A Different Class - 26

Chapter 26

Bec was busy once she got back to Bristol, the marketing campaign for the chain of hotels was due to launch and she was in meetings nearly all week. So Nate surprised her by arriving at four o'clock on Friday and collecting her from work and taking her out for dinner. It was the last thing her exhausted body needed, but she was grateful to Nate for coming. 

Back in the hotel room, she slumped into a seat and could only watch as Nate pulled off her shoes and started to massage her feet. 

"You should've said you were tired!" He smiled as he ran his thumbs over her insteps. 

She groaned in pleasure, "I'll endure anything if I get this treatment!"

By Sunday night they were dreading parting again, but this week she had her twenty week scan, so she was returning to London on Wednesday, and had taken a few days off to be with Nathaniel.

Thursday evening, they were lounging in the flat, studying the magical images of their little baby printed from the scan for prosperity.

"So that's the hand?" Nate was struggling to absorb the reality of it all. Bec was laughing at his combined confusion and amazement when the phone rang. She could tell from Nate’s tone that there had been bad news. He was fairly upset as he pacified someone on the phone. She headed into the kitchen to make a hot drink, and was still there when Nate came looking for her.

“Patrick’s father has died.” He fought back a few tears as he looked down at her.

She stopped, “Oh my God, that’s unexpected?”

He nodded, “ heart attack on the golf course of all places. He was in work this morning, he's still head of all the businesses, he was only late in his fifties. Patrick is devastated, they never got on, but he was nothing like my Dad, you know? I mean it's still his father, and he's now obligated to look after his family, and the empire!”

She shook her head, “everything that he hates.”

He nodded, “they’re organising the funeral for next week. We should go.”

She felt herself pale, “will....?” She looked up at him nervously.

Sitting beside her Nate took her hand, “Yes my father will probably be there, but we’ll have to see him sometime, he won’t create a fuss at a funeral, you’ll see. We have to do this for Patrick.”

“But it’d be easier if you go on your own.” She really didn't want to see him, living as they were she felt cocooned, protected from the influences of his family, but deliberately going into Sir Ed's domain...it was more than she could fathom. 

Nate smiled at her, “You’re going to be my wife. We need to show my father that we are together regardless of what he does or says. At the end of the day the important thing is for us to be there for a friend, together. Not hiding away.”

She nodded, “he’s been very good to me, Patrick. You're right."

Nate pulled her into his arms, "and he is going to be our best man. It'll be fine, you'll see!"

It still didn’t mean that for the whole week in Bristol she wasn't nervous to the point of exhaustion. But she headed back to meet Nate on the Friday morning. They’d planned to drive to the two pm funeral that was in the same village as Wiseworth, attend the wake for as long as was appropriate, then she could drive them back to London to relax for the rest of the weekend.

The church was picturesque, and the sun managed to shine as they cut across the road to the churchyard. Possibly two hundred people gathered, all milling around waiting for the family, and the coffin bearing hearse to arrive. 

Patrick helped him mother out of the car, along with his younger siblings, two sisters, and he looked dreadful, his face was drawn, his vibrant smile quashed. Glancing up he spotted Nate and tried a half smile, mouthing, "Thanks for coming!” 

Nate cut through the crowd to embrace his best friend and Patrick fell against him for longer than was usual, Nate’s understanding arms hugged him.

Nate and Bec sat to the rear of the church, not wanting to draw attention to themselves. Looking down at Bec, Nate could tell she was terrified - that much was obvious, and for a few moments he regretted forcing her to come. When he looked up and met the gaze of Michael Burford-Mills he seriously doubted his wisdom. The two men shared a friendly nod, before turning back to the real matter in hand.

Outside the church he tried to pull Bec away from the crowd. He needed to think on his feet. If she met Michael it may be all too much for her. But then if she never confronted her family then she’d never be over all this. It’d hang over them as a source of instability, and be a reason to avoid living forever.

“We need to see Patrick,” she whispered dragging him over to the throng of people near the funeral cars. Before he could even warn her he saw her freeze, and knew she'd spotted him.

Bec turned slowly towards him, her eyes wide, fear spread across her face, looking up at him for answers, protection.

He squeezed her hand, regretting bringing her here with every bone in his body, but now wasn't the time to regret.  “It’s ok,” he tried to reassure her. “He cannot hurt you, I’ll look after you, you know that.”

But she was still shaking as they shook hands with Patrick and his family.

“Will you come for a pint back at the Golf Club?” Patrick pleaded, hanging on to Nate’s hand. “I can’t cope with all this.”

He nodded to his friend before hugging him.

In the car Rebecca refused point blank to join them. “I am not going. Your family hate me, that man will be there........I’m not going!”

He touched her cheek, “you know how important friends are, you of all people. We’ll show our faces, then leave. I promise.

She was still rigid as they pulled up at the plush country club.

