‘So you see,’ Christina said, ‘you are no different from your family, Howard.’

She turned to look at him and he would not forget the tragic expression on her face. Or the dignity of her stance, silhouetted against the window in her simple black dress, as she said the words that set the seal on Ben’s future.

‘You have given me much happiness and a child, and I thank you for that. But you will have to accept that your son will be raised where his father could never bring himself to live.’

Chapter Five

Sarah Sandberg’s ‘almonds and raisins of life’ had been known to present themselves side by side, and so it was now for the family. While they feared for little Ben’s future, Laura’s wedding was being planned.

Shirley was compiling a guest list on the evening Marianne and Howard returned from Munich – empty-handed, as Howard’s father irately put it.

It was at Shirley’s penthouse that Howard delivered his news, since his parents, together with Leona and Nathan, had been called in to help her.

‘A relative is a relative!’ Harry was declaiming when the doorbell chimed and Leona went to answer it. ‘No matter how distant, or what they did to you years ago.’

‘You sound like our late grandmother,’ Shirley informed him, ‘but even she might have thought me entitled not to invite a fifth cousin who sided with Peter when I got my divorce. And by the way, I’m not inviting Peter.’

Nathan said on behalf of all present, ‘You can’t do that to Laura.’

‘It’s me who’s paying for the reception.’

Marianne entered in time to hear that typically Shirley statement and paused with Howard on the room’s upper level, feeling as always on the rare occasions she came here that this could be a Hollywood film set and Shirley playing Bette Davis in her heyday.

Leona, who had returned to the table around which the others were seated, coughed to command their attention.

Harry turned and saw his sister and his son, took in their expressions, and gave Howard a piece of his mind that caused him to pale.

‘Your going to Munich was a waste of the plane fare,’ Shirley capped it.

‘Is there nothing,’ said Marianne, ‘that you don’t see in terms of money?’

‘Who do you think you’re talking to?’ Shirley retorted. ‘And in my own home!’

Marianne replied, ‘I shan’t stay a moment longer than necessary, Shirley, lest I throw up on your expensive white carpet. If you’d like that in plain English, I have never found you more sickening than I do right now. Nor would I be here if Harry and Ann had been at home when we rang them from the airport. We then rang Uncle Nat’s and Bridie told us—’

‘Save your boring explanation for someone who’s interested!’ Shirley cut in. ‘I’m not.’