‘I’m about to make some lunch. Fancy a bite? You can wake him when it’s ready.’
‘Huh! He can bloody go without,’ said Anna, grateful that their conversation had definitely moved on.
When Steve woke up, she was going to make it very clear to him that she was less than impressed.
ChapterFourteen
‘Seven, eight. This is it,’ announced Anna, coming to a halt in front of a statue on the Charles Bridge. It was obvious that this was the correct one from the bright patches on the plaque beneath the statue of St John of Nepomuk.
‘And why do we have to touch it?’ asked Steve, looking up from his phone.
‘Because,’ Anna said impatiently, having told him this five minutes ago, ‘it’s supposed to bring good luck and ensure you come back to Prague.’
‘And who is this geezer?’ Steve stepped back and craned his neck to study the robed figure with a halo of stars around his head.
‘He was priest to the Queen,’ she told him, hoping no one had heard him being so disrespectful. ‘But when he refused to tell her husband, King Wenceslas?—’
‘Wenceslas! That’s not a real king … is it?’
‘Yes, King Wenceslas IV, to be precise.’
‘I thought he was some chap in a Christmas carol.’
Anna heaved out a sigh of exasperation but bit back her instinctive retort that he was being a dick. They’d already had a row when she complained about him being hungover and not making an effort for their first weekend together in weeks. ‘He was a real king who had the priest thrown into the river when he refused to reveal the content of the Queen’s confession. The priest drowned.’
‘Not so lucky for him then,’ said Steve, peering over the parapet of the bridge as if he expected to see the priest floating by. They watched one of the boats come out from under the bridge. ‘It’s quite a river. Wide. I wouldn’t mind going out on a boat next time.’
‘If you hadn’t booked tickets for the football, we would have done.’
‘Anna, give it a rest. Admit it, the football was worth coming to Prague for.’
‘What, and I wasn’t?’
He slid an arm around her. ‘Of course you were. The game was an added bonus.’
Anna forced a smile. The game had been a very long ninety minutes in which they’d had to keep very quiet when England scored because they were seated at the wrong end. Dinner had been a snatched doner kebab from outside the tram stop. The evening had fallen a long way short of the romantic date night she’d planned.
While Steve was squinting back down at his phone, Anna’s attention was caught by a couple further along the bridge by another statue. Her interest piqued no end when he dropped to one knee. The woman’s face was a picture of bright shock and happiness that brought an instant smile to Anna’s face. She watched them, her own heart expanding for them, as he rose to his feet and she threw her arms around him. They embraced, talking excitedly to one another, their bubbling enthusiasm almost palpable. Anna’s smile widened and the man glanced over and caught her eye. She grinned at him, responding to the delight glowing from his face, and put her thumbs up before nudging Steve in the ribs. Glued to his phone, he was oblivious and grunted, ‘What?’
The newly engaged man held up his phone and gestured to Anna. ‘Would you mind taking a picture of us?’
She smiled at his strong accent and, delighted to be asked, walked quickly towards them to take the proffered mobile.
‘I’d love to and many congratulations. You from Ireland?’ She squinted at his face, recognition glimmering.
‘Yes, from Kerry.’
Then it clicked. ‘You’re Connor Byrne, the chef?’
‘I used to be,’ he said with a grin. ‘I’m plain aul’ Connor Byrne these days and this is my beautiful bride-to-be, Hannah.’ He beamed proudly at Anna while Hannah rolled her eyes with a good-natured but nonetheless sparkly grin. ‘He’s the romantic.’ Despite her words, she shot him a look full of love that made Anna’s heart ache just a little.
Steve, who’d followed her blindly, still engrossed in the screen of his phone, barely glanced up.
‘That’s lovely. I hope you’ll be very happy,’ said Anna, feeling oddly tearful on their behalf. They did indeed both look happy. Like a sunbeam slicing through dark clouds, a memory lit up in her head – of her and Leo standing on the steps of Chelsea Register office, bursting with bright hope for everything in front of them, and feeling then that it was all within their grasp. Something squeezed in her chest like an accordion and she wished she could turn the clock back to that time, when there were still so many possibilities, when the future was the sunrise of a new day. When she’d been crazy in love with Leo.
Sharp pain gripped her heart, binding it tight with regret and sorrow. She sucked in a quick breath.
That had been the problem – she’d been so in love with him it had scared her. Once they were married, the fear that she couldn’t hold on to him had grown week by week. Especially when Savannah Aitken, with her perfect figure, girlish laugh and long-hair-tossing charm, came along. Losing him like she’d lost her parents would be terrible. And yet she’d lost him, anyway. Because she’d tried to insure herself against the loss before it even happened.
