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‘Sounds fair to me,’ Dolly said gleefully. ‘And that’s another reason I have no problem paying you rent.’
‘Rent?’ Tabitha said, faintly.
‘Yep. I’m moving in with Luce. Figure that the rent I pay can help her fix up this place. Trust me, Tom, you wouldn’t want the house if you’d seen the damp in the attic.’
Tom finally found his voice. ‘But I told Vanessa we could—’
‘Well, you shouldn’t have,’ Luce interjected. ‘This is my place, Tom. And while you, and Mum—and Vanessa, if she sticks around—are always welcome here, this is my house, my home. And I’m afraid all of you are going to have to get better at looking after yourselves. I’m going to have bigger concerns for the next decade or two.’
‘Like what?’ Tom asked.
‘Like my own family. I’m pregnant.’
‘You’re...? Well... That’s lovely, darling, I’m sure.’ Tabitha’s brows were furrowed, as if she were missing some vital part of the conversation.
Luce wondered if hearing what Grandad had really thought of her had sent Tabitha even further into her own world, reliving past events with new eyes. She was sure her mother would catch up later and demand answers and information. But for now Luce was glad of the respite.
Tom, however, had no such reserve.
‘Pregnant! You can’t be. Who’s the father? Or is this some desperate attempt to find love from a child instead of actually falling in love? Some “must start a family by the age of thirty” plan?’
Anger bubbled in Luce’s stomach, acid and biting. She’d known Tom wouldn’t take the change in the status quo well, but to hear such words from her own brother—the brother she’d tried so hard to look after and protect—it made her heart ache. And told her it was past time to cut him off. Fighting to keep her voice even she said, ‘That’s none of your business. Now, get out of my house.’
‘I thought we were always welcome here?’ Tom said, sneering.
‘Not when you talk to her like that, you’re not,’ Dolly said, grabbing his arm. ‘Come on—time to go. Mum, I think you might be better off at home this afternoon, too. We’ll see you soon.’
Luce collapsed back in her chair as she heard Dolly bundle their relatives out of the house. Reaching for a piece of ginger cake, she said, ‘I can’t believe I just kicked them out.’
‘I can’t believe it took you this long,’ Dolly said cheerfully as she sat down and helped herself to her own slice. ‘Buck up, sis. You know they’ll be back. Tom will calm down and beg for forgiveness, then pretend he never said that stuff. But they need to stand on their own four feet for a while. You did the right thing. And besides, you still have me!’
‘Yes, I do,’ Luce said. ‘And everyone needs an adoring sister to run them a bubble bath from time to time...’
Dolly rolled her eyes. ‘Another bath? Really? Okay. But only because you’re pregnant. This stuff stops once the baby’s here.’
‘That’s okay. You can bath the baby then, instead.’
Dolly laughed as she headed off to the bathroom, and Luce thought that maybe, just maybe, things would be okay after all. Not great, perhaps. They couldn’t be—not without Ben. But she’d be okay. And that was enough for now.
* * *
Just one more try. Ben stared at the phone in his hand for a minute before taking a deep breath and pressing ‘call’. Just because she’d ignored his last four phone calls, that didn’t mean she’d definitely ignore this one, did it?
Still, as the phone rang and rang, Ben started to have his doubts.
‘Hello?’
‘Luce?’ The voice didn’t sound quite right, but international phone lines did that sometimes.
‘No, it’s Dolly.’ The sister. Great. ‘You must be the “old university friend”.’
‘Ben Hampton. Is Luce there?’
‘She’s in the bath. In there all the time now she’s pregnant.’
‘She was bad enough before.’ Ben took a breath, and took a chance. ‘Look, I know she’s avoiding my calls. I was...’
‘An idiot?’
‘Last time we spoke. Yes. But I was jet-lagged and exhausted—and stupid, mostly. I’ve had a chance to let the news sink in, and I’m ready to make it up to her.’ Ready to make her the centre of his world if she’d let him.
‘Convince me,’ Dolly said, her voice firm.
Ben blinked at the phone. ‘What?’
‘Convince me you’re worthy of my sister. Make me want to help you.’
