The Secret Admirer (part one)

It was mid-February. Merlin and Eliza (my brother and his wife) had taken our toddlers to see some of the Periwinkles, and Brendan and Beverley were playing a board game upstairs. Cecile and I were taking advantage of the quiet morning – she was in the middle of a heavyweight novel and I was having fun improvising on the piano. We were interrupted by some laughter in the hall and the door flew open and in ran my cousin Bobbie and her daughter Biddie.

Biddie was laughing and waving a card in the air.

“Mummy’s got a secret admirer!”, she declared in a sing-song voice.

“Bedelia Butterglove – you come right here,” said Bobbie, obviously not expecting much of a response whilst Biddie was so excited.

 “Admirer, admirer, a secret admirer!” laughed Biddie.

Cecile patted the sofa. “Come on Biddie. Calm down and let your mother tell us about it.”

Biddie looked back at her mum, and then walked over to Cecile. She handed the card over.

Curious, I walked over to find out what all the fuss was about.

“Good girl. Now go on upstairs to play with Beverley and Brendan. I think they have some chocolate cookies.”

Biddie didn’t need telling twice. She blew a kiss at her mum and then skipped away. Before she disappeared out of the room, her voice rang out.

“Mummy got some posh chocolates too.”

Cecile raised her eyebrows and Bobbie’s shoulders slumped. “Okay,” she said.

As always, I was proud of my wife and how she could always put people at their ease. She waggled the card. “Can we read it?”

When Bobbie nodded, Cecile gestured for her to sit beside her on the sofa.

I could sort of understand Bobbie’s distress. She hadn’t shown any interest in dating since the death of her husband some years ago. It had been a short relationship. When Flash Bobtail had arrived in Mellowdene, the young Barbara Butterglove had fallen for him and they were soon married. They left to travel around Sylvania and no one knew when or if they would return. The trouble was, Flash was reckless both in work and play and – so the story goes – he fell off a roof whilst not taking sufficient care. Bobbie returned to Mellowdene with a new baby – Bedelia, nicknamed Biddie – and reverted to her maiden name. Perhaps she thought Bobbie Bobtail sounded too trivial. She moved in with her siblings, Samantha and Jonathan, and concentrated on raising her new daughter.

Rather than read the card aloud, Cecile read it silently before meeting Bobbie’s gaze, smiling warmly.

“Well, that’s lovely, Bobbie. Someone’s chosen a nice card and written a poem for you. They must think a lot of you to have created this. And there are some chocolates too?”

“Expensive ones. I’m not sure how to feel.”

Cecile patted Bobbie’s hand. “You’ve no obligation to feel anything, dear. But aren’t you curious who your secret admirer could be? Have you encountered any unattached gentlemen recently?”

Bobbie frowned. “Well, there’s William and Walter Waters. They’ve been doing some work on the house…”

I laughed. “Willy and Wally are basically two overgrown children. When they’re not working hard, they’re playing about – music, joking, sport, rough-housing – and I’m certain romance is not anywhere in their thoughts.”

Cecile chuckled. “He’s right, Bobbie. I saw them building snowmen last week.”

Bobbie joined in the laughter. She was beginning to calm down. “Not the Waters then. But other than them…  Horatio Seadog’s brothers aren’t married, are they?”

Amos, Owen and Irwin had joined their brother to do some work on the pleasure boat Marisa May, and they were renting Dockside Cottage. Unlike the Waters brothers they were decidedly mature in their outlook. It was possible that one of them might see an attractive bunny like Bobbie Butterglove and consider her worth pursuing. But…

“Did you say there was a poem in the card?” I asked, with the knowledge that not one of Horatio’s brothers had any literary leanings. “May I have a look?”

Cecile passed the card to me.

As I read the poem, I started to feel uncomfortable. I recognised the words. They were lyrics that I almost put to music a couple of years ago. They were written by my songwriting partner and good friend - Chris Snow-Warren.

The problem was - he was married. And I thought happily married.


(To be continued...)