The Storm Sister (The Seven Sisters #2) (72 page)

‘No, neither do I. Especially after what you told me yesterday.’

We both sat in silence for a while.

‘My God, Ally, it really is the most incredible find,’ Thom said, finally recovering his powers of speech. ‘I mean, not just because of the emotional connotations, but also the
fact that it was originally due to be premiered by the Bergen Philharmonic almost seventy years ago. And because of everything I’ve told you, it never saw the light of day again.’

‘And Pip had dedicated it to Karine . . . his “hero” . . .’ I bit my lip as tears sprang to my eyes. The resonance in my own life wasn’t lost on me.

I thought how they’d both been young too, just beginning their lives, when fate had cruelly intervened. And I thought then how lucky I was to live in a better time, to still be alive, and,
with luck, have the privilege of caring for the child that was living inside me.

‘Yes.’ Thom had read my expression, and gave me a spontaneous hug. ‘Whatever we discover we are to each other, Ally, I swear, I’ll always be there for you.
Promise.’

‘Thanks, Thom.’

‘Now, I’m going to take you home and then pop into the Grieg Hall to find David Stewart, the leader of the orchestra. I have to tell him the story of
The Hero Concerto.
And
he has to help me find someone who can orchestrate it in time for the Grieg Centenary Concert. It has to be played that night. Simple as that.’

‘Yes,’ I agreed, ‘it does.’

There was a message waiting for me at reception when I walked into the hotel after Thom had dropped me off. I opened it in the lift, and to my surprise, I saw it was from
Felix.

‘
Call me
,’ it said. He’d left a mobile phone number.

I would not call, of course, after his appalling behaviour earlier today. I took a shower and got into bed, mulling over the events of the day, and thought again how my heart went out to
Thom.

Thom, who’d known from the very start of his life that he had a father who knew of his existence and yet had rejected him. And I remembered nights as a teenager, when I had railed against
Ma’s or Pa Salt’s authority and wished for my real parents, who I’d been sure would understand me far better.

As I fell into sleep, I realised more than ever that my childhood had been blessed.

Before I did anything else the next morning, I called the doctor to get the results of my urine sample. As I knew it would be, the test was positive and the doctor sweetly
congratulated me.

‘When you arrive home in Geneva, Miss D’Aplièse, you must make arrangements for maternity services,’ she added.

‘I will. And thank you very much.’

I lay back on my bed, drinking weak tea, as I couldn’t stand the smell of coffee. Even though I still felt as sick as a dog, now I knew it was natural, it didn’t worry me. I made a
mental note to order a pregnancy book online. I hadn’t got a clue about anything to do with having a baby, but then did any woman until it happened to her?

I’d always been rather ambivalent about motherhood, with no strong feelings for or against. It had been one of those things that may or may not happen to me in the future. Theo and I had
talked about it, of course, giggling as we came up with ridiculous names for our imaginary offspring. And discussing how the goat barn on ‘Somewhere’ would have to be large enough to
house our sun-kissed brood as they enjoyed a childhood straight out of a Gerald Durrell novel. Sadly, that idyll was not to be for us. And at some point in the near future, I must decide where I
wanted to have the baby. And where ‘home’ actually was.

The telephone by my bed rang and I picked it up. Reception told me I had a call from a Mr Halvorsen. Presuming it would be Thom, I told the woman to put it through.

‘
Bonjour, Ally. Ça va?
’

To my horror, it was Felix.

‘I am well, yes,’ I replied abruptly. ‘You?’

‘As well as my old bones will allow, yes. Are you busy?’

‘Why?’

There was a pause on the line before he replied. ‘I’d like to talk to you.’

‘What about?’

‘I don’t want to discuss it over the telephone, so let me know when you’re free to see me.’

I could hear from the timbre of his voice that whatever it was, it was serious.

‘In an hour or so? Here?’

‘Fine.’

‘Okay. See you then.’