“Bec please! There are two things I need to say, firstly, I love you, and will, despite you not wanting to hear this, choose you and our baby over everyone else, but secondly, I don’t want to spend the rest of our life together with you running from something or someone.....” He reached and pulled her chin so she had no option but to look at him. “We are not living our life hiding from anything. So let’s get out of this car, hold hands, show we're strong, and help me support my friend.” His voice was firm but not aggressive.

She took a deep breath, and ignoring the nausea, the fear, the legs that felt like jelly, then got out of the car.

Curled into his side, she allowed him to lead her into the huge imposing building, perched on a hill overlooking the same village and same valley as Nate's family home. They were shown out to the gardens were food and drinks were being served in a large gazebo erected on the grass. People milled around quietly and she knew she wasn’t being sensitive when she felt a tension envelope the crowd, a hushed anticipation of conflict.

Suddenly she knew she didn’t want to be this meek idiot, hiding behind Nate. He smiled as she broke away from his embrace and headed over to the bar, returning with a large glass of orange juice.

Patrick and Nate were engrossed in a conversation with a few other friends, remembering childhood times, so she wandered around the gardens, enjoying the afternoon warmth. She spotted a bench under an overhang of a large Magnolia tree, and sat there, drinking slowly. Funerals always made her miss her parents. 

She heard the voices before she saw anyone, pompous voices making snide comments on the turnout at the funeral. So disrespectful, but nothing that didn't surprise her when the source of those comments, Lizzy and Sir Edward come around the corner and into her view. 

“Oh God!” she sighed. This is exactly what she didn’t want to happen.

The conversation stopped abruptly, and she knew they’d seen her. Mumbled words were exchanged for a moment before Lizzy disappeared and Sir Edward strode up to her hiding place under the tree.

“I thought we agreed that you would leave my family alone.”

Bec took a deep breath before standing up, meeting him nose to nose, whilst she didn't want this, she wasn't backing down, she was determined now more than ever. “You agreed, I ignored. I’m not going anywhere, you need to get used to that.”

He shook his head and snarled through gritted teeth. “I will do everything in my power to get rid of you.”

She laughed, placing a hand protectively over her swelling belly, “I thought you already had, lies deceit, and when that didn't work money! So as far I can see you're all out of options!"

"You will not be part of this family, do you hear me?"

Bec shrugged, "it won’t be that easy, no threat is big enough Sir Edward. Your son loves me and I love him, and look...” she raised her left hand to display the elegant and understated diamond ring. “Soon we’re going to be a family. Us and our baby, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“I told you to get rid of that bastard." He glared at her refusing to drop his eyes to the gentle round of his grandchild, as he'd never think of it as anything more than her bastard. "You will regret this decision, and that child will never have the Groves name, over my dead body.”

As she laughed in his face, with a confidence she didn’t feel, a voice boomed out from behind them.

“I think that could be arranged if your son heard you threatening his fiancée. I heard you were an evil bastard, but I never thought I’d witness this first hand!”

They both turned to come face to face with Michael Burford-Mills. She felt her knees weaken, her heart racing, a thin film of sweat covered her forehead.

“Are you ok?” he rushed over to support her arm. She tried to recoil from his touch, but Michael was insistent, helping her to the bench. “Let me find you a drink!” He turned to Sir Edward. “You should be ashamed. And to be honest, you should go home. Rebecca is amongst friends, and you are slowly starting to alienate yourself. A lot of people have always disliked your manner and attitude, and if you keep this behaviour up you'll find yourself shunned. We’re not in Victorian times you know? You can’t dismiss her because she doesn’t come from a society family!”

“She does actually!” 

She froze as she heard Nate’s voice from the right of them. She turned slowly shaking her head, “no Nate, please don’t!”

“Oh no, carry on.” Sir Edward announced harshly. “This I HAVE to hear!”

Bec had turned ghostly white and shook her head, “Nate, this is not the time!”

He reached for her hand, “no it is the time! And Michael don’t sneak off, this involves you too.” He pulled her to her feet and into the security of his embrace, “you see father, Michael - Rebecca is your cousin. Her father was Peter, your uncle!”

The silence was palpable, and not wanting to get any more involved that she already was, she broke from his arms, and rushed away from them all.

Outside she found the car easily and diving into the driver’s seat, she sped away from the mess in a cloud of gravel. She was still shaking an hour later when she unlocked the door to the flat. She was distraught, scared and angry all once. And the last thing she wanted was to confront the demons from both her past and her future.

She needed space, so she did what she did best, in the bedroom she found her toiletries, her overnight bag, and was stuffing her pyjamas into it when she heard the front door.

As she emerged with the bag over her shoulder, she was confronted by a breathless Nate, closely followed by Michael.

Shaking her head, she tried to walk past them, but Nate extended an arm and stopped her. “We’re dealing with this. Here. Today. You have to stop running. Michael?”

Michael stepped towards her, “Rebecca, we need to talk. You must see that?”

