‘Joe carried you up here.’ Caroline drew a chair to the bed, explaining briefly how she’d been found in a waterlogged field and brought back up to the farm. ‘You were unconsciouswhen they found you. Half-drowned, in fact. Mrs Postbridge gave you hot brandy with honey, and rang the doctor. He said to let you sleep, and he’ll give you a proper check-over tomorrow.’ She offered Grace a few sips of water, and gently brushed the hair back from her forehead. ‘Do you remember what happened?’
‘Yes …’ Grace closed her eyes, frowning. ‘I tried cutting through the field to the village. Only, the water was even deeper there. It got so cold, I couldn’t go on. I tried to turn back, but I must have fallen, because I don’t remember much after that.’
Caroline struggled against fresh tears. ‘We nearly lost you,’ she whispered, holding on to her self-control with difficulty. ‘I thought Ihadlost you.’
‘I’m sorry. It was stupid of me. I wanted to prove myself, I suppose … I didn’t want to let you down.’
‘Oh, Grace …’ Caroline gave a broken laugh. ‘You could never let me down.’
‘But I did, didn’t I? And I let Tilly and Mrs Dymock down too. You must have been waiting for ages …’ Grace’s lip trembled as she too fought tears. ‘I caused everyone so much trouble.’
‘Nobody’s upset with you.’
‘And I was so horrible to you after Penzance too … I could see you were hurting. But I couldn’t stop.’
‘We can talk about this later.’
‘No, this is important.’ Grace gulped. ‘I nearly drowned today, acting like an idiot, and I know why. Because I’ve been so … somiserable.’ She sought Caroline’s gaze, her face intense. ‘I love you,’ she blurted out. ‘I wanted to tell you that night at Lily’s. Only I didn’t dare.’
Caroline’s eyes widened, fixing on her beloved’s face. Herheart thumped wildly. Graceloved her? Then the rest of what she’d said filtered through to her whirling brain …
‘Didn’t dare? I don’t understand.’
‘That’s because I haven’t told you everything,’ Grace whispered. ‘You see, you’re not my first girlfriend. I met someone at the last farm where I was working and we fell in love. Head over heels, we were. There was a boy at the farm who fancied me too. I told him I wasn’t interested, but he still followed me everywhere. One day, he … he caught us together and told everyone what he’d seen.’ A tear trickled down her cheek. ‘For weeks, nobody would speak to us. It was so awful.’
‘Oh, darling.’ Caroline’s heart clenched in pain.
‘In the end, the farmer told us to leave. My girlfriend went home to her family, said she never wanted to see me again, and I … I came to Cornwall, somewhere nobody knew about me.’ Grace touched her cheek. ‘I promised myself I’d never let myself have feelings for another girl again. But I couldn’t stop looking at you … And then, in Penzance, I knew it was too late. I was already in love with you.’ Her voice shook and she began to tremble. ‘Will you hold me, Caroline? I know I don’t deserve it, but just for tonight?’
‘Of course I will.’ Turning off the light, Caroline climbed under the blankets with her, and they held each other tight. Now that she understood why Grace had been so stand-offish after Penzance, her heart was full to bursting. There were no words for what she was feeling, she thought. Or maybe four words, at least.
‘I love you too,’ she whispered, and closed her eyes.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Watching shoppers hurry past in the bright spring sunshine, Selina finished her toasted scone and pushed aside her now empty cup of tea. Her glance flicked back to the large wall clock. There was a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach, but she couldn’t delay things any longer. ‘We’d better pay the bill and leave,’ she told William, who was sitting opposite, regarding her with an indulgent smile. ‘And you can stop looking like that. I’m not being silly. It’s perfectly possible that I’ll fail my driving test, and where shall I be then?’
‘Grounded,’ William said bluntly, but shook his head. ‘It’s not going to happen. You’ve had plenty of practice and you’re a wonderfully confident driver. All you need do is answer the questions put to you, and show the examiner what you can do on the road. In fact, the only way you could possibly fail your test would be through nerves.’ He touched her hand. ‘Sodon’tbe nervous.’
‘Easy for you to say,’ she retorted. ‘You don’t even need to take a test.’
He grinned. ‘Yes, rather a stroke of luck, the new RoadTraffic Act only applying to those who started driving from April ’34 onwards. I’d been driving over a year by then, so I’m well in the clear. Whereas you …’
‘Have to undergo the rigour of a proper examination. Yes, I know howunluckyI am, trust me.’ Selina opened her purse, but he shook his head, taking out his wallet and summoning the waitress. ‘You’re not paying again, are you, William? It’s really too bad.’
‘Estate business,’ he insisted.
She laughed. ‘How can having tea and cake with me before my driving test be consideredestate business?’
‘You need a full driving licence,’ he said carefully, as though making an argument in court, ‘in order to take proper care of your nieces and nephew, and I am here solely to support you in that worthy endeavour. Thus far, we are speaking of estate business, and no fair-minded person could suggest otherwise.’
‘Oh, very well. When you put it like that …’ Pulling on her driving gloves, Selina realised that her hands were trembling, and caught his ironic look. ‘Honestly, I’ll be fine once I’m behind the wheel,’ she snapped. ‘It’s the questions on the Highway Code that worry me. I read that damn booklet from cover to cover last night, and yet this morning I swear I could barely remember a thing.’
‘Pure nerves.’ Steering her out of the tea rooms on Fore Street, William walked up the hill with her towards the test station. ‘The information will come back to you when you need it,’ he said reassuringly.
She hoped he was right. But the sunshine was lifting her spirits, at least. It was a gorgeous spring day, the sort of bright dancing weather that made Selina doubt whether ithad ever snowed at all. Yet it was only a fortnight since the last grey vestiges of winter had finally melted away, leaving a fresh spring landscape bathed in sunshine, spring flowers everywhere and lambs in the field.
She was grimly thankful she had not been required to take her driving test during the snow. Even on a sunny day like this, though, she would need to focus hard on not making foolish mistakes during the examination. She had been known, after all, to take the odd corner rather too fast, and once had nearly struck an oncoming vehicle in her attempt to avoid a wavering old lady on a bicycle. Thankfully, she’d been alone in the car that day, so nobody had seen the incident, except the other driver, who had shaken his fist furiously. She had told William about it, who had laughed, shrugging it off as unimportant. But she knew the examiner would not be so relaxed.
