A Friendly Demonstration
Chapter 50
Julia blinked sleepily as she awoke and then rolled on to her side as she lay in bed and propped herself up on her elbow to look down at her still peacefully sleeping boyfriend, 'No, not boyfriend, my brand new fiancé!' she told herself with an incredulous smile and that thought prompted her to focus on her left hand where the small, but elegant single diamond twinkled back at her, just as happily as she smiled at it, or so it seemed.
Julia's smile broadened as she recalled yesterday's expedition to the jeweller's shop in Aylesbury. Johnny had eschewed the usual high street chain jewellers and had led Julia down a small alley off one of the side streets just off the town centre, to a small, independent jeweller's shop.
"This is where Alison and her bloke got her ring, and she gave the place a really good report, so I figured if it's good enough for Alison, then it's good enough for us… unless you'd rather we looked somewhere else?"
Julia had shaken her head, "Johnny, I wouldn't know where to start! Right here is just fine!"
Johnny had smiled at her enthusiasm and opened the door for her to walk into the shop in front of him.
The saleswoman was in her mid to late twenties, Johnny had thought, and favoured them both with a professional smile that somehow also seemed genuine.
"How may I help you?" she asked.
"We'd like to look at engagement rings, pleaser, and then for a matched pair of wedding bands," Johnny said decisively.
"Certainly. What sort of price range did you have in mind?"
Johnny had named a figure that had made Julia gasp, but for the moment she held her peace, feeling flattered and humbled that Johnny should be prepared to spend so much on something for her, even an engagement ring. But when she saw the tray of rings that were brought out for her inspection she shook her decidedly.
"Johnny, these aren't what I had in mind… they're too big."
"Too big?" Johnny had asked in surprise.
"Yeah, the stones are too big. I need a ring that I can wear on duty, in uniform and that won't catch on everything I touch!"
"But, Julia…"
Julia shook her head, "I know what I like, Johnny and I know what I need." She had smiled at the saleswoman, "What I have in mind is a single, round cut stone, no bigger than one and a quarter carats, smaller if possible. It's not the size that matters to me Johnny," she had gone on to explain, "But an engagement ring is something very personal, that I will wear for the rest of my life, and I need it to be perfect."
The saleswoman allowed herself a silent sigh of resignation, the more expensive the stock she sold, the more commission she earned, but it looked like the young woman in front of her knew exactly what she wanted, and by the determined just of her chin, it was a pretty foregone conclusion that what she wanted she would get.
But Johnny hadn't quite given up, "Yeah… I can see where you're coming from. But if it's simplicity and elegance you're after, some of these aren't too bad…"
"Not too bad isn't something I want, Johnny," Julia had tried to explain further. "I've known for years just what I want for an engagement ring, and I'm sorry," she smiled across the counter at the saleswoman, "these just don't fit that vision."
With a helpless look at the saleswoman Johnny had signalled his surrender and with her smile firmly in place she had replaced the one tray on the display case and brought out a second tray for Julia's inspection, fully expecting a protracted period of indecision and dithering and was consequently taken by surprise when after no more than about thirty seconds Julia had exclaimed, "There! That one there! May I have a closer look at it, please?"
Julia's choice was made and once the ring proved to need no adjustment to fit her slim finger, it had been placed in a velvet-lined case and put to one side while Johnny and Julia moved on to select their wedding bands. The choice was a compromise between Julia's wish for something slim and simple and Johnny's idea of something more substantial and eventually they settled on a matching pair or medium weight and width. Johnny paid a substantial deposit on the wedding bands and promised to pick them up within the three weeks period of grace which the saleswoman pointed out was for as long as the deposit would hold them.
Smiling at her memories, Julia leaned in and kissed Johnny gently but firmly until he began to stir and mumble against her lips. Julia propped herself on her elbow again and watched as Johnny regained total awareness of his surroundings, "Hey, boo'ful, that was a great way to be woken up, but why not just a shake of the shoulder?"
"Oh, just because I love you," Julia grinned.
"I should hope so," Johnny returned her grin, but with a hint of mischief in his, "Considering that we're going to be married!"
"M'mm… we are!" Julia agreed happily as she snuggled down with her head on Johnny' shoulder.
Johnny squinted at his watch and sighed, "There is nothing better I'd like than to spend the whole morning in bed with you, but we need to be up and doing, sweetheart. I promised mum I'd fix those tiles on the shed roof, but first off, we need to get to church for Morning Service." He grinned at Julia's questioning expression.
