Caro grinned, “It was fun. Is he still here?”

“No, no. I sent him off with his mother.” Oliver turned her face in his hand, “It was fun, yeah? You two shouldn’t fight!” He scolded them responsibly, and then added, “But I’m right proud you both for taking up for Natalie. Your dad’ll be having words with his father, I‘m sure…two on one, he said. Well, who came and put our little Nattie into a bin? She’s got bruises all over her!” He turned, “Lucy, is Nigel’s numb enough for stitching yet? I’m through here. Take Caro for an x-ray of this cheek. It looks like it’s all swollen tissue, but I want to make sure there’s nothing broken to be safe. ”

After the twins were born, Lucy had found her calling in life. She went back to school and became a nurse. Oliver hired her straight away, of course, and she helped him run the office. I did the accounting and managed the labs, but mostly I just looked after Oliver and the children, as I always had. Me, with all my degrees, knowing all I knew, and all I ever wanted to be was a mum! But Lucy could juggle a career and her home life with me taking care of the kids. I was very proud of my sister, little Lucy Cotton, who’d grown up to be a dedicated mother, a wonderful wife who was adored by her husband and a damned good nurse to boot.

Little Nattie was sitting quietly outside the door in the hallway. I really did not want to see my Nigel getting stitched, so I came and sat beside her. “You all right, Muffin? That was a right nasty thing that boy did. I’m sorry it happened to you.”

“I was just walking and he picked me up and tossed me in the rubbish bin,” She said softly. Natalie often got the brunt of bullies because she was so unusually small, “I didn’t mean for all of this to happen. Are they hurt?”

She was the sweetest of all the children. Blue eyed and golden haired, she had her mother’s gorgeous looks and full mouth. In fact, she looked nothing at all like Alexander, except often mocked his expressions, “Ah, Nattie,” I told her, “Caro and Nigel will be just fine. Don’t you go feeling bad about what happened to them. You did nothing wrong. Some bully came and decided to throw you into a bin and your brother was having none of it. Be glad he was there for you. He takes after your daddy, you know?”

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah! When your dad was a lad he had an awful temper. And he especially hated it when someone would dishonour a lady.” I heard the front door to the office open and close, “I think that’s your dad now. Go see!”

She jumped off her chair and raced to the waiting room. “Daddy!”

“I don’t want another shot!” Nigel yelled, “I don’t want another shot! Mum, make him stop! I don’t want…Oy! Get away from me, Uncle Ollie!”

“Do you want to feel a needle coming in and out of your brow over and over again or just once?” Oliver asked seriously.

“Shush your noise,” Lucy told him gently, “It’s just a little sting!”

I cringed as he screamed anyway. Nigel had a flair for drama.

I could hear the excitement of children down in the waiting room now that Alexander had arrived. “Oy, you little munchkins! Natalie, my love! Come here, I heard you had a rough afternoon!” He grunted as he lifted her from the floor, “Oh, you look fine! Beautiful, in fact! Hello! Hello, all of you! Hello, Warren! Hello, Gryff! How are you, Little Bessie? Hi, Annie!”

“I’m not Annie, Daddy,” I heard a tiny voice, “I’m Bess!”

“And I’m your Uncle Ollie,” Alexander returned, “You can’t play at that one with me! I invented some of those tricks!”

“We got you the other day!” One of the chirped.

“For about three seconds!”

The twin girls giggled.

“Uncle Xan!” It was Gryffin, “Can you draw a cat for my new story I’ve written?”

I stood alone in the hall with my eyes closed and I listened to all of their voices mingling together. It was chaos, all of them talking at once and Alexander trying to lend an ear to each one. I let the sound of them fill my ears and swell my heart until I thought that I would burst from all the love inside of me.

As she got older, Natalie did not grow any less lovely in her disposition. It took my breath away sometimes how much she looked like Melissa, she was stunning, but that was where any reminder of her mother ended. Natalie was anything but an unbalanced air head. She was calm and kind and she had a spirit that was impossible to sink. Natalie was close with Lucy. Never having known her mother, she had absolutely no interest in seeing her when Melissa came to Wales.

“It’s nice that she’s here,” Nattie told her father, “But I don’t know why she’s bothered to see us now. I suppose I can sit with you and Nigel, but I don’t have anything to say to the woman.”

“I’d appreciate it if you did,” Alexander said calmly, “And you don’t have to say much.”

“Good, because I’m not going to.”

Nigel, on the other hand, was very excited. He had vague recollections of his mother and was eager to see if anything about her matched his memories. He was concerned, on the other hand, that his eagerness would somehow insult Lucy. Lucy, however, was not threatened in the slightest. “I’d like to beat the shit out of her, Sil,” She told me privately, “But knowing that she lost out on her children and I got both of them and Alexander, too, is enough revenge for me. Her stupidity and selfishness were my gain.”

Nattie was unimpressed when she got through meeting her mum. She hugged Lucy afterwards and said, “Ah, my real mum! I love you, Mummy!” Nigel, being more open to the experience, kept contact with Melissa for many years until she succumbed to breast cancer when he was forty-three. Still, he hugged Lucy when he returned from their first meeting and told her loved her enormously. When Alexander arrived back at the wood after the reunion, he scooped Lucy into his arms and kissed her passionately then held her very, very close. “Oh, my God,” He said about ten times, stroking her hair, “Lucy, Lucy, Lucy…you’re like a dream…”

I think my sister was very satisfied.

They were happy together, Lucy and Alexander. Their marriage was not perfect, but it worked. They needed each other. Lucy needed the consistency and support Alex offered her. He was safe, secure, solid, and she knew that he’d never hurt her. Lucy was a calming influence on Alexander. She didn’t take any of his rubbish and gave him a reason to behave, motivation to work hard and stay focused. She loved him, certainly, but there was never any question in anybody’s mind that she’d put him out if she had to. I think Alex liked that, the idea that his wife could make it without him. It made him want to please her. Plus, she took care of him, which was something that Alex had always desperately needed. They were an excellent team. The friendship and affection that they’d always shared had grown deeper and deeper until they’d become a part of each other. Once they’d recognised it as love, it had taken them over. Bless their hearts, they endured the pitfalls and made it work.

“In the end,” Alexander told her on their tenth anniversary, “It’ll just be you and me. The kids will have grown and gone and it’ll be just you and me staring at each other with nothing at all to do.”

“That’ll be brilliant!” Lucy giggled, “I’ll make pies!”

Alexander brought out his old oil paint set out to the cabin one summer and sat with her and their three girls in the garden. I watched him show each of them the different brushes and explain what each did. They opened and checked every jar carefully.

“Is it still good?” Lucy asked excitedly.

Alex nodded. They smiled at each other. “Are you ready?” I heard him ask the girls.

They nodded enthusiastically and walked to the car with him, all three holding on to his hands. He pulled out four large canvases and the four of them headed out to the clearing by the pond. Lucy and I sat on the stoop and chatted while they stood in the sunlight until each had finished their first painting. Annie’s was complete Picasso nonsense. Bessie’s was of birds in the sky. And Nattie’s was the sun shining grandly across the pond, reflecting light all over the wood. Alexander painted three little girls standing behind canvas with brushes in their hands. Those paintings still exist, hanging proudly in the front room of the cabin in the wood.