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They dashed back to the house and into the ballroom where the white, linen-covered tables were being cleared away to make room for a dance floor for the evening entertainment.
‘Hey, Archie. Where’s Noah?’
Archie paused in his task setting up one of the huge amplifiers with Serge and Rick. ‘He wanted to get some air before the gig tonight. Said he was going for a walk around the garden, I think.’
‘Thanks, Arch.’
Sophie spun on her heels and, with Scarlet in her wake, she sprinted back down the sweeping staircase and made for the front terrace. In the short time they had been inside the house the rain had escalated into a full-on summer downpour. Needles of rain bounced onto the balustrades and the flagstones, but the temperature seemed to have climbed even further.
‘We’ll have to wait until he gets back,’ said Scarlet, casting a grimace up to the leaden sky.
‘No way. I’m doing this now before I change my mind and chicken out again.’
‘But Soph…’
Sophie skipped away from Scarlet, down the steps to the formal gardens and along a meandering path that she knew led to the pond where Craig had photographed Flora. Withinminutes she was soaked to her skin, but she didn’t care. She was on a mission. If she didn’t talk to Noah now, she knew the moment they had shared in the cathedral would be forgotten and consigned to their past along with everything else. This time she was adamant she wasn’t going to allow that to happen.
The surface of the pond undulated gently as the raindrops battered its surface. She wiped her dripping fringe from her eyes and squinted towards the ornate marble fountain next to it where a cascade of water flowed from the fluted bowl held aloft by a cavorting nymph.
And there was Noah, sitting on the edge of the fountain, his back hunched against the downpour, his head buried deep into the hood of his coat, his hands thrust in the pockets of his jeans and elbows stuck out at right angles. She would have recognised his silhouette in a football stadium. She headed towards him.
‘Noah?’
He turned his head and met her gaze briefly, then he looked away, staring at the patterns of concentric circles the rain was making in the wide basin at the base of the fountain.
‘What are you doing here, Soph?’
‘I saw you in church, I… It was a beautiful wedding, don’t you think?’
‘If you like that sort of thing. You know me, never been one for expressions of overblown extravagance. A simple service at the local parish church would do me fine. Don’t need all that pomp and ceremony to tell the world you love someone.’
‘You’re right.’
In fact, for the first time, Sophie realised she had never once imagined her wedding day without Noah by her side. Silence expanded around them. Sophie glanced over her shoulder. They were alone. Just her and Noah. Together again, sitting besideeach other like they’d always been, like they should still be – she realised that now with absolute clarity.
‘Why didn’t you tell me you came down to London?’
‘I saw you’d moved on. Made a success of your fashion business, like I knew you would. I was going to ask you to have a drink, but I saw you leave the shop with a guy – a rugby-player type who had his arm slung around your shoulder. I hadn’t expected that to hurt so much, and I understood what it must have been like for you.’
‘That was Andrew, the guy desperate to settle down and produce offspring – the Broody Paediatrician, Scarlet called him.’ Sophie smiled but Noah didn’t.
The rain had lessened but rivulets trickled down her cheeks and dripped from her nose. She knew she must look a mess, but she didn’t care. She needed to tell Noah how she felt, and this was the time she had to do it. If she had to be soaked through to the skin, then so be it. She moved her hand over to his. ‘Noah, there’s only ever been one person I wanted to settle down with ever since I could dress my Barbie in a home-made wedding gown.’
‘What is it with you, Soph? One minute I’m a cheating ogre, the next I’m your soulmate?’
‘You’ve always been my soulmate, Noah, even when we were fighting.’
At last Noah turned his head to look at her. He shook his head slightly and pushed himself to standing, still maintaining eye contact. ‘What do you want, Sophie? Do you even know? I can’t spend my life second-guessing you.’
‘I know what I want. What I’ve always wanted. What’s always been there, buried beneath the hurt and the jealousy of seeing you with your fans, waiting to emerge when the time was right.The time is right. And if you’ll have me, I intend to become The Razorclaws’ number-one groupie. Whenever you’re on tour, I’ll be right by your side. I love you, Noah. You are the first boy I kissed, and I want you to be the next, and the one after that, and the one after that, and the one… well, you get what I mean.’
Sophie leapt up and faced Noah. She took a step forward, placed her hand on his cheek and moved her lips towards his. Noah curled his arm around her shoulders and dragged her body into his. A perfect fit. Their lips met and Sophie gave herself up to a crescendo of emotions; the ecstasy of being in his arms, of being kissed by the one person she was meant to be with. It felt as though she had been waiting her whole life for their paths to converge on that one moment, that one point in time when their destinies aligned.
‘Hey! What are you…’
Sophie shrieked as Noah broke away from their embrace and lifted her into the air, swinging her round and round and round until she begged him to stop. As he set her back down, she giggled, the happiest she had been for, oh, four years. She felt grateful, blessed that at last fate had seen fit to bind them.
‘Careful. We might end up in the fountain!’