I was sitting in reception waiting for him when he arrived, holding a scuffed motorcycle helmet in one hand. As I stood up to greet him, I wondered if the light was unkind, or whether he really
had aged overnight. Today, he looked like the old man he was.

‘
Bonjour,
mademoiselle,’ he said as he forced a smile. ‘Thank you for sparing the time to see me. Is there somewhere we can go to talk?’

‘I think there’s a residents’ lounge. Will that do?’

‘Fine.’

I led him through the lobby and into the empty lounge. He sat down, gazed at me for a while and then gave a weak smile. ‘Is it too early for a drink?’

‘I don’t know, Felix, it’s up to you.’

‘Coffee then.’

I went off to find a waitress to bring coffee and a water for me, thinking how deflated Felix looked this morning, as if the energy that drove him on had disintegrated and he was left crumpled
and empty. We made small talk until the waitress delivered our drinks then left, and I knew whatever it was had to be said undisturbed and in private. I looked at Felix expectantly as he took a sip
of his coffee, noticing that his hands shook as he held the cup.

‘Ally, first of all, I want to talk to you about Thom. You’re obviously close to him.’

‘Yes, but I should point out that we haven’t known each other for longer than a few days. It’s quite extraordinary. There’s a real bond between us already.’

Felix’s eyes narrowed for a moment. ‘There must be. I thought you two had known each other for years from the way you behaved together yesterday. Anyway, moving on, I suppose
he’s told you the story of how I refused to accept I was his father?’

‘He has, yes.’

‘Would you believe me if I said that, up until I took that DNA test, I sincerely thought he wasn’t mine?’

‘If you say so, I must.’

‘I do, Ally.’ Felix nodded vehemently. ‘Thom’s mother, Martha, was a student of mine. Yes, we had a brief affair, but perhaps Thom was never told that at the same time,
she had a steady long-term boyfriend. In fact, she was engaged to him when we met and their wedding was already planned.’

‘I see.’

‘Without wanting to sound arrogant,’ Felix continued, ‘Martha took one look at me and that was that. She fell head over heels in love, to the point of obsession. And of course
for me, the whole thing had meant nothing. Putting it bluntly, it was sex and that was an end to it. I’d never wanted anything more from her, or any other woman for that matter. To be
truthful, Ally, I’ve never been the marrying kind, and certainly not father material. Perhaps these days you’d use the expression “commitment-phobe”, but I always made it
clear to my girlfriends how it was. I grew up in the age of free love, the Swinging Sixties, when everyone was suddenly freed from the old rules. And for better or worse, that attitude never left
me. It’s just who I am,’ he shrugged.

‘Okay,’ I said, ‘so when Thom’s mother told you she was pregnant, what did you say to her?’

‘That if she wanted the baby, which I believed at the time was bound to be her fiancé’s child, given we had only slept together on a couple of occasions, then she should tell
him and marry him as soon as possible. She informed me that she’d broken off the engagement the night before, because she’d realised she didn’t love him. Apparently, she loved
me
.’ Felix put a hand to his forehead and dragged it down over his eyes. ‘I’m ashamed to say that I laughed in her face, told her she was crazy. Apart from the fact that
there was no proof the baby was mine, the idea of us settling down together and playing happy families was absurd. I lived hand to mouth in a freezing cabin . . . What on earth could I have offered
a woman and a child, even if I’d wanted to? So, I sent her away, believing that if she knew any future with me was a dead end, she’d have no choice but to go running back to her
fiancé. But of course, she didn’t. Instead, shortly after the birth, she ran to Horst and Astrid – my grandparents – who by that time were ninety-three and seventy-eight,
and told them what a bastard I’d been to her. If my relationship with them had been rocky before, that finished it for good. My grandfather and I barely spoke again before he died, even
though I’d worshipped him as I grew up. Horst was a wonderful man, really, Ally. When I was younger I thought of him as my hero.’ Felix looked up at me miserably. ‘Do you think
I’m a bastard, Ally? Like Thom does?’

