Chapter 20

By breakfast time on the day of departure everybody knew that Shirley and Bill had spent the night in Shirley's flat. But they did not appear for breakfast at the house. This did not cause any surprise. I think we all felt they would keep a low profile and perhaps turn up for lunch as Bill, Fiona and Bill's Children were due to depart by mid-afternoon to catch their flight home. Frank, Eleanor and their children were going to depart at the same time though their flight was a little later.

What did surprise us was the Bill and Shirley departed in Bill's car about ten am. and headed for town without a word being said to any of us. When they returned an hour later and Bill came into the main house while Shirley disappeared into her apartment. In his hand bill had a wine carrier with several bottles of champagne.

When he came saw us looking at him, he asked, "Where is your fridge?"

I pointed it out to him and he put two of the bottles in the chiller.

"I wonder if you need to be back today Fiona?" He asked.

She shook her head and said, "No! I can stay on if I phone my neighbour and let her know when I am coming back."

"Good?" Bill replied, "Can you put Fiona and my children up for one more night?" He asked me.

I looked at him puzzled and said. "That will be no problem. There is no one else coming to visit."

"Fine he said, "I am going up to my room to change and I should be down before Shirley comes back."

I looked at Ginny and said, "Something funny is going on here. He hasn't said a word about last night?

Ginny giggled, "I have a feeling that we are going to learn something significant in the next ten to fifteen minutes."

"Do you think so?" I asked.

"Of course," Ginny said, "No Shirley, champagne in the fridge, and Shirley is coming over to be with him when he comes back down. Ooh I hope it is what I think it is."

Just then Bill returned and minutes later Shirley entered in a nice dress matching Bill's smart appearance in a collar and tie. Accompanying Shirley was Mags who in turn was accompanied by her husband.

"Where are the kid's?" Bill asked.

"Outside somewhere," Frank said.

"Would someone like to go and get all of them in here?" He asked.

I told him that I would go and get them. I found them lying on loungers by the pool.

"Inside everyone," I told them, "the colonel wants to speak to all of us."

When I got back Shirley had glasses out and Bill had a bottle of champagne in his hand.

When we had all gathered in the lounge, Bill stood up took Shirley's hand and led her to the centre of the room. Then he turned to face us.

"As you all know, Shirley and I went for a walk last night and neither of us returned here. Since you are fairly bright people," He said, "you will have worked out that we spent the night together and that not all of it was spent sleeping."

There was a titter from the adults at this.

Then Bill went on. "As a result of all that passed between us I persuaded Shirley that we should take up where we left off some sixteen plus years ago and she agreed. So this morning we sneaked away into town and I bought her a very special present, a ring, an engagement ring, which you will no doubt all want to admire." He finished with a grin.

At that Shirley held out her left hand to reveal a large solitaire diamond ring on the third finger of her left hand. We all stood up and went to congratulate them.

As we walked over to them Eloise grabbed my hand and asked me

"Does that mean that Shirley is going to be our new mum?"

"Yes." I told her, "and I suspect it will be sometime soon."

"O good!" She said and rushed off to explain to her sister what was going to happen. Once the hullabaloo had died down Bill said,

"We brought this champagne back with us and I stuck it in the freezer compartment of the fridge; I think it might be cold enough now to drink a toast to the happy couple don't you.

I think even Frank can have one, for the effects should have worn off by the time he has to drive to the airport and the youngsters can have a soft drink."

Ginny and I took the bottles from Bill and prepared the drinks then handed them round. Once everybody had their glass in their hands I stood up and said,

"As one of the prime movers in the events that have led up to this happy occasion, I am going to claim the right to propose a toast to this happy couple.

I would ask you to raise your glass and drink a toast to their future happiness and in doing so I would like to bestow upon them this blessing.

'May the road rise up to meet you,

May the wind always be at your back,

May the sun shine warm on your face,

May the rains fall soft on your fields,

And until the day you pledge your troth,

May God hold you both in the palm of his hand'*"

Everybody raised their glasses and drank to the newly engaged couple and Ginny ran forward with tears in her eyes and hugged her mother and then Bill.

"This has made my finding my father seem like a fairy tale" she said. "I and my sisters are so happy that Shirley will become the mother of all of us just as they share their father with me."

