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Heather listened thoughtfully as her daughter spoke of the plan she and Jamie had agreed to. "I can't say I'm surprised," she said, gently cupping Iseult's cheek. "I had a feeling as you got older that you were chafing to do something different; it's glad I am you haven't chosen to turn your back entirely. Though I'd bless you just the same if you did choose to go elsewhere with your life, for you'd be completely honest."
Iseult let out a long sigh of relief. "Then you're not mad at me?"
"No more than my da was mad at me when I chose to go into the House of Commons," Heather said, smiling. "In fact, he blessed me for being straight with him, rather than beating around the bush and hinting. I knew from when I was little that I didn't want to run the business, so when I married your da, it was like he was a gift from God, for he had the skill, and the patience, to learn the business, even though he was an outsider, so to speak."
"Is that why he took your last name?" Iseult asked.
"Aye," Heather said. "It about shocked the life of his mother; she was a very elite woman, almost as bad as your great-great-aunt Roisin. Only, she didn't try and break Jamie and I up, since we both came from good stock. She just made her opinions known very frequently and very vehemently. Jamie and I smiled and nodded to her face, and called her all sorts of rude names behind her back. But she really made her feelings known when Jamie said he was taking the Murray name. My, the fit that woman threw! But Jamie told her to feck off, else he'd never let her see her grandchild. Well, she realised she'd been a right pain in the arse, and from that day on, she became as nice as pie."
Iseult giggled. She remembered her grandma Fionnuala very well, and the old lady had been nothing but sweet to her and Calum. "I guess leopards really can change their spots," she said. "I'm just glad she stopped being the mother-in-law from hell."
"She had the good sense to realise that she'd risk losing her son if she kept on as she was," Heather said. "She told me, just before she died, why she was so mean to me; it wasn't because she hated me, but because she was scared her son would have no more time for her after he got married. And she said how proud she was of me, and how she'd grown to love me as the daughter she never had."
"I remember her saying how happy she was to have a daughter she didn't have to birth," Iseult recalled. "That made you cry, because that was all you ever wanted, to have your mother-in-law treat you like a decent person, and not like a witch trying to enchant her son into leaving her."
Heather nodded. "She and my mam became best friends after we sorted our differences," she said. "We were very sorry to lose both her and my mam within a year of each other, and we mourned them both equally, although in different ways." She laughed. "And do you know what the old lady did just before she died? She changed her name to Murray, saying she refused to be buried under her name of Ryan. It was her way of letting us know she saw us as family, and we were never more proud of her than when we had her new name engraved on her tombstone."
"This has become quite the family history lesson," Iseult said with a giggle.
"Da said the same thing when he came home from hospital after Grandad passed away," Heather said. "He said Grandad intended to tell him how he got to where he was, and it turned into a bit of a family history lesson. But Da said he was glad to hear it, because just hearing of how Grandad got the business off to a start would've been a rather boring story." She smiled and ruffled her daughter's hair. "And the point rather long-winded point I'm making, my dear, is that you can do however you wish. Da was happy to let me do my own thing, even though it meant I never took up his mantle, and I am happy to let you do as you wish."
Iseult smiled. "Thanks, Mam," she said. She paused, then decided to bring up Saraid's brother. "Saraid has a brother who prefers fishing over baking," she said. "D'you think his love of fishing might translate to a love of squidding?"
Heather smiled. "Why don't you invite him over and let us find out?" she said.
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