Silken Threads Tangled Webs: The Sequel to Tarnished Lives, Tainted Dreams

By Claire Montgomery

"Silken Threads, Tangled Webs" continues Lucindas story. Previously in "Tarnished Lives, Tainted Dreams," we learned how she and her brothers had grown up in a dysfunctional home. Lucinda had been forced into a relationship with an older man who could have been useful to her father. Following his death, she had given birth to twin boys. Denied further contact with her maternal and paternal relations, she made two lifelong friends, met and married Francis StClair, and gave birth to two more children. The marriage failed, mostly because of Lucindas unrealistic expectations from marriage. Her father had disappeared, shortly after his release from prison, her mother and brothers disowned her, but a mysterious letter had brought her to France, where she made some shocking discoveries about the past.

What was Marcuss terrible secret, and why did Lucindas mother and brothers go to such extreme lengths to make sure she never contacted her Trehearne relations?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jul 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496984654

Claire Montgomery

Claire is now fully retired so she and her husband are able to divide their time between their two homes; one in the Brecon Beacons National Park and the other in the Western Isles of Scotland. Two very different locations which she and her husband love passionately and retirement allows her to devote more time to her family and her many hobbies. Claire and her husband usually holiday in Hawaii, the largest but quietest island in the Hawaiian Island chain although this year they plan to return to Brazil, the first time for many years.This is Claire’s third novel. Previously published were “Tarnished Lives Tainted Dreams” followed by the sequel, “Silken Threads Tangled Webs.” Coming soon will be “Ever or Never” followed by “Consuming Obsession.”

Book preview

Silken Threads

Tangled Webs

The Sequel to Tarnished Lives, Tainted Dreams

by

CLAIRE MONTGOMERY

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AuthorHouse™ UK Ltd.

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403 USA

www.authorhouse.co.uk

Phone: [phone]

© 2014 Claire Montgomery. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/01/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-8439-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-8440-1 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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I would like to dedicate this book to my dear grandson

Eli Swann

Eli has proudly read and shown my first book,

‘Tarnished lives tainted dreams’, to everyone he

knows … including his disbelieving teachers.

Thank you Eli for your support,

loyalty and encouragement.

Contents

Prologue

Lucinda

Lucile

Marcus

The girls are back

Marianne

William

Lucinda

Lucas

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

A massive ‘thank you’ to my husband Peter who has been so supportive; he listened to every storyline and printed off and read the draft at various stages. He also provided the information on airport procedures and the details on life in Zurich.

Thanks to Helen at the National Blood Transfusion unit for providing information about bone marrow transplants.

My friends and family have encouraged me to complete the book and have been eagerly awaiting this sequel to Tarnished Lives, Tainted Dreams.

To the internet for providing endless information.

About the author

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Claire is now fully retired so she and her husband are able to divide their time between their two homes; one in the Brecon Beacons National Park and the other in the Western Isles of Scotland. Two very different locations which she and her husband love passionately and retirement allows her to devote more time to her family and her many hobbies. Claire and her husband usually holiday in Hawaii, the largest but quietest island in the Hawaiian Island chain although this year they plan to return to Brazil, the first time for many years.

Following the success of her first book, ‘Tarnished Lives, Tainted Dreams’ Claire has now produced this sequel which she hopes readers will enjoy.’ Also recently published is a completely unrelated novel, ‘Lost in Rio.’

About the book

‘Silken Threads, Tangled Webs’ continues Lucinda’s story. Previously in ‘Tarnished Lives, Tainted Dreams’ we learned how she and her brothers had grown up in a dysfunctional home. Lucinda had been forced into a relationship with Marcus Hayward-Booth, an older man who could have been useful to her father, following his untimely death, two weeks before the wedding was due to take place, she had given birth to identical twin boys, Jared and Jeremy. Denied further contact with her maternal and paternal relations she made two lifelong friends, Jackie and Caroline, met and married Francis StClair and gave birth to two more children. The marriage failed, mostly because of Lucinda’s unrealistic expectations from marriage. Her father had disappeared, shortly after his release from prison, her mother and brothers disowned her but a mysterious letter has brought her to France where she makes some shocking discoveries about the past. What was Marcus’ terrible secret and why did Lucinda’s mother and brothers go to such extreme lengths to make sure she never contacted her Trehearne relations?

Prologue

"Not being known doesn’t stop the truth from being true."

Richard Bach

"With lies you may go ahead in the world but you can never go back."

Proverb

"A truth that’s told with bad intent

Beats all the lies you can invent."

William Blake

Nobody speaks the truth when there’s something they must have.

Elizabeth Bowen

Swansea July 2004

I looked from Timothy to Benjamin and observed the chemistry between them. Their contempt for me was evident, they were making no attempt to hide it but there was something else in their manner; I sensed uncertainty and fear and for the first time, ever, I felt that I was in control, that I was in the driving seat. It should have made me feel really good so why was I feeling unhappy?

These men, my so called brothers, had colluded and schemed against me, they thought I would never find out, that I would never discover the depth of their treachery. Worse still, my own mother had known about it and had conspired with them to obtain a share for herself

The truth was even more appalling that I could ever have imagined; when my mother had failed in her attempt to claim either my father’s or my inheritance she had discovered that, although my father’s unclaimed portion would go to charity, my portion would be divided amongst the other grandchildren, should I have failed to claim it within the three year deadline. She had then sat back waiting patiently, until the three years were almost up, before making her demands.

When the three year time limit came close she had approached my brothers and had threatened to tell me about the inheritance unless they agreed to share the monies they would receive with her.

This was the ultimate betrayal, my mother had known about it all along, it wasn’t enough to see me lose my rightful inheritance, she had wanted it for herself and when her greedy attempts had failed then she had actually blackmailed her own sons so that she could get her hands on some of the cash.

There was even worse treachery to come, had my brothers not agreed to her vile demands she would then have come to me but she would never have let me know about the money unless she herself was to gain from it so she would have extracted a promise from me to share the money with her before telling me about it and how to claim it. She would have accompanied me to any meetings and played the role of the doting mother, just until she’d got her greedy hands on my money. Once that was successfully effected she would have dropped me out of her orbit; nothing had changed, nothing ever would, everything was about money.

Of course, if I had made the claim she could have demanded a much larger portion than she could from my brothers but even so, she had preferred to settle for a smaller amount rather than to see me benefit from my grandfather’s will, so great was her dislike and her jealousy of me. The irony was that I would gladly have shared it with her - had they approached me, I would have shared it with all of them as family love was always so much more important to me than money. I’m not a saint, I have always hated having to scrimp and save but family come first and I would always have chosen love for them over any amount of money.

My brothers had explained it jubilantly, as though they gained some sort of thrill by highlighting the intensity of our mother’s hatred for me. They could see no wrong in their own actions and seemed proud that they had triumphed over me yet again. Was it possible that they had ever had any true affection for me? Years ago, before our father had come back into our lives, we had all seemed so close; we had looked out for one another and comforted each other when life was difficult and on rare occasions we had played and even laughed together … so how, why and when had it all gone so terribly wrong?

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Lucinda

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere

Dr Martin Luther King, jr

"They gave each other a smile

With a future in it"

Ring Lardner

Chapter one

Paris, January 5th 2004

L ucinda examined the faces of the three French persons present trying, at the same time, not to appear to be too obvious. She had not known of their existence until December 2003, just one month earlier but circumstances had drawn them together to this solicitor’s office near the centre of Paris.

They all looked so normal, so in control of their lives and yet they all now depended on her, they all wanted something from her.

Lucinda was an ardent believer in kismet and thought that these unusual circumstances must conceal a deeper more meaningful purpose; maybe this was where her destiny lay; a perfect relationship, with her dream man, in a new country. She always examined the opportunities of every new situation, everything had its purpose, there was always a deeper meaning if you looked for it hard enough.

Adrien Fontaine was a tall, distinguished looking man, and if she judged correctly he was just a few years older than herself. He was certainly the sort of man she would normally be attracted to and a quick glance at his left hand showed it to be ringless. Of course, that didn’t always mean there was not a woman waiting for him in the background, not all married men wore a wedding ring but still there was hope. Could he possibly be her Mr Right? It was certainly about time that fate brought the right man into her life because every relationship seemed to have ended just when she thought things were going well, just when she thought that she had found someone she could rely on, someone who would love and cherish her and treat her in the manner she sorely desired. Adrien would go to any length to try to save the life of his sister’s granddaughter, three year old Aimee and if that was achieved through her would that make him grateful enough to want to make her a part of his life? Lucinda shivered with excitement at the thought.

