‘Darling!’ said Mary, turning the snow globe over and over just as Hattie had been doing. She watched the snow settle on the model of her old home. ‘Luke must love you very much to take so much trouble and spend so much time to make this for you.’
Hattie nodded. ‘And I love him. It took me a while to realise I did, or rather to feel brave enough to take the leap.’
Mary looked at her carefully. ‘So why aren’t you jumping up and down with happiness? Especially as he’s making it possible for you to have the full-size version of my house as well as this one.’
‘It sounds so silly – it is so silly – but I can’t shake off the doubt…’
‘What doubt? And don’t worry about sounding silly.’
Hattie took a breath. It was almost impossible to explain this to Mary with any certainty without mentioning her visions.
‘I just… I can’t shake the feeling that there is someone else out there who Luke might be destined to meet. A feeling came over me at the wedding that he might meet someone and I’d miss my chance with him so I rushed to him to stop him meeting her, but that was probably wrong.’ She shrugged and looked down at her hands. ‘Call it female intuition?’
Mary didn’t speak for some moments. Hattie could almost see her holding back the words telling her she was an idiot to place so much trust in something that couldn’t really be real. Except she didn’t.
‘I wish I could think of something to say to you that would make you stop worrying. But I do think that Luke loves you so much – it’s always been very clear to me how he feels about you.’
Hattie sighed. ‘I suppose.’
‘I hate to be predictable but I can’t help telling you to just let yourself be happy about all your recent good fortune. I think you might have simply got cold feet. It’s perfectly normal. You’ve been on your own for so long. You have a lovely man, you will have a lovely house—’
‘And a lovely snow globe—’
‘The best snow globe,’ Mary went on.
‘So you think I should just be grateful and go on my way rejoicing?’
‘You’re welcome to stay as long as you can,’ said Mary.
Hattie laughed. ‘Fair enough! Sadly, I can’t stay any longer. I’ve just about got time to get back for my sister to take me shopping. She wants to find me something for her engagement party that our mother will approve of.’
She drove away feeling more cheerful, if not entirely reassured.
Chapter Forty-Three
She just had time to put on a clean top before her sister arrived, full of beans and on a mission.
‘Tom’s put me on the insurance of his car,’ she said excitedly, having kissed Hattie and refused use of the facilities. ‘Isn’t that just lovely?’
Hattie and Luke had put each other on their car insurance quite a long time ago; it seemed practical and it somehow lowered their premiums. It hadn’t felt romantic at the time.
‘It’s a lovely car,’ said Hattie, smiling. Her efficient, businesslike sister getting soppy over car insurance. It was adorable!
‘It is! Now, remind me which way Cheltenham is again?’
Leonie may have been hazy about where Cheltenham was but once there she knew exactly where she wanted to go.
The sisters paused on the threshold of a lovely shop and Hattie looked in the window with wonder and joy. Instead of the elegant taupe, biscuit and ecru colours that her sister usually favoured, here was turquoise, Schiaparelli pink, orange, scarlet and yellow the colourof the dawn. And the styles were flowing, generous, not the sharp well-cut suits that Leonie usually loved.
‘This is a surprise, Lennie!’ said Hattie as they went in.
‘I’m not always the sensible sister, you know,’ said Leonie. ‘Sometimes I’m positively giddy!’
The woman in charge of the shop – who turned out to be the owner – was friendly and helpful but didn’t interfere until Hattie, exhausted by trying find something her mother would find acceptable that she also liked, flopped into a chair. She refused to buy something she would never wear again.
‘Can I lead you over here?’ she said. ‘These are on this sale rail because so far no one has bought them. But I think they’re lovely and definitely worth a look. They’re well reduced too.’
‘Now, Hattie! No buying anything weird just because it’s cheap!’ said Leonie, looking at jumpsuits, unaware she may have been sounding rude.
