You Got It Wrong - Part Ten

Chapter Ten

A/N - SO SO SO sorry at the delay, had a BIG birthday in my house, (mine!) so been crazy! Hope you haven't all drifted off, this story is about to get interesting. It's been a but different until now I feel???

He’d drained far too many whiskies, listening to the soft regular breathing of Nina soundly sleeping in the chair beside him. It was late, a glance at his watch told him it was midnight, they had a long day ahead of them. Clearing his glass, he stood, then shook her shoulder, “you won’t be comfortable if you sleep here all night.”

He watched as she slowly woke, eyes struggling to open, gaze fuzzy, for a moment he felt a little sense of endearment for her, then she seemed to register where she was and that soft almost smile became a scowl. Jumping to her feet a little unsteadily, she put immediate distance between them.

                “Don’t touch me.”

He sighed, “I just thought you’d rather be in bed than wake with a cricked neck in this chair tomorrow.”

She looked at him suspiciously for a moment, then with a brief nod, she disappeared up to her bedroom.

Theo followed a reasonable distance behind, feeling like a complete bastard.

                “I’ll drop you there today Mansell, but this isn’t my business, you don’t me around. I can pick you up at any time.” Nina was still disorientated at being woken up by the much detested Theo the previous evening. For a moment she’d felt warm, content, then she’d focussed, seen him staring at her. And she’d seen red. Maybe, just maybe, she was over zealous, had been a little harsh...but then he’d been nothing short of rude to her on every occasion that their paths had cross, and now, now she wanted to be away from that. She’d given this family more than enough of her time, and her sanity.

The old man looked up from his breakfast and cocked his head as he stared at her, “this is what I want, and I need you with me, you’re the only one with an ounce of objectivity. You’re the only one with no agenda.”

                “That’s not what your grandson thinks.”

Mansell rolled his eyes, “you’ve had ample opportunity to tell him how it is, yet you don’t correct him, don’t defend yourself.”

                “I don’t have to justify or explain myself to anyone; he thinks that I’ve some sort of agenda, that’s his problem. The deal was I’d bring you here, that’s what I’ve done.”

                “But you’ve paid for everything. You won’t even let me give you money for petrol. This house must have cost a fortune...”

She shook her head, “like I say it’s my aunt’s property, we are barely paying for more than the utilities.” It was a white lie, it was a friend of her aunt that owned the house, and she was paying several hundred Euros for it. But that wasn’t an issue, she wasn’t about to take money from a pensioner, and the last thing she felt inclined to do was explain that to a man who looked down on her from his self elevated position. He didn’t know her, and he didn’t deserve her time.

                “Ok, I’ll drive you; I’ll do what you need. But after the D-day thing in Arromanches tomorrow, I’m off to Cherbourg; I’m going to stay with my aunt. So you’re on your own...” She inclined her head towards the stairs, “old Golden Balls can drive you back to Brighton in his big posh car. Ok?”

Theo leaned against the wall at the foot of the stairs, and shook his head, hearing the conversation between Nina and his grandfather, he hated to hear that she’d organised the trip and that meant that maybe she wasn’t on a freebie. His grandfather had money, he still owned a large portion of the family business of manufacturing, and with his and Daniel’s father being a wastrel, there was no chance of him giving up that legacy anytime soon. And that had been the focus of his thoughts, that everything had a hidden agenda.

But then he’d been questioning his instincts a lot lately. Outside of work everything seemed to be going wrong, and that was all down to his decision making, to his choices, to his actions. After all Sadie, the so called love of his life had turned out to be anything but, then there was the fact that he had no idea about his own grandfather’s history. What sort of a judge of character did that make him? And what sort of man? He lowered himself to sit on the bottom step, so this woman, this woman he couldn’t stand, she’d done right by his family. That took a fair bit of comprehending, but then was it any surprise that he wasn’t in the mood to trust women?

Taking a deep breath he prepared to eat humble pie.

Nina looked across the garden to the two sat on the patio furniture. Mansell, who’d looked pale and frail the last few days now sat opposite an elegant white haired woman who had a fair complexion and the most delicate hands that Nina had ever seen, looking exuberant. They were both focussed on the other, giggling, smiling, and unaware of anyone else.

She’d sat and watched him meet the woman he hadn’t seen for seventy years with a smile, her skin tingling with the romanticism of it all. It had been such a special moment, she’d expected it to be awkward, but both of them grabbed the other’s hands and murmured how much they’d missed each other over their lifetime. Theo had disappeared off somewhere, so she’d taken a can of coke and chosen to sit across the garden on her own. Where she could switch off.

