Peaceful Easy Feelin’

"You think?" I asked.

"I'm pretty sure; perhaps a child counsellor or something might be a good idea," Tracy suggested.

"Thank you for telling me Tracy. I have to admit that I hadn't really noticed. Maybe I'm too close, what with my own pain as well. I thought the girls were taking the marriage break-up pretty well."

"I think that they are really. It's possible that Sheryl has placed all the blame on her mother's shoulders. Which, if you think about it, is where it should be placed. But if she's ever going to return to the reasonable relationship that you say you'd like her to have with her mother, then Sheryl is going to have to start to forgive her sometime."

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The headmistress at the girls' school put me in touch with a nice woman and we arranged for Sheryl and Annette to have a few sessions with her during the school lunch hours. I thought it wouldn't hurt for Annette to see her as well. A week or so later the woman called me in for a chat.

"Both children have taken the recent turmoil in their home lives extremely well in my opinion, Mr Moore. And up to a point, you are right about Sheryl's animosity towards her mother. But I'm pretty convinced that Sheryl will get over that eventually and forgive her mother in the long term. But, I must add, Sheryl is very disappointed in her mother and I doubt that she will ever forget what her mother did and what Sheryl thinks she was planning to do if you hadn't reacted first."

"I just hoped that the girls could have a reasonable relationship with their mother. I believe that they need her in their lives in the long term."

"You were hoping that they would not blame their mother for the marriage break-up. Well, Mr Moore, it appears that Sheryl had worked out that her mother was having an affair with this man well before your wife left home. She also suspected that her mother had intended taking her and Annette with them when she moved in with this man friend of hers. Now Sheryl really does hate him."

"She's not the only one," I commented.

"I can understand your feelings there, Mr Moore. Anyway, before everything came to a head Sheryl had been agonising about what to do about the situation for sometime. She was trying to summon up enough courage to tell you what she thought was going on, when you found out by other means. Because of those other means, Sheryl believes that she failed you by not telling you sooner; that has caused her a lot of anguish and put her under a lot of mental strain."

"I've looked at her books here and spoken to her teachers; her school work had really suffered in the weeks leading up to your break-up. They stayed pretty poor for some months afterwards; both of your daughters' studies went seriously downhill for a while. Then suddenly, about eight weeks ago, they both suddenly seemed to start getting her act together again and pulled their socks up."

"Aunt Gilda," I said absent-mindedly.

"Sorry?"

"Oh, the girls and I met an old lady about two months ago. She took a great interest in the girls and spent a lot of time talking to them. I've noticed that they were more diligent about their school homework after she'd spoken to them, and seem to be a lot more helpful around the house as well."

"It appears that Aunt Gilda has been a good influence on both your daughters."

"Yes, I'd say she has as well, much to my surprise. She's a real dragon; she scared the life out of me the first time that I met her. But she's obviously brilliant with children. They've only seen her a couple of times, but she always finds the time to speak to them individually."

"I believe that the lady is a good influence on your girls. You should encourage the relationship as much as you can. But may I ask you, if it's not too personal a question, who is this Sonya? Sheryl appears to be quite attached to her as well."

"That possibly has more to do with Tadpole than anything else; Sonya is his mother. Sheryl and Tadpole have become very close friends; if they were a few years older, I would have said too close, if you understand me. And by the way, Sonya's the wife of the new man in my wife's life."

"Oh, dear, I apologise. Lady Sonya Springfield, of course. I didn't realise who your wife's er... new friend was."

"Yes, my wife is shacked up with Seymour Springfield now," I confirmed.

'Yeah,' I thought to myself, 'you've drooled over gossip in the newspapers like everyone else.'

"Well, Mr Moore, I do believe that Sheryl is more disappointed in her mother's behaviour than anything else. She always has had a great attachment to you, and she feels guilty about not approaching you with her suspicions about what her mother was getting up to. She has also become attached to Lady Sonya and her son and she's probably blaming her mother for breaking that family up as well. However she does still love her mother so given time I do believe that she will forgive her."