She turned her attention to his sister, Lucile and grudgingly accepted that she was a most attractive woman; she had to be about the same age as herself but could easily pass for a woman at least ten years younger. Lucinda tried to look more closely, had the woman had cosmetic surgery to achieve this youthful look? There were no telltale indications of such treatments and although Lucinda knew little about her, she didn’t seem the sort of person who would resort to such interventions. She sighed, she always liked to think that she stood apart from other woman and took care never to be seen looking anything less than at her best, beautifully dressed with her makeup skillfully applied. Lucile Fontaine was exquisitely dressed and her makeup, if she was wearing any, was so subtle that it looked natural. Surely she couldn’t effect that result without a huge effort! She was ringless but she knew that the poor thing had waited for Marcus to return to her and had never even looked at another man. The woman was now desperate to save Aimee’s young life and it seemed that she Lucinda, or rather, her child, might possibly provide the answer to Lucile’s prayers and maybe that would bring about the answer to Lucinda’s own prayers.

Finally she looked at Lucas Michel; the solicitor who had been commissioned by Adrien Fontaine to find her and had successfully brought them together in the hope that she could provide the solution to his client’s problem. Lucinda had always dreamed of marrying a professional man; a doctor or a solicitor but she suspected that Lucas was some years younger than herself so he could not be considered a candidate. It was a shame as he was very tall and extremely good looking. She turned her attentions away from him, if a relationship were to develop from this meeting then the candidate would have to be Adrien Fontaine.

She already had his interest, although not in a romantic way, but if she was careful she was sure that she could encourage that. Lucinda knew how to attract attention, she knew just how to walk into a room, how long to pause and look around, how to sit and how to make the right responses.

‘Always promote your very best and most sexiest attributes darling’ her mother had told her and she could almost hear her voice as she continued to recall all the things her mother had advised her, over and over again. ‘A man likes to see a good cleavage and so you have to ensure that when you are sitting you must always lean slightly forward to show it off at its best advantage whilst giving the impression that you are completely unaware of the affect you have on him. Your legs should always be on display, you must always wear high heeled shoes as they improve your posture and never ever wear long skirts or even full skirts when trying to attract a man; a tightly fitting skirt that emphasises the shape of your bottom is so much sexier and then when you sit down you can tease him a tinsy bit by periodically crossing and uncrossing your legs. I always find that men find this action totally irresistible.

A man likes to think he does the choosing, that he chooses the woman and a clever woman lets him think that, although in truth she is always the one in the driving seat. It’s quite alright to take a glimpse in his direction and when his eyes meet yours just smile faintly before lowering your eyes or glancing away; believe me darling, it works every time.’

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It was heady, she and Jared were in a position of power to offer the solution to their problem but she wished wholeheartedly that it were not so; in fact, she wished that so many things were different. History can’t be changed, it cannot be erased and re-written which is a great pity and many people have wished that it were possible, but there it is, once something has happened all the regrets in the world will change nothing, you have to deal with it and learn to live with the consequences.

Forty years ago she had been a young teenager, living in her father’s home at the mercy of his impossible demands and violent mood swings. In her father’s care she should have felt safe and loved but that was a far cry from reality. She had been taught to host parties for him and had been expected to behave in a manner that was far beyond her years. She had been taught to mingle with her father’s guests and would be schooled beforehand so that she knew which ones to talk to and what to talk to them about and at the end of the evening she would have to report back to him. She had never felt comfortable in that role; she had been shy and gauche due to the earlier years when she and her brothers had lived with their mother as they had never been allowed the time or the opportunity to make friends with people of their own age; she had never had any girlfriends until she was in her twenties and apart from her father and her brothers, Timothy and Benjamin, she had little experience of men.

One day her father had introduced her to his friend, Marcus and her sad existence had deteriorated further and had developed into a living nightmare, much worse than she could ever have dreamed possible.

Her father had engineered the whole thing. Over the past few years he had made some unbelievably foolish business decisions, Gordon Trehearne had been ruthless, reckless and remorseless. He had no real friends but had cultivated a great number of enemies, most of whom were now repaying him with the same sort of responses they had received from him in past negotiations and were demanding immediate recompense of his outstanding arrears.

Gordon had no means of settling his debts; he had made some disastrous investments; he had resorted to using several alias’ and even to gambling in the foolish attempt to buy time, evade taxes and satisfy his creditors so when Marcus Hayward-Booth had re-appeared on the scene he had seemed like the answer to his problems.

Marcus was a wealthy, successful businessman in his early forties and Gordon thought that with Marcus as his son-in-law things would surely change; Marcus was influential and he was certain that his creditors would back off and when the chips were down Marcus would bail his father-in-law out.

The plan had worked … almost!

Lucinda had disliked Marcus right from that very first meeting and her feelings for him had never changed but she had had to tolerate and even encourage his advances since it was what her father demanded. She shuddered as she recalled those feelings of revulsion when he had kissed her and how hard it had been not to flinch when he touched her.