                “NO!”

A shout from Mansell made her jump to her feet; rush over to the older two, more than concerned. He was back to looking ashen faced, and the delicate Hélène was flushed, tears at her eyes. They were staring at each other and sudden there was animosity, anger and overwhelming sadness.

                “What’s wrong?” Nina was trying to make sense of the moment. She glanced between the two faces, then to the table between them, pictures of family, children...babies. Suddenly she felt sick, two and two made four, didn’t it?

                “Mansell?”

When he looked up at her she could see he was terrified, he held out an old black and white picture out to her, a baby, maybe six months old smiling from the grainy image.

It was Hélène who spoke, “this is Léon...”

                “Mansell’s the father?”

She nodded, “Je suis désolé...Mansell. Please.”

Nina placed a hand on his shoulder, “you never said.” Mansell was shaking, then he turned hiding his eyes, and Nina was angry for him, “his son...you let him walk away, you never contacted him...”

                “I was promised to another, when Mansell left...it broke me, but I didn’t know about the baby...I was scared. It wasn’t meant to happen...”

                “But it DID!” Nina sighed at the pain in the woman’s eyes, “what happened happened, Mansell deserved to know. Seventy years!”

Mansell was looking up at her, he didn’t speak French and the two women had dropped into the local language. His face was a mask of confusion, so Nina relayed the conversation, her hand on his arm supportively.

Mansell’s eyes flitted between the two women in a distraught way, and Nina felt pain at his pain and confusion.                “Where is he? This son.” His voice was a weak emotion filled croak.

Hélène’s eyes filled with tears. “He’s dead.” Wiping at her eye she sighed sadly, “I am sorry Mansell, I should have told you, tried to contact you...but it was hard. Claude...my husband...” she closed her eyes for a moment, “he was very controlling. I was too scared of you arriving....Léon, he passed away when he was twenty one. He and his wife had a car accident, neither survived.”

Nina squeezed Mansell’s shoulder, how awful must it be to find out about a son, then find out he was dead. All those wasted years, all that wasted time.  Nina couldn’t imagine how devastating that would feel. It was bad enough returning from four years travelling abroad to find that her estranged father had died, died alone in a nursing home, and that the letter he’d left her had told her that he understood why she’d left, that he was sorry for the way their relationship had deteriorated. That letter had explained so much, but left her unable to change things, to settle their differences. But for Mansell this was a million times worse.

                “But he left a baby...”

All four eyes shot up to stare at Hélène, “baby?” Mansell’s voice was a breath.

At the exact same moment a young woman, probably the same age as Nina called out as she came across the garden, “grand-mere?”

Following in hot pursuit was Theo, and as Nina looked between the two, the similarities were unmistakeable, the colouring, the nose, the full dark lips.

                “Claudine. You’ve met Theo.”

Theo nodded, “we have met...what’s going on?”

And suddenly it was like a nuclear bomb detonating, shouts of accusation, tears, pain, hurt. Nina stepped back, away from the mix this was none of her business, but the pleas of the older woman to understand how she’d brought up her grandchild as her own, and loved their children as equally as all the other members of the family.

Escaping she rounded the house, and sat on the porch steps and finished the drink she had started earlier, at that moment, feet appeared in front of her. She imagined it would be Theo, so she looked up with her usual practiced scowl, to meet the dark eyes of one of the most handsome men she’d ever seen, dark warm eyes, unruly dark hair, and a strong stubbled jaw.

                “You are not part of the melee in the garden.”

Even his voice was warm and seductive, his accent more Parisian than his family members, “no. I’m just the driver.”

He smiled at her conversing in French, and dropped into his native tongue with a smile and a nod.

                “That delightful car is yours?” He nodded in the direction of the Beetle and she swelled with pride.

                “It’s my pride and joy!”

He laughed, “I can see why. I’m Gabriel.”

                “Nina...”

He grinned as he shook her hand, “Claudine is my twin sister...”

                “And yet you are both so different.”

Laughing he gave a nod, “she has the blond hair, the bright eyes and the delicate features. Whereas I am the dark dangerous one!”

                “So that’s why you’re not out there battling for your identity?”

That made him laugh, “I am what I understand in Britain is termed the black sheep, my grandmother won’t change how she feels about me after all this, and I definitely won’t change how I view myself.”

Nina loved his self confidence, and could identify with his distance from his family.

                “So Hélène?”

He lowered himself to the seat beside her, “she’s my great grandmother really, but she brought up my father, her grandson, as her own when his parents were killed, so she’s always been a grandmother. She’s a caring woman, but apparently I remind her of things that haunt her from the past.” He waggled his eyebrows menacingly.

