AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When they talked it was of commonplace, day-to-day things. She told him about Fanny’s trip to Spain. He suggested that, since his car was the larger, he should transport Fanny to the airport, adding that if she cared to they could make a day of it, seeing Fanny off on her early morning flight and then going on to spend the day in London with Oliver and Tara. She responded gravely that she would put it to the children, already knowing they would not refuse.
Fanny was nervous on the Saturday morning of her flight, half inclined not to go, but by the time Saul pulled up outside she was feeling more cheerful.
In no time at all they were all in the car. Fanny and the children in the back, Lucy seated next to Saul in the front. Fanny had been about to take the front passenger seat but, by some dextrous manoeuvre, Saul had got her ensconced in the back. A tiny frond of pleasure uncurled inside her as Lucy sat beside him, content in the knowledge that he had wanted her there.
As they drove through the gates he slowed down and then stopped as their postman cycled towards them.
‘You’re getting an early start.’ His smile encompassed them all as he handed two or three letters to Lucy and then reached past her to give a large bundle to Saul. Most of them seemed to have American stamps; business letters by the look of them, and it struck her how little she knew of the life Saul had lived in the States. Almost as though he knew what she was thinking he smiled at her before glancing wryly at his mail.
‘From my company by the looks of it. I’ve taken some leave of absence to come over here, but it looks like some things won’t wait.’
His words reminded Lucy that his stay in England could not be a permanent one. No doubt as soon as he had put the Manor on the market he would be returning to the States. An icy finger of dread touched her heart. What would happen to her then? If he were to ask her to go with him, would she?’
Her heart leaped at the thought. She would go anywhere with him, she acknowledged shakily, or at least she would had she been free to do so. She had her obligation to Oliver and Tara to consider… She shivered, forcing back a wave of desolation, and Saul, seeing it, looked at her with a concerned frown.
‘Cold?’
She shook her head, retreating into silence as she tried to remind herself she had only known Saul a very short time; far too short surely to be thinking that, without him in it, her world would be a very desolate place indeed.
* * *
‘Tired?’
Both children nodded sleepily in response to Saul’s question as Lucy bundled them into the car.
After seeing Fanny safely off they had gone on to London, spending a few hours at the zoo before having lunch at a MacDonalds. A bus trip round the sights of the city, followed by afternoon tea at the Grosvenor House Hotel, and then a brisk walk through the park, had resulted in two very happy and very tired children.
* * *
‘If we didn’t have these two to think about, I’d suggest rounding off the day with dinner somewhere,’ Saul told her as he drove home. Both children were fast asleep in the back of the car, and Lucy glanced back at them.
‘Fanny’s not exactly maternal is she?’ Saul commented.
‘In her own way she is.’ Lucy felt bound to defend her stepmother. ‘She loves them both very dearly.’
‘But she’s quite happy to let the responsibility for them rest on your shoulders.’
‘I love them, too,’ Lucy told him quietly, remembering how miserable she had felt earlier when she had contemplated the thought of him returning to America.
‘I know you do. I suspect the man who marries you is going to find himself taking on the kids as well.’
Was he trying to find out if she would expect the children to live with her if she married? Up until today, she had never given much thought to her own future; marriage had seemed highly unlikely and certainly had been unwanted. But now…
‘Not necessarily. Fanny is their mother and if I married I’m sure she would want them to live with her. The income she would get from her allowance and the trusts is enough for them all to live on, but of course I am their co-guardian and as such I would want to keep in touch with them.’
‘Mmm… Strange that… After all, Oliver has his own father doesn’t he? I’d have thought he’d be the one to support Oliver and not your father.’
What on earth could she say? The knowledge that she was actively deceiving him made her tongue slow and her voice hesitant.
‘My father loved Oliver very much.’ It was after all the truth. ‘He was a man who much preferred sons to daughters, and he and Fanny married when Oliver was quite small.’
‘Mmm… Even so, it was rather odd, don’t you think, that he should make such generous financial arrangements for a child who wasn’t his own?’
