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‘You’ve given me something far more important than money. You’ve given me love, John. You’ve loved me without asking anything of me other than that I love you back. We’re so lucky, we’ve got each other and the boys, and Fitton.’
She would never, Janey promised herself, let him know just how frightened she had been or how much it had shocked her to discover that he could be vulnerable and weak, just as she could herself. More than ever now John needed to be her hero, her knight in shining armour–for his sake, not hers. She was the strong one now, the one on whom he depended, not the other way around. Swings and roundabouts, that was marriage, Janey thought to herself.
‘Have you told Emerald yet that she isn’t going to be the only one adding to the next generation?’ Oliver murmured in Ella’s ear.
‘I think everyone knows, though I am only just three months,’ Ella reminded him.
‘Mmm. I think I can remember the exact night,’ Oliver teased her.
Amber surveyed her family. So many years, so much love, she could almost feel it in the air, like the soft warm wind of the South of France, carrying with it the mental images and memories of all those now gone who had played their part in creating the children and grandchildren who were here today, and carrying with it too their love.
Love didn’t die. It was always there, a rainbow dance just out of sight like laughter on the wind.
‘This would have made Robert so happy and proud.’
The sound of her husband’s voice had her looking at him with love and gratitude.
‘So you sense it too?’ she asked him. ‘You sense like me that Robert knows, that he and Luc know and share in this, in the family?’
Jay knew her so well; she never needed to explain things to him. She knew he would understand why she wanted to include her first husband and the son she had lost in today’s joy.
It was Emerald who, seeing her mother and her stepfather smiling at one another, went over to her own husband and whispered something to him, so that a few minutes later, with everyone’s glass refilled, Drogo raised his own to say warmly, ‘Another toast, this time to Amber, who is responsible for all of this, and all of us–in one way or another.’ His hand swept in an amused gesture, followed by appreciative laughter.
‘Amber.’
‘Mama.’
‘Grandma.’
Please let them all always have today’s happiness, Amber thought protectively. Please let them all have love.
