Chapter 13. Inscription

Aida was no fool - at first she blinked. "Is this what I think it is?"

Gideon had spent weeks thinking of what would be the best way

to tell her about the return of the ring.

She turned it over and looked closely at the inside of the band.

There were two barely legible initials: L and M.

Gideon felt ashamed that he'd worn the ring for nearly two years

and hadn't known they were there.

''Lillian Marchant." he said softly.

"Mother." Aida said.

''How Gideon? How after all these years."

Before he could anything, Aida burst into tears and hugged him.

*

Gideon sipped his tea and enjoyed the peace and quiet

of the house. He knew it wouldn't last. What he hadn't foreseen

was Aida, with ring in hand, immediately catching

a train home to Bath. Home to their sprawling family estates

and the house they grew up in.

Both their were parents now passed, so it would be home

to the arms of their gossip starved extended family.

*

The visitors started to arrive soon after Aida returned

to London, but they were different to what Gideon expected.

Aida told him that Bath had changed. It was full of feminist

radicals she said, who were still as passionate as ever about

their cause but frustrated that the War had put a stop to

their political actIvities.

Gideon was getting ready for his day at the enlistment board.

"Why don't they do something useful. Go work with the land

army or in a factory and support the War effort. That would

be something."

Aida ignored him and continued arranging the flowers on the

table she was setting. She went into the kitchen to get more cutlery.

"The flowers look beautiful Aida." Gideon said as he walked out the door.

"Don't forget we have guests tonight." Aida sang out.

*

Gideon arrived home late and found the house already full

of the happy chatter of guests. After changing and freshening

up, he found a seat at the table where a place name had

been set for him. Looking around the room there appeared to be

far more dinner guest than seats at the table. Not that anyone

seemed to care. The guests were mostly young women and

nearly all had a drink in their hand.

Next to him, sat a woman closer in age to himself, who had

fashionably short blonde hair.

"May I introduce myself." he said.

"I was rather hoping you would Gideon." the woman said.

"Have we met before?" he asked.

"We have not. My name is Edith, Aida has told me a

great deal about you."

Gideon contemplated the sherry in his glass.

"Let me apologise for my sisters' shameless attempt at match making."

Edith smiled. "Pre-dinner drinks started quite early this afternoon.

No one seemed to notice when I switched name cards to make sure

that I sat next to you."

Ediths' eyes were clear and bright.

His face warmed. "May I ask why?"

"I'll tell you that when we have lunch together. I'm in London

till the end of the week."

Edith sipped the gin in her glass.

"As for tonight Gideon, let's get to know each other better,

and let the young ones have their fun."

*

Gideon left the enlistment offices at midday and walked

to the lake in Regents park where Ediths' note said she would

be waiting. As he walked past the boarded up entrance to

the London zoo, it occurred to him that he knew next to

nothing about her. The dinner party had been a wonderful

night and he had enjoyed her company, but he couldn't

remember a single thing she'd said about herself.

Edith had asked him all sorts of questions about his life.

Surely at some point in the night he must have asked about hers.

There was a time he thought himself when he was far more

certain of the people around him.

The morning after the dinner party Aida was nursing

a terrible hangover. She handed him a note from Edith.

"Did someone make a friend last night." she said with a grin.

"You've been invited to a picnic."

*

Edith laid out the picnic blanket on a sunny sloping bank of

the lake. They sat each side of a wicker basket from which

Edith took a small wheel of cheese and sliced it on a timber plate.

"Aidas' visit to Bath and the return of her ring was the talk of

the town for weeks." she said.

''I'm sure it was." Gideon replied.

She dipped a flat knife into a jar of paste and passed a biscuit

to him. "But what I found most interesting of all was when Aida

told me that you'd seen my nephew Finn at the enlistment board."

Gideon almost choked. ''Your nephew?"

''Miriam Page is my sister. The story of Aidas' ring and your chance

meeting with Finn, it made me think that perhaps we

have a mutual friend."

Gideon watched two swans circling each other on the lake.

"Perhaps we do." he said.

*