Winner Takes It All (18 page)

‘
He’s only
thirty-four!’ Andrew chuckled ‘A mere boy.’

He turned his attentions
once again to Tom.

‘
So how are
you finding Summerset Tom?’ he asked.

‘
Quiet. It’s
hard to believe Claremont Hall used to be my family
home.’

‘
Tara tells me
your grandmother disowned Fiona because she married a
Catholic.’

‘
Not married
no, just got pregnant by one. That was enough for my gran to
flip.’

‘
And she’s
never tried to contact you since?’

‘
No,’ Tom
blushed.

‘
She’s a silly
woman. She’s been blessed with grandchildren and should make the
most of them.’

‘
Don’t get sad
Andrew,’ Tara pouted, lifting his frail hand to her lips. ‘Dan and
I love you like a grandfather.’

‘
Bless you,’
he smiled sadly.

Tom tried to assess the
situation. He got the feeling Tara was oblivious to any potential
scandal but he wondered why Paula had suddenly stopped visiting
Andrew. Had she discovered something? There had been times when
he’d thought Jackson’s idea of him uncovering family secrets had
been akin to pissing in the wind; but he had to give a heads up to
his cousin. He knew exactly what he was talking about.

They remained with Andrew
a while longer, but when the old man started to nod off Tara felt
it was best to go. They walked back down into the village, Tara
asking Tom if he would like to drop in for a spot of dinner. He
accepted, deciding it would give him a while longer to probe her
about Andrew and Lou and all the family secrets. Nothing at all to
do with him enjoying her company.

They walked along
Summerset High Street in a comfortable silence when the peace and
quiet was suddenly broken by a loud voice.

‘
Tara? Tara it
is you?’

Tara stopped dead and
looked to where the voice was coming from. Out of a blue Mercedes
convertible emerged a young woman. She was around the same age as
Tara, but much more trendily dressed; a snazzy little leather
jacket, shades pushing back her long dark hair.

‘
H-Hello
Polly,’ Tara uttered, clearly mortified to see this
girl.

‘
Have you
changed your email address? I’ve been sending you loads of messages
and have had no response,’ the girl said as she joined
them.

‘
I’ve been
busy.’

‘
Well I’m just
on my way down to Brighton so I thought I’d pop in and see you. You
are coming to the reunion aren’t you?’

‘
I can’t,’
Tara twittered, fiddling in her bag for her door keys. ‘I’ve got
other things on that day.’

‘
Come on Tara,
you haven’t see anyone in nearly ten years.’

‘
No I’m sorry,
I’m busy.’

She got her keys from her
bag and pushed past Polly and Tom, heading for her front
door.

‘
Okay,’ Polly
uttered. ‘Well if you change your mind, you’ve got my email
address.’

Not even responding, Tara
shot into her front door and slammed it behind her.

Stunned, Polly turned to
Tom.

‘
What’s the
matter with her?’ she asked.

‘
I’ve no idea.
I only work with her, I don’t know her well enough to explain why
she just did that. What’s going on?’

‘
We all
graduated from Oxford ten years ago this year and I’ve been
emailing Tara for weeks, asking her to go the reunion I’m
organising. I don’t know why she’s behaving like this.’

‘
She lost her
grandmother a couple of months ago. Perhaps it’s delayed
grief.’

‘
Perhaps. Well
she’s got my number and my email address if she changes her
mind...’

Slipping her sunglasses
back down over her face, Polly headed back across the road to her
super car, leaving Tom completely puzzled as to why the normally
calm Tara had just reacted in such a ridiculous way.

Telling himself he didn’t
care what she did, he went to walk away but he was met with an
invisible wall that stopped him going any further. Something had
upset Tara and he hated the thought of her sitting in her house
alone and crying. Turning back, he banged on her front door,
calling her name. There was no answer and refusing to give up, he
took out his phone and called her. It took three attempts before
she finally picked it up, asking what he wanted.

