Tom and Luke Get a Family Pt. 05

Ombra mai fu

di vegetabile

Cara ed amabile

Soave piu

He then asked Giovanni to sing it, and he did so, word-and note-perfect again. Luke got very excited. "He's incredibly musical!" he exclaimed. "Much more than I was as a child. He must have got it from his unknown father." He asked Pauline what was the best way to encourage Giovanni's musical talent. "He needs to go to a music school, I would have thought, but I don't know anything about Italian music education," she said. Luke decided to consult Cornelio.

Cornelio said that Giovanni was too young for a choir school and advised the men to find a singing teacher for him. Signora Bruschetti, Tom's piano teacher and music adviser was consulted, and she told Tom of a lady who gave private singing lessons for children. Tom rang her and an appointment was made for an audition with Giovanni. He expected the boy to be anxious and reluctant, but to Tom's surprise Giovanni was keen and excited. First he sang Ombra mai fu and then a piece that the singing teacher, Signora Rampelloni, played for him. He could not of course read music, and he struggled to read the words, but she wrote them on a blackboard in large letters, and he then managed very well. "I've not taught many children to sing who can't yet read properly," she said, "but this boy has such a good voice that the sooner he starts lessons, the better! We can use solfeggio for him to learn the notes. There are a lot fewer symbols to remember than text letters. He can learn stave notation in a couple of years' time." The lessons began just before Giovanni started school.

Chapter XLVI Exciting news

One day in June Luke came home at lunchtime in a state of great excitement. "I've just received this E-mail," he said, and opened his iPad. The E-mail was from Jon, and had an attachment, which was a scan of a report in a newspaper. He read it out:

Among today's Royal Birthday Honours was a knighthood for David Singleton-Scarborough, University Lecturer in Music at Camford, for services to music. Dr Singleton-Scarborough is a distinguished tenor, who took a teaching appointment at Camford after retiring from the operatic stage. He is also an honorary Professor of Singing at the Royal Academy of Music and is recognized as a prominent member of the homosexual community.

Both the men immediately got their tablets out and sent E-mails of congratulation to David. "I wonder who will be chosen by him to go with him and Jon to the Palace when he is knighted," Luke said. He rang his mother at once to tell her of her brother's honour. She was thrilled. When Tom resumed work in the lab at 4 pm, he went to Arturo's office. "My father-in-law has just been honoured by the British Crown with a knighthood for services to music! But I prefer to think of his contribution to raising the public profile of the British gay community. We don't know yet who will accompany him to Buckingham Palace for the ceremony of knighthood or when it will be, but we will have to go to England to join in the celebrations. Did you know that he has a Ph.D. in chemistry that he got before he became a singer? Science's loss was music's gain!"

"Felicitazioni, Tom," said Arturo, "he would never have got a royal honour as a chemist!"

"No, but he got one as a gay, which is much more important!"

Chapter XLVII The wedding at Getheringthwaite

Spring became summer and the time of Lord Michael Ovenden's wedding drew near. It would have been unfair for the men to have gone alone, leaving the children at home with Olivia, so they got organized for a big expedition. Because of the size and age-range of the family, it was impossible for them to stay in an hotel, so they were allocated three bedrooms in Getheringthwaite Hall, thereby relegating Sandro and Dom and the twins to the Ovenden Arms in Getheringthwaite village. Dom said that he didn't mind staying there, as his brother owned the pub anyway! Apart from the bride's and groom's families, only a few guests were from the south, and the majority of the guests made their own accommodation arrangements. Not only was Dom best man, Anne and Jane were to be bridesmaids in addition to the bride's sister. They were now in their teens and had fortunately not yet reached the age at which teen girls are at their most tiresome, and they were looking forward to the event with enthusiasm.

Michael had met Susan while they were both students. The future Lady Michael Ovenden was a lively, but not unduly career-minded girl, who was actually looking forward to a life in the country that did not involve going out to work. She spent a lot of time with dogs and horses, and was looking forward to spending more time in the open air. In short, it was difficult to imagine a person more different in upbringing and outlook than the people in whose circles Dom and Sandro and Tom and Luke were accustomed to move. She had never been to a classical music concert or the opera, she rarely went to the cinema or theatre. Her teens had been occupied with horses, dogs and her younger brothers and sister, and only extensive coaching had got her into Saint Andrew's University in Scotland. She was, however, very sweet natured, kind and thoughtful, and would obviously make a good mother. Sandro had met her on a number of occasions and got on very well with her. In spite of her unsophisticated background, she was not prejudiced against gays. She had no interest in dictating what happened in the kitchen, so Mrs Harrison continued happily as housekeeper and cook, and was very glad that the change in occupancy of the Hall had taken place so smoothly. Additional kitchen and housemaid staff was hired for her. Lord Michael was very disinclined to make any changes and Susan was happy to go along with that.