Her Nanna had explained the facts of life to her when she was thirteen years old and at the time Lucinda had determined that she would never ever bring a child into the world and her feelings on that subject had not changed but thanks to her father and his desperate determination to forge the union she had become pregnant almost immediately. Gordon Trehearne had been delighted, his plan was progressing better than he had dreamed possible and the wedding date was set.

Marcus had been married several times and with a beautiful young girl like Lucinda on his arm other men would recognise his success. That was how things worked in their shallow, shady world.

Lucinda had put off the wedding for as long as she could in the vain hope that the situation would change; that she would suddenly discover that it was all a mistake and that she was not pregnant at all and that there was some other reason for the cessation of her monthly flow and weight gain but when fate stepped in, it had been in a way she could neither have wished for nor for-seen. Marcus had died just two weeks before the planned wedding date; he and his friend Desmond had been travelling in a light aircraft returning from a short trip to France when the plane had ditched into the channel resulting in the death of both men and with that grim news all Gordon’s careful plans had been shattered. He now faced total financial ruin with the added complication of having to support a pregnant daughter.

His rages had been the worst that Lucinda had experienced to date and there were many nights she had lain in her bed fearing that he might even kill her as his moods were so violent and unpredictable.

Life had gone from bad to worse; her mother, Felicity, had refused to give any help or advice other than to tell her that the only course was to terminate the pregnancy or else go into a suitable home for unmarried mothers and to have the child adopted at birth.

‘You have brought disgrace to the family’ she had hissed down the phone, ‘you are no better than a harlot or a guttersnipe but your behaviour has always been terrible so I shouldn’t really be surprised should I but don’t expect me to come running to pick up the pieces now that it has all gone wrong.’

Felicity had ordered her sons not to acknowledge their sister and demanded that Lucinda was on no account to try to make contact with her beloved Nanna and her Aunt Katherine and her father had expressly forbidden her to contact his family, her much loved Trehearne relations.

At his insistence, she had posed as a widow rather than an unmarried mother; a widow was considered respectable but to confess to producing a child out of wedlock was unthinkable, no one would respect a girl who gave birth to a child before she had a gold band on her finger.

Lucinda had never found true happiness but she had later formed a friendship with two other girls and it was those friendships that had sustained her throughout the years. In 1972 she had met and married Francis StClair; a man she had met through a dating agency. It had not been a match made in heaven despite Lucinda’s determined effort to make it the perfect relationship that she so desired.

The marriage had produced two more children; a boy and a girl neither of whom had appreciated the attempts their mother had made to ensure that they received the very best start in life. These efforts had included an expensive education at an exclusive public school for their only daughter but following the divorce both children had drifted away, young Francis had emigrated to Australia and Miranda had thrown back all those sacrifices in her mother’s face saying that it had all been about her mother’s own selfish dream and had only served to ruin her life.

Lucinda had not wanted the divorce despite the fact that the marriage had been fragile for many years; the decision to divorce had been made by Francis but once she had become settled in her new home she had resorted to meeting men through newspaper advertisements. There had been several relationships but none of them had led to marriage; the search for perfect love, the perfect relationship with the perfect man, had never materialised and she could not understand why happiness eluded her. Poor Lucinda, her egotistical, self centred parents had cared nothing for the impact their behaviour had on their children, both parents had selfishly used their offsprings to further their own needs, casting them aside when they were of no use to them or when they interfered with their lifestyle and the examples they set had made normal relationships totally beyond reach, their ideals and values were unrealistic.

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Chapter two

T he meeting was over and Lucinda, lost in her private thoughts, had missed some of the discussion but Jared could fill in the gaps later. Lucinda had hoped that the Fontaine’s would be joining them for dinner that evening; she didn’t really want to spend time with Lucile but Jared could have talked to her and it would have provided the ideal opportunity to further her acquaintance with Adrien.

It was not to be, Jared had agreed to attend the clinic the following morning to have the necessary blood tests to determine whether he would be a suitable donor; the Fontaine’s were grateful but did not seem to want to get to know them on a more personal level.

Lucas Michel had arranged for both parties to meet at his office a week later to discuss the results of the blood tests and Lucinda had to be content with that. At least she was getting a sort of holiday out of all this; Adrien Fontaine was paying their expenses so she might as well make the most of it. She couldn’t afford to take in a show but at least she could enjoy the shops and the luxury of the hotel that he had booked for them.

