Chapter 13

Macdonalds and Kanes

"Rosamund, Geoffrey, everyone, Rosalin and I would like to tell you a story," she began. There was interest and surprise on some faces, understanding on a few, and curiosity on others.

"What kind of story, Janice?" asked Rosamund, highly amused. "Is it a guessing game?"

"In a way," responded Janice. "It seemed a very complicated tale when first I heard it, and I have thought hard about how to tell it, so I hope it won't be hard to follow. It was hard to know where to start!"

Everyone composed themselves comfortably, prepared to be entertained.

"Most of you know that my nickname is Jandy Mac." The visitors from the Abbey, the Hall, and the Pallant, and the Earl and Countess nodded, while Bill and Patricia looked interested.

"It is a shortened version of my name – Janice Macdonald. And most of you know that Rosalin," she said, gesturing towards Rosalin, "was, before her marriage to Roger, Rosalin Macdonald."

"I was able to tell Janice that our fathers were brothers," said Rosalin bravely. Rosalin had got to the heart of the matter in a moment.

This statement was enough to provoke uproar, for most of those present understood immediately, if only in part, the implications of Rosalin's announcement.

Geoffrey Kane, to whom it mattered most, sat gazing at Janice as if he had not known her before, digesting the colouring, face and manner of the woman he had known only as Mrs Janice Fraser. For he understood, more than most, what Rosalin's statement had meant. Mrs Fraser looked nothing like a Kane, but she certainly looked like a Macdonald. There was a portrait of his grandmother Rosalin in these very halls, and although she was born a Kane, there were echoes of her face in the face of Janice.

"My dear Janice, if your father and Rosalin's were brothers, then your grandmother was my own aunt, Lady Rosalin Macdonald. She was half-sister to the old Earl, my father. Your fathers, Janice and Rosalin, were my first cousins. So you are also my first cousins, although one generation removed. Rosalin, we knew of and have already warmly welcomed. My dear Janice, a very belated welcome to the family," said the earl kindly and sincerely.

"Jandy Mac, this is the most wonderful news. It makes me so happy to know you are part of our family," said Rosamund. "Since Jandy Mac is your cousin, Geoffrey, is she not also my cousin?"

"Yes, I believe you share great-grandparents, and thus you are second cousins."

Rosamund rose from her chair and raised Janice to her feet, holding her hands. "Remember all those years ago, Jandy Mac, when I said I had stolen the cream off the family milk? I was right!" said Rosamund triumphantly. "You were my relation, and Geoffrey's, before you were anyone's friend! And now you will always be both." The normally undemonstrative Rosamund hugged Janice warmly.

Joy and Joan, and Jen, looked shocked at this surprising news. Their own Jandy Mac and therefore Littlejan too, revealed now as unquestionably part of the Kane family, through Jandy's grandmother Rosalin!

"What am I," asked Joan Fraser, deeply moved by the sight of her mother and Rosamund, standing together as relatives. "I must be a cousin too?"

"Yes," said the Earl. "You and your brothers and sisters are my first cousins, twice removed, and Rosamund's second cousins, once removed."

"Gracious," said Joan, overwhelmed at such complexity, and feeling a sense of honour. "Does that make little John, your first cousin, three times removed?"

"Right!" declared the Earl. "By George, I think she's got it!" he laughed.

"All of our children of the same generation are third cousins?" asked Janice doubtfully, her arm around Rosamund's waist. The two tall Kane descendants, one fair and one dark, stood proudly together, united in a previously unthought of way.

"Yes, I think so," said Geoffrey Kane. "Our three boys and our two sets of twin girls, and your children, Janice, are all third cousins to each other. Young Roderick, of course, is your second cousin, the same as Rosamund. But, as you and Rosalin are first cousins, then your children are first cousins to Rosalin, once removed."

"I suddenly have a lot more cousins than I ever thought possible," smiled Rosalin, and Janice agreed, both revelling in the impact of their declaration, for themselves and their friends, and now, relatives.

"I understand how you must all feel," said quiet Maidlin Robertson, "I was so pleased when I found out about Rachel and Damaris, my cousins. Before, I had been rather alone in the world – except for dear Joy and Joan of course," she added, smiling warmly at her adopted mother. "It's like finding you have not only a present and future, but a past you didn't know about. You will all have so much to explore with each other."

"How is it that we haven't know all this before, Jandy Mac?" demanded Jen, Lady Marchwood. She had sat listening and thinking, and couldn't hold back her mock outrage any longer. "We've known you longer than we have known Rosamund and Maidlin!"

"Forgive me Jen, I only found out recently too. You have to remember," said Janice, "that I never knew my father, John Macdonald. And in Sydney, I was brought up by my Fraser aunties. Then when I went to Scotland for the first time, it was to visit my Fraser family, including my grandparents. Geoffrey," she said, turning to the Earl, "I wonder if you knew my grandfather Fraser, who was factor at Vairy for many years?"

"Well bless my soul," said the nonplussed Earl, "I knew of old Mr Fraser for years, but never met him. Before Rosamund and I met, I really didn't travel much, and never got to Vairy until our honeymoon! There are so many Frasers in the area, it never occurred to me to place you among them, and of course, I hardly knew them. It is news to me today that you were a Macdonald, or I might have thought of the connection to my aunt Rosalin."

"I've just thought of something wonderful," said Joan Fraser. "We must also be related to Rosalind – Nanta-Rose? Wait till she finds out that we are a sort of cousin!"

"Rosalind is of the same generation as our children, in relationship to you, Littlejan," smiled the Earl. "So you are second cousins, once removed."

There was deep satisfaction of a unique kind in the hearts of all present. For a family to lose track of sons and daughters who had travelled to the far ends of the Earth, was not uncommon in this age of travel and emigration. To successfully unite their descendants, and to see them able to become friends and support each other in the way that only families can, was a great joy.

Joy and Joan, and Jen, seated near each other, looked at each other, each feeling deep emotion. Jen said, "Wait till we tell Mary-Dorothy. To see Jandy Mac take her rightful place as one of Rosamund's family, is as if the last brushstroke of a beautiful painting has finally been made. I know Mary would say that the plan has been there all along, and it just took the right people to meet and to trust each other, to make it come to pass."