Robert, the late Marquess's boyfriend and ex-chauffeur, had taken retirement on the death of his lover and had moved into a house on the estate which was his, rent-free for life. The first thing that Dom and Sandro did on arrival for the wedding was to pay Robert a visit, mainly to make sure that he had managed to recover from the loss of his lifelong love. They found that he was showing traditional military emotional fortitude. After all, as he said, we all have to die sometime. Dom said to him, "Robert if at any time you have any problems, please get in touch with me at once, and if you need a break, you are welcome to come and stay with us at Womble. We gays must look after one another."

"Thank you very much," was Robert's reply, "I'll take advantage of that offer, next summer, if it's not inconvenient."

The three Italian children were thrilled with Getheringthwaite Hall. They found the size and age of the house awe-inspiring. When they went into the Portrait Gallery, they admired the painting of their two uncles holding hands. Equally exciting were the grounds, which excelled Chatsworth or Castle Howard in their beauty, if not their size. The gardens in the vicinity of the house were only available to fee-paying visitors at weekends, but the public had free access to the rest of the park. The total lack of any vending points for food and drink kept the park relatively free from rubbish and litter.

There were no other members of the Singleton-Scarborough extended family at the wedding, which was attended mainly by members of the Ovenden family and the families of Lady Wakefield and Susan's parents and grandparents. The children on this visit had finally grasped that if they wished to be understood, they had to speak English. Only little Caterina got confused, and repeatedly tried to speak Italian, each time being told by her brothers to speak English. "Parla Inglese!" they kept telling her.

The chapel held about seventy people, and was almost full for the service. As always for family events of the Ovendens, dress was formal. The men all wore morning dress. The two little girls wore yellow bridesmaid's dresses, full length. Olivia's three children did not wear adult-style clothes. The boys wore navy-blue suits with short trousers, Caterina a little green frilly dress. The service, under special licence, was conducted by the vicar of Getheringthwaite, whom Michael had appointed Chaplain, an office that had lapsed many years earlier, but now was revived. Michael had decided not to apply for a licence to open the hall or chapel for public use as a wedding venue, he felt that the Hall was a family home and he wanted to keep it that way. The public were allowed to visit the house and chapel (for a fee) four times a year, usually over Bank Holidays. The admission income paid for the public facilities.

For the formal meal after the service, which everyone agreed was too much for Mrs Harrison to cater for, a firm of caterers from Shedley had been called in and had produced an excellent meal with many traditional items of Yorkshire fare on the menu. The children, of whom there were nearly a dozen, had their own table in a room adjacent to the state dining-room, where they were kept an eye on by Mrs Harrison and Lady Wakefield, but where they could enjoy themselves with a reasonable amount of noise. Anne and Jane took care of Caterina, and made sure that she ate the food that they had cut up for her.

There was a minimal number of speeches, one welcoming the guests from Lord Wakefield, one thanking them from Michael, and one from Dom thanking the bridesmaids, who were called in from the other room for the occasion. The bride and groom then left for their honeymoon in Cyprus, and after an hour's break for allowing the overnight guests to change, there was a relaxed evening of drinking and dancing for those who were so inclined. Dom, who didn't mind dancing, danced with Olivia a couple of times. The other gay men sat and talked and drank Prosecco. As both Sandro and Luke hated dancing, they felt that there was no need to embarrass the other guests by stepping on to the dance floor!

Dom introduced Olivia to Robert. To everyone's surprise, the two got into a deep conversation. Robert had the easy and relaxed approach of the ex-soldier, and managed to overcome Olivia's diffidence at speaking English. The children were amazed to hear their mother chattering away quite confidently in English. They suddenly realized that they would not be able to use speaking English among themselves as a way of concealing things from their mother!

After most of the other guests had left, the two gay families stayed on for a few days, because Dom had promised his brother that they would supervise the tidying up of the house. They had a wonderful few days taking the children out over the estate, and equally wonderful nights when after the children had gone to bed, Tom and Luke could enjoy a fuck together. Without the preoccupations of work (Carlo was now writing his thesis, Ben was looking after Roberto and the opera house was closed for the summer break), the men were totally relaxed and able to make love as leisurely as they had as students. Olivia was not forgotten. She also had no housekeeping concerns, and she took turns to sleep with Tom or Luke. Every morning, little Caterina, who shared a room with one parent, had to look to see whether it was Mum, Dad or Pappa sleeping in the other bed!

TO BE CONTINUED