you know.”

“Really? How much did she know about me?”

“She knew your name, at least your first name Marina. I don’t think I mentioned your surname, and not even sure if I remembered it. But I did tell her that I fell in love with you and then missed you, when we got around to talking about our previous boyfriends, girlfriends, lovers, etc. You know.”

She laughed. “No. Actually, I don’t know. Although technically I have given birth to a child and was acting as a mother to my brothers and sisters, emotionally and from the standpoint of sexual experience, I am still like a virgin. So, it looks like you are going to have to tell all to me, too, only without you being able to hear any embarrassing reciprocal episodes from me. Other than...”

“Other than?”

“Well, there was this cute boy at work who I fancied like made but thought had done me wrong, so I ran away from him.”

“Ouch, that one! So, what shall I tell you? What do you want to know?”

“Everything, I want all the sordid details. Now,” she giggled, “shall I prepare to be shocked?”

“Depends on how easily you are shocked, my love.”

“Right as this moment, sweetheart, I am so deliriously happy that I think I have a pretty high tolerance level to shock. I am certain that will fade very quickly as my jealousy gene kicks in. Let’s start with recent romances, anything since Penny died?”

“No, Marina, just you. And while we are in this confession stage, I was never unfaithful to Penny either during our courtship or throughout our marriage, nor even through her illness.”

“Ever tempted?”

“No, never. I was propositioned a few times, though. Brussels, well, that place was an eye opener during my first few weeks there. But you harden up and mostly avoid the pitfalls of embarrassing situations.”

“There were temptations set in front of you, then?”

“Yes, afraid so. I wasn’t prepared to give in to them, but there were lots of colleagues who were. I think some people working there, being away from home for so long and so often, thought it was like Las Vegas, a case of ‘what happens in Brussels or Frankfurt, remains there’. I don’t ever want to work there again, because even working in that environment puts a strain on any marriage, even the strongest ones.”

“Did you find it put a strain on yours?”

“A little, maybe, but in essence, I really don’t believe so. We never discussed it, as Penny was always a hundred percent supportive of my political career. I don’t think me being away for four or five days at a time during the week affected her so much because Penny was so busy with her own work, heading up her cancer unit.”

“She was a saint, you must be so proud of her.”

“I was, I still am proud of her achievements. She worked her schedules so she only worked the odd weekend that I had to work, and she did her fair share of night shifts during the week, to keep the weekends free as family time.”

“What about the girls?”

“Mavis would come up and stay in the guest room, when both Jenny and I were away. Once or twice the farm managers we had before the Hammonds, Tom and Jackie Bridger, who shared the other half of the house, helped out if Penny got an emergency call out for surgery during the night.”

“I read bits of your book and I loved your presentation in the village hall. She was so dedicated to that cancer unit.”

“Yes, she was. Surgery was something she had to focus on entirely while she was working, Monday to Friday. That total dedication came through in her notes and diaries. When we were home at weekends, though, it was all about us and the girls.”

“So what about your girlfriends pre-Penny?”

“Not much to say, really, I dated maybe a dozen girls, mostly single dates, nothing really serious, until I met you. That’s why I was so confused, because until then relationships were, well, casual and meaningless. I never missed anyone like I missed you during those few weeks and then the months after. It was very frustrating not knowing where you were and I didn’t feel like dating.”

“Sorry sweetheart, I didn’t know how you felt.”

“And I didn’t know what you were going through.”

“All under the bridge now. So, this is the sixty-four thousand euro question, who popped your cherry?”

“Oh my God! It was Gwen ... Gwen Gladstone. Gosh, I’ve not thought of her for a long while!”

“Tell me more!” Marina giggled, “how old were you then?”

“I was 16.”

“Snap!”

They both laughed.

“That,” Marina said, “is the first time, that I have been able to laugh at what happened to me. After over thirty years plus. I must be on the mend, you are a miracle.”

“No, you were the miracle, seeing you at the village hall with Elsie. I couldn’t believe it was you, but at the same time I was confused because you said you didn’t know me.”

“I’m sorry, Daniel. I have a confession to make to you. I’m not sure how you will take this, but I have to tell you anyway, especially as we are confessing all to each other.”

“Now you have me intrigued. Is this going to be so devastating a confession that I need to pull off the motorway?”

“No, better that your hands are occupied with the wheel, you might want to throttle me otherwise.”

“Now you do have me worried, Marina! No matter what, I could never be angry with you, and certainly never direct any violence towards you, either physically or mentally.”

“I know that ... Daniel, so here goes.” She took a deep breath. “When I saw you on the television a week ago, I was suddenly catapulted back to those days in 1988, and my time in hospital the following year when baby Daniel died.”

“I’m sorry you had to face that, alone, sweetheart. Now, whenever we are in situations where you feel upset, like when our grandchildren are born, I will be there with you, reassuring you that you are not alone.”

“I know darling, I know. And I wasn’t alone when I saw you again, I had Tracey with me. I think I was inflicted with momentary madness. I had convinced myself that you raped me -”

“Darling!”

“I know, but I had nothing else to go on.”

“Of course you didn’t and it was only natural. You were angry and you wanted revenge, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I was hoping to sneak into that village hall and either stab you with a kitchen knife I had in my bag, or at the very least find out how vulnerable you were, so I could plan on ... Sweetheart, I was prepared to murder you.”

“But you didn’t.”

“No. No, I didn’t, I couldn’t.”

“You are not a murderer, Marina my dearest love, you are the most caring of women. But I know you have determination and unshakeable resolve. So, do tell me why I am still breathing?”

Marina looked at him, he was smiling, looking ahead at the road.

“I realised that as soon as I saw you in the flesh, and we started speaking again, that I was still deeply in love with you.”