[Dedicated in the centenary year of her birth, to the memory of Barbara Pym (1913-1980), the greatest English woman novelist since Jane Austen. Forget Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf. There is not a lot of sex in this installment, but I hope that you will read and enjoy it as a story rather than as wank literature.]
Chapter XXII Dom: Christmas at Getheringthwaite
The weeks before Christmas saw me making numerous phone calls and job applications. But about December 20, I received a phone called from my old tutor, Dr Fraser who suggested that immediately after New Year, I should ring a friend of his in the HR department of a large IT service provider, as there might be an interesting job on offer.
We stayed at Getheringthwaite for Christmas. That year was the first time that my parents and brothers had plucked up courage to come to the Ovenden family home since Lord Wakefield and Robert had come out of the closet. My father told my mother that it was time she had a rest from the hassle of Christmas catering. Mrs Harrison was delighted to cook for a large party and temporary kitchen and serving help was hired in the village. One evening we had a very entertaining time with Michael and Richard recalling the first time that Sandro had come home with me and my assertion that I had too much work to do to date girls, when all the time Sandro and I were having it off together. Sandro told them that if they had asked him if he was dating, he would have told them that he was dating me!
In accordance with custom, the family party was joined by the Vicar and his wife. So it was a large and merry formally dressed party that sat down to Christmas dinner after the service in the hall chapel. My grandfather had been delighted when he heard of our engagement, and he asked the Vicar if he would like to assist in the blessing service that we were planning. We assured him that there would be no breaches of church or civil law, but to be on the safe side, we wanted Professor Bairstow the preside, as he was independent of episcopal rule. The meal was simple and straightforward. We had roast pheasant followed by Christmas pudding. Mrs Harrison was not into Michelin-style cuisine!
The party did not stay for New Year, they returned home on December 30, but the point was established that Robert was now a member of the Ovenden family, albeit an unofficial one. Sandro's status was essentially the same. However, I was determined that when we became civil partners, it would be mentioned in the newspapers. I did not want a closet existence. I was proud of Sandro and wanted him to go down in history as my mate.
The Hall had modern efficient gas-fired central heating, installed a number of years ago at great expense. I explained to Sandro the source of our family wealth. In the early nineteenth century, coal was discovered in land owned by the Ovendens a few kilometres away from Getheringthwaite. The mining revenues vastly increased the wealth of the family, but instead of dissipating it in high living, or investing in further collieries, they invested the cash in city-centre land, particularly in London. Leasehold development of this land brought in a large rental income, which was invested in a trust and used to purchase more land and pay the family a very substantial income. By the time that the coalmining industry was nationalized in 1947, the collieries had ceased to contribute to the family income.
The complicated management of this fortune was in the safe hands of Tim Ingledown, who also managed the affairs of Jon and David. This hands-off arrangement suited not only the Marquess and his son, but also my brothers and myself. Like Luke and Cathy, we had been brought up with the idea that wealth was a resource to be used for the benefit of society as a whole, and that individual fulfilment should come from work, not from spending money. As you can imagine, this put an additional pressure on me to find a job.
On January 2, I rang the number given to me by Dr Fraser, and had an interesting conversation about an attractive sounding job at Yeohampton Tech Solutions. The outcome was my dispatch of my CV by E-mail that day and shortly afterwards a summons to interview at the firm's head office in Cheltenham. In the morning I met the head of the unit and we had a discussion about the nature of the work at which I asked several questions. In the afternoon was a formal interview at the end of which I was offered the job. The firm had an office in Sheffield, and it was agreed that I should go there for my first six months. I was delighted because Sheffield was only fifty minutes drive from Getheringthwaite. Accordingly, by mid-February, Sandro and I were sleeping each night together before leaving next morning on our daily commute to our respective jobs. It meant that we had to buy an additional car, so I got a medium-sized second hand vehicle with about 30000 km on the clock.
Chapter XXIII Luke: Tom gets his doctorate
At this time in Trabizona, Tom was finally putting the finishing touches to the dissertation for his Dottorato di Ricerca (Ph.D.). He had originally written it in English, and with a lot of help from Professor Arturo Sescandanto, his supervisor, had translated it into Italian. Basically, it consisted of seven published papers written in English and already published in international chemical journals, with an extended introduction and a long discussion written in Italian. It was not thought necessary to translate the published papers themselves, as their quality was testified by their publication in peer-reviewed journals. However, he still had to undergo the ordeal of interview by a committee of specialist chemists, and this had to be in Italian. Arturo gave him a lot of help and encouragement, saying that really no-one on the committee knew any more about the topic than he (Tom) did, and that Tom's Italian could cope with anything challenging. I gave him a lot of encouragement too: his command of the language was now as good as my own, even though I had started speaking bits of Italian when I was under ten years old, and Tom had not started to learn till he was twenty-two. Also for two years now, Tom had been involved in teaching students in the laboratory, and had encountered no problems. The dissertation had been submitted and Tom was awaiting the day of his examination.
During the wait, the two of us, plus Arturo and Bastian, were invited to the wedding of Ben and Leonora in Leonora's home village in Emilia-Romagna. It was a very happy occasion. There were more people from Trabizona and Bologna at the wedding than from the village itself. It was a tribute to the tenderness Leonora felt for Tom that he was invited to read the epistle at the nuptial mass. The villagers must have found his English accent a bit strange, but he read clearly and confidently. The reception was enjoyable without being lavish. The Prosecco flowed freely and the food was delicious. Both Tom and I kissed the bride and wished the happy couple joy. Already Leonora was unrecognizable from the shy quiet would-be nun of a couple of years ago. Whenever she looked at her new husband, she radiated happiness. As for Ben, he was over the moon. He was steadily getting Europeanized! I said to Tom as we were on the way home, "We need to pray for Ben and Leonora. Although they are very much in love, they don't have a lot in common, and I wonder how they will settle down together. I would hate if if their marriage didn't work out."
"They are both stable and faithful people," said Tom, "and I think they will grow together and make a go of it. As long as Ben can help her to conquer her fear of sex, I think they have a great future together."