‘
I thought you
were cooking me dinner,’ he replied.

‘
I don’t feel
like it,’ she said quietly and he was sure he could hear a choke in
her voice. He knew it, she
was
crying.

‘
What’s the
matter Tara? Let me come up and see you.’

‘
No, go home
Tom. I’m tired. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

‘
You’re upset.
What is it?’

‘
Just leave me
alone.’

She ended the call and
Tom knew he was fighting a losing battle. He had to stand and take
stock for a moment, feeling he was in the middle of some surreal
dream. Just lately Tara had been slowly coming out of her shell,
laughing more and one day she’d even come into the office wearing
her hair loose instead of those stupid plaits, and now suddenly she
had gone scuttling back in and wasn’t letting him anywhere near
her.

Walking away, Tom
realised how alone he felt. Tara was the only person he knew in
Summerset and she was persona non grata and he had nothing to look
forward to but a lonely evening in front of the TV. He contemplated
driving back up to London and seeing Sadie, but just of late, her
sexual shenanigans had begun to lose their appeal. He couldn’t
remember when they’d just sat and had a conversation or gone for a
walk or did what normal couples done.

Instead of going home, he
got in his car and took a chance in driving over to Layton House.
Alex had requested they all pull together as a family, drop in and
see Christian and take some of the pressure off Julie. Maybe he
could speak to Ben and find out more about Louisa. As he drove, he
found his mind wandering back to Tara, wondering what had gone on
between her and Polly. She never spoke of her university days, but
he just put that down to it being a long time ago. But this girl
Polly really had sparked a bad memory and he wished she’d just talk
to him and explain what was wrong. Tara was such a sweet soul; he
didn’t like the thought of her being unhappy. Sometimes he even
wished she wasn’t part of the Cusack family, because when they came
tumbling down, she would too and she didn’t deserve it.

Despite Claremont Hall
being his ancestral seat, Tom had to admit Layton House was a much
nicer building. There was something dark and almost gothic about
his family’s house and while it was fine for a museum, it must have
appeared pretty terrifying when they’d been in charge of the
village. Layton House was brighter and more open, with finely cut
gardens out the front and Tom thought to himself how lovely it must
have been for Tara and Alex and Michael and the other Cusack
children to come here and play. All he’d ever had was an adventure
playground littered with needles and dog turds.

He was let in by one of
the housekeepers who informed him Mrs Cusack had taken the younger
Mr Cusack for a walk around the grounds. The older Mr Cusack was
taking tea in the drawing room and asked Tom if he’d like to join
him. Tom almost bit her hand off, but restrained himself and waited
patiently while she went and asked Ben if he wanted company. Within
moments the woman returned, a broad smile on her otherwise pinched
face.

‘
Mr Cusack
says go on in. I’ll bring some more tea.’

Tom entered the drawing
room to find it a huge, lavishly decorated room with every surface
covered by photographs and ornaments. On a royal blue sofa sat Ben,
drinking a cup of tea and watching
Emmerdale
on a small
portable TV. He looked at Tom and smiled, patting the seat beside
him.

‘
Hello young
Tom,’ he smiled. ‘Come and sit down.’

Tom did as he was told,
sitting beside the old man. Ben pointed the remote control at the
TV, rendering it silent.

‘
Load of
rubbish anyway,’ he laughed. ‘Where’s that grand-daughter of
mine?’

‘
At home. A
strange thing happened. She was going to cook me dinner and we were
almost at her front door when this girl turned up who she’d gone to
university with. Tara refused to speak to her, scooted indoors and
slammed the door behind her. She wouldn’t let me in to see her or
anything. I’ve no idea what’s going on. Did she have a horrible
time at University or something?’

‘
She never
really talks about it. She was very excited to get into Oxford.
Paula went there as well but she dropped out in her first year.
Tara was determined to finish her degree. She was doing Ancient
History and wanted to become an archaeologist. When she graduated
she came home for a while and seemed to withdraw into her shell
even more than before. She announced she was giving up archaeology
and Christian gave her the job of running the Claremont Hall. So I
guess she’s still looking after an old relic..’ He chuckled.
‘Sorry, shouldn’t talk about your family’s old pile like
that.’

