Silent - The Moment Of Truth

Two Years Ago, Gavin

Bed and shower. At around half three, Philippa went back to her room to fetch a bottle of white wine and plastic cups, and we headed downstairs to the Remembrance Garden.

'What's really going on?'  I said. 'You reinventing your background and coming here? Altering your age?  Saying you're from Kent when you're from Exeter?  Your interest in the fire?'  I couldn't bring myself to mention Philippa's half-sister Lucy, since it seemed out of order, like betraying Lucy.  

'I suppose now's the right time to tell you,' Philippa said. 'I'm the daughter of Douglas Harlesden who died in the fire here ten years ago. My mother used to be a well-known concert pianist before her illness. She has problems, emotional problems, so it's my nan and her bloke who've done most of the work at home. But Mum's lovely when she's well. She has her own teaching practice in Exeter. Before her illness, some of her pupils made it to major competitions like The Leeds.'

'Does your mother know you're here?'

'My nan does, but not my mum. Mum thinks I'm on a cycling holiday with three friends from college.'

Another coincidence. The other day, Lucy told me that her adoptive parents believed she'd gone on a walking holiday with three friends from Sixth Form. Strange.

Philippa wiped a tear away from her eye. Or was it a fly?  I couldn't see any moisture.  'My nan didn't really want me to come on the Summer School, but she said it was up to me. She's lovely.  She never judges people or looks down on them.'

'Sounds a bit like my nan.'

Philippa nodded. 'Nan told me everything because she's one of these people who believe it's always better to tell the truth. She explained how my mum and Douglas Harlesden met about eighteen years ago when they performed at the same concert tour in Bristol and the South West. They kept in touch and ended up having an affair, which lasted a few months. I think Douglas would have left his wife for Mum, but Douglas' wife Margaret got pregnant. It was all unexpected because Douglas and his wife had been married for ages and they weren't able to have children, but the wife suddenly got pregnant and Lucy was born. We were born the same week actually. Seventeen years ago. Lucy's a few days older than me.'

'That's amazing.'

'After I was born, Mum continued giving piano performances and Nan looked after me. When I was about four or five, my younger sister was born. Mum got really ill afterwards, and that's when Nan had to step in. We're really close, me and Nan.  Last year, she told me everything about my real dad, Douglas Harlesden.
'So I decided to make contact with Dad's family. I went online and did a massive search. Arthur Harlesden seemed the nicest and I thought he'd be like Nan – helpful and accepting – so I started with him. I emailed him, but it didn't work out.  You know, like when an adult adopted as a baby sends a request out for a meeting with the birth mother and the birth mother declines. That was Arthur. He was very sorry, he said in his email, but he didn't think raking up the past again would benefit anyone.'

'I'm sorry to hear that,' I said.

'It was so upsetting.  Then I heard about the Summer School and I decided to apply under a different name.  I was extremely angry actually and wanted to confront them all. Especially Arthur. A couple of friends helped me with all the paperwork and my nan let me use her maiden name. We kept it a secret from Mum.'

Again, so similar to Lucy.

'I decided to confront Arthur directly, so I came up from Devon last week and spent three days in this horrible Bed and Breakfast place in Blackpool.  I rang Arthur as soon as I got there and told him I needed to see him. He agreed to meet me, especially when he heard I'd got a place at the Summer School. When we met, he offered me five hundred pounds to go away. That's what he's really like.'

'Five hundred pounds?'

'Five hundred pounds, then a thousand. I told him, no. The rest is easy to work out. Arthur told Terence about me being here, Terence panicked and told Brendon, and Brendon rang Agnes who caught a plane back from wherever she was staying. That's the real reason why Agnes came back on Saturday: to deal with me.'

'And Steve must have found out?'

'Yes, I'm sorry about that.'

'Hey!'  I heard a shout.  

At first, I thought Steve was coming to get me, but then Aidan appeared in his long Gothic dress, his normally pale face flushed with rage. He glanced down at the bottle of wine on the ground.

'Naughty, naughty,' Philippa said. 'You told me you'd gone back to Exeter.'

'I'm your boyfriend,' he screamed, tears streaming down his cheeks. 'Lying bitch. You always do this to me, don't you? I nearly got prosecuted because of you. No wonder your mum put you in foster care and your nan doesn't want to see you again. You're evil. Bitch, bitch, bitch.'  Turning to me, Aidan said, 'And you. You're going be sorry for this. So sorry. You're all going to die.'      

Another strangled sob, and Aidan legged it out of the Remembrance Garden and over a fence, in the direction of the fields and the outhouse barn from the other evening.

***
Amazing how fast things can slide. Philippa rushed off to confront Aidan. I went after her, but she told me to wait and let her sort it. I returned to the Remembrance Garden and sat in the shelter, fanning my face with my hands.  This was a nightmare.

The rest of the students came back from the Grand Theatre, but of none of them spotted me in the shelter, thankfully. I couldn't face eating a formal evening meal. No way. This business with Aidan was more important.  One of them was lying.  Philippa, obviously.  She'd even lied about her grandmother. And that was bad.

After what seems like ages, my phone beeped.

Sorry, back with Aidan.  x Philippa