Chapter 35

Since we had brought back Joe's body and had Isa settled in the hospital, Katy, Alice and I had little time for anything other than organising for funerals, sorting out the business situation and attending the funerals. Now with everyone settled down for the night, I suggested this would be a good time to take stock of our situation. We sat in the kitchen while Katy busied herself making hot chocolates for the three of us.

"Let's take them up to our bedroom where there is less chance of us being disturbed or overheard," Katy suggested.

"Alice if we are going to be in our bedroom, then I think you should go get your night clothes and join us. We can set the alarm and get up before anyone else notices that you are with us."

She smiled at me, "sometimes you come up with good ideas that make me happy to follow your orders master," She giggled

When she got back to our bedroom with her nightwear, Katy handed her a hot chocolate."

"I brought some clothes with me for the morning at the same time," she told us. So we can all be dressed when we get down to the kitchen in the morning."

"Good thinking Katy" told her, "but if we are going to ask Esther to make a home for herself and the boys with us, then before we do so, we will need to grasp the nettle and appraise her of the situation which exists between us."

"That is one of the things I want us to discuss. "I'm going to talk with John, Katy and suggest a day for the wedding sometime early in our first term at university if it is all right with you.

Kate smiled, came over and kissed me. "It's more than alright with me, I am all for it."

"Good, when that is settled I am then going to talk to Mr MacMillan about the situation with Sinead and suggest he starts adoption proceedings so that I can officially become her father. I don't know what the situation would be with you Katy. Since she is your half sister and in your custody while Isa is in a coma, I am not sure if you need to adopt her, but I will find out.

"You might not be able to do so either, Peter," Alice pointed out, "Because for that to happen I suspect that Isa would have to be able to give her consent.

"If there is a chance that she could recover, then you are probably right. The prognosis on that is not very good though, and even if she does, they think she is going to be so severely brain damaged that she will be unable to make those kinds of decisions."

"So what do we do in that case?" Katy asked.

Well she has made me her executor and in that situation as her Guardian ad Litem, then I think I will have the power to decide what happens in the case of Sinead, especially if Katy agrees with me."

"What is a Guardian ad Litem?" Katy wanted to know

As far as I understand it a legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority (and the corresponding duty) to care for the personal and property interests of another person, and Isa would become my ward. I would have that position because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due her incapacity and disability. Most countries have laws that provide that the parents of a child are the legal guardians of that child, and that the parents can designate who shall become the child's legal guardian in the event of death. Isa has done this with regard to her estate and with regard to Sinead in the event of something happening to her and Joe. Let's hope Joe has done the same for Katy in the event of his and Isa's death or incapacity."

"If he has then this would mean we both share that responsibility." Katy said and if we are man and wife and in agreement then there is no problem."

"You are right, Katy but I don't think there would be a problem anyway as you are over sixteen and she is your half sister, I think you would have that right especially as you are a married woman."

"I hope things are as straight forward as you think Peter," Alice said.

Well Mr Macmillan will put us right on these points when I talk to him. I also think you should both be there when we discuss the matter because there is something else we need to talk over with him.

"Is it to do with Sinead?" Katy wanted to know.

No, it is about our relationship with Alice. We agreed when we discussed this in France that it should be a three way relationship in which she would have the status of wife to both of us. So we have to see if we can draw up a contract that makes her co-heir with me if anything happens to you and vice versa if anything happens to me. At the same time Alice can make the same arrangement with regard to us if anything happens to her."

"I don't have much to leave anybody," Alice said ruefully.

"You would have," I pointed out "if anything happened to me and you inherited a portion of my estate and the same thing would apply if anything happened to Katy."

Katy gave a shudder, "Talking about things like this seems a bit macabre."

"I know it does, but what happened to that plane reminds us how necessary it is to make sure everything is covered if the worst happens especially in a relationship like the one we are proposing."

"I know you are right Peter," Katy admitted, "and I agree and will talk to Mr. MacMillan and I now appreciate why all three of us need to be there when we do. We are still left with the problem of Esther. How are we going to tackle that?

