An Unwanted Inheritance Read online

  ‘Oh, my God,’ said Alex as they rounded the corner into the cul-de-sac. He placed a heavy emphasis on the last word, his eyes sliding sideways to see the effect on his younger brother. He was the eldest of the grandchildren and was just starting to experiment with expletives and blasphemy.

  ‘Please don’t swear, Alex,’ said Caroline automatically. And then, ‘Goodness! What a lot of lights.’

  ‘I bet the neighbours are delighted,’ said Max under his breath. A quick glance at the rest of the houses in the cul-de-sac showed that they had adopted a much subtler approach to Christmas decorations.

  ‘That Santa is cool,’ said Theo. ‘Look, his sack lights up.’

  ‘I think I like the reindeer best,’ replied Caroline. The reindeer was quite tasteful, or it might have been in isolation.

  As they stood admiring the show, the front door swung open and there stood Tony, dressed in a hat designed to look like a cooked turkey complete with little chef’s hats on its legs.

  ‘Merry Christmas!’ he called to them. ‘Like the light show, boys?’

  The boys nodded enthusiastically.

  ‘It’s really sick, Grandad,’ said Alex, eyes shining.

  Tony grinned at them, clearly pleased with the impact his new lights had made.

  ‘And sick is a good thing?’ he asked, looking to Max for confirmation.

  ‘Yes, Dad. Sick is good, apparently,’ said Max.

  ‘I thought we’d moved on from sick,’ said Caroline, but not very loudly in case they were treated to the full range of new adjectives. The language used in their house had definitely taken a turn for the worse since Alex had started secondary school.

  ‘Come in, come in,’ said Tony, throwing wide his arms and beckoning them in with an extravagant gesture. ‘Ellie and James are here already so we’re only waiting for Nathan.’

  Caroline relaxed. She hadn’t seen Ellie since their book club Christmas drinks the week before and was looking forward to a catch-up.

  ‘We’ll just bring the food in,’ she said. ‘Max?’

  Max didn’t have to be asked twice and followed her back to the car, the boys making their way inside the house with their grandad. As they huddled under the raised boot, filling each other’s arms with the wherewithal for at least part of a perfect Christmas dinner, Max reached across and planted a kiss on the tip of her nose.

  ‘Thanks for this, Caro,’ he said. ‘I know you’d rather be at home, but it means a lot to Dad to have us all here.’

  ‘Oh, it’s okay,’ she replied graciously. ‘I don’t really mind.’ And now she was here she really didn’t. There were worse ways to spend Christmas. Caroline knew that only too well.

  They carried brimming bowls wrapped in clingfilm and endless Tupperware containers into the kitchen where they found Ellie, her cheeks glowing, basting the enormous turkey. Wafts of the tantalising scent of roast meat hit Caroline’s nostrils and her mouth watered instantly.

  ‘Mmm. That smells as if it’s nearly ready,’ she said.

  ‘The joys of pre-cooking,’ said Ellie. ‘Mrs S would have a fit.’

  Caroline gave her a knowing smirk and rolled her eyes good-naturedly.

  ‘You two communicate by code,’ said Max. ‘It’s totally baffling to the rest of us. Who on earth is Mrs S?’

  ‘Mrs Sunderland,’ provided Caroline. ‘Our Home Ec. teacher. She’d have strung us up for reheating turkey, but if we want to eat before Boxing Day . . .’

  ‘Well, I don’t care how you do it,’ said Max. ‘It always tastes delicious to me. Hi, sis.’

  He moved to give Ellie a hug, but she shooed him away with a flick of her tea towel.

  ‘Not now, Max. Crucial moment. James is in the lounge. Grab yourself a beer and go and rescue him from Dad.’

  Caroline began opening her boxes to check what each contained and then placing them on the table or in the fridge depending on their contents.

  ‘Where are the girls?’ she asked.

  ‘Upstairs, I think,’ said Ellie. ‘Olivia is sulking because they both got a Barbie but she wants the one that Lucy got. I didn’t think it would make any difference who got what, but more fool me, eh? I should have just bought two the same and saved the arguments.’

  The thought that the girls should be more grateful peeked its nose into a corner of Caroline’s mind but she ignored it.

  ‘And what did Santa bring you?’ she asked.

