He shrugged. ‘Don’t be. Water under the bridge.’ He gave his bearded chin a scratch. ‘You know, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s something different about you these days.’
She drew in her stomach muscles as discreetly as she could. ‘It must be the yoga classes I’ve been doing online,’ she said. ‘You should give it a go sometime, it’s very relaxing.’
He laughed. ‘Somehow I can’t see myself doing that. Anyway, I just wanted to say how much I appreciated your input earlier. And to say that Charlotte at Topolino can’t sing your praises enough.’
‘Well, that’s good to know,’ she said smoothly.
‘I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she tried to poach you,’ he said with one of his knowing stares.
Martha spent the next hour dealing with emails and phone calls and after a hurried lunch, and yet another trip to the toilet, she encountered the new intern quietly sobbing over one of the basins. Jason, so the girl explained, had just yelled at her for spilling coffee over his desk. It was her first week at BND and she was terrified it would be her last.
‘Don’t give it another thought,’ Martha assured her, ‘he’ll have forgotten all about it by the time we’re back after the Bank Holiday weekend.’
This wasn’t strictly true; Martha knew that Jason could harbour a grudge with the best of them. For that matter she was no slouch in that department, especially when it came to Rick. She still hadn’t forgiven him for that dressing-down he’d given her on the telephone all those months ago. And as for his cloying overprotectiveness of Willow, that really irritated her. There was, she’d decided, something divisive about him. She hated admitting she could have been wrong, but she wholeheartedly regretted ever thinking he was the ideal boyfriend for her sister.Such was the strength of her dislike for Rick, she could almost feel nostalgic for some of the previous boyfriends Willow had brought home. The ones who were so laid-back and irresponsible it would never dawn on them to question Martha or put her in her place.
Thankfully she had been spared seeing too much of Rick in the last month or so. Tom had surprised her with a weekend away in the Cotswolds at a beautiful country hotel that had proved to be just what she’d needed to unwind. Until then she hadn’t realised just how tightly wound she’d been. They’d also gone up to Yorkshire to see Tom’s sister and father. Being with her husband’s family had felt refreshingly uncomplicated compared to her own right now.
Tom was waiting for her at the hospital, and Martha, having drunk a half-litre of water on the way here, as instructed so that the scan would give them a clearer picture of the baby, was desperate for the loo.
Sitting in the waiting room, and to keep her mind off the need to relieve herself, she told Tom about the email she’d received from Topolino, offering her a job.
‘If you weren’t pregnant, would you be tempted?’ he asked.
‘Pregnant or not, I think it’s worth finding out more,’ she said, fidgeting in her seat to put less strain on her fit-to-burst bladder. ‘I’ll be perfectly straight with them and explain the situation. Not that I’ll be able to hide things for much longer.’
She put a hand to her swelling abdomen, which was now straining against the waistband of her skirt. Another week or so and her wardrobe would have to be adjusted to accommodate her baby bump.She had already bought a few new clothes online in readiness, along with a bigger-sized bra, but she was hoping to go shopping over the weekend while down at Anchor House. It had actually been Mum’s idea that, along with Willow, they go to Chichester, or perhaps Portsmouth so that she could treat her daughters to some maternity clothes and baby things. ‘Let it be my treat to you,’ Mum had said. ‘We’ll leave the boys at home and have some girl-time together.’
Martha had baulked at hearing Mum refer to Ellis, Tom and Rick as ‘the boys’ but she was slowly, if still a little reluctantly, coming to terms with Ellis being a part of the family. He had moved in to Anchor House some time ago, but all talk of marrying had gone on hold. According to Mum they had decided it wasn’t necessary. Whether or not it was the first crack in their big romance remained to be seen, but for now, Martha was satisfied that a degree of common sense was being applied.
‘Martha Adams?’
‘That’s us,’ murmured Tom, taking her hand as they stood up and followed the nurse who’d called out her name.
It wasn’t until she was actually lying on the couch and cold gel was being squirted onto her baby bump that Martha suddenly felt nervous. What if the scan revealed something wrong with their baby? Or what if her dream was a premonition of her expecting more than one? With Tom by her side, she gripped his hand tightly. He gave her a reassuring smile.
‘Now then,’ said the radiologist in a cheery voice. ‘Do you want to know the sex of your little one?’
‘Yes,’ they answered in perfect unison.
The woman smiled back at them. ‘Well then, let’s see what we can see, shall we?’
Holding her breath, Martha turned her head to look at the screen.Please, please, please, don’t let there be anything wrong, she silently hoped.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
In the weeks since he had moved in with her, Naomi and Ellis had been busy at Anchor House.
At her instigation, they had cleared out cupboards and wardrobes and jettisoned furniture which even Naomi, as an instinctive collector of things that might come in handy one day, had no trouble parting with. This was a fresh start for her, after all.
In an attempt to make Ellis feel properly at home, Naomi had also suggested they give her bedroom a long overdue makeover. Out with the old bed and in with a beautiful antique walnut frame bedstead with the addition of a fabulously comfortable mattress, which Ellis had sourced and paid for. She didn’t know the exact cost of the mattress, but when he’d said it was top-notch hotel quality, she suspected she could have bought a new car for the same amount of money. All the old bedlinen had been replaced with new, and the sun-faded curtains that had hung at the window and French doors that opened onto the wooden balcony had also been replaced. Naomi had bought a roll of Colefax and Fowler fabric – cream linen patterned with blue hydrangeas – and made the curtains herself. She’d added drops of sheer voile too.
Before hanging the new curtains, she and Ellis had redecorated the bedroom with a wash of pale blue on the walls and then had a cream carpet laid. Something Colin would never have countenanced. ‘Cream?’ he would have said. ‘That’ll never take any wear!’
On a further shopping spree, and while browsing the antique shops in Petworth, they came across a new art gallery that had recently opened and they both fell in love with two beautiful watercolour seascapes. These were now hung either side of the new bed and softly illuminated at night by new bedside lamps.
It had been fun having a project to work on with Ellis and going by his enthusiasm for it, he’d enjoyed himself as much as she had. The next room she wanted to tackle was the smallest of the five bedrooms; she wanted Ellis to have it as his own dressing room. It currently housed what he had brought with him from next door. The bulk of his things was still in storage, Waterside Cottage being a partly furnished property. In the coming weeks, Ellis would decide what he wanted to keep and what he would sell or give away. The owners of Waterside Cottage, a couple Naomi had never met, but who lived in Kent, had yet to find new tenants for it. Or perhaps they had other plans for the property.
Now, as Naomi sat up in bed next to Ellis, the curtains pushed back and the voiles swaying gently on the sea breeze at the open French doors, she sipped her first cup of tea of the day while listening to the cry of the gulls, and thought how perfect life was with Ellis here. This time last year she would never have believed she would fall so happily in love again.
