Chapter Twenty-Four

PUT champagne in fridge!!!!!!

Pauline frowned at May’s text.

Am working! she replied.

I know just do it x

So she did as she was told and hovered in the living room, watching her self-help show as James worked in the garden. Spring would soon be springing and he was sorting out the tiny courtyard, which meant she could just sit down and watch the end of her favourite show.

She didn’t mean to fall asleep. She jumped up when Lorna walked in and apologised profusely.

‘It’s fine.’ For once Lorna’s face was smiling. ‘Why don’t you just finish up for today, Pauline.’ As Pauline opened her mouth to argue, Lorna was still smiling. ‘We’ll cover the hours. I know you do loads extra. Where is James?’

‘Out in the garden,’ Pauline said, pulling on her coat and opening the front door as Lorna said goodbye and headed to the back.

And Pauline would have gone, but she’d left her glasses by the living-room table so she walked back and stood, watched as Lorna walked over to James. Pauline saw him smile and frown at the same time at Lorna’s unexpected early arrival and stop what he was doing. Pauline was tempted so tempted to stand and watch for a little while longer—but it wasn’t her business, so instead she left them to it and quietly headed out onto the street.

Then she pulled out her phone and rang May.

‘Hey?’ Lorna could hear the question in his voice as she walked over. ‘What are you doing home?’

‘I couldn’t stand the place a moment longer.’ She would have played along for a little while more, except she couldn’t keep the smile from her face. ‘Henry Lowther asked me to come and see him.’

‘And you’re smiling?’ He was too now. ‘Does he think you might not need the operation after all?’

‘I probably will need it,’ Lorna said, ‘just not for a while. For a few months, in fact.’

‘And you’re okay with that?’ James checked. ‘You said the pain…’

‘I haven’t been in much pain for a few weeks now,’ Lorna said. ‘Even when I came off the medication after the accident.’ She thought he’d get it, thought he’d work it out before she even told him, but it had seemed such an impossible dream, something just so out of reach, she understood why his mind hadn’t gone there.

It meant she had to tell him and the words just rushed out of her, spilled out of her mouth because she had to share the news and share it this very instant, because he deserved every second of this wonderful joy that was as much his news too.

‘I’m pregnant.’ She never thought she’d say it again and especially to him. ‘I’ve had an ultrasound and the position is good.’

And James had so completely accepted they were words he’d never hear, especially from Lorna, that it took a while for them to sink in. James had quietly dealt with the grief of never having children because, though he’d never, ever tell Lorna, there had been a sense of loss when he’d found out about her operation. And though the grief was merited, it was also completely worth it if it meant he had Lorna. Still, there had been a loss to deal with privately just the same.

‘It’s going to be fine,’ Lorna said, not smiling now, not even crying as he took her in his arms. ‘I’m not even scared, James. I just know it’s going to be alright.’

‘It will be.’ He kissed her then, a kiss she didn’t have a name for, a kiss she had never tasted till now. It tasted of endings and beginnings, of past and of future, and it tasted of love and passion, but there was another ingredient too and as they walked into the house Lorna worked out what it was.

Hope.

She sat at the kitchen table and stared at her antenatal card, at her due date and LMP and her next scheduled appointment. The thin wintry sun was streaming through the window and she let hope sink in as James headed to the fridge to make her lunch because even if it was the most wonderful moment, she’d just remembered she was starving and dying for a cup of tea.

Oh, there was chance and there were risks and a lot of negatives if you chose to look for them, but then there was faith and that was a much kinder path to follow. There was faith that all was right with the world, that someone, somewhere was looking out for you.

‘I can’t believe this!’ James’s voice roused her from her introspection.

‘Neither can I.’

‘Not that.’ James grinned. ‘This!’ He pulled a bottle of champagne out of the fridge. ‘How on earth did that get there?’

‘It just did,’ Lorna said, talking about the champagne and the baby and cars that collided and lives that kept living even against the most terrible odds. ‘It just is!’