‘Good,’ he said, moving the bowl before standing up to enfold her forearms, ‘because it’s difficult to kiss you properly like that.’
And slowly, questioningly, he drew her closer, but she didn’t resist. She let him wrap his arms around her and she tilted her head back for her lips once again to meet his.
‘I can’t believe this is real,’ she said later as she lay on the sofa, her head in his lap. looking up at his face.
Me neither,’ he said. ‘Better check, just to be sure.’ And he leaned forwards to kiss her again. ‘Yes, it’s real!’
Momentarily he rested his forehead against hers.
‘I thought I’d lost you for ever and then I heard that you’d offered to look after Rita so you’d be here for a bit longer and I wanted to hope but I told myself that you weren’t staying for me.’
She smiled up at him.
‘I couldn’t bear to leave the island.’ She dropped her voice to a whisper. ‘And I couldn’t bear to leave you. It was as if someone knew how I really felt and put those words in my mouth at the hospital to make me stay.’
‘I’m glad they did.’
She looked up at the beams.
‘It feels calm in here again, the way it felt when I first arrived.’
‘Could that be because your mother’s gone?’ he said with a smile.
‘Maybe, or maybe it’s because we’ve identified Philly and once she’s returned from the County Archaeologist, The Major says he’s going to make sure she’s reunited with her parents.’
‘I wonder why they weren’t buried together in the first place.’
‘That is something we’ll probably never know.’
‘Do you think the spirits of the cottage are happy again now?’
‘As happy as they can be,’ she replied.
‘I thought you didn’t believe in that sort of thing?’
‘Maybe my mother has performed some mind-altering spell on me,’ she said with a laugh.’
‘She called in at The Pottery to say goodbye.’
Of course she did, Jules thought.
‘And to ask me to keep an eye on you.’
‘Oh! That’s a bit out of order. I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be. She knows how I feel about you.’ She bit her lip.
‘There are so many things you don’t know about me, Lance, things I’m not particularly proud of, things which might make you change your mind about us.’
‘I doubt it, but I’m willing to take that risk, if you are. There are things you don’t know about me, too, remember? I understand how hard it might be for you to have a relationship with someone who isn’t exactly financially stable, but I promise I’ll never ask you for money.’
‘I know that. I trust you. I’m sorry you’ve had to rearrange your appointment with the accountant.’
‘I’m not. This is more important.’
‘I’ve always wanted my relationships to be perfect, not just romantic ones, all of them. I’ve put so much pressure on myself and other people. I don’t want to do that any longer. I’m exhausted by it.’
‘We’re not going to be perfect, Jules. No couple is.’