  Ellie slid the turkey back into the oven, shut the door and stripped off the oven gloves before shyly proffering her wrist to Caroline. The wrist bore a bangle in what she assumed was eighteen-carat white gold and studded all the way round with brilliant-cut diamonds. It was truly beautiful.

  Caroline took Ellie’s hand to examine the bracelet more carefully. The diamonds twinkled in the light.

  ‘Wow,’ she breathed. ‘Somebody’s been good this year. That’s absolutely gorgeous, Ellie.’

  She held Ellie’s hand for a little longer, twisting it gently so the diamonds sparkled, and then let it go. Ellie lifted her hand up to the light so she could admire the present for herself.

  ‘Isn’t it pretty?’ she said. ‘I’m such a lucky girl.’ Her cheeks flushed pink with pleasure.

  ‘You really are!’ agreed Caroline. ‘But you deserve to be spoilt.’

  Ellie gave a bashful smile then dropped her arm, hiding the bracelet beneath the sleeve of her dress.

  ‘And how about you?’ she asked. ‘Did you get anything nice?’

  Caroline had received lots of lovely gifts from Max, nothing nearly as flashy or expensive as the one James had bought Ellie, but each thoughtfully chosen and carefully wrapped. Suddenly though, the gifts felt too private to share, even with her best friend. She didn’t want to spoil them by making them sound silly or trivial.

  ‘Oh, you know. The usual kind of things: perfume, some nice underwear, a couple of books,’ she replied vaguely.

  ‘Max always was good at presents,’ said Ellie. ‘Do you remember that compilation tape he made you when we were in the sixth form where each track was a clue to where he’d hidden your gift?’

  Caroline did remember; of course she remembered. It was the kind of romantic gesture that a girl might carry with her for life and use as a benchmark for all future relationships to live up to. She still had the tape, with its insert card made of a photograph of her laughing at some long-forgotten joke, her head thrown back and her pale smooth neck exposed. They no longer had a cassette recorder on which to play it, but she wouldn’t have risked playing it anyway in case the machine chewed up the precious tape.

  ‘He is,’ she said fondly. ‘He gives it lots of thought.’

  ‘And the boys? Were they happy with their stash?’ Ellie asked.

  Caroline noted the noun, how it implied far more gifts than the boys had actually received.

  ‘It was mainly sports kit,’ she replied, ‘and the PlayStation that they got to share, but yes, pretty happy.’

  ‘You’re so lucky,’ sighed Ellie. ‘Your boys are so easily pleased. There’s no way we could get away with a shared present – there’d be World War Three. I think it must be a girl versus boy thing. Girls are just so much more demanding.’

  Caroline had her doubts about this, but it was a well-trodden path between the two of them and she would rather not venture that way today. So she smiled and asked, ‘And how about the girls? What did they want?’

  ‘Mainly things that were pink and/or expensive,’ laughed Ellie. ‘Lucy asked for a Prada mobile phone case! Well, you can imagine what we said to that one.’ Ellie raised her eyebrows to suggest what a ludicrous thing such a gift might have been. Privately, Caroline thought what was really ludicrous was that her eight-year-old niece had a mobile phone at all, but again, there was nothing to be gained by saying so.

  ‘Where do they get the ideas?’ she asked instead. She meant it as a rhetorical statement but Ellie supplied her with the answer.

  ‘TikTok!’

  They laughed and shook the
ir heads at the madness that was the twenty-first century.

  ‘Whatever happened to the Argos catalogue?’ asked Caroline. ‘It worked perfectly well for us when we were their age. Right, I think I need a drink.’ She peered over at Ellie’s half-empty glass. ‘What are you on? Fizz?’

  Ellie nodded.

  ‘Dad was wandering around with the bottle. There might be some left. Or there’s some white open in the fridge if you’d prefer that.’

  Prosecco gave Caroline a headache and Christmas Day was a marathon, not a sprint.

  ‘I think I’ll stick with still,’ she said, helping herself to a glass from the cupboard and opening the fridge door. There was next to no food in there other than what she and Ellie had brought with them. Tony was obviously hoping to see out the festive period on leftovers from that day’s meal. She grabbed the open bottle, gave a scant glance at the label and unscrewed the lid.

  James stuck his nose around the door just as she was pouring.