"I can't see that Annette has any problems to worry about. She loves her mother and misses her being at home. But she is really enjoying the extra time that you are spending with her nowadays. She thinks that you're more fun than her mother and enjoys helping you with the cooking."

"Yeah, she's a little whiz in the kitchen."

"Well, I'll continue to see them about once every few weeks during the school terms, unless something changes. But I don't think you've got anything to worry about in the long term. Give them both time to get used to the quite drastic change in their home life and keep on encouraging their mother's visits.

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The following Sunday Aunt Gilda was at Sonya's house again, and as was her usual want, spent some time during the morning talking with both of my daughters. Not that I took any particular notice at the time because Uncle Theo had dragged me outside into the grounds where he had set about teaching me how to shoot. Clays that is; I had never handled a gun in my life before.

I don't think I hit more than one of them before Dominic came out to tell us that lunch was being served. Uncle Theo thought Tadpole was a silly name for a young man and refused to use it; I had agreed with him but didn't think it was my place to interfere. At that time Uncle Theo was the only person that I ever heard refer to Dominic by any other name except Tadpole.

It was well after lunch and I think I was going up to one of the bedrooms to change into my swimming trunks when I heard,

"Mr Moore, I'd like a private word with you if I may, young man. Will you join me in the library for a cup of tea?" Aunt Gilda's voice boomed out from the library as I headed for the massive staircase.

I didn't know why I looked at Sonya who happened to be in the hall at the same time. But the look she gave told me that she had no idea what Aunt Gilda wanted to speak to me about. I must have looked a little nervous - that was the effect that Aunt Gilda had on most adults - and I noted that Sonya changed the direction that she was heading in, so that we arrived at the library door at the same time.

"I have some things that I wish to discuss with Frank in private, Sonya. Please make sure that we are not disturbed." Aunt Gilda dismissed Sonya with those few words.

I followed Aunt Gilda into the library where she directed me to a specific chair with a wave of her walking stick. She took a seat on the opposite side of a small table. I, of course, waited until she'd seated herself before sitting myself.

No sooner were we seated when one of Sonya's house staff came in carrying a tea tray. He placed it on the table between us and left again, after receiving a, "Thank you, Grant," from Aunt Gilda whom he addressed as Milady.

"Now, Frank, what's all this nonsense I hear about you having 'my girls' seen by a trick cyclist?" she asked.

I immediately noted that she referred to my daughters as 'her girls'; I took it as an affectionate term.

"They've had a lot of upheaval in their lives recently and I was worried about how Sheryl was handling it. She's apparently been very hostile towards her mother," I replied.

I suppose I could have been annoyed at Aunt Gilda's interference, but there was something about the woman. Dragon she might be, but I immediately knew that she had the girls' best interests at heart. I also had her taped as a very intelligent woman.

"Well, that's not very surprising, is it? Her mother probably made the worst decision of her life when she took up with Seymour. I always knew he was a complete scoundrel and so did Sonya's father. But then youngsters will be so headstrong on occasions.

"Sheryl's just fine, young man. She'll get over her anger eventually, don't worry. Children are pretty resilient, you know."

"Yes, that's virtually what the counsellor told me," I replied.

"There see, if you had spoken to me first, you could have saved yourself some money."

I didn't bother to mention to Aunt Gilda that the girls' school had supplied the counsellor.

Whilst we'd been talking she had poured the tea and at that point she handed the dainty little cup to me. Then she sat back in her chair and fixed me with one of those looks of hers.

"Now tell me, what are your intentions towards my niece?" she asked.

"Sorry, my intentions towards who?" I replied.

"Sonya, young man. You're here every weekend. I would like to know what your long term intentions towards my niece are. She's made one big mistake in her life; I'd like to ensure that she doesn't make another."

"Gilda, I bring the children over here on Sundays so that they can play together with Sonya's children. They all seem to have become great friends. Especially Sheryl and Dominic."

"And that's the only reason that you visit here every Sunday?"

"Yes. What other reason could there be? Both Sonya's and my children have effectively lost one parent. They are all in the same boat so Sonya suggested that they would... I don't know, commiserate with each other. Sonya brings her three to my house on Saturdays, and I bring the girls here on Sundays."

