‘Right, come on, let’s go. Sorry to be short and sweet,’ Clara said.
As John ushered Molly out the door to protests that she didn’t want to go swimming tonight, Lucy hugged Clara by the front door.
‘Anything else you want to tell me?’ Lucy whispered into her sister’s ear, referring to Clara’s untouched Champagne.
‘No,’ Clara said, pulling back from the hug and looking at her sister with a smile. ‘Not yet, I don’t. I only took a pregnancy test yesterday. Actually, I did three tests, just to be sure. It’s amazing but it’s incredibly early days. Whatever happens, I promise to keep you informed.’
‘OK,’ Lucy said and a huge smile spread across her face as her family climbed in the car and left the gates of Deux Tourelles.
That decided it. She wanted to be here to support Clara, which meant she’d definitely be here for the foreseeable future. Andthen … well, she’d take it all as it came. Her friends could always come and visit her in Guernsey. It wasn’t that far.
Will was in the kitchen, washing out John and Molly’s glasses and putting them on the drainer.
‘You’re well trained,’ Lucy teased.
‘That one’s full,’ he said pointing to Clara’s. ‘If you want it? Seemed a shame to chuck it down the sink.’
Lucy took Clara’s glass and held it. It was now or never. ‘I really like having you around … as a friend,’ she said tentatively. ‘Thank you for being with me, closing the chapter on Dido and Persephone. And this house. It’s meant so much to me that you’ve come round to help paint and fix it up a bit and, well, even though the outcome wasn’t what we intended, I’m glad we found out what had happened to them all.’
‘It was a complicated time. They were good people who did great things,’ Will said.
‘They were,’ Lucy replied, sipping Clara’s Champagne.
‘You said before that you hoped Dido had found some happiness and I do think she did,’ Will offered. ‘She was intensely private for those last months I knew her but she struck me as someone who had lived, who had seen the whole spectrum of life. Not just the bad. Does that make sense?’
Lucy nodded. ‘It does. I hope so anyway. I think I’ll pop back one day soon and talk to the vicar about Dido in the years immediately after the war, see if he knows a bit more than he’s letting on.’
Will nodded. ‘There was such a long time from the end of the war until her passing. A full life, lived – that’s what I feel she had.’
‘I like to think that’s true,’ Lucy said, smiling. ‘I didn’t know her but I like to think there was some moment of happiness available to her and no matter the consequences that she reached out and snapped it up.’
Will took his glass from the table and raised it before sipping and looking thoughtfully at Lucy.
A silent moment descended.
‘Is that what you think everyone should do, grab that moment of happiness when it presents itself?’ Will asked.
‘I do. Yes.’
He looked thoughtful, as if steeling himself for something. ‘OK,’ he started and then coughed nervously. ‘You mentioned about us being friends.’
‘Yes?’ Lucy asked warily and then sipped her Champagne only to mask her face.
‘I don’t want to be friends with you.’
‘What?’ Lucy coughed Champagne.
‘My intentions towards you are not friendly,’ he said and then looked up to the ceiling as if he’d realised that sounded strange.
‘That is either the creepiest thing anyone has ever said to me, or by far the sexiest,’ Lucy said.
Will laughed. ‘That came out wrong. I mean, I don’t want to just be friends. I would like to date you. Oh God, why do I sound like this? What’s happening?’
She suppressed a smile, deciding to save him. ‘Will—’
But he leapt back into the conversation. ‘OK,’ he said, cutting her off. ‘This has gone wrong. I’m just going to do what I should have done the night we had dinner at my house. I don’t know why I didn’t do it then and I don’t know why I didn’t do it at your front door when I walked you home. And now, we’re here, weeks later, having this weird conversation, And I’ve still not done it. This is my fault, I admit that, I missed the opportunity.’
And then before she knew it, he walked towards her, took the Champagne glass from her hands, placed it on the table and kissed her.
