Book Club Reads: 3-Book Collection: Yesterday’s Sun, The Sea Sisters, Someone to Watch Over Me
asked Holly innocently. She was still struggling to find out more about Jocelyn’s former life.
Jocelyn looked thoughtfully at Holly. ‘I married late, had a baby late. I was forty-one when I had Paul, but even if I had been younger, I don’t think another baby would have been a good idea. I wasn’t blessed with a husband like Tom. Harry was a bully and things just got worse when I had Paul. I think he was actually jealous of the affection I showed Paul, so his behaviour became even worse after the baby was born.’
‘I don’t suppose you saw motherhood as a blessing in your life then?’ Holly asked.
‘Oh, the complete opposite,’ replied Jocelyn, shaking her head. ‘Paul was the best thing that ever happened to me. Harry was an expert in mental torture. He isolated me from my friends and family and slowly but surely wore me down. If it hadn’t been for Paul, it could have been so much worse.’
‘What do you mean?’
Jocelyn was looking over Holly’s shoulder towards the window and the garden beyond. There was a look of fear on her face as if her husband’s ghost would appear at the window. ‘Paul saved my life. By that, I mean it was because of Paul that I finally left Harry.
I couldn’t build up the courage to leave for my own protection, but I could for my son, although it took some hard lessons before I realized that.’ Jocelyn’s voice had withered to a whisper and the age-worn wrinkles around her eyes seemed to cut deeper into her face. Her whole body shuddered, despite the warmth of the morning sun streaming through the window.
‘Are you all right?’ Holly asked.
‘I’m fine. I think someone just walked over my grave.’ Again, there was that furtive glance towards the window. ‘I’m sorry, Holly, it’s so hard to go back to that part of my life.’
‘No, it’s me who should apologize. I don’t think I quite realized how awful a time you had here. I’m so sorry,’ said Holly.
‘Don’t be sorry, be hopeful. Don’t give up on your dreams yet, Holly.’
For a split second, Holly didn’t think about her dreams but her nightmares. ‘Perhaps I should be careful what I wish for,’ she said to Jocelyn. ