A Truth Half Told

"I haven't given my approval yet." George stated as firmly as he could.

"But you're going to, aren't you?" The look that Ruth gave him told him no uncertain terms that she wasn't going to even consider that he wouldn't give his approval. He gave the appearance of a beaten man.

I didn't go home on Sunday night, or Monday morning, in fact I stayed with them for the whole week. George rang Miranda on Monday and told her that I was vacationing with them and to process the appropriate paperwork. The longer I stayed with them the more I got to like them and the more that all of them got to like me. It should have been a happy time for me except for one thing. I rang my parents the phone was answered by Mrs. Soames. "Is that really you Mark?" She asked in response to my identifying myself. "I'm sorry, but your parents are currently overseas on business, and are not expected back until early next week, if you leave a number where you can be contacted I'll pass the message on to them." I was just about to hang up the phone, I didn't know whether I was relieved or disappointed, when she spoke again. "How are you getting on Mark? Are you keeping well? I was saddened when you had your disagreement with your parents and left, I've been concerned about you ever since. I even get the feeling that your parents are concerned. Your mother told me that the girl that they had selected for you was a lovely girl, and they thought that she was perfect for you. She was disappointed that you didn't even have the courtesy to meet her for yourself."

"She might have been perfect, but the very fact that they chose her without even consulting me, or asking if I actually wanted to get married, now, that I found to be insulting, I could even have been gay for all they knew."

"Oh Mark, you aren't gay are you, please tell me that you're not."

"No, I'm not gay, in fact I have a very nice girlfriend, and that's the reason I wanted to speak with them, I want them to meet Kate and her parents."

"Now I'm certain that they will call you when they return. Good-bye Mark, and congratulations."

It would have been a perfect week if not for the constant doubt in my mind about the prospect of my parents not liking Kate or hers. Kate and I slept together every night without raising further comment from George or Ruth, they included us in any decision on what to do during the day, we ate at home every night and Kate and I actually prepared dinner for them. They said that they enjoyed it, but then they might just have been diplomatic so as not to upset us.

Kate and I drove home on Sunday night and she spent the night with me and I dropped her home on my way to work on Monday morning. I had just sat at my desk when my phone rang, it was Miranda. "Mark, Mr. Minton would like to speak with you, as soon as possible." I went straight up to his office. "What's going on Mark, I haven't seen him in this happy a mood for a long time?"

"I'm sure that he'll tell you in due course, but I can't say anything without his permission." This confused her even more. I tapped on his door and went straight in. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes, sit down Mark. We have to set down some procedures around the way that we interact in the office, I don't want the rest of the staff getting the impression that I'm somehow favouring you over them, I'm sure that they already know that you spent the past week with me and my family, and they'll more than likely assume that there is something going on between us, but I would appreciate it if you say nothing and behave as you have before last week. Can you do that for me?"

"Of course, I expected nothing less, you can be sure that I'll say nothing, not even to Miranda." He looked relieved.

The next non-business phone call I received was the one that I'd been dreading. "Mark, it's your mother speaking, I understand that you have found yourself a young lady prepared to put up with you."

"Yes Mother, I have, and would like to introduce her and her parents to you and Father, if that is possible."

"Of course it is, why wouldn't it be?" Now this is a turn-up for the books, not the reaction that I was expecting at all. "When would you like to bring them out to meet us?"

"When would suit you? I know how busy you are, so we'll fit in with you."

"Would Friday night be acceptable, say seven o'clock for dinner at seven-thirty?"

"Yes, we'll be there, and thank you." I was surprised, I fully expected her usual condescension but got instead politeness. I rang Kate and told her of our impending doom, and then George to make sure that he and Ruth would be available.

Friday night and I arrived to pick up Kate, but George insisted that we should ride with him and Ruth, so we sat in the back of his E Class Mercedes as he drove to my parent's house. I held Kate's hand and she squeezed mine and smiled to me, telling me that everything was going to be all right, I wasn't so sure. Mrs Soames answered the door. "Won't you please come in. Let me take your coats." She collected our assorted coats and hung them on the hall stand. "It's very good to see you again Mark, I've missed you. Would you follow me. They're in the library." She led us down the hallway to the library where we found my parents sitting in state in their favourite large leather chairs. They rose to greet us and this is where it got really weird for me. "George, Ruth," (Hang on I hadn't introduced them yet, do they know each other?) "It's been too long, and this must be Kate." Mother held out her hand to Kate and I almost expected Kate to kiss it.

"I'm pleased to meet you Mrs Barrington, Mark has told me so much about you."

"And you still came? I'm surprised."

"Mother, please, let us have no unpleasantness."

"We could not be happier, our plan has worked."

"What? What are you talking about, what plan?"

"You didn't honestly think that, after all the planning we'd done to get you to marry Kate that we'd give up just because you were so pig-headed that you wouldn't even look at her? No, we had to be devious and enlist George and Ruth's help to make sure that it worked out well in the end."

"Did you know about this?" I asked Kate.

"I had no idea, if I had you wouldn't have even got close to me."

"Would someone please explain what this is all about? I want the whole story, not an edited version."

My mother took up the narrative. "We knew George and Ruth through mutual friends and had seen Kate around at various functions and thought that she would make a suitable wife for you, so we approached them and discussed it with them. We kept a close watch on Kate while George and Ruth kept an eye on you. The more that we saw of the two of you the more that we became convinced that we had made a wise choice. Then your stubborn streak kicked in and you flatly refused to meet her, so we had to come up with another strategy. After you'd refused our offer of employment it was arranged for you to go work for George, and it was no accident that you should have been asked to escort her to that function. George did have to offer her previous boyfriend a large sum of money to dump her, but it was worth it."

Kate looked sharply at her father, hardly believing what she had just heard.

"It all depended on you and Kate getting along. We didn't expect fireworks straight away, but she did agree that you weren't half bad. Then came the fun part, we had to test you and your feelings for her, and to do this George had to make it hard for you by creating the situation where you, both of you, met each other in defiance of his commands. The harder it was for you to meet, the stronger your desire, until you saw the light and realised that you and Kate were really meant for each other. Problem solved."

I looked at my smug parents and then at an equally smug George. "George, can I have a word with you in private?" I didn't wait for his response before I left the library and headed down the hallway to the back door. I stood on the lawn and turned to him. "You lied to me!" I yelled at him. "You lied to scare me off and it almost worked, I almost gave up on Kate and walked away from my future happiness. And now I find out that you didn't want to scare me off at all, it was all a devious scheme to get us together." I was never so angry in my life, how could he do this to me? How could they do this to me? I was confused, I had been manipulated by my parents as well as Kate's. "Did you have to lie to me?"

"No I didn't, because it wasn't a lie, it was a truth half told. Look at this from my perspective, there's a lot at stake here, my daughter's happiness was my priority, and then there is the future of my company to consider. I have no sons and I don't want to have to sell it when I retire, and I certainly don't want some fortune hunter marrying my daughter just to get his hands on it. Third in the order of merit was your happiness, I had to be very sure of your motives, did you, do you love her, or are you one of those fortune hunters who is prepared to marry for money and look elsewhere for love. I had to be certain before I decided what to do next." He held out his hand to me. "Welcome aboard Mark, son, welcome to your new world."