"That is simple, when we put our proposal to her we tell her in confidence the same time the nature of our relationship and then she has to make up her mind how that will affect her decision. If she doesn't want to stay in the light of that then we also ask her to keep that confidence we have disclosed to her. I think she is the kind of person who will do that."

"If Wendy is working as closely with us as we want her to do, then I think we will need to let her in on the secret too," Alice said.

"I think you are right, so before she starts we will have another talk with her and make her aware of the situation, stressing the confidential nature of what we are about to reveal."

"I agree and I think that just about covers all our immediate problems," Katy said, so can we now go to bed Peter and perhaps you would give your ladies some therapeutic stress relief.

"If that is the kind of therapy I think you are meaning," Alice said with a giggle, then I am in full agreement with that suggestion.

I will do my best to administer such stress relief as you feel you need on one condition" I told them.

"Oh! And what would that be?" Katy asked.

"That you tone down your enthusiastic and ecstatic response to my efforts in the light of the fact that we have guests."

Both girls attacked me in response to that request and began to pull off my clothes.

The following morning it was quite a pleasant day so I phoned Wendy and asked her if she could come over about ten and supervise the children in the swimming pool and join us for lunch. I also intimated that we wanted to talk to her regarding her start date and one or two other matters prior to the beginning to work for us. She agreed that she would do that.

I managed to get Esther alone and said I had arranged for Wendy to come and supervise the children in the swimming pool for an hour or two and asked if we could have a discussion with her regarding how she felt about her future now that the children had been with her for a few weeks. She looked a bit puzzled but agreed to the discussion.

When Wendy arrived we all had our morning break around the kitchen table before she went off to take care of the children and I signalled to Esther that we would continue to talk in the Kitchen.

"I know you were a bit surprised this morning, when I asked to talk to you about your feelings regarding how you are feeling about being left with the rearing of your grandchildren at your age and with your limited resources. So how do you think you are going to cope?"

"It is going to be a mean a lot of extra work and expense for me. When my son's house is sold there will be about twenty thousand pounds in capital which will be put in trust for the children and along with his lawyer I am one of the executors. It means I will have to consult with him if I need to use any of that money for special activities like school trips or other educational needs. For the day to day things I will cope, but there is not going to be much for extras or emergencies."

"We are asking this Esther because we have a proposition to put to you that may be a way of releasing equity for you and perhaps result also in a small wage which may also help," Katy told her, "But before we get round to that or even consider it, we need to tell you something about us and we would ask you to keep this strictly to yourself and not reveal it to anyone else. Could you give us your word on that?"

Esther looked at us for a moment or two before replying. "You can trust me with anything you want to tell me, but you don't have to tell me anything, I am happy to accept your friendship without going into details about your private life. I am assuming this is something about your private life?" She asked with a smile.

"Since we are going to put a proposition to you that may bind us together more closely Esther, I think we have to reveal certain things to you so that you can make up your mind whether or not you want to accept our proposal."

Having said this, Katy looked over at me. She was going to leave me to do the explaining. I smiled at her and said,

Ok Katy, I will take it from here. Esther you know that like you we are going to be the ones who look after and raise Sinead and that we are going to employ Wendy to help us look after her while we are at University. How long she can do that we don't know, because if she gets a chance of a full time teaching post at some stage we have promised that she will be free to take it with a minimal notice."

"Yes, I was aware of that from what Katy and Alice have told me and I think it is an ideal temporary arrangement. Wendy is a lovely girl and great with my three as well as Sinead."

"I am glad that you think like that," I told her because we are going to need another person over and above her. We will also need a housekeeper. As you know from your short stay with us this is a rather large house which has comfortably housed you and the children. There is also a stone building to the side of the house, which we have decided could be converted into a granny flat with a door into the main house. We have decided to turn this space into a living room, a small kitchen, and a double bedroom with and en suite. With that in mind, we would like you to consider the post of housekeeper. This space would be your private domain and the children could continue to occupy the rooms they do now and Wendy would be here to help with looking after them when needed.