[JEMMA]

Robby found his voice. He was amazed by all he had heard, and had been content just to listen. But now he spoke.

"Our lives have been wonderful," he said. "I hardly remember my father. We have no complaints at all!"

"This is wonderful for me to hear," said their newly discovered uncle. "Perhaps I have spent too many years with people who had to struggle every minute to make their lives bearable. I know I felt as if I were more blessed than possible when I saw what they had to live like day in and day out. Perhaps I am jaded."

"I still need you," said Ramona. She darted a glance at her children. While their lives might have been carefree, hers had not. She didn't know how to explain that to them without making it sound like they weren't worth everything she'd had to go through.

"You have to understand," she said to them. "I wouldn't change anything if it meant that you would disappear from my life. I love you more than life itself. But I have never loved a man like I love this man."

"Not even Daddy?" asked Debbie, who had only the vaguest fragmented memories of the man she had just named.

"I loved him," said Ramona firmly. "He loved me and saved my life. He gave me you two, and you saved my life when he was taken from us. It's hard for me to explain, but when we were little, Robert saved my life too. Without Robert I would have wasted away and died of a broken heart. I love him too, and I always will. I cannot change that."

"This is all so strange," said Debbie. She looked at the man who, until an hour ago she had called "Smith" and hated. Now she didn't know how to feel about him. She had a sudden thought.

"Then this is our house!" she yipped. She realized how that sounded and restated it. "I mean, our grandparents lived here, and you lived here, Mommy. That's your bedroom upstairs ... the one with the girl's things in it!" She looked at her uncle. "And the one with the toys! That one was your room!"

"How do you know all this?" cried her mother. She suddenly remembered them in the secret passageway. "How did you know about the secret places?"

That led to another hour of discussion and explanation as the children confessed to their countless trips to the house, how they'd found the bent place in the fence, and then the root cellar and its secret tunnel. They talked about the games they played. They left out the sexual games - that was still something they were uncomfortable discussing - but described how they had found things, and what they had thought of the things they found, and how they had felt at home here, like they belonged in this place.

"I never knew," said Ramona. "My own children, spending hours and hours here and I never knew!"

"We were afraid you would have forbidden us to come back if you ever caught us," said Debbie.

"You were right," said their mother firmly. "I would most certainly have done that. I can't believe you kept that secret from me!"

"Like you kept the secret of who that horrible bearded man was when he came to our house? When he ruined everything?" Debbie shot back. Then her head jerked as she realized what she'd said. "I mean it's not really ruined, I guess. But it was then." She got flustered.

"I always hoped that once this place was restored to its original condition that I might lure your mother and you to live here with me," said their uncle. "I hadn't planned on suggesting that until you had gotten to know me, but such is life."

And that led to another hour of discussion about why the disguises and subterfuge had all been necessary when Robert first came back ... was still necessary for another few weeks at least.

And that led to an attempt to discuss, on the part of the kids at least, where the money was coming from to do the extensive restoration that was going on. Neither of the teens was stupid, and they knew that it was going to cost more money than they could imagine to complete the task.

"Your Grandfather's fortune was passed on to us," said Robert simply.

"I don't know about you," said Debbie, "but we certainly don't have any fortune."

She looked at her mother, who was looking at her folded hands on top of the dining room table.

Ramona talked to her hands. "There are several other things I never told you."

And that led to Debbie attempting to grill her mother about money, at which point Robby stood up and said "I'm starving. Can't we get something to eat before we do any more talking?"

Debbie was obviously consumed with curiosity about the "Nettleton fortune", but Ramona stood up too.

"An excellent idea!" she said. "Be patient Debbie, we can talk about all this more later."

Debbie groaned and made much of being told to be "patient" again. She did, however, reflect for a moment on how much information she had gotten in the last few hours, and how many of her questions had been answered, albeit in an astonishing manner. So she clamped her jaws together and stood up too, at which time she realized she was also ravenous.

"Would it be all right if I invite your Uncle to dinner again?" Ramona asked. Her voice was neutral.

Both kids looked at each other. This wasn't anything even remotely like what they had expected when they wondered who Smith was, and it was all so new that they still didn't know how they felt about things yet. But he was their uncle, and their mother did love him.

"Of course," said Robby, speaking for both of them.

"We'll call for pizza," said Ramona. "When was the last time you had pizza Bobby?" she asked.

"I can't even remember," he grinned. "Must I wear my disguise, just to go next door?"

"You do and I won't speak to you," growled Debbie. But she smiled tentatively too. "I have more questions."

"I can't wait to give you answers," said her "new" uncle.

TBC