The balloon was upright by the time the little purple van drove in through the gate of the field and parked next to the car Angus had hired last night when he’d arrived in Nice.
Alfie.
He glanced over his shoulder as he began walking towards Tilly, to see what she was seeing. And it was gorgeous. This enormous balloon, with its graceful, teardrop shape with the stripes that were narrow at the mouth gradually widening to accommodate the bulge then tapering as they vanished over the top. The shades of every colour of the rainbow that came alive with every short burst of the burner while Roy kept it inflated but not straining at its tethers.
Behind Tilly, the mountains were an inky silhouette against the first pale wash of daylight. Angus couldn’t see her well enough to be able to read her expression. He couldn’t even tell if she was smiling yet but… she was here and that was all that really mattered. The sound of another muted roar from the burner behind him reminded Angus that there was no time to stand here and give Tilly an effusive greeting, or offer explanations. Even a kiss had to wait. The route they were going to take, if the weather stayed as perfect as it was right now, had been planned down to the exact place where he wanted them to be when the first rays of the sun climbed above the horizon and gilded the cross on the top of the Baou des Blancs.
What he could do, was hold out his hand to Tilly.
And smile.
‘I’m so glad you’re here,’ he said. ‘Come…’
And then they were running, hand in hand, towards the balloon.
* * *
Ohh…
Thatsmile…
Tilly would have taken his hand and gone anywhere on earth with Angus, but that he was taking her to a balloon was beyond astonishing.
So was finding that Roy was their pilot. And that they were the only people getting into the basket with him.
‘What are you doing in this part of Provence?’ Tilly asked. ‘Have you run away from home?’
‘This is a one-off,’ Roy said. ‘I’m looking forward to it as much as Angus is.’
Tilly’s jaw dropped. Angus looking forward to a balloon ride? She made a show of looking around them, shading her eyes even though there was no sunshine. ‘I don’t see any pigs,’ she said.
‘Pigs?’ Roy didn’t get it. He sounded horrified. ‘We not going anywhere near any pigs today.’
Angus got it. He was giving her thatlook. That intense, narrow-eyed focus that made her the only thing in the universe he was interested in. And he looked as if he was laughing. Inside.
‘Do you remember the rules?’ Roy asked. ‘Hang on to the handles as we take off and no leaning over the side of the basket.’
Angus had one hand on a handle. His other hand was holding Tilly’s again. There was a longer blast on the burner and, with no more than an imperceptible shudder, the ground was falling away beneath them. Tilly’s fingers tightened around Angus’s hand as they got swiftly higher and, in the light of the next flame above them, she turned her head so that she could catch and hold his gaze. She didn’t try and say anything because she couldn’t find any words yet, but maybe her eyes – the mirror of her soul – were telling him what she wanted to say.
This is amazing.
You are amazing.
I love you.
Angus leaned down and Tilly lifted her chin to meet his kiss.
And she could taste it.
Love.
Who knew it had a taste all of its own? The most delicious, addictive taste you could be lucky enough to be given. It clearly went both ways because that kiss wasn’t broken until a new blast of the burner reminded them that they weren’t alone.
The silence that fell between the roars of the burner was one of the things Tilly remembered from their first flight over Gordes because, thanks to Roy’s ability to make himself almost a part of his balloon, it had made her feel as if she and Angus were alone in the sky, just the two of them. The memory was even sharper because, again, they were over a forest heading towards a medieval village on a hilltop.
Tilly knew exactly where they were.
‘That’s Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Look – the cathedral is like a big fat candle on the top of a cake made of houses.’