‘I’m not here to pass judgement on you. I’m here to listen to what you have to say,’ I said cautiously.

‘Okay, so Martha disappeared after I’d told her I wanted nothing to do with the baby, though she did write to me and tell me she was continuing with the pregnancy, and was staying
with a friend of hers up in the north near her family until she’d decided what to do. She continued to tell me she loved me in the endless letters she wrote to me. I didn’t reply,
hoping that my silence would encourage her to move on. She was young, and very attractive, and I was sure she’d have no problem finding someone else to give her what she needed. Then I . . .
got a letter with a photograph enclosed just after the birth. I . . .’

Felix paused and I watched him gaze at me oddly, then he continued. ‘I didn’t hear from her for the next few months, until one day I saw her pushing a pram in town here in Bergen.
Being the coward I am’ – he grimaced – ‘I hid from her, but then asked a friend of mine if he knew where she was living. And it was he who told me my grandparents had taken
her in because she’d had nowhere else to go. The friend she’d been staying with had kicked her out apparently. Thom may have told you that she suffered from bouts of depression, and I
can only imagine that she suffered postnatally.’

‘How did you feel about her living with your grandparents?’ I asked him.

‘Bloody furious! I felt they’d been manipulated to take in a woman who claimed to have my child, but what could I do? She’d managed to convince them completely. They’d
already written me off years before as an immoral waster, so my behaviour was just par for the course in their eyes. Jesus Christ, Ally, I was so angry. Angry for years. Yes, I’d made a
mistake by getting a woman pregnant, but they never wanted to hear my side of the story, not once. Martha had made them believe that I was a shit and that was that. Listen, I’m going to get a
drink. Want something?’

‘No, thank you.’

I watched him stand and leave the lounge in search of the bar by reception. And I tried to remember Pa Salt’s words about the other side of a story. Everything Felix had said so far made
sense. And even if he was an irresponsible drunkard, I didn’t think he was a liar. If anything, he was far too blunt and open. If the story was true, then I could see his point of view
completely.

Felix arrived back with a large whisky in his hand.

‘
Skål!
’ he said as he took a big slug.

‘Have you ever tried to tell Thom any of this?’

‘Of course not.’ He laughed out loud. ‘From the day he was born, he was told what a rotter I was. And besides, he grew up incredibly defensive of his mother, and understandably
so,’ he added. ‘Although as the years went by I did feel sorry for him, whether he was or wasn’t mine. I knew from local gossip that Martha was sliding in and out of depression.
At least the fact that Thom lived with my grandparents for the first few formative years of his life must have given him some essential stability. Martha really was a bit of a flake; she had a
childlike quality to her, always believing that everything would be just as she wanted it.’

‘So, you left the situation as it was until you found out Thom had inherited your family house?’

‘Yes. Horst had died when Thom was eight, but my grandmother, who was considerably younger than him, died when Thom was eighteen. When the solicitor told me I’d been left
Horst’s cello and a small financial bequest, and that everything else had gone to Thom, I really felt I had to do something.’

‘How did you feel when you found out you
were
Thom’s father?’

‘Absolutely astonished,’ Felix admitted as he took another gulp of his whisky. ‘But that’s nature for you, isn’t it?’ he chuckled. ‘Playing its little
tricks. I know me contesting the will made Thom hate me even more. But given what I’ve just told you, I’m sure you can understand why I was convinced Thom was a cuckoo sitting in my
hereditary nest.’

‘Were you happy when you knew Thom was yours?’ I asked him, feeling vaguely like a therapist analysing a client. Theo would have loved this, I thought.

‘To be honest, I can’t remember what I felt,’ Felix admitted. ‘I got very drunk for a few weeks after the test came back positive. Martha, of course, wrote me a vitriolic
letter of triumph, which I threw on the fire.’ He gave a deep sigh. ‘What a mess, what a bloody mess.’