‘That’s dedication.’
‘If something’s important to you, you make time.’
‘I’m not sure how good a student I’ll be but I’m eager to try.’
There was that laugh again. He needed to stop doing that or he was going to have to find some of that energy he’d just denied having. ‘Sweetheart, like I said, you read bloody hieroglyphics like it’s a comic book. Believe me, you’ll pick it up just fine.’
I kissed his chest lightly and his arm trailed along my hip.
‘Elizabeth?’
‘Yes?’
‘Do you have any more questions or could I please, for the love of God, get some sleep now?’
I let out a long-suffering sigh. ‘I suppose so.’
Finn’s hand slid over my waist, tightened momentarily and then rested there. Within a minute, I felt it relax and his breathing grow deep and steady. I closed my eyes and soon joined him on the night bus to the land of Nod.
13
‘Sssh!’ was the first thing Colette said when I video called her the next day after Finn had left. She held the forefinger of her free hand to her lips as she rested the phone on the duvet.
‘Having a duvet day?’ I whispered.
‘Oui,’ she replied, too hungover to not revert back to her native language as she adjusted herself in the bed to get comfy. ‘How come you’re not feeling like I am?’
‘I am. I’m just better at hiding it.’
She gave me one of those Gallic shrugs she was so good at and snuggled down under the duvet. ‘Did you enjoy yourself?’
‘Yeah, actually. I did. Once I got over the whole terror of meeting all his family in one go.’
‘Perhaps it was for the best?’
‘Maybe.’ I mimicked her shrug without the easy looseness she managed.
‘They seem lovely though. And it looked like you were getting on well with Alice… from what I remember.’
‘You were there too,’ I reminded her, laughing. ‘She was teaching us rude words in sign language.’
Colette’s pixie-like features wrinkled in what I assumed was an attempt at recollection, but it could have been the hangover. ‘Was she?Merde. I can’t remember any of them! You’ll have to reteach me when I’m recovered enough.’
‘You’re assuming I remember.’
‘I know you do. Drunk or not you have an uncanny ability to remember anything you learn whereas for some of us, it seems to drop out of our ears when we’re not looking.’
‘Oh, rubbish.’
Colette pouted. ‘Please tell me you remember some. It’s definitely going to come in useful as a way to vent my feelings in certain situations without getting into trouble.’
‘I remember some.’
A hand wiggled out from under the bedclothes and she made a circle with her thumb and forefinger before pulling it back into the warmth of the duvet.
‘I’ll leave you to sleep.’
Colette’s eyelids looked heavy and her pallor had a tinge of green.
