I suppose all families have their black sheep and their betes noir....by which I mean things in the past they would rather forget and with some people who have transgressed against family law in some way.
My new family is no different. Its now almost 6 years since I became a fully paid up member of the family but there were in the early days many stories of years gone by that I had didn't know and probably didn't want to.
In the grading of family horrors most are tiny....the wrong person said the wrong thing at the wrong time. The wrong person inherited money or property against all known reason.  There are some people who are spoken of under cover of the confessional almost and there are those whose names are never mentioned except with a sneer or a curse.
And yet for some reason not all the members of the family agree on what constitiutes a crime and there lies the pitfall for the unwary or new member who has not had a good enough prior briefing.
Yesterday at the wedding of my husband's youngest grandson were many many people I didn't know. had never met or had forgotten completely after one conversation.
We were very cold and our only excuse for drinking more than we should have done was that it seemed the only way to get a bit warmer.
I wandered into the marquee which was splendid and promised well for what was to come. I chatted idly to various people I knew and drank some more.   It was still freezing. A  person I had never met came to chat to me. It was clear that she knew who I was but failed to introduce herself except by saying that she knew our bit of Cornwall very well indeed and so she did, we quickly found people we knew in common and got on like a house on fire.
Then I saw two other members of the family gazing at me in horror.
What had I done?  Too late I realised who it was I had just spent a few minutes in conversation with and thus transgressed a family feud.
The penny dropped resoundingly. All unwittingly I had made friends with an outcast, a person who was  non grata with my bit of the family. No wonder she knew all about me!
Soon after that she went and I got taken to task by everyone. My protestations fell on stony ground. I had been told about this person but had failed to recognise her.   Indeed she didn't look as  wicked as say an axe murderer...
There was only one thing I could do.  I graciously accepted another Pimms and hoped that I would be forgiven...  It might take a while!