  ‘Nice wine that, Caroline. Found it in a little chateau down near Bordeaux. It’s not cheap, mind you . . .’

  He’s going to tell me exactly how much it was, thought Caroline, but Ellie interrupted him.

  ‘Are the girls still upstairs?’ she asked. ‘Could you just go and check on them?’

  James helped himself to two more beers from the fridge and then went out into the hallway where he proceeded to bellow up the stairs for his daughters.

  Ellie rolled her eyes. ‘If I’d wanted it shouting I could have done it myself,’ she muttered, and Caroline shook her head in solidarity.

  There was the sound of footsteps tripping down the stairs accompanied by Olivia’s shrill voice.

  ‘Come on, Lucy. Daddy’s calling us.’

  Ellie smiled, relieved possibly that just one shout had resulted in the desired result without any more being required. The girls, blonde and really quite cute-looking in matching floaty party dresses, appeared in the kitchen.

  ‘When’s food, Mum?’ asked Olivia. ‘We’re starving.’

  ‘I think that’s unlikely,’ said Ellie, ‘and it’s not “food”. It’s the Christmas dinner that your Auntie Caroline and I have slaved over for days. But I’m not sure when we’ll be eating. We need Uncle Nathan to arrive first. Why don’t you go and see if Grandad’s put out any snacks in the snug.’

  Olivia wrinkled her nose. ‘The boys are in there,’ she said with mild disdain.

  ‘But you like the boys,’ said Ellie.

  ‘And they’ll have eaten all the snacks already.’

  ‘Well, why don’t you go and check,’ suggested Caroline, ‘and if they have come back here and we’ll give you some girls-only snacks.’

  Olivia’s face lit up at this and she swivelled on the spot and left the room. ‘Come on, Lucy,’ she added as they went, and Lucy trooped out obediently behind her sister.

  ‘Oh, bless them,’ said Caroline before Ellie could. ‘They’re getting so big.’

  Ellie smiled indulgently. ‘They’re tiny really. You wouldn’t believe that Liv and Theo are the same age. He’s a good head taller than her.’

  ‘Well, Max is taller than James, I suppose,’ replied Caroline, feeling prouder of her husband than the comment merited. ‘And anyway, there’s plenty of time for them to grow. Keep them looking tiny and cute as long as you can, Ellie, that way nobody can mistake them for being older than they are.’

  Girls seem to grow up far too quickly these days, Caroline thought, judging by the ones that she saw on the edges of Alex’s life. If she had girls, she would keep them well away from make-up and skimpy tops and pouting selfies. There would be plenty of time for all that nonsense, but many of the girls she knew had mothers who were positively shoving their daughters in that direction, as if their child becoming a pseudo-adult couldn’t happen quickly enough. Not Ellie, though. On this point at least their parenting values were aligned.

  Ellie untied her apron strings and slipped it over her head.

  ‘Well, I don’t think we can do much more until Nath gets here. He’s shambolic, that man. He needs a good woman to organise him.’ Her eyes opened wide and she bit her lip. ‘God, was that a terrible thing to say?’ she asked. ‘Given that the only one he’s ever really wanted has upped and left him.’

  Caroline pulled a face. ‘Probably, but I wouldn’t worry about it,’ she replied. ‘And it’s true anyway – he clearly can’t organise himself!’

  Just at that moment the front door opened and someone shouted, ‘Merry Christmas!’

  Ellie grinned at Caroline. ‘Speak of the devil.’

  Nathan, the youngest of the Frost siblings and the tallest, had always been a little bit fuzzy around the edges for Caroline. Nine years younger than Max and seven younger than her and Ellie, he had never really featured in their lives in the same way they had in each other’s. Caroline could remember him being born, she and Ellie trying to play with him as if he were their very own living doll. When they were children, Nathan was always the one tagging along and being a nuisance. They used to watch him if Valerie popped to the shops, but they had never actively engaged with him. He was too young to be bothered with.

  The last year had been tough for Nathan. His long-term girlfriend, Tasha, who they had all liked, had walked out on him. It wasn’t as if they had lived in each other’s pockets, and, of course, nobody ever knew for sure what was going on in another household, but her sudden departure had been a surprise. Even though Tasha was nearly ten years her junior, Caroline had liked her very much and had been sad to see her check out of Nathan’s life. Her texts had gone unanswered though. Tash was apparently looking for a clean break from the entire Frost family and not just Nathan. Caroline couldn’t help but wonder why it had all gone so wrong, or what Nathan had done to drive her so far away but, despite a huge amount of speculation by her and Ellie, she still had no idea.

