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‘Well, I’ve texted Jasper and he’s headed over this way with Miles. I’ve told them you are safe,’ Carmel says.
‘And when everyone’s disappeared, my husband will go back and make sure the cubs are reunited with their mother,’ Sally reassures me. I’m glad to hear it. As cute as they are, I wasn’t sure this lot were willing to relocate to London to live with me.
‘Thank you,’ I say, biting into a cookie. ‘I need to ask – it feels like Jasper and Miles quite like to sabotage the hunts?’ I ask.
Sally and Carmel laugh at each other. ‘It’s a huge source of contention in the family. Jasper and Miles detest it. They used to spend their teens as saboteurs, winding Cressida and Albert up.’
‘They used to hide in the trees,’ Sally tells me. ‘They got T-shirts printed. It was how they bonded really.’
Carmel looks to Sally and I study both of their faces. ‘So it feels like you two are friends, maybe?’ I ask them, trying to change the subject.
‘How much has Jasper told you about me?’ Carmel asks.
‘Very little,’ I say.
‘Well, the reason Cressida and Albert dislike me so much is that I used to be a housekeeper on the estate. They still hold some suspicion over me and my relationship with their father.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
‘We married long after their mother passed but it’s why they’re so vile to Jasper.’
‘They also don’t like that she’s actually common as muck,’ Sally says.
‘Oh, speak for yourself, you old cow,’ she replies, laughing.
I nod, taking it all in. All of it makes perfect sense though Idon’t know how I could live like that, to have all that hate and negativity within a family.
‘Jasper told me about the estate and the inheritance issues,’ I mention.
‘Well, that would be a problem if I married for money. I certainly didn’t,’ she tells me smiling and, perhaps despite all those family issues in the background, at least her conscience remains clear. ‘I do worry about Jasper though, he bears the brunt of a lot of it. Tell me, how is he at work? Honestly?’
‘He’s very good. Occasionally a bit grumpy…’ I say.
‘Oh dear, grumpy in a bad way?’ Carmel asks. ‘He’s got a heart of gold, really.’
‘I’ve grown to love it completely. I take the mick out of him all the time. I like how he sticks up for other people and himself.’
‘That sounds like my Jassy,’ she says proudly. ‘He does like his job. And you. He does talk about you, Frank and Leo all the time.’ I smile to hear it. ‘His job gives him peace, to be fair. I think he worries about a time when Henry won’t be around and then we’d be cut off, I guess.’
‘Seriously?’ I say, difficult work decisions that teeter in the back of my mind, coming to the fore again.
‘We live off the spoils of all of this for now but who knows what the future may hold?’ she says solemnly. ‘But at least he has Miles too. I am grateful for that much,’ she says, her face perking up.
‘So they’ve been together a while then?’ I ask.
‘Best friends, stuck together like glue from the time they were born. Through their teens, I pieced together it was possibly more and I ensured Miles was a feature in our family to support that. They admitted it to us around the time they were seventeen and so, yes, you could say they’ve been together for life,’ Carmel tells me. I can’t help but smile to think that behind my eccentric workmate is someone with such an epic love story,but I’m equally warmed to know they have their mothers’ support, that some family members aren’t so cruel about who they are.
‘We are dying for them to be able to be more open though. We want a wedding for a start,’ Sally says. ‘We’ve already chosen hats,’ she tells me, proudly.
‘Well, I want an invite when that happens,’ I say, putting a hand to the air.
‘Of course,’ Carmel tells me. ‘It wouldn’t be the same without the famous Maggie there.’
‘Famous?’
‘Oh, those boys in that office adore you. You’re goddess level to them.’
I smile awkwardly, in my onesie, blushing a little.