"It's kinda expected that the bride and groom be at the church for the reading of the bans," he explained.
"Just what does that mean?" Julia asked, but without moving her head from Johnny's shoulder.
"The bans? Well… it's when the vicar reads our names out from the pulpit, announces our intention to marry and asks if anyone has good cause to protest the wedding. He has to do that three weeks in a row, and as I said, it's kinda expected that we're there for the reading of the bans. But don't worry about it, it's pretty much a formality these days."
"These days?" Julia asked.
"M'mm… way back when, most people didn't move too far away from wherever it was they were born so to put it in modern terms, the gene pool got kinda shrunk, so two people could meet and decide to get married only to find that according to the law they were too closely related. So the reading of the bans over a month was to give notice to the community, so if for example the woman involved was an illegitimate daughter of the man's father…"
Julia giggled at that, "You make it sound as if the whole country was having sex non-stop!"
"Well… there wasn't any TV," Johnny pointed out triumphantly. "So they had to do something to pass the time on those long winter evenings!"
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By the time Harm returned from his extended Sunday morning run, Gill and Mattie were up, showered and dressed in their lounging about kit, as Mattie put it, and were just waiting for Harm to shower before they made a start on breakfast.
Fifteen minutes later – "to the dot", as Mattie commented – Harm rejoined Gill and Mattie on the kitchen, where Gill was just placing a dish of eggs in the microwave oven. Harm made a grimace, "Cooking by polaroid!" he objected.
"But it tastes just as good, it takes less than half the time, so uses less electricity, and it makes less mess!" Gill countered Harm's prejudice.
"It does taste okay, Harm," Mattie corroborated from beside the kitchen worktop, where she was loading relays of bread into the toaster.
"And you would know this, how, miss?" Harm asked severely, as he switched on the coffee percolator.
"Because Harriet used the microwave for eggs on school days." Mattie explained patiently, "With getting herself, Bud and the kids out of the house in time for them all to get to work or school or day-care, she didn't have time to stand over the stove and watch the eggs."
"Harriet uses a microwave?" Harm asked in surprise, while remembering the blonde's strictures on cooking and the importance of fresh ingredients, which just didn't see to tally with the use of a microwave.
"Hey, she's a busy lady, with four kids, and with Bud being warned for a deployment afloat, it's going to get worse for her, I reckon," Mattie frowned, as she balanced a large plate of toast on her lap and spun her chair around to the table. "There ya go," she grinned, "all nicely toasted and buttered wholemeal!"
"And with perfect timing!" Gill smiled as she took the bowl of now cooked eggs from the microwave, dividing it into three portions before she put the plates on the table.
Harm looked doubtfully at his serving of eggs until Mattie lost her patience with him, "Hey, if you don't want those, give them here while they're still hot! I'm pretty sure that Gill and I could find room for them!"
"No… I'll give 'em a try," Harm said in a resigned sort of voice as he almost reluctantly picked up his fork and while Gill and Mattie shared a fleeting, but knowing grin, he conveyed a forkful of egg and toast to his mouth. Mattie watched as he chewed and as his expression lightened, her face split into a triumphant grin, which only grew wider as Harm swallowed and said, "Hey, these aren't bad… in fact, they're pretty darned good!"
"Even if they were cooked by polaroid?" Gill inquired, ever so innocently.
Harm shook his head and chuckled, "You're not going to let me forget that, are you?" he asked.
"Oh, sure we will, won't we, Gill?" Mattie replied.
"Of course we will, sometime around your one hundred and sixty-fifth birthday!" Gill quipped.
"Yeah, that's what I thought!" Harm mourned, but his eyes danced with laughter, as he dug his fork into the food on his plate.
The gentle teasing continued over the meal, which didn't take very long to finish, and then as Harm cleaned up the kitchen – Gill and Mattie were excused KP as they had prepared the meal – Gill set a fresh pot of coffee going and then hustled Mattie away to get her dressed for the journey to Dinton, before she, as she put it, "Slipped into something more suitable for a Vicarage Sunday Lunch."
Mattie looked a little concerned at Gill's comment – she could hear the capital letters in the way Gill pronounced her last three words – and paused as she buttoned up the cream silk blouse that had been a going away present from Harriet Sims, "Is it really so very different… so kinda stiff and formal?" she asked.
