got you the last sausage roll.’ Felix handed it to me wrapped in a greasy paper napkin. He had three on his own plate, but you have to love a man who thinks of snaffling you the last savoury from under the nose of the hungry masses.
Mind you, most of the female half of those masses were currently clustered ten deep round Raffy, with Janey practically plastered up his side like a poultice.
As if he felt my gaze, he suddenly turned his head and gave me a half-despairing and somehow strangely intimate smile…
I turned away abruptly and said brightly to the others, ‘It’s early yet. Shall we go to the Falling Star for a while?’
As soon as Chas arrived next day I knew that he’d found out the results of the DNA test and it wasn’t good news, because it was written all over his naturally lugubrious face so that all his features seemed to be sliding sadly downwards, like tears.
However, I kissed his cheek as usual, made him the strong Indian tea he likes and cut him a slice of fruitcake.
‘This is really nice,’ he said, looking round the little sitting room. ‘And is the Chocolate Wishes business booming?’
‘Yes, I’m making very good money and for something I love doing, so it couldn’t be better. I still do a bit of secretarial work for Grumps too, which I can fit in easily enough. He’s been so kind and he’s even giving me this cottage.’
‘That’s great – a home of your own! And Jake is well?’
‘Yes, he’s actually working quite hard, which is the influence of his new girlfriend,’ I said. I never asked about Chas’s wife, or his children, who were all grown up and off into the world, and he never volunteered the information.
‘Good, good…I’m glad everything is going so well,’ he said abstractedly and sipped his tea, looking utterly miserable.
‘You’ve had the DNA results, haven’t you?’ I asked, and he nodded.
‘And you’re not my biological father?’
‘No,’ he admitted. ‘And I can’t say it was a complete shock, because I’ve often wondered about it over the years, especially since you’ve never looked like me in the least.’
‘But you still came to see me and brought me presents anyway?’
‘Well yes, but I could have been, and anyway, I grew fond of you. And now I feel like your father, even if I’m not.’
‘You’re the nearest thing to one I ever had and I wanted it to be you, Chas. You’ve always been kind, though it can’t have been easy, especially when your wife found out about me.’
‘It was a difficult time, but she forgave me,’ he said and smiled reassuringly.
He is such a nice man, despite his weak moment with Mum!
‘But now that we know it isn’t you, and Mum lied about that, I’m wondering if she also lied about this other man she was blackmailing. My biological father could be someone else entirely!’
He looked up from his tea. ‘Who is the other man – would I know him?’
I hesitated. ‘He’s still married too, with four children.’
‘I have complete fellow feeling with him – I wouldn’t tell anyone else.’
‘No, of course not. His name’s Carr Blackstock and he’s a Shakespearian actor, but he’s done a bit of TV work, too.’
Chas frowned. ‘Yes, I think I know who you mean, though I haven’t met him. I expect I know friends of friends of his, it’s a small world. I could get an introduction and try and talk to him for you, if you like?’
‘Oh, would you? I don’t know how to go about it without sounding as if I’m after something, or about to make a big scandal. I don’t want to meet him, or hear from him, or anything, only to find out the truth, one way or another.’
‘I’ll do my best and let you know.’
Zillah, who likes Chas, had seen his car outside and came in to say hello. I asked her once why Grumps hadn’t tried to ill-wish Chas for getting his only daughter pregnant. She replied that the words ‘fly’ and ‘spider’ came to mind where Chas and Lou were concerned and it was hardly worth bothering with the fly once it hit the web, because it was a doomed victim.
After she’d gone, Chas pulled out a little gift-wrapped parcel and a card and gave them to me before he left. ‘Happy birthday in advance,’ he said, kissing my cheek and, oddly enough, at that moment he felt more like my real father than ever before.
We agreed that we were not going to let this discovery change things between us, so if this Carr Blackstock did turn out to be my real father it would suit me very well, since evidently he wanted nothing to do with me.
Chas was father enough.
My life has been a really mixed bag lately, just like my mother.
Later I went up to Stirrups in search of Poppy and a shoulder to cry on, and luckily found her alone. Janey could be distantly seen in one of the paddocks, putting her bay horse through an odd dressage manoeuvre that made it look as if it was trotting on the spot.
Poppy was very sympathetic when I told her about the DNA results and understood exactly how I felt. ‘I hoped it was still Chas too, but it’s lovely that he feels the same way even though he isn’t – that you both feel the same way.’
‘But now – assuming he agrees – I’ve got to go through the same process with this other man and it might not even be him!’
‘If you remember, Felix and I did think we saw a resemblance between you and Carr Blackstock in those pictures you showed us. And actually, Felix looked him up on the internet too, and found photographs of him with his family, and you look very like his daughters.’
‘How strange that feels!’ I shivered. ‘But at least if it is him, then once I know I can simply forget all about it.’
‘Yes, let’s hope Chas manages to persuade him to cooperate.’
‘I gave Chas a letter assuring him I only wanted to know the truth and would keep it a secret.’
‘Apart from me and Felix.’
‘Of course.’
‘It’s odd,’ Poppy said pensively, ‘but I keep having this urge to go and see Felix, though I can’t imagine why. He’s not worrying about anything, is he? He came up here earlier, for no particular reason, so perhaps he wanted to tell me something.’
‘And he didn’t?’
‘No, but I think I’m going to teach him to ride.’
‘What, Felix?’
‘Yes, he said he had a sudden impulse to try something new. It’ll have to be Atlas, though; he’s the only horse we’ve got big enough to carry him.’
‘That’s