Nina studied him for a moment and immediately saw the traits that would have been evident in a younger Mansell. With an involuntary gasp she shook her head, “I couldn’t see it until now.”

                “I look like him?”

She nodded, “you haven’t met him, Mansell?”

He shook his head, “I have no interest in the past, I don’t really spend much time with my family, it’s pure chance that I am here. Though, there’s a bonus, I am pleased to have met your acquaintance.”

Jumping to his feet, he gave a wave, then walked off to a nearby motorbike. The echoes of the vehicle disappearing into the distance were still resounding in her ears, when Theo stormed out of the front door. She stood slowly and turned to face him, pausing when she saw the emotion in his eyes.

                “You ok?”

He nodded, “think so. Mansell wants to stay here for a bit, but I need to get out.”

                “I’ll drive you back.”

A quick chat with the newly acquainted family members, and Claudine promised to drive Mansell home a little later, which meant that within minutes Nina was driving Theo home to the cottage in silence.

It had definitely been a strange day.

Swimming was a distraction, Theo thought as he cut through the cold water of the pool. He’d struggled to get his head around things since seeing and meeting his new family earlier. As someone who’d been brought up with a very small family, this was all so foreign to him; he had no idea what to do. He had tried to contact Daniel to share things, in the hope that he’d advise him, tell him what he should do, but the mobile phone reception in this damn town was dreadful. He had spotted the pool from the attic window of his bedroom, he didn’t have a pair of swimming shorts, and he didn’t think Nina would appreciate him swimming commando, so he stripped to his boxer shorts and hit the pool.

Ten lengths and his breathing rate was increasing, his mind more focussed and he was blocking out the events of the last few days. Was it only two days earlier that he’d been in London and only concerned with his own world?

As he pushed length after length his body started to scream, whilst he could run a couple of miles or play football for ninety minutes, swimming was a whole new type of exercise and he wasn’t used to it. Propping his upper arms on the edge of the pool he let his body float in the cool water and sighed, there was still no sign of Mansell coming home. He wondered how a man coped with finding out that he was not only a father to a child he had no idea about, but also a grandchild and two great grandchildren, a whole dynasty, a whole branch of the family that he knew nothing about. It was enough to make a much younger and fitter man ill, but the thought of Mansell, he wasn’t strong, he wasn’t fit...this could have a devastating effect on him.

He was about to haul himself out of the pool when the courtyard door opened and in walked Nina. He hadn’t seen her since their silent drive home, she’d disappeared. Now she was there in the glorious technicolour that he’d already come to associate with her, he shook that thought away, she was a nuisance, nothing more. Though stood facing him biting her lip nervously, dressed in what he presumed was just a swimsuit and baggy vest top, she looked anything but a nuisance, she looked vulnerable, young...

                “Sorry, I was just...”

He held up a hand to silence her, “my fault, I needed a distraction. I’m intruding.” She made to protest, but again he held a hand aloft, when she stopped he dragged himself out of the water, “I didn’t realise that you organised this place, I’m grateful for you letting me stay, and for doing this for Mansell of course.”

His change of heart surprised her, this was almost an apology for being a class A bastard, but she wasn’t about to back down, “you hardly asked permission. Look, this isn’t my deal anymore, I’m leaving tomorrow. It’s your job to be with Mansell at the D-day service, not me.”

                “He wants you here, he told me.”

She shook her head, “no, he doesn’t know what he wants anymore, this is all new, unexpected. I just need to leave you and him to your family business.”

Theo ran his fingers through his hair, squeezing out the water, then smiled, “I’m sorry I was rude when I met you.”

He watched her eyes widen suspiciously, “and that makes your behaviour all ok? Is that it?”

Sighing he reached for the towel and dried his face, “I was rash...”

                “You overheard me talking to your granddad this morning, didn’t you? That’s what this is about, you thought I was getting a free holiday off him, and now you’ve found out that I actually paid to bring him here...because he wanted to come. I wouldn’t expect him to pay for me, and in fact, he was nervous about travelling alone. And as a veteran of one of the greatest events in history, he deserved to be recognised, and that shouldn’t cost him.”

She lifted her vest top and threw it on top of her towel, and as she paused to dive into the water added, “I’ve never ripped off a pensioner in my life and that insult isn’t about to just disappear.”

With that he watched the pocket rocket with a surprisingly curvaceous body in her black one piece swimsuit dive into the pool, leaving a trail of ripples in her wake.