‘Not unless we get amoveon,’ Peter huffed.
‘You’re right, Petey.’ Tracey clapped her hands together. ‘We’d better get cracking – the sun don’t wait for no one.’The pair began to stride ahead, leaving Betty and Olivia following in their wake.
‘Do you know why the Taj was built, dear?’ Betty turned her orb-like eyes to Olivia.
‘Not really.’ She knew she’d read something about it in one of her guidebooks, but at this time in the morning after little sleep, her brain was in no mood to function properly.
‘Ah! Well …’ It was instantly clear how excited Betty was to be the one to tell Olivia the tale. ‘The story of the Taj Mahal is one of love. It was built by the Mughal emperor as a mausoleum for his wife, who died in childbirth. It is probably the biggest labour of love the world has ever seen.’ She sighed wistfully. ‘And to think, it took Peter six months to even put up a new clock in our kitchen.’
‘Because I’m eighty-five years old and have better things to be doing with my day,’ he shot back over his shoulder. ‘Now, hurryup, you two. You’re dawdling.’
‘Good God.’ Betty squeezed Olivia’s arm tighter, picking up her pace just a fraction. ‘That man drives me bonkers, and yet I love him more now than the day I met him. Funny that, isn’t it?’
‘How long have you been together?’ Olivia asked, noticing that the road they were walking down seemed to have filled rapidly with groups of other rather excited-looking tourists.
‘We’ll have been married sixty years in November.’
‘That’s amazing!’
‘I have to say, it has been worth every second.’ She leant in closer to Olivia and dropped her voice. ‘I don’t suppose you have anyone special, do you, dear? A beautiful young thing like yourself must have them queueing round the corner.’
A little pang of longing pulled at Olivia’s chest. Back in London she rarely felt lonely; there was simply too much to do and no time to think about her lack of relationship. Besides, it wasn’t in her plan for at least another three years. But somehow, out here, where everyone seemed to be travelling in pairs or large groups, and people filled every inch of space available, being alone felt like quite a statement.
‘Nobody special for me yet,’ she answered. ‘The plan is to focus on my career first and then find a relationship after.’
‘Gosh, you young ones and your obsession with planning.’ Betty chuckled. ‘My youngest granddaughter is the same. She’s got her whole life mapped out, and she’s only in her twenties. When she wants to get this job, and have this house, and the year she wants to get married and have children …’ She paused and looked Olivia square in the face. ‘But I always tell her, you can’t plan when you fall in love. Heck, look at me!’
‘What do you mean?’ Olivia asked, trying to resist making a case for why Betty’s granddaughter sounded like she had, in fact, got a very sensible and admirable approach to life.
‘You think I wanted to fall in love with this one?’ She pointed at Peter, who was mopping his brow with the sleeve of his jumper. ‘Heavens, no! I had a whole plan in my mind to marry Jasper Cartwright. He was head boy at our school, exceptionally handsome and from an incredibly well-off family. But one summer spent at my auntie’s in Portsmouth changed it all. I met Peter, fell in love and never looked back.’ She sighed, placing a hand on Olivia’s arm. ‘We like to think we have complete control of everything in our lives, but if there’s one thing I’ve learnt, my dear, it’s that death is the only guarantee we have.’
Olivia bit down hard on her lip as the image of Leah sprung to her mind.
‘I don’t mean to be morbid; I only mean to say how important it is to celebrate life every single day we get to live it.’
Olivia lifted her eyes to meet Betty’s. She went to speak but found all she could do was let the air fall in and out of her open mouth.
‘Right, people!’ Tracey’s brash voice interrupted the moment like a slap across the face. ‘We have arrived! Who needs tickets? Because if you haven’t got one, you’d better get in that queue over there. Time is marching on and we have a Wonder of the World to see!’
Peter rolled his eyes and grimaced, shuffling his way to join the end of the line. ‘The only wonder I want to see is her being quiet for five minutes.’
*
It took longer than anticipated to get the tickets, and by the time the group got inside the grounds the sun was already peeping its golden face over the horizon.
‘Comeon, we need to get closer. I want to get a good picture of this.’
‘Peter! You can’t just barge past people,’ Betty called after her husband, as he pushed his way through the middle of a group of rather bewildered German tourists. ‘So sorry. I’m really sorry,’ she apologized as they trotted behind. ‘It’s quite miraculous how quickly he can move when he wants to. Back home, dragging him round Asda for the weekly shop is like hauling a dead weight.’
‘Andthatis the amazing thing about men: they always manage to produce miracles when it’s somethingtheywant to do,’ Tracey bellowed, the volume of her voice never seeming to drop below a shout. ‘That’s why us women are better off doing things by ourselves most of the time – am I right, Livvy?’
The use of the nickname felt like a rake across Olivia’s skin; she was about to politely object when Peter stopped dead in front of them and threw his arms open wide.
‘Aha!’ he cried. ‘Perfect. Isn’t it just perfect?’
Olivia followed his gaze and nearly gasped out loud at the sight before her. As much as she was loath to admit it, the other guests had been right. The building in itself was impressive, but seeing the sun rise over the glistening white marble, throwing its pink-and-orange light like rivers of silk until the entire building was drowned in a rosy glow, was simply breathtaking. The sounds around them seemed to have been muted; the cries of bored and restless children, the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ and clicking cameras of the other tourists, were all silenced. All Olivia could sense was the magic of the moment, the wonder that lay before her. It truly was the greatest labour of love the world had ever seen, and she found a tiny part of herself thanking Leah for giving her the chance to witness it.
‘I’ll bet you want a picture of this to show your sister when you get home,’ Betty trilled in her ear, as if Olivia had spoken her thoughts of Leah out loud. ‘Do you want me to take one for you?’
