‘We’re staying right here,’ he said, and not able to hold back a moment longer, he stepped closer so they could kiss, and they stayed like that in each other’s arms until the clock had struck the hour, and the next one too, because Alice Hargreave was, at last, exactly in the spot where she needed to be.
46
Mhairi had made it to the car and Jolyon was safely strapped in his seat, exhausted from a long day’s gardening. She wished she could say she’d enjoyed it as much as him, even if Shell seemed to have forgiven her son enough to come and plant a few potatoes and herbs alongside him, but Mhairi had been unable to shake the feeling of eyes upon her, of being judged. But soon they’d be home and out of sight of everyone. What a relief that always was.
‘Mrs Sears,’ a voice called. ‘Can I have a word?’
Mhairi froze. That phrase, whether it was said with a beckoning finger at nursery pick-up, or by a health visitor at her doorstep, was enough to strike her frozen with fear.
She turned slowly on her heel, taking the time to rearrange her face, but on their way across the floodlit carpark towards her at quite a pace were Livvie and Roz and Shell, and they looked like they meant business. She took a deep breath.
‘Look, I know you want us gone from the project,’ Mhairi pre-empted.
‘Before you go, we wanted to show you something,’ Livvie was saying over her, ‘because I think we might have been getting ourselves in a pickle unnecessarily.’
‘Oh?’ Mhairi said, wincing and wishing herself miles away.
Jolyon, however, was chuckling from his car seat, waving at his friend.
‘Show them, Shell,’ said Livvie, and from behind her back the little girl produced her precious blue blanket.
Jolyon’s eyes lit up at the sight of it and he reached out a hand.
‘Oh, you can’t be handing that over, Shell. Isn’t that your special blankie?’ Mhairi said, looking between the girl and her mum.
Shell, however, seemed resolute and, stepping closer to the little boy, she pulled her hands apart to reveal the blanket was somehow cut into two halves.
Mhairi’s chest sank with a heavy weight of emotion. ‘You split it?’ she said.
‘Shedid,’ said Shell, tipping her head towards Roz, ‘but it wasmyidea.’
‘I may have hemmed it in blue satin all the way round so it won’t fray, and there’s a wee bit of embroidery too,’ said Roz.
Shell sorted the two pieces, showing Jolyon his name stitched in sunshine yellow on his half. ‘And my half says Shell.’
‘You weren’t cross with us?’ Mhairi asked, her mind racing. ‘This was what you were doing when you all disappeared together into the repair shop?’
Jolyon had the blanket in his hands and against his cheek in seconds, and Livvie steadied an emotional Mhairi with a hand at her arm.
‘Of course we weren’t cross,’ said Livvie like it was obvious. ‘What’s there to be cross about amongst friends?’
Jolyon, once unstrapped from his car seat, joined in the game of giving out hugs, stretching his arms especially wide for Shell. The little girl laughed at this and held her friend tight, and no one had to say another thing because, as the bairns had proven, sometimes love needs no words at all.
EPILOGUE
Alice Hargreave was daydreaming again.
Cary’s woodworking yard was leafy and bright under the late-March sunshine. She was in her favourite place, under a blanket with her coffee, watching Cary working on his latest cabinetry commission. He stopped for a moment to wipe a hand across his brow, smiling for her, and she smiled back.
Even though it was only early spring, she was dreaming already of the sunny season here and in the gardens at the repair shop, which were already sprouting with fresh green life, and the aspen trees had budded heavily, ready to put out their leaves.
She dreamed also of how lovely the blossom would be on the apple trees all around Cary’s lovely yard, and she dreamed of her mother coming to stay for Easter, alone, now that she’d followed her daughter’s lead, with a fair bit of talking over the phone, and she’d put some gentle boundaries in place for her erstwhile husband.
Alice was dreaming too of the town’s Beltane bonfire celebration that she’d heard all about from Gracie, knowing it involved wine and wild dancing until deep into May Day morning.
She sighed and sipped her coffee, drawing Cary’s attention, summoning him as if by witchcraft to wander over and take a sip from her cup, before he kissed the top of her head and went back to his work.
She dreamed of getting better, and the long lifetime of self-care she had ahead of her in that regard, but she was prepared for it, and prepared to continue reaping its benefits too.
