Migration

Bettina sat on the bed after unpacking her suitcases in Uncle Louis Reddy’s spacious apartment. Louis worked in the diplomatic offices of the French Embassy and commuted from his home to 58 Knightsbridge London each day. He welcomed the opportunity to have his niece with him as his wife had recently passed on and it was comforting to have this brother and sister in law’s daughter to stay with him. While his sister-in-law Beatrice Reddy was from the Dubois family the Dubois were distantly related to the Reddy’s so Louis looked on her as one of the Reddy extended family.

The Reddy’s were of Eurasian ancestry and carried their slightly tanned skin tone and chiselled facial features proudly knowing they were from this ancestry. It had all started in 1674 when the French East India Company had been established on the east coast of India. The French had established a treaty with the local ruler to grant them permission to commence a trading station in Pondicherry and many of those who’d made the dangerous boat journey from France settled there permanently with the resulting intermarriage between Indians and French of which the Reddy’s were a product.

The residents of Pondicherry considered themselves to be French and so with the independence of India from British rule it was inevitable the newly established Indian Republic would consider these foreign enclaves like Pondicherry and Goa as remnants of oppressive foreign rule and pressure was applied to take these enclaves back into the republic. So, in 1954 the residents of Pondicherry came to an understanding they were under control of the Indian Republic, and this was formalized in 1963.

With that formalization came pressure to revert to their ancient language and those who favoured retaining French as their language of choice began a mass migration to what they considered as the mother country and that was France. The Reddy’s were wealthy merchants and saw the probability of their freewheeling trade with France and the rest of Europe restricted by the republics increasingly stringent trading currency controls. They took their wealth while the opportunity was still there and moved to France where they already had trading branches and sought other means to invest their capital, and they were successful in making the transition to other trading opportunities in Europe leaving their traditional products behind now more difficult to access from India along with privileged opportunities of the past in their ancestral land.

So, the Reddy clan had been in France since the early 1950’s and were now into their third generation living there. The family had increased in numbers and intermarried within the clan and the children and grandchildren of those original Reddy transplants into France had been very successful some in business and many in professions.

Louis Reddy’s side of the family had ventured into politics and Louis had chosen the diplomatic service. He’d been weaned in the service in his early diplomatic career as an intern in places like the Middle East and Africa and had worked his way up through the years to this posting in London where he’d now been for five years. He hoped to stay there until his retirement and that was on the near horizon.

His sister-in-law Beatrice choice of a career had been education, and her husband Gabriel Reddy was an important man in the Ministry of National Education. So, it was natural their youngest daughter Bettina would gravitate to that profession.

It was soon after UK joined the European Union in 1973 that Bettina Reddy Economics graduate with the highest honours Magna cum laude graduated from University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, moved to the UK and was granted scholarship at Imperial College Business School to engage in a PhD study. She looked on this as an opportunity to hone her English skills as she studied.

Louis had been delighted when Gabriel Reddy had contacted him to find out if there would be any chance of helping locate an appropriate place for Bettina to stay during her PhD studies and he quickly agreed to have her stay at his apartment. It would be convenient as he had a French housekeeper who looked after his apartment and arranged meals for himself and any guests the family had from time to time. Louis and his wife had produced three children and they’d grown up and were scattered around the world following their respective careers now and with the recent passing of his wife he was missing wife and family very much. It cheered him up considerably when Beatrice arrived with her daughter to see she was set up with all the things needed in London.

Louis had always liked his sister-in-law even though she could be a little overbearing. He was both amused and irritated in equal parts as Beatrice tried to take over on her arrival, but she met her match in the housekeeper Madame Adele Vincent. When Beatrice was challenged in turn by Madame Vincent and saw the set jaw and narrowed eyes, she smiled in recognition she was no longer in control and nodded to the woman in acknowledgement. Madame Vincent having made her point courteously directed them to their rooms and outlined the rules the house operated by. But Madame Vincent took an entirely different approach to Bettina who she instantly adopted as a daughter and from the beginning of their meeting showered love and affection on Bettina. She fussed over the young woman and Bettina responded in kind with the old woman. Bettina was not displeased to see her mother put in her place as she’d often chafed under her mother’s domineering personality from early childhood.  Having satisfied herself Bettina was in good hands Beatrice departed to supervise her husband and married children in France.

As there were a few weeks for Bettina to orient to English society before her assigned time to formally enrol at Imperial College Business School where she’d agree to serving the institution five years on completion of her PhD studies in recognition of the scholarship Madame Vincent whisked Bettina around the underground rail system of London prompting her to take the initiative in learning to get around in the city. When finally satisfied the exhausted girl knew the system thoroughly, she requested permission from Uncle Louis to take his niece to Brighton where he’d purchased a home where he took regular vacations while his wife was with him. Now Louis rarely visited there since the death of his wife and Madame Vincent was anxious to see Louis return to his regular weekend visits there as he always took her with him with the family and Madame Vincent enjoyed Brighton.

Madame Vincent argued long and loudly with Louis until he agreed to take his niece to Brighton that weekend and the next day uncle and his housekeeper barely spoke to each other. Bettina would learn over time this was normal but the two were fiercely loyal to each other and eventually the storm would blow over. So, it was not a surprise that on the weekend Louis ordered the two women to pack their bags, and they were off by fast train for the fifty-eight-minute journey to Brighton. Madame Vincent smiled the smile of success and Louis became increasingly enthusiastic as they saw the terminal pull into view. The weekend was a thorough success to be repeated quite often after that as it had been in the past.

Madame Vincent’s next project was to interfere with Louis’ increasing use of his secretary to join him at embassy functions. His wife Maria had been his partner for the night at functions and it was unheard of for a bachelor to attend an embassy function without a woman at his side. Not only was Madame Vincent fiercely loyal to Louis but she was equally loyal to Maria and when learning through the French grapevine that Madame Laurent was now the one to accompany Louis at diplomatic functions she did an extensive background check on the woman and was dissatisfied with Louis’ choice of partners and took such a dislike to the poor woman she was making plans to make the woman’s life unbearable should she even think of taking Maria’s place in the home. Louis could have his fling with her as that was acceptable in her mind, but marriage was out of the question.

So, when she broached the subject diplomatically to Louis stating that it would be well for Bettina to be introduced to the embassy diplomats and their guests at these functions, she was surprised that Louis enthusiastically agreed to take her along as his partner for the evenings. While Madame Laurent was well placed in society and quite good-looking Louis had noted she had the same overbearing tendencies as his sister-in-law Beatrice and that did not suit his personality. He could tolerate it in a housekeeper but not as a wife.

Madame Laurent was quite relieved when Louis indicated he needed to introduce his niece to diplomatic society, and he’d not need her services at evening functions. She’d felt obligated to him as a boss but had her eyes fixed on younger men more of her age in the diplomatic corps and immediately went on the hunt for a new partner to keep up with diplomatic society. She soon landed a suitor from the Belgian Embassy at 17 Grosvenor Crescent a French speaking Monsieur Dubois. Madame Vincent was ecstatic when she learned through her contacts at the embassy all had worked out according to her wishes and her benefactor Louis was safe from that woman she hated.

To be continued.

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