Jenny looked at her, seeing a very pretty girl, and guessed that Gareth’s wife must have been dark, as he was quite fair.
“Was your wife dark?”
“Helen? Yes, yes, she was. Charlie is just like her, thank God.”
They watched the two girls make bubbles by blowing through their straws in their milkshakes. This gave them both the giggles, and they each had milkshake on the ends of their noses. Jenny actually began to relax.
The girls talked about horses and clothes, and Jenny was amazed how natural and ‘normal’ Amber was. Then it dawned on her, she was drawing on information from those other children, older and younger, that were also in the teashop.
Gareth was good company and, unusually, in Jenny’s experience, he was a very good listener and had a lively sense of humour. Jenny shared with another adult some of the pain she had experienced. She put aside the pretence for a while, and was able to reveal her hurting soul.
Gareth found her totally different from every other woman he had met. That included his late wife, whom he had loved dearly. Jenny was at once vulnerable and hurting, and yet resilient and vibrantly alive. After hearing her hurts, he shared his own, so they both felt some degree of a lightening of their respective loads.
Gareth insisted on paying for all of them, and Jenny almost got cross. Gareth told her that she could pay for the next time. Before she knew what was happening she had given him the Gables’ telephone number, and agreed to see him again. They had shaken hands, but Jenny found that they both lingered before releasing each other.
“Thanks, meeting you two has made my day,” Gareth said. Jenny smiled and kissed his cheek. They had parted, yet she felt herself strangely elated.
She took Amber and they returned to where she had parked her Hillman Husky. They placed their few purchases in the back and set off for Wallingford.
“He was nice, wasn’t he?” Amber asked.
“Yes, he was,” Jenny said and smiled.
“Charlie was fun. She is quite shy, I think.”
“You made up for it. And what was all this about my being your mother?” Jenny said recalling the conversation from earlier.
Amber smiled.
“I never had a mother, or not I can remember, so according to my new birth certificate, you are my mummy.”
By the time they arrived back at the Gables, Amber had gone, and Andrew was sitting next to Jenny, having changed clothes in the back of the car.
They found Rhona in the conservatory.
Andrew went to his room, to put away Amber’s clothes and shoes. Jenny sat down next to Rhona.
“Did you have a nice day?” the older woman asked.
“Lovely, yes.”
“Did you take Andy or Amber?”
Jenny smiled.
“Amber. But you knew that, didn’t you?”
Rhona nodded.
“Yes. Look, I need to talk to you seriously,” the older woman said.
“Oh?”
“Jenny, you have been so wonderful, I feel so bad to ask you, but I need to make sure Andy is looked after, if anything happens to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Jenny, would you adopt Andy?” Rhona asked.
Jenny was surprised.
“Adopt?”
“You see, Jenny, I’m seventy soon and I know that I’m not well. I don’t want some relatives who Andy neither knows nor trusts stepping in and changing things. I went to my solicitor this afternoon and I have made you his official guardian. But he suggested that we form an official adoption contract, thereby making you his mother in all legal senses.”
Jenny felt tears come to her eyes. She felt really sad, yet, on the other hand, she was humbled that Rhona thought enough of her to suggest this.
“Rhona, I don’t know what to say. I adore Andy, so I feel so honoured you would ask me this. But surely you’re not that ill?”
“Jenny, the doctor wasn’t hopeful. I have chronic heart disease, and although I am on pills, I know that I will never see Andy grow up to adulthood. I’d give anything to do so, but I’m not stupid. It took me nearly twenty minutes to walk a hundred yards this afternoon.”
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?”
“Positive, and I have spoken to Andy. He agrees.”
That explained the ‘Mummy’ bit earlier.
“Then I would be happy to adopt Andy, but wouldn’t you prefer that I was married?”
Rhona laughed.
“No dear. I have no doubt that you will find a nice young man, but to be honest, my only doubts I have is that it is unfair of me to saddle you with a child, and thereby reduce your chances of finding a suitable husband.”
Jenny’s mind flitted onto Gareth, but she forced herself to concentrate of what Rhona was saying.
“I have drawn up a legal document, and it effectively transfers the legal guardianship of Andrew onto you. Are you sure you are happy with this?”
“Completely,” Jenny said.
Thus it was that Jenny became Andrew’s guardian in law, and mother in reality.
CHAPTER FOUR
Rhona’s last act as guardian was to get Andrew into High Beeches Preparatory School for boys.
Jenny was not happy with the choice, as she knew in her heart that Amber should be allowed to be free, but she respected Rhona’s wishes. They had talked at some length, and Jenny understood that Rhona felt she owed it to her dead daughter to bring up Andrew as he had been born.
At the end of the summer holidays, dressed in his grey blazer, shorts and cap with red piping, a small and miserable little boy was dropped off at the school to begin life as a boarder.
It almost broke Jenny’s heart. She knew that there may be a price to pay later.
Andrew understood why he was here, and that his Grandmother was only doing what she thought was best. He felt no resentment, but he also knew that Jenny was aware that Amber would have been his choice. He was here now, so he would try to make the best of it.
He was shown a dormitory with eight beds in it. There was another bed at the end partially screened off. That was where the prefect slept, and he would be all of thirteen.
There were fifteen new-boys. Andy was the smallest and second youngest.
They spent the first day being shown round the school, but he felt as if he was in a daze. Jenny had hugged him earlier, and warned him never to use his powers. He realised now that his powers were not something anyone else had. Other people would always be jealous of something they didn’t have, so could fear him and his powers.
The boy in the next bed to him was called Mark Redman, and he was really unhappy at being away from home. There was a chubby boy called Simon Reid, who just wanted to know when dinnertime was. There were a hundred and ten boys in the school, which had a reputation of being well run and had a relatively kind, family environment.
The headmaster was Gerald Hammond, who, with his wife Linda, was determined to bring some degree of humanity to a previously rather austere and compassionless educational system. All boys have a tendency to bully, if only to redirect attention towards anyone else, so it was not long before the new boys received the attentions of those in the years above them.
However, in their first few weeks they were protected to a degree, so Andy just got on with his life.
The junior form teacher, Miss Hamilton, was a young woman not unlike Jenny. She was of a similar age and had not been teaching long. She found Andrew very bright indeed, instantly identifying him as a potential scholar.
Andrew found the work easy, in that he had covered this ground ages ago with Jenny, so Miss Hamilton simply allowed him to read a good book through some of the lessons when he found himself bored.