Out of the Mist

"How did I get here? What is going on?"

"All in good time, now that you are out of immediate danger I think you can go home."

"Home? I don't live here, I live in New York."

"We know that my dear, but you came to London to further your studies and home for the next year is in Knightsbridge with friends of your parents. They are outside waiting to take you there now."

A middle aged couple entered the room, he was tall, handsome and well dressed, she was his female equivalent. They made a handsome couple and one that Cassandra could see socialising with her parents.

"Welcome to London Cassandra, I am Sir Timothy Cullen and this is my wife Juliette. You will be staying with us for the next twelve months while you study at the Royal Academy. We hope that you enjoy your stay with us. Now shall we be going?" He signalled to a wards man to pick up Cassandra's bag and another to position a wheel chair beside the bed.

"Here give me your hand Love." The wards man helped her into the chair and wheeled it down the corridor after the disappearing Cullens.

They were whisked down to the basement car park and into a large black Daimler limousine.

The Cullens occupied two floors of an apartment building in Knightsbridge. The limousine entered the under croft car park via a rear lane. They were met by a maid and a porter who helped Cassandra into the wheelchair and into the lift.

The Cullens obviously had a lot of money if the furnishings of this apartment were any indication. It was furnished in Edwardian opulence and on the walls were a series of family portraits painted, obviously, by significant artists of their time.

Cassandra was taken to what was to be her room. It was dominated by a large bed and matching wardrobe and dressing table, there was a comfortable chair in the corner by a window that overlooked the back lane. Cassandra noticed the bars on the window, it felt like she was to spend the next twelve months in prison.

"Why don't you have a rest for a couple of hours, dinner will be served at seven."

Try as she might Cassandra was unable to sleep, her mind was continually trying to remember the past couple of days, but nothing emerged, it was as if she had lost this time, as if a whole section of her life had been effectively erased, and she wanted it back.

By six thirty she had given up on the rest thing and walked down to the kitchen. "Did you have a good rest?" Juliette asked between cutting and dicing.

"Not really, it seems as if I've had enough rest over the last couple of days to last a week. Can I do anything to help."

"All under control, why don't you go into the living room, there might be something on television."

"Hullo there. You must be Cassandra, I've heard so much about you." A young man stood and advanced toward her, he didn't have his hand out to shake, instead he took her in a hug and bestowed a couple of air kisses on her. "I'm Christopher, the son of the family, I'm pleased to meet you."

"Likewise I'm sure." Cassandra looked at Christopher and decided that there was something not quite right about him. She couldn't put her finger on it, he was well dressed in a pin-striped business suit complete with what appeared to be a school tie, his shoes were brightly polished, his hands manicured, his hair impeccably cut and styled. She couldn't fault his appearance at all.

"Would you like a drink?" He asked, moving to the bar. "You name it, we have it."

"Can I have a scotch and dry, no ice."

"Your wish is my command. Do you want to turn on the idiot box and see if there is anything worth watching?"

Cassandra obliged and flicked through the limited channels before settling on a news service. The news reader was a far cry from those she had become accustomed to back in the States, he was stiffly formal and read the good news and the bad with the same lack of expression, probably in fear of being accused of placing his slant on the story.

"I hear that you are staying here for the next twelve months. What are your plans?"

"It appears as if I'm studying at the Royal Academy of Art, I'm a sculptor. What do you do?"

"As little as possible. No that isn't true, I work for an investment bank on their foreign currency desk, basically what that means is that I buy and sell money."

"Do you like that?"

"Yes and no. The money is great but then it is a highly stressed job and the burn-out rate is quite high."

Juliette came into the room. "Dinner is served, we won't wait for Tim, he has been held up at work, he is meeting me at the Opera. Do you like Opera my Dear?"

"Not really, I probably would if I understood Italian."

"We are going to hear Pavarotti in 'Figaro', we hear he is fabulous."