‘
So Tara told
you who I am.’

‘
Christian
did. I have to say you do have a look of your grandfather about
you.’

‘
Lord
Rupert?’

‘
Um. He was a
nice man. I don’t know how he coped, being married to
Sorcha.’

‘
Did you know
my grandmother well?’

‘
When we were
kids, yes. She had a terrible crush on me when she was a young
teenager. She would sneak over here and throw stones up at my
window trying to get my attention. If she did it these days I’d
have a restraining order put on her.’

‘
Why weren’t
you interested in her? Was it because she was so young?’

The housekeeper came in
and once she had finished pouring the tea, Ben levered his bulky
body round to face Tom, his expression unusually
serious.

‘
Tom I’m sorry
to say it but your grandmother was born bad. You see, when Nancy,
the eldest daughter was born, it came as a disappointment to
Patrick and Colleen Sheridan as they’d wanted an heir. But the
Sheridans are vulgar people and because Nancy was so stunningly
pretty and likely to marry well, they lavished her. Then came
Briggy. Bridget was such a plain little thing, but it was obvious
she had a brain and was much more suited to taking over the
company. I think to make her hard they never showed her an ounce of
affection and she ended up becoming quite a prickly, selfish
person. By the time Sorcha came along, they’d given up hope of a
boy, so instead treated her like a spoilt pet. The first time I
ever encountered Sorcha was when she was about seven and I was
twelve. I was walking my dog on the hills and I found her beating
her own dog with a stick because it wouldn’t hunt rabbits. Her
parents were letting her do it but I couldn’t help myself, I had to
tell her to stop it. I got a right ticking off from Patrick
Sheridan. He went home and telephoned my father, instructing him to
have me beaten for insolence.’

‘
And did
he?’

‘
No.’ He
laughed. ‘Papa gave me a pat on the back for annoying the
Sheridans!’

‘
But Sorcha
was a child then, she probably didn’t know what she was
doing.’

‘
She never
changed Tom. There was something evil about that girl. Look how
easily she cast your mother aside just because she fell in love
with the wrong person. By God my children have made some terrible
choices but I would never dream of disowning them.’

‘
What about
Lou? How did she feel about her children’s choices?’

‘
The only one
that really cut her up was Sean, Paula’s first husband. He was an
American bounder who left his wife and children. Lou wanted so much
better for Paula. Lo and behold, she was right about him and he
ended up running off back to his first wife.’

‘
But she was
alright with the other children’s partners?’

‘
Oh yes. She
just wanted them to be happy.’

‘
I wish I’d
met Lou. She sounds quite a woman.’

‘
She was,’ Ben
smiled sadly. ‘I miss her every day. I loved her from the first
time I ever saw her when she was fifteen and that love never died.
I look forward to the day I can see her again. But for now, I’m
enjoying my wonderful family.’ He smiled and laid a big paw on
Tom’s arm. ‘Which I hope you can be part of now. You’re a distant
cousin to my lot and we’re a close clan.’

‘
I see that.
Even by the way you’ve all embraced Andrew McDonald and he’s only
distant family by marriage.’

‘
Andrew,’ he
said with a shake of the head. ‘He’s always clung onto the
coat-tails of our family. Maybe if Briggy had provided him with
children he would have felt differently.’

‘
Tara thinks
the world of him.’

‘
I know. Maybe
if Wesley’s father wasn’t in the West Indies and she got to see him
more often she wouldn’t cling to Andrew like some sort of surrogate
grandfather. Although I do sometimes think my darling Tara finds
being a Cusack a bit overwhelming. We’re quite a loud bunch and
she’s always preferred to have her head in a book. Andrew’s like
that, so she can relate to him.’