  There was a thundering of feet as the cousins all ran to meet their favourite uncle. Being the youngest and without the encumbrance of children of his own, Uncle Nathan was always the last adult left on the Twister mat and could generally be found playing ‘just one more round’ of whatever game was happening long after the other grown-ups had skulked back to their sofas. He also bought great gifts – generally not lavish, but invariably hitting the nail precisely on the head. He was like Max in that. Valerie had trained her sons well.

  ‘Hi, everyone,’ he said as he defended himself from the physical onslaught of his nephews and nieces, sweeping Theo up in one arm and grabbing Lucy with the other so that she squealed with delight. ‘Sorry I’m late.’

  ‘Again!’ laughed Ellie. ‘Did Father Christmas bring you an alarm clock because he jolly well should have done.’

  ‘Have I missed something?’ he asked, looking slightly crestfallen. He looked at his watch. An expensive gift from Ellie and James the year before, it hung loosely round his thin wrist looking as if it belonged to someone else. ‘I thought we said one o’clock.’

  ‘And it’s ten past two,’ scolded Ellie. ‘But it’s okay. Caro and I are seasoned professionals, and we anticipated your late arrival and factored it in accordingly.’

  ‘You are at least reliable in your lateness, Nath,’ chipped in James, and Caroline saw Nathan’s smile slip just a little. Teasing was acceptable from his siblings, but less welcome, it seemed, from his brother-in-law.

  ‘Well, I’m here now,’ he said. ‘What can I do to help?’

  ‘Grab yourself a beer and stay out of the way,’ said Max good-humouredly.

  ‘Ah, Nathan. There you are. Deigned to grace us with your presence, then?’

  Tony had appeared in the doorway still wearing the turkey hat and with a glass of wine in his hand. He was grinning broadly, but Caroline sensed that something about his tone was off and immediately, and quite unnecessarily, wanted to leap in to defend her brother-in-law. A look that she couldn’t decipher flickered across Nathan’s face, but then he returned his father’s smile.

  ‘Hi, Dad,’ he
said. ‘Merry Christmas! Sorry I’m late. Can I do anything to help?’ he asked again, turning back to Caroline and Ellie.

  ‘Get yourself a drink and get out of the way!’ replied Ellie, and Nathan did as he was told.

  4

  Tony’s dining table wasn’t large enough to accommodate all ten of them (which was yet another reason to spend the day at Ellie’s house, Caroline always thought, as their table was plenty big enough). They had to take a Heath Robinson approach to creating a large enough space by joining two tables of differing heights and widths together and attempting to cover the join with tablecloths that were too big and so trailed on three sides. The effect was very homely, but Caroline regretted that her table dressing never looked quite as she imagined it would because of the various levels and lack of clean lines.

  She and Ellie had to take it in turns to dress the table as it was an aspect of Christmas Day that they both enjoyed. Caroline tried to go for a different look whenever it was her turn – something to differentiate one year from another in the photos. She usually favoured traditional reds, golds and silvers, but this year she had opted for a rather left-field purple and was feeling a little anxious about it. Tony had some very definite ideas about what he liked and could make his views known in no uncertain terms if something didn’t quite match his expectations. However, as the family made their way into the dining room and saw her choices, their reactions were gratifying, particularly from the female contingent.

  ‘Can I have those pom-poms after?’ asked Lucy, fondling the tinsel balls that hung from the backs of the mismatched chairs.

  Olivia, sensing that she was about to be outdone, chipped in with her own request and Caroline could feel a row brewing. She had taken a shine to the purple pom-poms herself and had rather hoped she could discreetly pop them back into her bag when they were clearing up and use them to decorate her own kitchen. Ellie, however, was on it.

  ‘For goodness’ sake, girls. We haven’t even sat down, so let’s not start stripping the table just yet. We can worry about who gets what after we’ve eaten.’

  The girls quietened but Caroline could see them sending warning signals to each other with their eyes, already dividing the pom-poms into two neat piles of five in their heads.