Emma’s Secret

‘He just hasn’t met the right woman yet, that’s all,’ Paula asserted. She pushed herself up from the chair, walked across the floor of the upstairs parlour where they were sitting.

Emily’s eyes followed her. She thought her cousin looked beautiful tonight with her new short hairdo: sleek, stylish and youthful. She was wearing a long, straight, amethyst wool skirt and a matching turtleneck sweater that brought out the colour of her eyes and was a foil for her dark hair. The outfit was simple, even a little severe in a way, but it suited Paula, who was tall and slender.

Emily wished she had a figure like Paula’s, but try though she did she always looked slightly plump in comparison. No wonder Paula had affectionately dubbed her Apple Dumpling when she was little. She was still fighting the childhood propensity to put on weight.

In all the years of their growing up together they had never exchanged a cross word or had a quarrel, although sometimes the eight-year-old Paula had reprimanded Emily when she was five and they were staying at Heron’s Nest, Emma’s summer home in Scarborough, and she had been what Paula called ‘a pest’. Cousins, best friends and confidantes, they had been each other’s rock in times of trouble and adversity.

For the most part, these two had been brought up by Emma, were trained by her, and today they ran a large part of her empire between them, and did so with great skill. They were devoted to their grandmother’s memory, and in a sense they were the keepers of the flame.

Pausing at the door of the bedroom which adjoined the upstairs parlour, Paula said, ‘There’s something I want to show you before the others arrive.’

‘What?’

‘Linnet and India found it in the storage attics and—’

‘The famous beaded dress!’ Emily declared triumphantly.

‘No, not the dress. Oh, they found that all right, but they came across something else, something much more important.’

‘Hurry up then, I’m intrigued.’ Emily sat back, an expectant look on her face.

A moment later Paula came back carrying the old brown leather suitcase, the small one which contained the diaries. She placed it on the coffee table in front of Emily, and then, leaning forward, she lifted the lid.

‘This is it,’ she said, glancing over her shoulder to look at her cousin.

‘What’s in it, actually?’ Emily asked, full of curiosity.

‘Grandy’s diaries. From 1938 to 1947. Ten of them, and they’re all in the most beautiful condition. I suspect she stored them in this case for years, and that’s why they’re so well preserved.’

‘Oh my God, what a find!’ Emily cried, leaning forward, staring at the set of black leather, gold-embossed diaries placed side by side in consecutive order within the case. ‘But where on earth have they been all these years? And how is it the girls just found them? I mean, why didn’t we?’ She glanced at Paula, frowning. ‘How could we have missed them?’

‘You’re going to have a good laugh when I tell you where they were stored for years, Emily.’

‘Where?’

‘In that walk-in closet in the ground floor office.’

‘Not the one which is now called the morning room?’ Emily asked, her eyes wide with surprise.

‘Exactly. They’d been there for years. This one and five others, all part of a matched set of luggage from Asprey. Grandy used that office every day when she was at Pennistone Royal, and for years and years. So it was definitely she who put them there. This small case was actually inside a larger one, otherwise I would have noticed the luggage label marked confidential. Anyway, I moved them when I revamped that room a few months ago.’

‘And you never looked inside any of the cases?’ Emily asked, incredulity echoing in her voice.

‘No. Why would I? They weren’t heavy. I just assumed Grandy had kept them there because there was no space left in the luggage room. Which there isn’t. And it was a convenient place. Actually, I never gave them a second thought, not even when I used that office myself. I had Margaret put them down in the basement when I redecorated.’

‘So how did they find their way to the attics?’

‘Margaret took them up there. We had a dreadful flood in the basement two weeks ago, and she remembered the cases when she was taking other things out to safety. She knew they were good, hardly used, and she put them in the smaller attic, in the first cupboard where there was space.’

‘Thank God she did. If she hadn’t, the cases and the diaries would have been totally ruined, destroyed.’

‘You’re right, we’re lucky she acted so promptly.’

Emily glanced at the open suitcase again, and then turned to her cousin. ‘Have you read any of them?’

‘I haven’t. Linnet only gave them to me a couple of hours ago.’

‘Are you going to?’

‘Eventually, I suppose.’

‘Shall we look inside one now?’ Emily asked. ‘I’m very curious.’

Paula hesitated, and then nodded. ‘All right, if you want to, Emily.’

Reaching into the case, Emily pulled out the diary dated 1938, opened it and glanced at the first page, then she handed it to Paula silently.

After scanning the page in the same cursory way Emily had done, Paula put the diary back in the small suitcase. ‘I don’t think we should be reading these …’

‘I know what you mean, they’re very private. On the other hand, Paula, I have the feeling Gran wouldn’t mind us looking at them. I think she’d want us to read them, actually.’

‘Perhaps you’re right. But for now I’m going to lock the case and put it away somewhere safe. And maybe in a few weeks or so we can read them together. If you’d like that, Emily?’

‘Oh yes, I would, that’s a good idea. Gran was articulate, you know, and actually she wrote rather well I thought. She expressed herself most eloquently at times.’ Emily paused, and then leaning toward Paula, she said quietly, ‘I’m sure there are a few secrets in there, don’t you agree?’

‘I don’t really know … did she have any during the war years? Paul was dead and she was grieving, coping with our uncles being in the services, running a big business under wartime conditions. What kind of secrets could she possibly have had?’

‘Well, I didn’t mean sexual, or anything like that! I bet she never wrote that kind of thing down. Really, Paula, Gran was very proper.’

‘She also had a number of husbands, let’s not forget that.’

‘Only two. And two lovers.’

‘And that was that. So I’m sure there are no secrets buried in those diaries.’

‘You never know. Anyway, everyone has secrets,’ Emily pronounced.

‘They do?’ Shane said from the doorway, startling them both, making them jump as he strolled into the room. ‘Are you quite positive of that?’ He was smiling broadly as he came to join them by the fireside.

Paula said, ‘I didn’t get a chance to tell you earlier, Shane, but India found a case full of Grandy’s diaries in the attic. I was just telling Emily about their discovery, showing them to her.’

‘How wonderful,’ he said, glancing at the case on the coffee table. ‘I see they’re her private diaries.’

‘Yes, it’s a great find, but we’ve decided not to read any of them. At least not now.’

Shane looked down at her, his eyes loving as he said, ‘You’ve made a good decision … wait for the right moment. After all, these are sacrosanct … a woman’s private thoughts and feelings. Those should be treated with great respect.’

Later, as she sat near the fireplace in the great Stone Hall, Paula glanced around at her family, as always pleased and happy to have them gathered around her at Pennistone Royal.