Billie lay in bed talking to her mum and dad. Imelda’s party had gone on longer than anyone had anticipated. Following Henry’s revelation there had been astonishment, congratulations, explanations, tears, laughter and hours of storytelling about their time at Larkins. Imelda had broken the news to Billie the night before, but they had agreed that Jeanie should be the one to tell Henry. It was now a little after 2 a.m. and Henry was asleep in the guest room having drunk far too much champagne to be trusted to get home safe and sound.

‘Remember what happened last time you were this drunk?’ Jeanie had teased him. ‘We need to put you to bed – alone – and lock the door for your own safety!’

‘You’d really like him,’ Billie said. ‘He’s kind and funny. He plays the piano at St Pancras and he’s a John Betjeman enthusiast. He didn’t know anything about me! He only slept with Lady L once, back when she was plain old Vivienne. It sounds as though he was really drunk and she seduced him – he was younger than her.’ Billie paused for a moment, realising that this probably wasn’t creating the impression of her birth father that she was aiming for. ‘He’s got three rescue chickens called Hilda Ogden, Minnie Caldwell and Ena Sharples,’ she added, hoping to redress the balance in Henry’s favour. ‘And yes, Dad, I know he was married to a man and that’s probably a bit tricky for you to understand but trust me, you two would have got on like a house on fire.’ And then the thought suddenly struck her that the three of them could all have been in St Pancras at the same time. She could have been there with one dad whilst the other was playing the piano. They may have even stopped to listen to him for a while. Billie gazed out through the open curtains at the moon. Imelda had told her that its meaning in the tarot pack was a daughter or someone a little crazy. Billie felt like both of those right now. But in a good way. She had been horrified to discover that Imelda and Cillian had been so in love and about the baby they had lost, but only because she had been so insensitive about wanting Cillian to be her father, and she now realised how much that must have hurt Imelda. She considered herself very lucky to have Henry – who was not only a complete sweetheart, but also still alive! And as for Lady L – that damn magazine had been ceremoniously dumped in the bin once and for all.

Chapter 58

Chapter 58

Now