‘What did you say?’
‘I said, I’m sorry you had to sort everything out.’ Amy has to shout to be heard.
‘What alternative did I have? Julian was in no fit state to drive,’ Miriam bellows back.
A roar billows out from the sitting room. The kitchen door flies opens. Amy expects to see Peter running in to tell his mother about a goal. But it’s Maggie.
‘What the hell is going on here? It’s like bedlam!’ she screeches. ‘I came for some peace and quiet, for God’s sake!’
She glares at Amy and Miriam, then runs upstairs. Her barking dog follows her. They hear her screaming at her brother, a door slamming, thundering steps coming down the stairs and then shouting from the sitting room.
‘Since you’re all here,’ says Miriam, rising from her chair, ‘I better tell you what’s happened.’
37
It was like the day they moved into the cottage. When Miriam said she had an important piece of information to share and could they all gather, Amy, Simon and his plastered leg, David, Amber, Maggie, Merry, Peter and Julian all cram into the sitting room to sit, perch and lean among the crisp crumbs. They carefully avoid the Buddha.
Miriam stands centre-stage by the unlit fireplace. She says it is necessary because sitting gives her back pain. Amy suspects the real reason is Miriam feels more in control.
Everyone is exasperated. How long is this going to take?
Maggie is seething. She has come to the cottage to walk with her dog and think about India. Not to huddle in with everyone else. Owning this cottage is turning out to be a complete pain.
David is petulant. He has been hopeful of getting Amber into bed. Although his sister’s undignified screaming threatened to spoil the mood, playing the sax usually makes Amber amorous. A foot massage will help. As soon as this is over, he will find the massage oil.
The itch under Simon’s plaster is driving him crazy and his creeping hangover will be mollified by another beer. If only he could sneak out to fetch the last can from the fridge. He thinks again about that splendid cottage in Normandy and the details the agent sent.
Julian wants to smoke the roll-up in his pocket but it is not allowed in the cottage and anyway, Miriam will give him the eye if he does.
Amy knows something was coming that she isn’t going to like.
Peter is hungry.
Her training as an accountant lends Miriam’s disclosure a methodical air. For her, the revelations she is about to disclose are broadly positive. The weekend’s chaos only confirms it is the right way forward. Better for her husband’s health and their marriage certainly. She will not, of course, share this view with the assembled group. She enjoys the thought that her husband will be dumbfounded by the information she is about to impart. He will admire her capacity to keep secrets. He will wonder what else she has not revealed. He will understand her a little better and fear her a little more. She finds that erotic.
Miriam waits for silence to settle, then begins: ‘After Seymour’s death, Julian and I agreed that we must clear out Seymour’s darkroom. As you may not be aware, my father-in-law continued to work until only a few weeks before his death. Some of his best work in my view. But he was finding administration an increasing burden over the past year or so. It was a task which he did not allow me or anyone else to help with.
‘Perhaps that explains why when I went to start clearing out the studio recently, I found an unsealed letter addressed to his lawyer in a drawer. It carried a stamp. I hope you agree I did the right thing when the next day I delivered the letter personally to the addressee, Mr Rao, Seymour’s lawyer. The lawyer you all met in his office.’
She pauses for a moment to formulate her phrases and heighten the effect. Half an hour ago, it had been impossible to talk in the cottage. Now Miriam can hear the wind in the trees. ‘Before I delivered it, I read the letter. Was I right to do that? It was not addressed to me. Be that as it may, I read the letter.’
She clears her throat.
‘The intention of the letter, written four months before his death, was to add a codicil to Seymour’s will, the will written and held in Mr Rao’s office. The letter and codicil were signed in the presence of Seymour’s hospital nurse, a Mrs Janet Taylor. She used to come to the farmhouse to help us care for Seymour. We know her well. This codicil stated that certain clauses in the will should be modified.’
Those listening are mystified. What is Miriam saying?
‘The codicil modifies the will in favour of Seymour’s second son,’ she says.
Julian starts. Miriam has not mentioned any of this to him. He has a brother? Julian had often longed for a sibling during childhood, and more recently when Seymour was ill, imagined sharing the burden with a relative. He suddenly imagines what is might be like to have a brother. Wonderful, surely? It crosses his mind briefly that it might complicate things financially. The farmhouse and the land might have to be divided up and sold.
Simon is not surprised to learn Seymour had fathered another child. He tries to catch Amy’s eye but she is staring at the floor. He looks at David. Both men shrug.
‘The son’s name is not given in the codicil because Seymour was not in possession of it. He did not have the person’s name. But he was able to identify the boy as being the issue of him and…. Lynn Morle.’
Maggie explodes. ‘What? Lynn and Seymour? What was he thinking? The man was a complete sleaze ball. Sorry Julian, but really, couldn’t he keep his dick…’
‘Do you mind? Peter is here,’ he says, glaring back.
‘So he gives with one hand and takes back with the other. Typical Seymour,’ she adds.
‘Do you