What I can only call a knowing smile came over Gilda's face. "How much like her mother that girl has grown to become?" she mused quietly to herself.

"Sorry," I said, not really understanding the relevance of what Gilda had said to the conversation.

"Oh its nothing important. Now, the other thing that I wanted to talk to you about is this trip you are all taking out to the Villa. Sonya is a little concerned about whether you can afford the airfare."

"Well, it is a concern to me, but I think I can afford it all right, thank you."

"Frank, you... I mean, your family's presence has been good for Sonya. She's not as tough as she likes to act sometimes, you know. Please don't be offended, but if you need assistance with the airfares just ask me. I'm a very rich woman and I really haven't got much to spend it on any more. I love Sonya's children, but your two have taken my heart as well. I'd hate to see them miss out on anything for the sake of a few pounds."

"Thank you for the offer, Gilda, but I'm fine financially, thank you. I have to be a little prudent, but we'll muddle through."

I'm not sure whether I was annoyed or not about the old lady's offer of financial assistance, but as it appeared that she was more interested in the girls' welfare than mine, I chose not to be.

Gilda and I chatted on about how well the children were getting together for a while and then she suggested that I should get back to enjoying the afternoon with the children. All the time we talked Aunt Gilda had this strange - what I can only describe as knowing - smile on her face. After that interview that smile nearly always came on her face when she looked at me. It appeared to be a private expression that she reserved for me personally.

"What was that all about?" Sonya asked in a quiet moment after I'd returned to the pool.

"I haven't got the foggiest idea; I think Aunt Gilda just wanted a quiet chat about my children." I replied; for some reason I didn't want to go into the details of my conversation with Aunt Gilda with Sonya. Possibly because Aunt Gilda had mentioned Sonya.

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It was during the week before Susan and John's wedding that I decided to drop the bomb about our holiday to the Caribbean on Jean. I had noticed that the girls hadn't actually told Jean where we were going.

Oh, after Tracy told me about Sheryl's hostility towards her mother, I'd wired the lounge with a microphone hooked up to an old reel-to-reel tape-recorder hidden in my bedroom, one that I'd had since I was a kid. I would skim through the recording after the children were asleep, just to be nosy.

Several times I'd heard Jean mention the fact that she was going on a cruise, so she wouldn't be able to visit the children in the later part of June and for most of July.

"Well, daddy's taking us away for the summer holidays anyway," Annette had always replied, without actually saying where we were supposed to be going. I gathered that Sheryl must have sworn her little sister to secrecy on that subject.

Several times Jean had mentioned that a cruise on a big ship was going to be much better than spending a couple of weeks in a caravan in Paignton, and she had tried to talk the girls into working on me, to allow her to take them with her on the cruise.

The caravan holiday in Paignton had been Jean's idea of the perfect holiday location for children, by the way. It had been the place her parents had always taken her as a child and she had insisted that we holidayed at that same caravan site every year. Jean had rejected my suggestions of going elsewhere and positively refused to venture out of the country with the girls in the past.

She must have assumed that I was going to take the girls to Paignton yet again. So she got one hell of a shock when she saw Tracy - on cue - pick up the girls' passports that I'd left strategically placed on the coffee table in the lounge before she arrived.

"Why do you need passports?" Jean asked the girls.

"Don't be silly. We need them before we can get on the aeroplane, mummy," Annette replied.

Somehow Sheryl had worked out that this was the day that I was intending to tell her mother that we were going to the Caribbean, and she didn't dive in and silence her sister.

"Where are you going in an aeroplane?" Jean had demanded.

"Daddy's taking us out to the Caribbean with some friends of his," Sheryl had replied, with what I thought was more than a little trace of triumph in her voice.

"We are going to stay in a big house with its own swimming pool and everything, just like Tadpole's house has, but it's outdoors. We have to be careful of the sun and Tadpole is going to teach us how to sail and swim with a snorkel thing so we can see the fish on the reef," Annette added, apparently not wanting to be outdone by her older sister.

