Page 104 of The Christmas Retreat
‘So she followed him down there and then fate, probably in the form of a rabbit, intervened,’ I said. ‘It was such a tragedy when she was still so young and talented.’
‘She was very serious about her work,’ he said, ‘and her career was really taking off.’ He gave a wry smile. ‘But like Verity, she was a bit older than me and she’d have really hated turning forty. I’m sure Verity’s still in denial.’
He got up and took my cup with his away to the sink and then came and sat next to me again.
‘There’s no reason why Annie should ever come between us. I stopped loving her long before our final break-up and she was never the faithful kind to start with. Our marriage was a disaster from the beginning. It wasn’t all Annie either. I was the one who rushed her into it, and then decided I needed to live here and not in London and expected her to fall in with my plans. And the compromises, like her keeping her London studio on and dividing her time between there and Triskelion, were never going to work, although it took me a while to realize she’d kept on her old lover as well as her studio.’
‘It’s like me and Will. After the first time we broke up, I should never have taken him back again. Our arrangement didn’t work out either.’
‘We both made much the same mistakes,’ he said, ‘but we both also seem to like and want the same things from life, Ginny. Don’t you think we … sort of fit together?’
He took my hands in his again, but although we might have cleared the air about one thing, there was still my mother’s research, which sounded as if it might throw some dynamite into the family circle. I now deeply regretted my promise to her not to mention it to him or anyone else just yet.
He said gently, ‘I don’t want to rush you, Ginny. I think you need breathing space at the lodge, a sort of bridging time between your old life and a new one. And I hope that will be with me and Cariad, but that’s for you to decide.’
‘Evie said much the same about the lodge,’ I admitted. ‘She said it would be a kind of halfway house, where I could work out what I really wanted. And … well, I want to be sure this time – no more mistakes.’
‘That’s right, this time it’s for ever or nothing,’ he agreed, then added with that quirky smile of his, ‘I’d like to kiss you, but your face is so dirty you could probably grow potatoes on it, and I expect mine’s just as bad.’
I blushed and said hastily, ‘I’d forgotten I was so filthy!’ I got up. ‘I’m going for a long, hot shower.’
‘Well, think about me while you’re in there,’ he suggested. ‘I’ll see you at lunch.’
*
Evie’s door was still firmly shut as I went past, and it was only when I came back from the shower, a towel wrapped around my wet hair, that I remembered she might have emailed me the final letters Arwen had sent to Milly, the ones that Liv had been finishing typing up. And, when I opened my laptop, there they were.
It was tempting to begin reading them straight away, but I suspected if I did, I wouldn’t be able to stop, so decided to save them till after lunch, when I could concentrate … that is, if I could keep my mind off Rhys for long enough.
32
Painted Out
Evie appeared briefly at lunch to take a plate of bread, cheese and cold meat, before vanishing back upstairs with it.
She favoured fountain pens when she wasn’t using the computer, and her current one, wedged behind her ear, had leaked blue ink down the side of her neck, like a strange tattoo. Above it, her pinkish hair stood up like a cockatoo’s crest.
I wondered if she would remember her promise to bring down all the paintings she’d found in the attic to show everyone at teatime. I’d have read the last of Arwen’s letters by then, and perhaps she’d be in a mood to talk to me about them.
I sat down in my usual place next to Rhys without looking at him, feeling rather shy after what had gone on between us earlier.
Heseemed cheerful, however, and told Nerys about finding the box of Annie’s things in the attic, which he’d put in the family sitting room.
‘I thought you could go through it with Cariad later and see if there’s anything she might like to have now.’
‘Good idea. I seem to remember there were a few things Annie must have had as a child, including a piggy bank. It’s a Wemyss one, so it’s antique and collectable.’
‘I think she’ll definitely like that,’ he said.
‘Apart from a lot of clothes and shoes, and the things in her studio, she didn’t really have very much,’ Nerys said.
‘No, she was a rolling stone,’ he agreed.
‘We’ll sort it out when Cariad gets back from the castle.’
‘OK, I’ll fetch her in time for tea,’ Rhys said, then added to me, ‘Do you want to come for the run, Ginny?’
‘I … no, I’m going to work,’ I said lamely, not wanting to tell him what I’d really be doing.
