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Lili stared at the children’s party playing on thefoldaway projector screen before turning to Abigail.
‘Toby must be related to the Somervilles after all.’
Abigail nodded.
Lili asked, ‘So, what’s your theory?’
She looked at her friend before turning to look at the home movie she’d already watched. ‘At first I thought Lord Somerville, Hugh, must have had an affair and Toby is … was … his illegitimate son.’
‘But you don’t think that’s it?’
Abigail shook her head vehemently. ‘No. He loved his wife – still does.’
Lili repeated her question, ‘So, what’s your theory?’
Abigail turned to the movie. ‘See that man there? That’s Daphne’s husband.’ Abigail knew this because she’d seen a photo of them together during her tour of the house with Oliver.
Lili frowned. ‘So, he’s not the same guy who’d been making the home movies, filming Daphne at the cottage. We glimpsed him, remember, on one of the movie reels.’
‘The Gossip Girls said—’
‘Who?’
‘Mabel and Marjorie from the charity shop.’
Lili smiled. ‘Oh, yes. Sarah calls them that.’
‘Well, they said Daphne fell in love when she was a teenager with a young man whom her father disapproved of.’
Lili leaned forward in her seat. ‘So, she married another man who met her father’s approval?’
‘Yes, but …’
‘You think she had an affair …’
‘I think it’s quite possible she carried on seeing the young man that she couldn’t marry.’
‘Or she met him later, and they resumed their relationship?’
Abigail hadn’t thought of that possibility. She nodded. ‘Yes, or that.’ She shifted her gaze to the home movie. ‘Have you noticed how much the camera lingers on Toby?’
‘Yes, I do.’
‘Mabel and Marjorie said Daphne never had children.’ Abigail paused. ‘What if they were wrong?’
‘You mean although she never had children with her husband, what if …?’
Abigail nodded. ‘Daphne had a child, but not with her husband – with her lover.’
Lili followed her gaze to the home movie. They had cut the birthday cakes into slices, which were being passed around the table on party plates to the children.
‘I think Daphne wasn’t at the party to see her nephew, Oliver. I think she was at the party to see her son.’
‘Toby,’ Lili concluded.
‘His likeness to the Somervilles is unmistakable.’
‘I know.’
