The Emerald Comb. Kathleen McGurl

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СКАЧАТЬ one wall. It was made of dark wood, and was clearly very old. It was beautiful.

      ‘That was here when we moved in,’ Mrs Delamere said, nodding at the shelves. ‘Riddled with woodworm, unfortunately, though we have had it treated.’

      ‘It’s gorgeous. I wonder if it was here when my ancestors lived here?’

      ‘I’ll go and make the tea,’ said Vera. ‘Sit down, Katie, do. By the fire, there. It’ll get going in a moment.’

      I sat opposite Harold in a well-worn fireside chair. ‘This is a lovely cosy room.’

      Harold nodded. ‘We think this was originally a study. There’s a much bigger sitting room across the hall, but it’s too hard to heat it. When there’s only Vera and me, this room’s just right for us. So, you’re a St Clair, are you? I thought old Barty hadn’t had any children. Certainly no one to leave the house to.’

      ‘You’re right, he didn’t. I’m descended from his younger brother, William.’

      ‘Ah, that would explain it,’ said Harold, nodding with satisfaction.

      Vera bustled in with the tea tray. She gave it to Harold to balance on his lap for a moment as she tugged at a shelf in the old unit. It folded out, creating a desk, and she put the tea tray on it.

      We chatted comfortably about the history of the house and my research while we drank the tea, then Vera offered me a tour of the house.

      Harold had fallen asleep in his chair, his head nodding forward onto his chest. Vera gently took his tea cup out of his hand and put it on a side table. I followed her back into the huge hallway. ‘Are you sure you don’t mind showing me around? I must admit I’m dying to see the house.’

      ‘Oh, it’s quite all right. Lovely to have a visitor, if truth be told. Well, here’s the living room. Drawing room, I suppose I should call it.’

      She ushered me into a large, cold room, with a window to the front of the house. It had a grand fireplace which looked original, brown floral seventies carpet and cream woodchip wallpaper. Family photographs showing a younger Vera and Harold with two cheeky-looking boys jostled for position on the mantelpiece, and heavy crushed-velvet curtains hung at the window.

      ‘We don’t come in here much, except in the summer when it’s the coolest room in the house,’ Vera said.

      She led the way back through the hallway and into the dining room I’d peered into from outside. I crossed to the window and looked out. The garden was surprisingly small for such a large old house, and I commented on this.

      ‘It would have had much more land originally,’ Vera explained. ‘Most of it was sold off before we moved in. There would have been stables and other outbuildings – we think those stood where Stables Close is now. But what’s left is a lovely garden. It catches the evening sun. And we’re very fond of that tree.’ She pointed to a huge beech which stood against a crumbling garden wall.

      ‘I bet your children enjoyed climbing that,’ I said.

      ‘Oh, they did, they did! Tim would be sitting up there where the main trunk forks, and Mike would push past him and go up higher. I couldn’t watch, but Harold always thought it was better for boys to climb trees than artificial climbing frames in sterile playgrounds.’

      I laughed. ‘My dad always says the same thing. My sister and I were both tomboys and spent half our childhoods up trees.’

      ‘Good for you! I think it’s essential for children to play outside. Shall we continue with the tour?’

      She took me down a dark corridor to the kitchen with its walk-in pantry and a rather damp utility room which might once have been called a scullery. Then upstairs, where four large bedrooms and a bathroom occupied the first floor, and another two smaller attic bedrooms filled the second floor. I loved every inch of it. I suspected none of it had seen a lick of paint or a roll of new wallpaper since the sixties or seventies but the house oozed charm and character. I tried to imagine my ancestors here: Barty and his brother William, my great-great-grandfather, running up and down the stairs as boys; their father Bartholomew writing letters in the study downstairs; their mother serenely embroidering a sampler by the fireside in the drawing room. There would have been servants here too, living in those attic bedrooms.

      We finished the tour and went back downstairs. Harold was still dozing beside the fire in the old study. ‘Thank you so much, Mrs Delamere,’ I said. ‘I have really enjoyed imagining my ancestors living here. It’s a wonderful house.’

      ‘It is, yes.’ She shook her head. ‘Sadly it’s too much for Harold and me nowadays. We shall soon have to think about moving out and into somewhere smaller. But I hate the thought of developers carving it up into flats, and I’m certain that’s what would happen. We’ve been approached by a couple of developers already.’

      ‘Mmm, yes, I can see you’d want it to stay as it is.’

      ‘Oh, I wouldn’t mind the idea of it being done up inside. Lord knows it needs it – tastes have changed and I know it’s very dated. But I’d want to think of it remaining as a single family home. Ah, well.’ She caught hold of my hands and leaned in to kiss my cheek. ‘Katie, it’s been so lovely to meet you. I hope you’ll come again – I’d love to hear more about how you researched your ancestors, and how you knew they lived here.’

      ‘Well, it was all via the census records,’ I said, as I slipped on my coat. ‘They’re available on the Internet now, which makes it all pretty easy.’

      Vera smiled. ‘I’m afraid we don’t even own a computer.’

      As I left the house I sensed someone’s eyes on me, and turned to look back. Vera was standing at the study window, watching me go with a wistful expression on her thin face. I waved, and she smiled and waved back. I crossed the street and took a few photos of the house for my records, then headed back home to Southampton. As I drove back down the motorway I wondered what kind of mood Simon would be in. Hopefully he’d have got over himself by now. I was buzzing with excitement about having seen inside my ancestors’ home and wanted to be able to share it with him.

      ***

      Simon was in the kitchen, stirring a pot of bolognese sauce for the kids’ tea. I put my arms around him from behind, stretched up and kissed the back of his neck.

      ‘Mind out! You nearly made me knock the pan over.’ He shrugged himself out of my hug.

      ‘Sorry. I’ll take over if you like.’ I gave the pot a stir then waltzed off around the kitchen. Our four-year old, Thomas, came in pushing a small yellow digger along the floor and making engine noises. He giggled when he saw me dancing. I scooped him up and danced with him.

      ‘Hey, not while I’m cooking!’ said Simon, brandishing his wooden spoon. ‘There’s no space in here for mucking about. I take it from your happy dance that you found what you were looking for?’

      ‘Yes, I found the house!’

      ‘What house was this?’

      ‘Oh, Simon, I told you this morning!’ I put Thomas down. He retrieved his digger and resumed excavations in the hallway. ‘It was the house where the St Clairs lived, for over a hundred years. My great-great-grandfather William St Clair would have been born there, and his father Bartholomew СКАЧАТЬ