Page 102 of These Old Lies

“Oh, he did.” Ned looked over to Charlie, and though they weren’t saying a word, Frank could tell a whole conversation was going on.

Ned removed his glasses the way he did whenever he was going to speak at length. “I guess the beginning is when I went to settle up a debt for a hat in 1923.”

Ned didn’t get any further because his father interrupted, “That’s a stupid place to start, we knew each other before then!”

“I didn’t think you would want to start with the other stuff, not with Frank!”

Frank pinched his nose with new appreciation for his mother’s patience. “Why do I get the feeling you’re both going to be telling me this story at the same time?”

Ned settled into his chair. “We have time. The vote hasn’t started yet, and the parliamentary clerks are going to take forever.”

???

It did take forever. Frank learned things about his father he had never thought possible. About the strengths and weaknesses of both men. His heart broke when he learned of the pits of despair both his father and Ned had found themselves in during the war. He laughed and wanted to slap them both upside their heads at some points. Moments he had lived through and thought he had understood, he saw in an entirely new light. His parents’marriage, with all its unspoken complications, took on a comforting understanding.

His dad and uncle were explaining how they had gone to Oxford to exchange vows when the phone rang, and Ned got up to answer it in the hall.

“I remember you going to Oxford. It was the first time I had seen your medals.” It had been a striking moment, proof that his father had done things that seventeen-year-old Frank couldn’t even imagine. “Do you still have the photograph?”

His father slowly pushed himself out of his chair. “I wanted you and Ellie there, but I never dreamed you would understand.” He shuffled over to the battered desk in the corner and Frank resisted the urge to go help him. His father returned with a thick cardboard folder of old photos.

Frank’s breath hitched as he looked down at the first photo. A middle-aged Ned was sitting on a chair looking straight at the camera, one leg casually crossed over another. Charlie stood behind him, a hand on his shoulder. Frank never would have noticed before, but he could see now the little bit of make-up on Ned, the possessive way his father’s hand sat on Ned’s shoulder. The way both men positioned their wrists so that their cufflinks were prominent.

Tucked away behind this photo was a smaller one. Taken the same day, except this time the two men were in a passionate kiss. Frank fought a blush as he passed the pictures back.

Before they could say anything more, Ned returned, making a beeline straight towards the champagne bottle, which he popped unceremoniously.

“That was Andrew Matthews. His clerks just finished the vote tally. It will be a few more minutes before it is announced on the BBC, but the bill passed. 101 votes to 16.” Ned paused before he spoke, this time his voice trembling. “Homosexual acts in private are no longer criminal offenses.”

Charlie doubled over in his chair, head in his hands and shoulders shaking. Frank realised with a start that his father was sobbing. He moved to reach out, but Ned was there first, on his knees with his arms around Charlie. “It’s done, love. It’s done.”

His father looked up, eyes bright, and without any hesitation kissed Ned. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, but it still was so full of love, and intimacy, thatFrank could only feel privileged to be included in such a private moment. His father was running his hands through Ned’s hair and whispering something into his ear.

Frank took up the abandoned champagne bottle and decided to give his father, and his father’s husband, a moment of privacy. As he poured the glasses, Frank thought to himself that he would need to talk about this with Ellie somehow. He wasn’t sure what she knew, what he could say, but they needed to agree that they would look after Uncle Ned as much as their own parents.

“Why are you crying, Granddad? Why is Uncle Ned crying?” Will’s young voice came from the doorway, the pop of the champagne bottle having distracted him from the book he still held in his hands.

Ned pulled himself together first. “We were talking about old memories.”

Looking to the two men in front of him, men who had lived, made and defied history, Frank’s heart swelled with pride and love. He lifted his glass in cheers for the night’s historic milestone, and in tribute to the men in front of him, and said, “And we are smiling about bright news for the future.”