Gill gave a little chuckle, "No… not exactly… It's just that Sunday lunch is traditionally a bit of ritual, almost I think like your Thanksgiving dinners. My folk are okay, not tewwibly Bwitish and stiff upper lip and all that, but Granny does like to see a proper table and proper decorum for Sunday lunch. It's the way she was brought up, and the way she brought up daddy. You'll be fine, they'll love you. Be yourself, but be polite, don't try to put on a front, Granny, especially, will see right through that, and as Harm says Granny can be a little off-putting when you first meet her, but despite her growling she's an angel." Gill stopped for a moment's thought, "Did Harm ever tell you the first thing she said to and about him?"
"No… I don't think so," Mattie said slowly.
"Well…" Gill grinned and looked around, as I she was afraid that Harm might be listening, "The first thing she said was that he was old for a Captain, and asked had he come up through the ranks."
Mattie frowned, "But Harm's not old for a Captain; I'd say he was pretty young…"
"Oh, he is, but despite being told that he was Navy, Granny deliberately pretended that she thought he was army, and of course he would have been a bit long in the tooth for an army captain!"
"Ooh, that's wicked!" Mattie chortled, "But somehow… I like it! What did Harm say?"
"Oh… Harm didn't bat an eyelid! He took it all in his stride and said something about doing it the hard way – going through the Academy. And in a few minutes, he and Granny were as thick as thieves, and I'm pretty sure he had her eating out of his hand in no time. So, remember, if Granny is a bit gruff and off putting, she's just testing your mettle, so speak up for yourself, but do try to be civil about it! It's when Granny becomes icily polite that you know you're in deep trouble!"
While they had been talking Mattie had pulled on her pants and had sat back down in her chair. Gill looked at the youngster's bare feet, "Do you want a hand with your shoes?" she asked.
"Yes, please," Mattie acknowledged, "I can scuff my feet into my old trainers, but I'm still trying to get used to these, what d'you call 'ems?"
"Court shoes," Gill supplied the correct term as she slid them, one after the other, onto Mattie's feet, "And you did a good job of bulling them too!" she added in a complimentary tone.
"Bulling?" Mattie asked, totally thrown by the unfamiliar word.
"Yes, the way you polished them last night, with polish and water, in the British forces, that's known as 'bulling', and no, I don't why! It just is!"
"Weird!" Mattie shook her head.
"No weirder than calling it spit shone, when you use tap water," Gill refuted Mattie's claim.
"I guess Churchill got it right!" Mattie grinned.
"What, two countries separated by a common language?" Gill asked.
"Yep, that's the one!"
"Well maybe he did, at that! But you've wasted quite enough time, Mattie, so wheel over to the dressing table, and I'll try to do something with that mane of yours, so that Harm doesn't insist it's plaited!"
"Okay… here goes nothing," Mattie said under her breath, but not quite quietly enough so that Gill didn't hear it, but it was with a sympathetic smile that Gill sat down behind Mattie and grabbed the teenager's hair brush.
"This going to hurt me a lot more than it hurts you!" Mattie complained as Gill poised the brush above her head.
"I'll try not to make it so," Gill promised.
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From the lack of reddened eyes Gill had obviously made good on her promise and had by some miracle managed to tame Mattie's unruly curls, so that they rested, shining on her shoulders, and held back from her face by pair of tortoise-shell effect barrettes, which Gill called hairclips, and which she had dredged up from the depths of her cosmetics bag.
So it was with a feeling of justified confidence that Mattie wheeled herself into the living room for Harm's inspection. He nodded approvingly and smiled, "Very nice... Mattie Grace Rabb, I don't know if anyone has ever told you, but you are growing into a beautiful young woman."
"Harm!" Mattie blushed crimson even as she protested.
"He's right, you know Mattie," Gill aided and abetted Harm from the doorway. Having helped Mattie she had gone to 'scramble' into her own clothes and had come back downstairs just as Harm complimented his daughter.
Harm turned towards the door, his face breaking into an even broader smile, "And I could say the same about you. You look stunning!"
"What? This old thing?" Gill made a deprecating gesture to the simple charcoal half-sleeved dress she wore.
Harm may not have known much about women's clothing, but he had a pretty shrewd idea that the elegant simplicity of that charcoal jersey dress was achieved only at a mind-boggling cost. But he was wising up pretty quickly so he just said, "Yes, that old thing," and turned back to Mattie, "And on the subject of old things, and not so old things…" he shot a swift glance at Gill to let her know that he wasn't buying her disclaimer, "That cream blouse you're wearing, Mattie, I don't think I've seen that before?"
The teenager shook her head "No, it was a goodbye present from Bud and Harriet. Do you like it?" she said slightly anxiously.