Rebecca sank onto the sofa, she felt as though the ground was constantly moving, throwing her off balance, and she hated it. But now she was cornered, she had to confront this, and as she looked between Nate and Michael, she realised it wasn't them that she was scared of, but herself. This hate for her family had been behind every decision in her life, getting in to Uni, graduating, her first job, each was a two fingered salute to the Burford-Mills family.  Defeat reflected in every ounce of her body. Nate rushed to sit next to her, but she brushed his hands away from her. She rocked slowly, trying to breathe through the pain engulfing her.

“Becca, just listen to Michael.”

She looked up at his concerned face, anger her only protective, “I can’t believe you’ve done this!”

He took her animosity and shrugged it off, “I’m fed up with my dad thinking he can walk all over you. I’m too scared that I’m going to come home and you’ve left, the only way you can stop running is to stop being scared, that needs the truth. You deserve better.”

Michael sat opposite her, “Rebecca. We’ve been trying to trace my uncle. My grandfather was a hard man, he honestly thought that Peter would obey him. It devastated him when he left, but he was too proud and too angry to ever forgive him, or to offer an olive branch. He died five years ago, it was only then that he admitted he'd found your mother attractive himself. I don't know whether he actually did anything about that, knowing him he did. He was a hypocrite of the worst kind."

He sighed, "you don't have to listen or believe any of this, but it caused a huge rift in the family. By the time my grandfather died most of us resented him. It has been the undoing of my grandmother. She kept in touch with you all for a while, but then she lost contact. We only found out a few years ago that Peter had died. There was no official record of you, though my grandmother had met you and knew you existed, so she’s been battling ever since to find you. Though you’ve proved very difficult to locate!”

Rebecca found she couldn't look at him, couldn't process his words. It was easy to absolve yourself of blame to cast aspersions elsewhere. 

They were disturbed by a knock at the door, and Nate went to answer it, leaving her to finally make eye contact with her cousin. When she did meet his blue eyes, she saw tears there, and honesty. But that didn't mean she was going to roll over and believe everything he said.

“Rebecca, I am really sorry.”

She shrugged, “it’s all a bit incidental really isn’t it. You can’t change the past.”

“You can’t,” came a female voice from the door. “But we can at least change the future.”

Rebecca turned slowly to the familiar voice, and felt her breath whizz out of her lungs, stood in the doorway was a well rounded and elegant woman, she was a minimum of mid seventies with short immaculate grey hair and friendly eyes. And it was those eyes, that kind face that sent her rushing back twenty years, to visits with her father to ‘Aunty Bea’.

“Aunty Bea?” she breathed, tears in her eyes. She remembered so many trips on the train with her father, she presumed now that they went to London, but she was too young to be sure. But there they'd meet 'Aunt Bea' and she'd take them to a posh restaurant for tea and sandwiches and scone with fresh cream and jam. As a four or five year old it had seemed like the biggest treat.

She nodded, “well actually I’m your grandmother, but your father didn’t want your mother to find out that we met up, so I was always an anonymous aunt.” She came and sat next to Michael. “I’d almost talked your father into coming back to the family. To stop the exile. Michael's probably explained, my late husband was a rash man, and he regretted him impulsiveness not that he's ever make the first move. And your mother was hurt, and I must say I couldn’t blame her, my husband did treat her horrendously. But with that hurt came anger and resistance. She'd never have seen any of us again that was sure. It was only many years later that it came to light that she actually spurned his attention, that he had made a move on her," she glanced at Michael and smiled, "isn't that how the youngsters refer to it?"

Michael laughed, his affection for the older woman so obvious. "they call it many things Gran, and that's probably the most safe version." He turned to Rebecca, "finding you is amazing, for all of us. We really have spent lifetimes wondering where you are."

Aunt Bea nodded, "and if I'd any doubt you were your mother's daughter, hearing about the way you've had Edward running around in circles, then that was it. I know we can't expect your forgiveness, but we would love to have contact with you, maybe bring you to Longacre?" She glanced at Nate who smiled at her.

"Well Bea, now that my trusted steed is stabled there, I will be visiting. Let's not promise more than that at the moment. Ok?" He glanced at Rebecca and his eyes widened.

Bec was virtually panting, hardly able to comprehend the words or the situation. She looked pleadingly at Nate who instantly saw she was out of her depth. As the room started to swirl, he turned to the other two people present. 

“Bea, Mike, I think Bec has had more than she can deal with. Could we meet tomorrow? Come here for breakfast, we can chat more then. Is that ok?”

They both nodded enthusiastically, “we just want a chance to explain Rebecca, we don’t expect anything, ok?”

She nodded at her grandmother, her exhaustion now evident as she struggled to fight back the tears threatening to envelope her. Nate saw them out. As he came back into the lounge, he saw her almost wilt, so scooping her up into his arms, he carried her into the bedroom, there he lovingly helped her undress, pulled the duvet up over her shoulders, then held her as she finally found some peace.