Who Was Angela Zendalic Read Online Free PDF

sister.’
    â€˜Well? Didn’t you ask where I came from?’ I snapped.
    â€˜Of course we didn’t. Forty years ago it was like being on another planet. We were much more innocent than children of today, and we accepted what grown-ups told us as the truth. We wouldn’t have known anything about how babies came along, or what adoption was, and certainly nothing about marital cheating. I suppose we assumed you came as…’
    â€˜As what?’ I snapped. ‘As an act of charity?’
    â€˜I was going to say a big surprise present,’ Carrie said, sighing.
    â€˜But didn’t you ever talk about me? With Mummy and Pa, I mean. When you grew up.’
    They all shook their heads. ‘Never,’ said Cass. ‘And not with each other either. It was ...well ...something we all knew we knew, but pretended we didn’t.’
    I wiped my eyes while my sisters kept up a mantra of reassuring words. Why did I have to be the one to find the wretched thing? Why couldn’t it have been one of them who would doubtless show it to the others, gape with amazement and destroy it to keep the status quo ? It was obvious Pa was never going to tell me the truth so why didn’t he throw it away. But he didn’t expect to die, did he. He thought he was as fit as a flea, and so did everyone else. Most likely he meant to set his things in order, but put it off until tomorrow, like we all do, and tomorrow never came.
    â€˜It’s really strange you’ve never seen it before,’ Cally said. ‘You must have needed it for your passport and stuff.’
    â€˜Oh, I’ve got a birth certificate,’ I replied. ‘The short version. No details other than my full name, gender as girl, date of birth, and place of birth as Oxford. It never crossed my mind to be bothered about a long one.’
    â€˜Well, we’ve no idea who this Angela Zendalic was,’ said Carrie, ‘but, whatever happened, Mummy must have forgiven him. It’s a real muddle of a story because Pa wasn’t the unfaithful type.’
    â€˜Oh, Carrie, get real,’ I snapped, raising my eyebrows. ‘All men are randy buggers.’
    â€˜Now stop it!’ Cass snapped. ‘This isn’t the time to have a row or slag off Pa as he’s not here to defend himself. Mummy adored him and he adored her. Good God, how he struggled with her before he had to give in, and we all know how it messed up his life.’
    â€˜Oh, I’m sorry,’ I blubbered. ‘I’m just shell-shocked.’ They all nodded their heads with understanding smiles, and muttered more words of comfort, but all four of us remained in a state of trauma, unable to even think about the job we’d mustered to do.
    With resigned grace an eerie cloak engulfed us, each wishing that we could put the clock back; that the secret remained hidden in the outer reaches of our father’s past, and the frail, destroyed mind of our mother’s.

P ART T WO

Early September 1953
Jericho
    I t was ten days after Joseph’s departure when Peggy received a short standard airmail letter, written in his distinctive copperplate handwriting. Although his father had survived his illness, circumstances dictated it wasn’t possible to return to England until he was fully fit again. He loved her very much, he was thinking about her every day and couldn’t wait to get back to England so they could make arrangements for their marriage.
    In the three months since then nothing more had arrived.
    It was a Friday evening, and she’d just got in from work, when a sharp knock on the front door alerted her to Edie’s distinctive rat-a-tat. ‘I took in a parcel for you, Peg. Look. Lovely foreign stamps.’ Recognising the stamps of Ankanda, Peggy wanted to snatch it out of her hands and run indoors, but was obliged to restrain herself. ‘It’ll be a present from one of my students,’ she said casually.