"M'mm… is that silk?" Harm asked with a note of doubt in his voice.
"Yes…" Mattie smiled happily.
Harm gave a brief shake of his head, "Harriet ought to know better! I hope you thanked her properly for it?"
"Of course she did, Harm," Gill said, "Mattie's far too well-mannered not to express her thanks suitably!"
Harm picked up a note of reproof in Gill's voice and decided to let the matter rest, particularly as a pair of blue teenaged eye turned a slightly troubled gaze on him. "Of course you did, Squirt!" he said emphatically, "I don't know what I was thinking!"
"No, neither do I, but I do know what you were thinking when you got dressed," Gill said, pouring oil on potentially troubled waters, "You look quite smart yourself!"
"Yeah, he does scrub up pretty good!" Mattie grinned as she endorsed Gill's opinion.
Harm took a breath and with a spurious air of offended dignity asked, "Well, if everyone has finished puncturing my ego, shall we be on our way?"
Gill and Mattie exchanged a mischief-filled glance and then in perfect synchronisation said, "Of course! We thought you'd never ask!"
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"Park in the same spot as last time?" Harm asked Gill as he turned into the village.
Gill shook her head, "No… turn right at the crossroads like last time, but keep going on for about three hundred yards and then take the turning on the right. That will bring you around to the front of the rectory. It will be easier for Mattie to get her chair into the house rather than through the churchyard, and besides, this time of year, they won't be in the garden!"
"Makes sense," Harm agreed as he slowed for the right turn and once the manoeuvre had been completed he nodded to his right and said over his shoulder to Mattie, "That's Gill's dad's church."
"Oh, good, I was just going to ask if we were there yet," Mattie said, sounding suspiciously innocent to Harm's ears, and he shot her a reproving glance in the rear-view mirror.
But despite her flippancy Mattie was taking in her first view of an English village, so totally different to anything she had ever seen before, but her main impression was one of how everything was crowded together, almost cramped. She shook her head in wonder and asked Gill, "How come everything's built so close together?"
"Well, if you're looking at that row of cottages, they're the old alms houses, where the deserving poor of the parish would be looked after by a church appointed superintendent, so they were always built near the church, but as for the rest… Well, the UK is only a fraction of the size of America, and back before the industrial revolution, which is when most of these villages were established, the prime need was for agricultural land, so the houses were sort of squashed together to keep the maximum amount of farmland free of buildings."
"Oh… yeah, I guess that makes sense," Mattie agreed and then as Harm braked to a stop asked "Is this it?"
"Yes, this is where I lived from the time I was about five years old until I went to university Gill said, smiling fondly as joined Mattie in staring at the old red-brick three storey building.
"Wow!" Mattie breathed as she took in the gravelled area in front of the house, flanked by immaculately mown lawns and bordered by flower beds. The white paintwork of the doors and windows gleamed softly in the pale autumn sun and the whole effect made a statement, 'Here is where I belong'.
Mattie shook her head, "Just how old is this place?" she asked in an almost awe-struck voice.
"Well the main part of the church dates from the Conquest, but the rectory was built about eighteen ten, after the old place burned down. From the upstairs windows, if the light is right, you can still see the trace marks under the west lawn where the old rectory once stood. But if you really want to know the history of the place you'd better ask my father!"
"Oh… Umm… Yeah…" Mattie said doubtfully.
"You can, you know. Ask him I mean. He loves this place, and really boned up on its history. In fact, Mummy and I are pretty sure that even if were offered another living, even say as a dean or canon in a cathedral somewhere, if it meant having to leave Dinton, he'd refuse it! But he's a real sweetheart, and he'll love it if you ask him about the old place!"
"But not immediately, alright, Squirt?" Harm suggested from the open rear hatch, where he was manhandling Mattie's chair out of the cargo space. "Now, are you ready for your chair?"
"Bring it on, Harm, the irrepressible teen answered as she opened her door and using both hands lifted her legs sideways so they hung out of the car body.
Harm had brought the wheelchair around for her and stood, watching nervously, "East there, squirt."
Mattie held onto the door with one hand and the doorframe with the other as she gingerly lowered herself to the ground bracing her knees so that she wouldn't stagger, or worse, fall, "I got it! This is easier than getting in and out of Victor's car! Okay… can you bring the chair up so that it just about touches my right leg? And then I can let go of the door and grab the chair arm… Yeah, that's it! Stick a fork in it, this baby's done!" Mattie chortled in triumph as she lowered herself into her wheelchair.
