Page 22 of Right Place, Right Time
‘What?’ he asks, making me jump as I realise I’ve been simply gazing at him while I think.
‘Nothing … I’m just trying to think what this could all mean?’
‘Maybe it’s as simple as they knew each other back then and it’s just coincidence that we’ve bumped into each other now all these years later? They both lived in Cambridge then, didn’t they? I doubt Cambridge was as big a city in the forties as it is now.’
‘Perhaps …’ I reply to be polite, but I’m not happy with this explanation. I want to know why and how they knew each other. Whereas Adam just seems happy to let it go. As always, he seems relaxed and chilled about this new discovery, whereas I want to get to the bottom of the mystery. ‘You don’t suppose …’ I say casually.
‘I don’t suppose what?’ Adam asks.
‘You don’t suppose they might have had an affair or something like that? I mean, the photo in itself wouldn’t suggest that – it is quite a formal composition. But the fact it was hidden away in this photograph album suggests there might be more to it?’
Adam grins. ‘I thought that too, but I thought you might take offence if I suggested your great-grandmother had had an affair. She seems like quite the folklore hero within your family.’
‘I didn’t say she was that. Just that no one knew exactly what happened to her.’
‘So you think she could have had an affair and then disappeared?’
I don’t want to think that, but I have to admit it’s a possibility.
‘Perhaps. But would she really leave her young child? I’m not a mother, but I could only imagine what a wrench that would be. I can’t see her just upping and leaving her daughter over an affair, especially not back then.’
‘True.’
‘What about your great-grandfather – would he be capable of having an affair?’
‘I have no idea, I never met him. Most of what I know about him I’ve discovered today with you. As far as I’m aware, he was happily married to his wife, Violet.’
‘I guess we can never truly know, and really, what does it matter now? It makes no difference to us, does it?’
‘Unless we are distantly related, of course?’ Adam says, raising an eyebrow.
I stare at him for a moment, but I don’t have time to work out why the thought of that possibility makes me panic so, because my rational brain kicks in.
‘Impossible. Dotty only had one child – my grandmother.’
‘So … it’s possible she was Archie’s child.Ifthey did have an affair.’
‘But my grandmother was born in 1943. That photo of them together was taken in 1940.’
‘Affairs can go on for some time.’
‘I’ve seen my grandmother’s birth certificate. I saw everything when she died. My great-grandfather was called Harrison; Harry was definitely listed as her father.’
‘OK, fair enough,’ Adam says, shrugging. ‘We’ll go with it’s highly unlikely we’re related.’
‘What do you meanunlikely? Are you saying Dotty lied on my grandmother’s birth certificate? Why would she do that? Do you want us to be related?’
‘No, I most certainly do not,’ he says quickly. ‘Do you?’
‘No, of course not.’
We sit on the floor in silence for a few seconds. Both of us thinking this through.
‘Do you think that’s why my grandfather asked you to do his house clearance?’ Adam asks, breaking the silence. ‘Because he knew about the connection between our two families?’
‘Possibly. Don’t forget he used to visit Clockmaker Court too. Remember what Ben told us.’
‘Ben!’we both say at the same time.
