Page 50 of A Brambleberry Manor Christmas
‘Fen said she’d give me a lift.’
‘I could run you back now if you like. It would save Fenhaving to come out into the cold.’
‘Oh. Well…that would be great. If you don’t mind.’
‘Not at all.’ He smiles and my insides flip over. ‘I’ll justnip in and get my keys. I’m parked in the courtyard. See you at the back door?’
I nod, watching him go. ‘I’ll just go and let Fen knowwhat’s happening and get my things.’
I end up walking across the lawn with Rhoda, and she asks if I’ve heard from Flo.
She sees me hesitate. ‘Oh, dear. Is something wrong?’
‘No, it’s fine. The fact is Flo…well, she let me down. Shetold me she’d worked as a sous chef, but she hadn’t. She told me other thingsthat weren’t true, either.’ I shrug. ‘I had to let her go. It was the logicalthing to do.’
‘Oh. You sound sad about it, though.’
‘I am. We worked really well together, Flo and I.’
‘Maybe you could give her another chance?’
‘I’d really like to. But logically speaking, it would be madto employ someone I couldn’t trust to be honest with me. Wouldn’t it?’
Rhoda sighs. ‘She seemed like a really nice person.’
I nod. ‘Is that what you’d do? Give her another chance?’
‘I gave Bob another chance and I never regretted it,’ shesays softly.
‘Bob? But you two seem so together. Like soulmates.’
She smiles wistfully. ‘Ah, well, it might seem as if we livea charmed life, but it hasn’t always been like that. For a long time, we weredead set on having a family. I had fertility treatment but years went by andnothing happened, and it put a real strain on our relationship. We separatedfor a while because of it and Bob started seeing a woman who lived along theroad from us. I remember feeling so hurt that he’d found someone else soquickly.’
‘That must have been really hard.’
She nods. ‘It was. We soon realised we missed each other,although it took me a long time to forgive him for going off with that otherwoman. But eventually I did and we reunited, and we’ve never looked back.’
‘So you got over not being able to have children?’
‘We did. For so many years, we did all the right things – allthelogicalthings – but I still didn’t get pregnant. So now we tend togo with our hearts and our instincts instead. We prefer to just go with theflow, instead of trying to force things. And it seems to be working. This isthe happiest I’ve ever been.’
‘That’s lovely.’
She nods. ‘Perhaps you could forget logic and go with yourheart instead…and give Flo a second chance?’
*****
On the drive home in Noah’s car, he blasts the heating towarm us up, and I find myself slowly relaxing for the first time that day.
I didn’t realise until now quite how exhausted I was. Iguess when you’re stressed and worried about things, but you have a job to do,you just keep on going, finding the drive from somewhere. And it’s only whenyou’ve finished that your body can at last slump…
‘Don’t go to sleep,’ warns Noah. ‘Or I might have to carryyou into the house.’
I smile, stifling a yawn. ‘How romantic.’
He grins over at me. ‘Ever had a fireman’s lift?’
‘Ah. Not romantic at all, then.’