Dinner was pleasant enough, the food was good, the conversation stimulating, the only thing that spoilt it for Cassandra was this nagging feeling in the back of her mind that something wasn't right.

Juliette left shortly before seven forty-five. She was wearing an expensive evening dress, a diamond necklace and matching drop ear-rings, a matching bag and she had a pair of opera glasses in her hand. The very epitome of an opera aficionado.

"We have got ourselves in a mess, haven't we?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't tell me you don't know?"

"I know nothing, I can remember nothing."

"Well Darling, you were shipped over here with enough readies to pay for your visit to a certain clinic where a small growth will be removed, and then you are to enter into a marriage with, Moi."

"What? What are you talking about? Small growth removed, marriage?"

"You have been a very naughty girl and you have found yourself in the family way, preggers Dearie, and you are to have an abortion. Then you and I are to be married so that you can't rush back to the States and marry the father of your unborn child against the wishes of your parents."

"How could they, how could you?"

"Don't look at me Dearie, it isn't my idea. Any marriage between us will be strictly a marriage of convenience, a keeping up of appearances."

"You don't mean?"

"You guessed it in one, clever you. Yes, I bat for the other team, but Mother and Father are none too pleased at that so, when your parents contacted them about your problem and their solution to it, they jumped at the idea. So here we are."

"So, what you are trying to tell me is that my parents had me kidnapped and flown over here to get rid of the unwanted grand-child and to find a suitable husband so that I won't be able to marry..." His name was on the tip of her tongue for several minutes. "Grantley.....Oh Grantley, what have they done to you, what have they done to us? You've got to help me, please."

"What do you want me to do?"

"I have to get back to America and Grantley, can you help?"

"Do you have your passport with you, because if you don't how are you going to get back into the States?"

"I don't know, I guess if I went to the embassy they would issue a temporary passport."

'"Think again my dear, if your olds have enough clout to get you into this country they'll certainly have enough to prevent you from ever getting back into yours. Face it, you're here for the duration."

"In that case here are my conditions. I want to have this baby, there is no way that I'll go ahead and have an abortion. How can we get around that small problem?"

"Let me think now, yeah, this might work, tell me if you don't want to do it and I'll try to think of something else. What say we go ahead with the marriage and then tell our respectives that, because of medical complications you were unable to go through with the abortion and that I will be quite happy to raise the resultant child as my own. You will be able to continue studying for as long as you can before settling down to life in a small cottage in the countryside."

"You would do that for someone who you have only just met, and will never be able to love?"

"Of course I will. I'll also love you, as a sister, never anything else. You will be doing me a huge favour as well. The parents will be off my back about my sexual predilections and we will become a thoroughly respectable couple."

"I'm not sure if it will work. I don't know if I'll be able to fit into your world."

"Look, many of my friends are artists so you will have that in common and believe me you will have half a dozen surrogate mothers who will absolutely adore this child. I know I will."

"You have to understand that I'm very much in love with Grantley and if you ever get any ideas of the sexual variety you can forget them. I will never be able to love you in that way. Apart from that, you make it sound so perfect. Let's do it. But I have to try and get word to Grantley and let him know that I'm safe and well, and he doesn't even know about this baby, I should at least tell him about it, maybe he can come over here."

Ten days after this conversation a letter was returned to Cassandra in London marked 'No longer at this address'.

Chapter 5: Another Beginning.

It was a quiet wedding, or at least part of it was a quiet wedding, immediate family only, Registry Office, small notice in the Times, that sort of thing. But it didn't end that way. Christopher's friends all wanted to be bridesmaids and there was hell to pay until Cassandra made an arbitrary decision that there would be no attendants at the wedding ceremony itself, or the small family reception that followed it, but at the private friends only celebration afterwards they could all be bridesmaids.