Jared had telephoned his wife, Jennifer, to convey the results of the meeting to her and promised to return home as soon as possible, hopefully the following day after he had attended the clinic. He had had to take a few days off work to come to France so he was eager to return home at the earliest possible moment. Lucinda had to decide whether it would be better to stay in Paris until the results came through the following week or whether to return to Cardiff with Jared and fly back to France with him the following week.

Staying in France might give the opportunity to further her relationship with Adrien even though, up until now, he had not shown any interest in her as a woman but maybe if he knew that she was all alone in France he might invite her to dinner or to a show but she had to consider whether it would be worth taking the risk. A week could be a long, lonely time, especially as she had little personal money. Adrien Fontaine had offered her the choice of both options but had made no mention of seeing her at all during the week were she to remain in France. She knew, by now, that he was unmarried and she patted herself on the back for having been clever enough to turn the conversation to that subject without being too obvious. She had asked him whether his wife objected to him paying all their expenses and thought that had been rather a clever way to extract the information she needed.

‘Madame StClair, I have no wife to consider but if I did then I am certain that my decisions would not be questioned. Family comes first always and in any case, there is the life of a dear little girl at stake.’

‘I’m so sorry, of course it is none of my business, you must think me very rude.’ Lucinda had been flustered and regretted asking the question even though it had produced the answer that she had hoped for so she changed tactics, hoping that he would soften.

‘I’m curious to learn how you traced me, how you managed to find my family’s address to contact me’ she continued.

‘Madame, contacting you after all these years was not easy but not for the reasons you would imagine. I am not sure how much information I should divulge at this stage, after all, these are my sister’s affairs and not mine but I can tell you that she had once met your father, she knew his name and that he lived in the same area as Marcus did, an area called the Cotswolds. The name Trehearne is not a common one in that area and there was another twist to this tale but I do not feel it is my business to discuss that detail since it concerns a friend of my sister. Maybe Lucile will tell you more of that, if you wish it I will ask her to speak with you.’

Lucinda had no wish to enter into any sort of discussion with Lucile and in any case, it didn’t really matter how they had traced her but she thought it might have opened up more channels for conversation. Obviously that was not to be the case and so she had decided that she might as well fly back to Cardiff with Jared the following day and return to France, with him, a week later. When she had announced this decision Adrien had made no effort to change her mind; such a shame, she thought, he is not interested in me at all, he is too obsessed with his sister and her family.

Adrien Fontaine was not just indifferent to Lucinda because of who she was or what she represented; Adrien Fontaine had never been attracted to any woman. He and his long term partner, Andre, lived in an exclusive apartment in an expensive Paris suburb; Lucinda had totally mis-read the whole situation.

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She had discussed the original visit with her friends, over the telephone, after her initial visit to France just a month ago. They had all been amazed by this unexpected turn of events and were keen to hear all the details; Lucinda had had to resurrect a few more skeletons from her past and had to deal with them before moving on. Until then the only people who knew that she had never actually been married to Marcus and had no rights by marriage to his name, had been her immediate family and later Francis’ family. The twins had only learned the truth when Francis had officially adopted them following their marriage; she had never confided this secret to her friends, Jackie and Caroline although Jackie had had some suspicions as a result of a telephone conversation with Lucinda’s brother Timothy many years ago. Timothy had thought he was talking to his sister through the telephone operator and had asked whether she was Miss or Mrs. Jackie had thought it a strange question and suspected some sort of covertness but she had never mentioned it to Lucinda.

After so many years it mattered little but later when Jackie and Caroline spoke together they remarked on the deceit and subterfuge that seemed to cloud Lucinda’s life and wondered how many more dark secrets remained hidden.

‘I suspect there are many things that we will never know,’ Caroline had said and Jackie agreed.

‘I don’t suppose all the mysteries that surround her will ever be revealed but somehow I think that I prefer not to know. Maybe in years to come she will even write a book about it but I suspect that there are too many twists and turns and unravelling it all and putting it into chronological order would be painful and would certainly not be easy.’

This was true; in later years Lucinda would often talk about chronicling her life story on paper and possibly making it into a film but some parts were too complex and painful and others so bizarre that they would most probably never be believed.

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Lucile

"If you press me to say why I loved him

I can say no more than

Because he was he and I was I"

Michel de Montaigne

"A woman knows the face of the man she loves

As a sailor knows the open sea"

Honore de Balsac

"I’m holding on to something that used to be there

hoping it will come back, knowing it won’t"

unknown

Chapter three

January 2004

I was still trying to come to terms with the news