Harm stood back his face split in a huge smile that reflected his love for and pride in the copper-haired girl who was trying to squint back up over her shoulder at him, "Hey, what are waiting for?" she demanded.
Gill saw the smile and the love in Harm's eyes and her heart went out again to the tall, strong, but gentle, scarred and still vulnerable man, and on the spot she made a silent vow. 'I swear I'm going spend the rest of my life making sure that he never gets hurt again!' then as the import of what she had just decided dawned on her she took a mental step back, 'Wow, Gillian Anne Shephard where did that come from!?'
However, before she could make any further tries at silent self-analysis, the door to the rectory opened and her father came out to meet the visitors. "Gill, m'dear! So very, very good to see you again!" He stepped forward and enveloped her in a hug, planting a kiss on her cheek as he did so, and then released her to exclaim, "We don't see you often enough now that you've moved to London, and I suspect that this young man must take some of the blame!" He turned to Harm, his hand out in greeting, "How are you m'boy? It's good to see you again, too!
"I'll take the fifth on whether I'm guilty of keeping Gill all to myself! How are you, sir?" Harm smiled as he took the Reverend Shephard's hand, slightly surprised again at the firmness of the older man's grip.
As the Reverend Shephard took Harm's hand he shook his head in disapproval, "And I'm sure I told you to call me Jack, the last time you visited!"
Harm chuckled,"Yeah, you did, and I will try. Now, if I may, I'd like to introduce my daughter, Mattie Grace Rabb, Mattie this is the Reverend Shephard, Gill's father…" Harm released the vicar's hand and half turned, indicating the copper haired teenager who had been eying the clergyman with interest not unmixed with trepidation.
Harm's pride and love were still there for all to see, and the Reverend Jack Shephard was astute enough to recognise what he saw. He took a step nearer Mattie and dropped to one knee, again offering his hand, "Good afternoon, Miss Rabb, welcome to my home."
Mattie swallowed convulsively as she took the offered hand, "Good afternoon, sir. I'm afraid you'll have to forgive me for not standing to meet you…"
"Stuff and nonsense! From what I'm given to understand, yours is only a temporary disability so we'll see you on your feet soon enough, and anyway, I would never expect a lady to stand on being introduced to me!"
"Daddy!" Gill laughed to cover Mattie's embarrassment, "That is so politically incorrect!"
"Stuff and nonsense! You might think so, but it's only old fashioned courtesy, the way your grandfather and grandmother taught me! And anyway," he quirked an eyebrow at his daughter, "since just when did you become so concerned with all this modern rubbishy way of thinking and talking?"
"Oh… just about the time I discovered I had an inveterate reprobate for a father!" Gill laughed and then took her father's arm in hers and rested her cheek against his shoulder for a moment. "Oh, I've missed you, and you are perfectly correct, I don't come and visit as often as I should, but I'm going to make a decent effort to change that!"
"Huh! Don't think you can butter me up after that my girl! Harmon, if you'll be so good to give me a hand, we can all get inside and out of this chill."
"Of course, what help do you need?"
Gill's father opened the door to reveal a lightweight metal ramp propped up against the hallway wall, "I took the liberty of borrowing this for the from the local hospital for the day, I thought it would make life easier for us all rather than having to haul that wheelchair up and down these steps. I know they aren't very many, and they're quite shallow, but still…"
"That was wonderfully thoughtful of you, Jack," Harm said with a smile, but then grunted as he took the weight of the top end of the ramp, "Good Go… Uh… I mean… you didn't lift this in here by yourself did you?"
The Reverend Shephard merely chuckled at Harm's near slip and said, "Oh, Lord, no! No, I got the Sexton to round up a couple of his grave diggers and they hauled it in here for me! No, my days of trying to lift heavy weights are over." He dropped his voice conspiratorially, "Gillian's mother would kill me!"
"In that case, if you don't tell her, I won't!" Harm agreed, and chuckling the two men positioned the ramp at the door.
"Okay, Mattie, come ahead!" Harm called out and then said to Jack Shephard, "You might want to stand back, sir. She gets up a pretty good head of steam!"
Mattie eyed the ramp, it was slightly narrower than the ones she was used to, but in its favour it had raised edges and side rails, which would prevent her from falling off the edge of the ramp.
With a nod to Gill, and a muttered "Here goes nothing!" Mattie shoved down hard on the wheels of her chair, but noted with dismay that the gravel, although tightly packed, exerted more friction that the asphalt she was accustomed to and she knew she was going to have to really work to get up that ramp, 'But I'll be damned if I call for help!' she told herself as she gritted her teeth and headed for the ramp.