The Pink Pearl Club that was their regular haunt was booked out for the occasion and it was an absolute hoot, everyone said so. The bridesmaids all wore very elegant evening dresses that made Cassandra envious because they carried it off so well. Admittedly their makeup was a little overdone but not out of place, sort of a cross between Royal Ascot and theatrical, but applied beautifully. Cassandra overheard a few bitchy comments such as, 'would you look at her, red is so not her colour' or 'haven't the hormones improved her boobs', but there was never anything that was likely to cause trouble.

The champagne flowed freely, Cassandra sat on one glass all evening, she may have been tempted to have a second, but the 'girls' kept a close eye on her, there was no way the baby's health was going to be jeopardised if they had any say in it. They danced, they drank and during the evening a band of transvestite musicians came in and played for them.

It was the early hours of the morning before a taxi dropped Christopher and Cassandra off outside their apartment.

Later that day they left for their honeymoon in Paris. Cassandra had broken the news about her lack of success with the planned abortion. The news was not well received but the 'respectives' were somewhat mollified by the news that Christopher was prepared to accept and raise the child as his own.

Christopher couldn't have been a more perfect expectant father, he fussed over Cassandra, bought absolute heaps of baby clothes, dolls and baby furniture. He attended the pre-natal classes with her and became a dab hand at nappy changes and bathing. Cassandra was planning to breast feed for as long as possible so that was one area where he was not able to help, although he did suggest that, if she were to express some milk during the day he would get up for the night feeds so that she could get a good night's sleep.

Felicity arrived on time and without drama. Cassandra was in labour just long enough for the 'girls' to assemble and descend en masse on the maternity hospital where they caused a great deal of confusion. The staff were barely able to control the onslaught of strangely dressed men all claiming to be the aunt of the new arrival, but they took it all in great spirit, deciding that this sort of thing would only happen once in their lifetime.

Taking Felicity home from the hospital should have been a joyous occasion but the joy was overshadowed by an undercurrent of animosity. Cassandra's parents came over from New York hoping to repair the lost relationship with their daughter but, try as they might, lavish as many gifts as they could, plead as often as they did, Cassandra was in no mood to forgive them for the interference in her life, the sadness that interference brought into her life, and the hurt that it brought down on Grantley, and she was not backward in letting them know it. "What makes you think that you can merely waltz over here loaded to the gunwales with largesse and expect me to forgive you for what you have done to me, what you have done to Grantley, wherever he is and I don't even know if he is all right or even alive, and what you wanted me to do to Felicity. As far as I am concerned, you have forfeited the right to be my parents and Felicity's grand-parents."

"But we were only doing what we thought was in your best interests." Sabrina spoke softly and placed her hand on Cassandra's arm, a conciliatory move she thought would bring her daughter around.

"You didn't really know me and you had absolutely no idea what was in my best interest! All that you were concerned about was your own reputations, how it would look to your circle of friends if they found out that your daughter had actually shown enough interest in another person to fall in love and want to have a child, more than one child, by that person who had the misfortune to have been born with a plastic spoon in his mouth." This was the first in several conversations that formed a circular argument with no concession and no resolution.

She tried, on several occasions, to extract information from them as to what had happened to Grantley, only to be told, in no uncertain terms, that she should forget all about him and concentrate on making a perfect life for Felicity, and to being a good wife for Christopher, who they praised at every opportunity. The relationship remained strained, it became even more so when her father announced that he would set up a trust fund in Felicity's name as well as endow Cassandra with an annual income that would encourage her to forget about her artistic ambitions. Cassandra refused the offer. "You don't get it do you? You have broken the law! You kidnapped me and shipped me against my will over here where you had arranged for me to break the law in seeking to terminate my pregnancy and if I could prove any of this do you think that I wouldn't got to the police? You gave no thought whatever to what was in my best interests. You gave no thought to what I wanted for my life, my future. You gave no thought to what Grantley wanted for our future. All that you were interested in was protecting your precious image and now you expect me to forgive you. Well I've got news for you, there is as much likelihood of me forgiving you as there is me flying to the moon. I no longer want you in my life!"

