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EPILOGUE
SIXYEARSLATER, Letty walked round her London home arm in arm with her mother to check that everything was in place for the important guest they were expecting. It was Christmas Eve and her grandfather, Isidore Livas, was coming to share the big day with them—and that was a development she could never have foreseen years earlier.
‘I think Isidore assumed that the mother of his son’s child was another disreputable druggie and downgraded all of us accordingly,’ Gillian opined, her thoughts in the same place about the older man’s coolness on first meeting Letty. ‘Once he met me, once he realised how young I was when I gave birth to you, he changed his tune…and then you had Kristo, and a great-grandchild was the perfect gift as far as he’s concerned.’
‘Yes, he is amazingly attached to Kristo,’ Letty conceded, racing across the hall to prevent her son from trying to climb one of the stuffed elves.
At two years of age, Leo and Letty’s first child was a livewire, always into everything. George, elderly now, lay in his basket and feebly wagged his tail as they went past.
‘Kristo!’ Popi called as she came clattering down the stairs with Sybella on her heels. ‘Give Mummy some peace—’
‘Your brother doesn’t know the meaning of that word,’ Letty remarked, watching Popi—at the age of eleven very much a young lady now—impose order on her son. Sybella still loved to dress up and perform, and Letty couldn’t help wondering if she would eventually enter the entertainment world. Cosmo was a wannabe scientist, always doing little experiments and peering through a toy microscope.
Embarrassing as it was for a doctor to admit, however, Kristo had been an unplanned surprise package in their lives. In the midst of changing contraception, Letty had discovered that she was pregnant and had thought that it could not have happened at a worse time because she had been facing her final exams. Now she felt guilty for having thought that because Kristo, so much Leo’s son, with his beautiful dark eyes and the Livas blond hair, had brought her and Leo so much joy. He had also brought Isidore hotfoot to London with a train set because apparently her unhappy Aunt Elexis was still having problems conceiving.
‘Come on, Kristo,’ Theon, a laidback and sturdy little boy, said to his kid brother with pity as the toddler pouted. ‘We’ll watch cartoons.’
‘They grow up so fast. You’ll probably be planning another soon, I imagine,’ Letty’s mother commented fondly.
‘Maybe next year,’ Letty responded with amusement because she lived a frantically busy life and, even six years after marrying Leo, she was still doing some form of training for her work as a GP, the hours she worked in the surgery being the best fit for their life.
Of course, she couldn’t have achieved what she had without supportive staff and she knew she was blessed. Five children were a challenge but she wouldn’t have had it any other way because she and Leo revelled in the rough and tumble nature of their big family and the warm love that linked them all. Panos marrying her mother the previous year had only extended the family circle. It had taken much longer for the older couple to get together than her husband had believed it would, but Panos’s divorce from Katrina had been dragged out and bitterly contested. Still, Leo had spotted the first signs of mutual interest between Panos and Gillian far quicker than Letty had, but then that was classic Leo. loz.
He was shrewd, quick to size up people, even faster at guessing their next step, which was probably why everything he touched in business seemed to turn to gold. He had even recently got his father involved as a director in a project, pretty much, she surmised, to ensure the older man could have a decent income without feeling it was charity. Her husband’s relationship with his father was now close and caring.
‘Why did you invite Isidore anyway?’ her mother asked.
‘I think he’s quite lonely. Elexis is a bit of a cold fish and doesn’t seem to visit him much.’
They wandered into the games room where her half-brothers, Tim and Kyle, were playing video games. Tim was at university now, Kyle studying for GCSEs, both of them well-adjusted and hardworking. Letty often thought back to that very first day she had met Leo and all the very many positives which had flowed from their marriage. It was the icing on the cake that Leo adored her, supported her and still thought she was somehow special.
For the first year of their marriage she had feared he would suddenly shake off such feelings and appreciate that she was really pretty ordinary but, mercifully, that hadn’t happened. Leo’s love had all the longevity she had craved, and she was incredibly happy with him.
They spent a lot of the summer on the island of Ios, where the children enjoyed the kind of freedom they couldn’t safely have anywhere else. Kristo had been conceived on Ios at the beach cottage where they always went when they wanted to relax alone and he was named for Leo’s late grandfather, an honour that went with the proviso that Leo promised never ever to tell their son that marriage and sex were separate entities and mistresses were normal for a Romanos man.
Leo breezed through the door, laden with parcels and bags, and was surrounded by children and even the dog, who made the effort to leave his basket for Leo’s benefit. He smiled at Gillian and asked if she and Panos were still joining them for dinner with Isidore that evening. ‘We need the support. He’s a chilly personality.’
‘But we’re working on him!’ Letty laughed, grabbing Leo’s hand as he deposited his bags on a bench seat. ‘Come here, you… I’ve missed you!’ she exclaimed, winding her arms round his neck.
‘We’re not under the mistletoe,’ Leo carped.
‘As if that would stop you!’ Letty told him as Gillian melted discreetly out of the front door, where her husband awaited her.
‘They’re being gross,’ Cosmo complained with an eight-year-old’s disgust for parents who larked about.
‘No, we’re taking our kisses upstairs,’ Leo declared, dragging Letty by the hand towards them.
Popi said something sharp to Cosmo and an argument erupted but Letty still walked away, knowing that she needed stolen moments with Leo and that she had to take them when she could. ‘So, what’s in all the bags?’ she asked curiously.
‘Just a few last-minute purchases. I love buying you stuff because you never buy it for yourself.’
‘Excuse me?’ Letty lifted a brow. ‘I bought a very expensive designer dress last week for that dinner you had.’
‘Yes…that’s what I mean. There has to be an excuse or a special occasion for you to spend, so I do it for you,’ Leo intoned with the greatest good cheer as he pulled a diamond pendant out of his pocket and proceeded to fasten it round her neck on the landing.
The sizeable diamond glittered white fire below the lights and she reached up and kissed him, wondering where he thought she was going to wear it because she dressed very sensibly and simply for work and didn’t flash her opulent lifestyle.
‘You can wear it in bed,’ Leo told her as if she had spoken her thoughts out loud. ‘That’ll make you feel really decadent.’
