‘I’d better be getting back,’ I said. ‘See you at the hen night.’
I made for the front door, trying to open the stiff lock with one hand while I rooted in my bag for my car keys with the other.
‘Let me help.’
I turned to see Dad, his face a picture of worry and sympathy. Instead of reaching for the lock, he put his arms around me, and I fell into his comforting hug.
‘I’m looking forward to seeing Nick again at the wedding,’ he said quietly. ‘And you do whatever it is that you need to do with your life. God knows you’ve had enough happen to you that you couldn’t control. Steph and your mother will be fine.’
I nodded, his wool sweater scratching against my cheek, then pulled away.
‘Thanks, Dad. I’d better go now, though.’
He opened the door while I found my car keys, and I gave him a wave as I drove off, feeling fractionally lighter but still with too many thoughts rushing around my head for any one person to deal with.
When I arrived back at Lyonscroft, I saw that India and Sofia had put the next number up in the window of a downstairs cloakroom, so I went there first and left the planted basket for Astrid to find in the morning. It was late, but I was feeling too twitchy to sleep, so I went to the kitchen to make some nighttime tea. I could see a strip of light under the door as I approached; a rush of happiness zinged through me when it turned out to be Nick sitting at the table, eating toast and flicking through a free local magazine that had been left lying around.
‘How was your evening?’ he asked, closing the magazine and standing up to hug me.
I exhaled loudly.
‘Pretty heavy going,’ I said, filling the kettle. ‘The dress I have to wear is awful, so please don’t look at me for the whole day.’
He laughed.
‘I’m afraid I couldn’t bear that.’
‘It’s peach satin,’ I said warningly. ‘And clings in all the wrong places.’
‘Ah well, there you go,’ he said smugly. ‘Thereareno wrong places.’
‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘But tight peach satin could find wrong places on Kate Moss. I’m hoping for some flowers to clutch, or maybe I’ll befriend one of the little ring bearers and keep them in front of me.’
‘Good plan. Was it all right otherwise?’
‘Well, Dorothea was there.’ He pulled a sympathetic face. ‘And my sister was going on at me again about her grand plan for me to retrain as a maternity nurse and help her when the baby she believes will obediently appear exactly nine months after the wedding comes along.’
‘What?’
I went to sit down at the table next to him, my tea forgotten, and explained my sister’s scheme.
‘Is it what you want to do?’ asked Nick.
I chewed my lip.
‘If I can push aside everything I’ve been through and see the idea as simply as Steph does, then it’s not actually terrible. It probablyistime that I tried a different branch of nursing, and I would love working with new mums and babies. It would only mean a few weeks with Steph and painful though she can be, sheismy sister.’
‘It sounds to me as if she’s asking a lot of you,’ said Nick. ‘You’d have to put your own life on hold for her. What if after a few weeks she decided she wanted you to stay longer? It might be hard to say no.’
I bit my lip.
‘I hadn’t thought about that. And it’s exactly the sort of thing Steph might do.’
‘I don’t want you to be trapped by her.’ He paused, his jaw tense and the old, closed-off look back in his eyes. ‘And I’m not sure what it would mean for us either.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, if you move in with her… You’ll be so busy…’
