And yet.
Now she looked at them, more than half of them were hers.
‘I’m proud of you, Hanna. You’re an extremely talented artist.’
‘Thank you,’ Hanna replied, for want of anything else to say. She took more gulps of wine.
Susan ran a slim finger around the rim of her glass. ‘I am sorry that things turned out the way they did. But I’ve always been a selfish person. You knew that. I haven’t changed on that score. We can’t choose whom we love. And as I’ve said, more than once, you and he wouldn’t have stayed together. You simply weren’t right for one another.’
‘So you still think you did me a favour by stealing my boyfriend. Even though it broke my heart, and, as you said, I fell apart. That was okay, because you loved him and he loved you.’
Hanna had never told anyone in Betancourt Bay about Jeremy. Or about Susan. She’d pushed them to the back of her mind and tried to pretend they didn’t exist. She’d never said she was once in love with a man who had fallen in love with her aunt. An aunt who was twenty-five years her senior. And twenty years older than the man she had loved. Being dumped for another woman was bad enough. Being dumped for a woman twenty-five years older, who was a blood relative of yours, wasn’t something Hanna wanted to shout about. Although, at the time, Hanna haddone quite a lot of shouting. Jeremy had cried. Susan had simply hugged her and told her how sorry she was, and how much she loved Hanna. But that she loved Jeremy too.
‘It wasn’t okay. No. But I had to choose. And rightly or wrongly I chose him. You weren’t the only one who’s heart broke that day. But I would still choose him, if I had to do it all over again. As ridiculous as it sounds, we’re soul mates, Hanna. We’re like two parts of a machine. Neither of us work if we’re apart for long, but together we can move mountains. When you find the right man, you’ll understand that sometimes a love comes along that you’d die for. That you’d give up anything and everything for. And I think you feel you’ve found that man. You wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t. Let’s not dwell on the past. That’s water under the bridge and there’s no going back. Let’s look to the present and the future. So, what’s the problem?’
Hanna emptied her wine glass in large gulps and held it out to Susan who raised one delicate brow and gracefully stood up and almost floated across the floor to get the bottle of wine. She returned with two bottles; the open one and another, and she refilled Hanna’s glass, and then sat back down in her chair.
‘The problem is, he doesn’t love me.’
‘I see. Yes. That could be a problem. But it’s not insurmountable if he’s the right man. Tell me all about it. Tell me what brought you here.’
Hanna told Susan the entire story, beginning with how Russell had been in love with Hope. She started her story at Christmas Eve and the Mistletoe Dance, and almost twenty minutes later, without Susan saying another word, she finished it at the train station to come here.
‘Well. Assuming you’ve told me everything, I’d say you’re in the wrong place.’
Hanna let out a long and sorrowful sigh. ‘I thought that too. I knew I shouldn’t have come. But … I couldn’t think of anyoneelse to talk to about this. My friends are all so involved and they’d tell Russell how I felt and that … that would only make things worse.’
‘I meant,’ said Susan, refilling Hanna’s glass from the newly opened bottle. ‘That where you should be is standing in front of Russell telling him you love him.’
‘What? Haven’t you heard what I’ve said?’
‘Every single word. And I repeat, you should be telling him you love him. But I suppose there’s no rush. He’s not going anywhere. You’re here now and I’d love you to stay for a day or two. For longer, if you like. We need to mend some bridges. And I’ve missed you, Hanna. I really have. You don’t love Jeremy, so, although you may never forgive us entirely, for what we did, surely you can find it in that huge heart of yours to tolerate us? He won’t be back until next week, so why don’t you stay and we can see how things go? Oh. I do have one question about Russell though. How many times has he called you since you left him at the restaurant?’
Hanna shrugged as tears pricked her eyes. ‘I … I don’t know. I think I left my phone in the cab to Folkestone station. I didn’t notice it was missing until I was on the train.’
‘Oh, sweetheart. Why didn’t you say so? We’ll call the cab office and see if it’s there. If not, the first thing we’ll do tomorrow is get you a new phone and get your number transferred. Don’t worry. It’s not the end of the world.’
‘Really?’ Hanna sobbed. ‘It feels like it is.’