It was as much an act of willpower as muscle power that got her to the top of the ramp and the teenager sighed in relief as she made it to the top.
"Well done, young lady!" the Reverend Shephard was impressed at the determination Mattie had shown and his admiration found voice in his enthusiasm. "Now come along through to the morning room, all of you." He took a few steps down the hall and opened a door to the right.
"Mother, Alice our guests have arrived!"
The two occupants of the room looked up, Alice, Gill's mother, smiling at her daughter, but sparing a quick frown for her husband, "Jack! Gillian is not a guest here, this is her home! Or had you forgotten? Hello darling," she added the last two words for Gill's benefit.
"Hello Mummy," Gill hurried across the room and stooped to bestow a kiss on the cheek that was presented to her and turning quickly, lest she find herself falling into disfavour, she repeated the action, this time it being her Grandmother who was her target, "Hello Granny."
Granny however seemed to be in a good mood, "H'mm… you're looking well, child! I take it that's your doing, Harmon? Looking after my granddaughter?"
"I can't take any credit for that. It's the other way around, ma'am. Gill's good health and spirits are the result of her own efforts. And if anyone looks after anyone else, then it's Gill who looks after me, and Mattie. Mattie, is my daughter…"
Granny Shephard looked along the length of the room at Mattie who had stopped just inside the door, "Well, don't just sit there like a stuffed turnip, child! Come here so I can get a proper look at you!"
"Well, I would, but I don't want to ram any of the furniture, it's a bit cramped in here."
"See Jack! I told you there was too much clutter in this room! You're quite right, girl. You stay there! Jack, give me a hand, please!"
Jack Shephard duly made his way across the room and extended his arm for his mother to grasp as she rose from her chair.
"Thank you, she said with a dazzling smile that awoke the echoes of her youthful beauty, and to Mattie it seemed for a fantastic moment that Granny Anne's features had morphed into Gill's. The old lady made her sprightly way across the room and Harm, quick to react turned one of the chairs that flanked the window table so that she could sit and talk to Matte. His actions bringing a smile to Granny's worn features.
"Thank you, Harmon. Now go and talk to Alice. Go on, don't worry, I won't bite her!"
Harm duly made his way to the chair recently vacated by Anne Shephard and sat down, "Thank you for allowing us to invade your home on a Sunday," he said to Alice.
"Oh, nonsense! I'm pleased to see you again, especially as Mother was right, Gill's seldom looked so well, and yes, I do put it all down to you, just as Mother said! She's rarely very wrong you know!"
Granny Anne looked penetratingly at Mattie, who began to feel slightly uneasy at being scrutinised so closely. "What's wrong?" she demanded. "Haven't you ever been told that it's rude to stare?"
Granny Anne laughed, she liked the way this young slip of a girl had tackled her head on. "Oh yes! But old ladies are famous for their rudeness, you know! And like most of them I trade shamelessly on my old age to let me get away with behaviour that wouldn't be tolerated for a single instant in somebody younger!"
Her honesty struck a chord in Mattie and she relaxed her frown into a grin, bringing an approving nod from Granny. "That's better! You know, when you're not scowling at the world, you're a remarkably pretty young woman. And no, I'm not saying that just to flatter you, but if you don't mind me saying, you don't look much like your father!"
"That's just as well, seeing that I'm adopted," Mattie told her with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, "Otherwise, I don't know what people might have said!"
"Adopted, hey? How old were you when he adopted you? Do you remember your parents?"
"I was sixteen when Harm adopted me, in September this year. And yes, I remember my parents very well!" Mattie said stiffening up again.
"Oh Lord, I've been and put my foot in it again, haven't I? But again I plead the excuse of old age. I don't have much time left so I tend to go straight for the heart of the matter. But if it makes you uncomfortable, well…"
"No… well… you're curious, and I can't blame you. But I don't like talking about that stuff… Maybe you could ask Harm to fill you in on the details…"
"Yes, alright, I'll do that. Now, if it's not another taboo subject, how on earth did you end up in a wheelchair? Although I understand it's not going to be permanent?"
"No it's not thank Go… Uh… I mean… Um… I don't suppose you'd buy it if I just said it seemed like a good idea at the time?" Mattie said hopefully.
"Well it's a novel approach, girl, but no not really satisfactory. It doesn't quite qualify as an answer, you see."
"Oh well… I was taking flying lessons…" Mattie began.