Chapter 10
“I've missed you my dear, how have you been?” my grandfather asked
“Tired! That journey was so boring” we both laughed hand in hand
“Well for someone who has been travelling all day looks very well indeed. You look so pretty when you smile, just like Dorothy was”
Dorothy was my grandmother who died 15 years ago. It was sad because I always knew my Granddad 'love' my grandmother with all his heart and she him. Their love story was like a fairy tale; local family girl meets the local prince and falls in love at first sight.
That's something I never used to understand about love, how can it be love at first sight when you don't even know that person? My grandfather told him that, it's not something you can explain.
he said 'when you see that one person you just know that your meant to spend the rest of your life with her, that you couldn't think of ever being apart from them ever again and you wonder how you managed to live so far without them.
“You just suddenly feel like your world has turned upside down, that you and your life well never be the same again”
I used to love hearing stories about him and my grandmother.
When she died so did a part of him. A large part
I remember he never laughed, never smiled and never spoke to anyone.
Not until Maggie came along.
She was a widow just like Granddad.
And much younger than him, well eleven years apart but I guess at that age its different.
But she loved my Granddad and he loved her. I don't think as much as Grandmother Dorothy but he still loved her and Maggie understood that.
He always used to say that I looked like Grandmother Dorothy. She had bright fire red hair and was short just like me, with green eyes. The only difference was that she was beautiful and loved by everybody.
Everyone loved Maggie as well and she was beautiful at seventy-three. She had no family when she married Granddad so we were her only family. So I took her in as my new grandmother and loved her as much as I did Grandmother Dorothy.
“Where's Nan?” I said holding tightly on to my Granddads arms.
“She's bossing the staff around I expect” he replies which made me laugh.
“But you love her for it” I said.
“That I do” he smiled “Less about me how am you my dear. I only got your message this morning. You know what I'm like with this... gadgets”
“It's called a phone Granddad and don't worry about it”
“So how did it go?” he asked
“It was... eventful” I could see the look on my Granddads face, the look that said “you can't fool me” with his half smile. “It went better than I thought. They didn't kick me out and it was very... civil”
“Civil?”
“Well it had to be Chr... Mr Howard was there”
“Mr Howard? Chris Howard? What was he doing there?”
“He said he had some business was Dad and he is dating Jess I guess it's now normal for him to be at family dinners. More normal than me”
“Yes I had heard that. How do you feel about that” my Granddad asked.
What did he know?
He couldn't know how I felt about Chris. I haven't told anyone about being in love with him.
No One!
“What do you mean?”
“It’s just he's your boss, she's your sister your kind of in the middle. Are you ok with that?”
“Yer I guess” I lied. “It's no different for me and you I mean I work for him and you work with him”
“Yes it is kind of the same. How is it working with the man himself then?” he asked me.
“Oh, it's ok, like everyone he has his bad moods and good. But I've only been working with him for a bit he's always busy working in a different country, different businesses...”
“Different women”' my grandfather said
I looked at him in shock that he knew what Chris was like. I wanted to laugh and cry that it being true about Chris with all those women and not me but then laugh at myself for thinking it.
“Yes different women are you worried about Jess”
“Worried? No, Jessica knows what she's getting herself in for, I think she thinks she can change his bachelor ways and getting him to marry her' he said laughing but I just kept by straight face 'What? You think he will?”
“I don't know. I think they... like each other a lot. Maybe he'll want to marry her. She is his type” I said looking around the room trying to focus on something other than my Granddads glair.
“His type maybe but not his mothers and I know that he would never marry someone his mother didn't approve of. No one is good enough for her son”
I smiled my Granddads arm brought me closer in his arms, into a side hug. “Just like no one is good enough for you my dear”
I laughed and said “If no one’s good enough for be then who am I meant to marry match maker” I laughed pulling my arm around his waist.
“I'll find someone. Just give me time. I need to make sure you’re going to be well looked after when I'm gone” his words made me sad. Just the thought of losing my Granddad turned my heart to ash. He scared me so much when he talked about death, which he seems to do a lot these days.
Is it that old people hit an age and it's the only thing they like talking about?
I had to change the subject.
“Where are you taking me? I feel like I've been walking for ages” I ask him
“Here we are”
I turn the corner into a big open room; it was a 19th century style ball room. It was beautiful with different coloured fabrics around the room and the paintings on the wall wanted to make you cry they were so beautiful.
There were large windows that walked out onto the terrace and an amazing view of the gardens and the lake. I walked away from my Granddad and into the middle of the room walking around trying to take it all in before turning back to him. He was standing in the same place I left him, leaning on the door looking at me with a large smile on his face which made me smile even more too.
“This is amazing. It's all so beautiful and bright. I love it” I said waving my arms around. I looked back over to him to see him looking in the far left corner.
I turned my head to see a large white piano in the corner of the room.
I sighed and looked back at him.
“What's this?”
“It's my birthday present from you” he said to me
“You said you didn't want any presents”
“No, I said I don't want you spending your money on buying me presents. But what I have in mind won't cost you a thing” he said walking over to me, then pulling me over to the piano.
“Your foolish old man. Why would you want me to sing to you?” I asked him. He knew I loved singing and playing my music but like my father and mother said I wasn't that great at it, even if they never even heard me sing. It was only my Granddad and Nan who I ever played in front of.
He always believed in me.
“Please, for an old fool's birthday” he said pulling his hand up for me to take it.
I looked around the room, why not? No one was around. I took his hand in mine and allowed him to escort me to the piano stool.
“I don't even know if I remember how to play it has been a long time” I lied, I remember exactly how to play, it's not something you just forget. Just sitting back on that stool brought back the feeling I used to always have when playing the piano. Excitement and happiness rushed into one heartbeat.
“What do you want to hear?”
“Anything”
I laughed up at him and started kidding around playing the happy birthday song.
“Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you...” I started laughing at the look on his face. “Ok, ok let me think”
I had no idea what to play for him. My fingers brushed on the top of the keys feeling around. I closed my eyes and breathed in, pianos always smelled the same. Okay.
I breathed out and started playing.