Free Past Tense by Catherine Aird

were some hints about there being a black sheep in the past.’
    â€˜One is always at the mercy of the older generation for that sort of information,’ said Dawn largely. ‘I mean, they only tell you what they want you to know, don’t they? Parents are the same all over.’ She took a sip of her coffee. ‘Me, I got an aunt to spill the beans about my grandfather. Drink,’ she said lugubriously.
    Janet, who heard about Dawn’s grandfather’s overfondness for alcohol every time her friend was offered a glass of wine, reverted to her husband’s family. ‘That was why I was so surprised, remember, when we got that call out of the blue from the nursing home.’
    â€˜Perhaps the Wakefields didn’t want to tell you about someone in the family being born on the wrong side of the blanket,’ suggested Dawn. ‘Don’t they call it the bar sinister or something?’
    Janet Wakefield hesitated before she spoke. ‘I know there was some big trouble a long time ago about something called the Kemberland Trust…But what exactly it was all about I just don’t know. Money, anyway.’
    â€˜Trusts always mean money,’ declared the worldly-wise Dawn. ‘And money means trouble.’
    â€˜It did,’ said Janet slowly, taking a long sip of her coffee before she spoke again. ‘Not that I know any of the details except that I was told that there was a great row about it…lawyers and that sort of thing.’
    â€˜Families,’ exclaimed Dawn. ‘They’re always the same. So is money,’ she added more thoughtfully.
    â€˜But on the other hand I was told that Bill’s parents’ share of the money from that trust made a big difference to Bill’s mother, Eleanor, that is. Put Bill through school and that sort of thing. Gave him a good start in life, all right.’
    â€˜And therefore made a difference to you and Bill, too,’ concluded Dawn ineluctably, looking round the nicely appointed kitchen at The Old Post Office.
    â€˜Well, yes, in a way,’ admitted Janet honestly. Her home was her pride and joy, the furniture carefully chosen and much polished, the soft furnishings colour-coordinated in a way advocated by the best magazines. ‘I must say it gave Bill a good start in life, his having had a good education. It put him through university and that sort of thing.’
    The lacuna in the conversation which followed was due to the desire of both women to not mention that quite a lot of Bill and Janet’s present income was presently being spent by the couple on infertility treatment. That the trust money would give any child of Bill and Jan’s marriage a good start, too, should one come along, was not mentioned by either of them. So far, though, no baby had appeared and the fact, appreciated but unspoken, hung between both of them like a cloud.
    â€˜Joe Short was going to look up some old boy near Kinnisport who’d been at the funeral and told him he’d known his grandmother really well a long time ago,’ volunteered Janet, breaking the silence and adding lightly, ‘just in case he was his grandfather.’
    â€˜That would be a real turn-up for the books,’ said Dawn, who had never placed a bet in her life.
    â€˜Wishful thinking, if you ask me,’ said Janet robustly. ‘I think the poor fellow – Joe, I mean – is a bit short of relations these days and wouldn’t mind a few more seeing as he’s lost both his parents, too.’
    â€˜Well, he’s got you two now, hasn’t he?’
    â€˜I hadn’t thought of that,’ said Janet slowly. ‘Perhaps I ought to ask him round. I’ll have to think about it. More coffee?’
    â€˜Please.’ Dawn pushed her mug forward and then cocked her head to one side, listening hard. ‘Isn’t that your phone I can hear ringing somewhere?’
    Janet slid off her chair and went into another