Jean had gone strangely silent for a few moments after that. Tracy, who was in the room with them - as she always was during Jean's visits - told later me that she looked like she'd been hit by a bus. We thought that Jean suddenly realised who the children and I were going away with and exactly where to.

"I need to speak to my husband," Jean suddenly said to Tracy. "Where is he?"

"If by that you mean your ex-husband, Mrs Moore, I think you might find him in the kitchen or out in his workshop."

That's when Jean burst into the kitchen and found me playing with the rather ancient video camera I purchased second-hand a few years before.

"The girls tell me that you're taking them to the Caribbean," she said as if I was taking them into a dangerous war zone.

"Yes, we've been invited by a friend to spend a few weeks at a villa out there."

"And when did you intend to let me in on the secret? You are breaking your promise already. How can I visit them if they are out there?" she demanded.

There was a tone of triumph in Jean's voice as if she'd caught me out for a change. I looked up at her from the camera, very slowly.

"So tell me, what was your plan, Jean? Were you intending getting off of your luxury cruise liner a couple of days a week and flying back home to see the girls? Or is it that you can have a holiday abroad but they can't? Or is it that you just don't like the idea of me going somewhere nice for a change?"

"Well, no, but the Caribbean, there's sharks and things out there. I don't want my children getting hurt."

"I can assure you that they won't get eaten by sharks, Jean."

"They could have come with me on the cruise. I'm sure it would have been much safer!"

"Possibly they could, if you weren't going with that arsehole. He's more dangerous to them than any of the sharks out in the Caribbean. But even if he wasn't going I think you'd find that the girls would much prefer to go with their friends."

"What friends?"

"Super stud's children, Annette and Sheryl, have gotten so tight with them, they are like siblings now. Don't look so surprised, Jean. They have a lot in common - they've all had one parent walk out on them."

"I didn't walk out. You threw me out of the house, remember?"

"I just got in first, Jean. Don't think I don't know that you were planning on dumping me and shacking up with golden bollocks well before I was even aware that you were playing his whore. You had every intention of taking my children from me and don't try to deny it!"

I think I was sounding rather annoyed; Jean must have decided that discretion was the better part of valour and dropped the argument.

"When are you going exactly?" she asked.

"Sunday morning. We are all meeting at the airport. Are you coming to see the children off and wish them a happy holiday? I know that super stud is going to be there to see his children off."

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"Oh, I loved Jean's facial expression. She really didn't know what to say, did she?" Susan said, as she watched the video I'd surreptitiously made of my little confrontation with Jean that evening. We were in one of the many bedrooms of Sonya's mansion, where Susan was getting dressed for her wedding ceremony that was to be held in the house's private chapel. I was showing Susan the tape whilst we waited until Susan considered that she was just late enough to get John worried.

"No, it's not often that Jean is at a loss for words, but she certainly didn't know what to say when the news finally sank in." I grinned back at her.

"I wonder what she'll make of..." Susan began, but then she suddenly changed her mind about what she was saying and stopped speaking.

"Make of what?" I asked.

I know my sister and the expression on her face told me that she was thinking about something for a few seconds before she went on.

"Oh, you know. Sonya is planning on trying to give Seymour the idea that you two have something going between you. I was wondering what Jean will make of it?"

"Probably nothing. Lady Sonya Springfield and me, getting it on together! Come off it, Susan, you'd have to be bloody daft to ever think that's going to really happen. Jean might be stupid sometimes, but she can't be that stupid."

"What's so daft about you and Sonya getting together or even just having a fling?"

"Susan, we're talking one upper class woman here; so Sonya lets our children play together to keep her own kids happy. That doesn't mean she wants to slum it romantically with the likes of me."

"What's wrong with you? You've got more class in your little finger than Seymour Springfield has ever had in his whole damned body. Just because Jean couldn't see that doesn't mean to say that Sonya can't."

"Susan, you've got to understand these titled folk. Oh, they love to pretend that they believe that everyone is equal. That's all right until they think that us hoi pollois are getting ideas above our station, then... well, they slap you down without a second thought."