"Cassie." Stephen motioned for her to follow him into the next room. "Cassie, believe me I knew nothing of this until it was too late but I couldn't do anything about it, your mother had made her mind up that it was best for you and you know what your mother's like, once she makes her mind up nothing will change it. I want to help you, I truly do, but my hands are tied."

As they left his family's home Christopher felt that he needed to calm Cassandra down, she was seething with anger. "How would you like a spin in the country?"

"Anything to take my mind off my parents I'm angry with my mother for what she has done and angry with my father because he's too weak to do anything about it. I feel so down at the moment, I tried to feed Felicity just before we left but I was so tense that nothing happened. She was able to feed beautifully in hospital but, suck as she might she got nothing and all that I got out of it was sore nipples."

They drove for some time before turning off the motorway and driving into a small village that consisted of a pub, a general store cum Post Office and a dozen or so small cottages. "Wow, this is amazing!" Cassandra exclaimed. "I thought places like this existed only in picture postcards."

Christopher stopped his car outside one of the cottages. "Come, let's have a look."

"Won't there be people in there?"

"Not at the moment.' He took a key from his pocket and opened the door.

Cassandra walked in and looked around the room. "Are you sure that the owners won't mind us being here?"

"Not in the least. Welcome to your new home."

"What! When did you buy this?"

"A couple of weeks ago. I felt that we needed somewhere peaceful for Felicity to grow up, and for you to get back into your sculpting. Follow me." He led the way through the kitchen into the back garden. At the far end was a large wooden shed and, taking another key from his pocket he opened the door and ushered her inside. It was set up as an artist's studio.

"I don't know what to say, this is amazing." Cassandra, for the first time planted a spontaneous kiss on Christopher's lips.

A week and several trips later they had fully moved into their new home and Christopher had explored the wonders of the rail system and discovered that it took him less time to commute into the city than it did to drive from their home in the city, and he didn't have the worry of parking his car and fighting his way through peak hour traffic.

Life should have been perfect, but it wasn't. Somewhere in the back of her mind Grantley hovered, she couldn't find out what had happened to him. A letter from his agent, Huw told her in no uncertain terms that any attempt to contact him would be contra-indicated, and that no mail from her would be forwarded, ever.

The three of them settled into country life. Christopher was able to commute to the city by train that took him to within a hundred yards of his office and delivered him home again in time for a relaxing drink before dinner.

Cassandra walked into the general store with Felicity in her pram. "What a beautiful baby." Mrs Sturridge the shop keeper clucked, "We haven't seen you here before, you're new then." She walked from behind the counter and knelt in front of the pram to get a closer look at Felicity, "A little girl is it?"

"Yes, her name is Felicity and I'm Cassandra Cullen, we just moved into the old Thompson place a week ago. It has taken a little while to get everything sorted, so I guess that you could say that our new life starts as of today. I need some groceries."

"Cassandra, that's a beautiful name and it suits you. There has been a rumour that a handsome couple with a wee infant have just moved into the area, I'm Mary Sturridge, I'm very pleased to meet you. We were wondering when you would come in, we've seen your husband heading for the train each morning, something in the City is he?"

"Yes he's a Financier. He getting used to the commute into the city each day, he says it takes less time to get to the office than it did when we lived in the city."

"You're an American aren't you."

'The accent gave me away didn't it, and here I was hoping to blend in around here. Yes I was raised in New York and I must tell you this place is somewhat different and will take some getting used to."

"A word to the wise, don't be a stranger around here or you'll always be a stranger. There is plenty to get involved in around here, there's a garden club that will help you get the garden back in order at your place, there's a cooking group that will introduce you to the pleasures of the local cuisine, there's even an art group if you can call it that, I think a lot of what they produce is rubbish but they keep telling me that I'm no expert."

"An art group, that's interesting."

"You're interested in art then, are you a painter?"

"No, I studied art in the States, mainly sculpting. I might just take it up again, this art group, do they sculpt?"

"They claim that they do but I wouldn't give tuppence for the rubbish they make."