She turned to the girls and said, "That is true, isn't it my sisters?" And she held out her arms to them and they ran into them and both cried, "Yes"

Bill and Shirley gathered all three of their new family into one large hug and everybody laughed and cheered.

Later as we moved through to lunch, Fiona came up to me and said,

"That was a lovely toast, Gibby. Your little poem summed up the situation wonderfully for the occasion."

"It wasn't my little poem," I told her. "It is an old Celtic Blessing except for the second last line which I adapted for the occasion. The blessing would have said

And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of his hand,"

"It was lovely anyway," she said.

I smiled and took her hand and led her to the table so that she would be sitting beside me. I thought a lot of wounded souls are finding new starting places making this truly a time for Thanksgiving.

Bill came to me later to discuss the situation. Shirley was in the middle of trying to gain the qualifications that would allow her to seek college entry if she desired that. She did not want to postpone this and so was hesitant about dates.

I suggested that Bill should make inquiries and see if would be possible for her to transfer to a college in his area without losing the credits she had gained at the college here. This would give us a clearer idea about how to proceed. The general consensus seemed to be that around Easter would be the most likely date if that was possible. Shirley had decided that if this was the case then she would spend the whole of the Christmas break at Bill's place and Ginny and I could join her for the Christmas period. We were both quite happy with that arrangement. The children were a bit disappointed when they realised that Shirley would not become their step mum right away.

They cheered up when we told them that she would be with them for most of December and part of January. We said goodbye to Frank and Eleanor and their children in the late afternoon and said we hoped we would see them when we came down to Bill's for Christmas.

Over dinner that evening we had to explain the possible arrangements to Bill's Children. They were disappointed when they realised that Shirley was not going to become their step mum as soon as they had hoped. They cheered up once again when we explained she might be able to stay with them when she came down for Christmas and. They were even more excited when Shirley told them that along with Ginny they would be her Bridesmaids.

That evening, Bill spent the night with Shirley at her apartment while the children remained in the house with us. When Ginny and I retired for the night, she was so excited; she was finding it hard to settle.

"I can't believe this is happening," she told me. "It is a dream come true, and Eloise and Hanna are over the moon as well. It took ages to get them to go to sleep this evening."

"We have seen it coming though," I said to her. "From the moment Shirley conceded that Bill was a victim of his mother just as she was, I think this outcome was on the cards. The fact that they felt so deeply about each other and were thrown together again and rediscovered their love is wonderful for all of us. It makes building your relationship with your Father and your sisters so much easier."

Ginny looked at me and asked hesitantly, "How much time do you think we are going to be able to spend with them when we go to college?"

"I have been giving this a good deal of thought," I told her. "I am reluctant to give up our house here and move to the south. So I would hope to spend some time at home during the summer break. I feel we have to take into consideration our commitment to Jim and Mag's among other things, but what do you think. Would you want to move nearer to your parents in the long term?"

"I am torn over this," she told me, "Over the past year I have come to regard this as our home and yet having discovered my father and sisters, I want to get to know them. If I am going do that I have to be able to spend time with them."

"We can spend half of our Christmas break with them and the same for our Easter break. In the summer we can go to them and we can be with them for some of the time. Then we can have your sisters come back with us and stay till they have to go back and prepare for returning to school. That way you will be seeing almost as much of them as you would if we moved nearer."

Ginny thought about this. You are probably right," she said, "But am I putting pressure on you by asking you to spend so much time away from here?"

"Not at all," I told her. "If we are going to visit them regularly, especially as we get older and think about having children ourselves, one solution would be to look for a house in the area. It would be our holiday home. That way we could see them often and yet still have a degree of privacy. If we stay for extended periods then I think that having our own space would be important."

Ginny gave me a hug and said, "I think that would be a great idea, but can we afford two homes?"

"Yes we can," I told her, "and thinking about this has reminded me that I said I would think of helping the young man who obtained the evidence of what Bill's mother did. He is in the building trade so maybe I can start by asking him to look at properties for us."

"It is amazing," Ginny said, "Talking about these things has made me realise we only have a few months of our school days left and that we should be trying to make up our minds which College we want to go to."

"I grinned at her and said, "I want to stay somewhere warm. Coming from a place like Scotland where you can have four seasons in one day, California has softened me up and I love the consistency of its sunshine."