Jessica's Summing Up

I think that I have done my bit in bringing two lovebirds together. I can finally say, mission accomplished.

Uncle Jeremy is under the impression that it was his doing that won the heart of a fair lady but they wouldn't be now honeymooning in Cap d' Antibes if it wasn't for yours truly scheming.

Well, he obviously did the actual courting but it was I who started the ball rolling when I learnt of Lottie's existence, accidentally, from one of her letters that had been left inside a book in uncle's library. Its content showed a certain amount of tenderness between the correspondents that I thought needed developing into a full romance.

I have always been a romantic, unlike Jeremy who is a stereotypical English male, shy and reserved. It was clear he required a little help with affairs of the heart.

I didn't know much about her at first, only that she was a young widow, but gradually I built up my personal dossier. I wanted to be sure that she was the right woman for my dear uncle.

I knew that she lived in a ski resort in Switzerland, so I told him that I had been on the dry ski slope in Norwich and enthused about how much more enjoyable it would be to glide down a mountain on real snow. It was then that he said he was thinking of a winter holiday for the two of us in Andermatt, which was – surprise, surprise – where she lived.

I was at the time a jack of all trades and, as the saying goes, a master of none. I tried to be an actress, a comedian and a magician but could not settle on any career and hankered after an adventurous life. Having visited Hammamet and Nabeul, in Tunisia, and traipsed across Europe to our destination I realise that travelling is what I really want to do.

I am thinking of backpacking to Nepal and perhaps climb Everest, accompanied by an experienced, and hopefully handsome, Sherpa.

They wanted me to live with them but although I love them dearly I am too independent and have a mercurial temperament, so I declined. Two's company, I thought, three is a crowd.
I shall see them from time to time, of course, wherever they decide to reside. That at least is a decision I won't have to make.

One question remain unresolved, that of my paternity. There are tantalising clues in my mother's diary that point to uncle Jeremy being my biological dad. I think that he too harbours the same suspicion.

A DNA test could provide the answer and I wonder if he would agree to be tested. Then I ask myself how his new bride would react; she might feel slighted by the fact that he had had a love affair with my mother, assuming that it had been love and not a one-night stand. Maybe it is better to let sleeping dogs lie, after all.

© Luigi Pagano 2020

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