Two into One Fits Nicely

This was supposed to make me hate them and them to despise and hate me.

Alex could not resist asking. "Why did you put up with such behaviour. The boys could have given him a good kicking and you could have divorced him and got a good settlement."

"Don't imagine that I never had thoughts along those lines but there is more to all this. And this is going to shock you. Charles discovered that I was not the mother of James and Robert. I was the girlfriend of our local doctor and he had a daughter. She became pregnant while she was studying to be a medical doctor. Twins would have been a hindrance to her while she was studying and she wanted to have them adopted. My doctor lover persuaded me to pretend you were my children and he handled the paperwork and the registration of your birth. It was him who supplied us with the money to live comfortably.

One day the doctor's daughter came to see her children. She had inherited her father's paperwork and it was not difficult for her to work out who was being paid a generous sum each month. She knocked on the door, Charles opened it and half an hour later she had told him everything.

Charles was already beginning to be jealous of my love for my boys and he was furious with me for not admitting that I was being paid to look after what he called "the little bastards." I was actually putting the money in a secret bank account. He made me agree not to tell the boys the truth.

"He thought he was very clever to get the boys to beat me and he soon discovered that I would accept that he could beat me himself. You boys will never understand why I surrendered myself to him for pain and humiliation. But if what I saw this afternoon was anything to go by, Alex will understand. Anyway Charles is ill and in the old French slang, pph –passera pas l'hiver. He won't outlast the winter". The good news is 'Mummy is coming home'

***

Based on "Two into One Will Go"

I told the boys that now their mother was home and wanting to look after them I would fade into the background. The year I spent with them would always remain with me as a happy memory. I would always love them.

My father provided the capital for me, my daughter and my son to set up our medical practice. My children have both provided me with grandchildren and I now live a happy life in the midst of my family. I see Robert and James from time to time when they come back to visit their widowed mother. They too have wives and children around them and I like to send them Christmas presents.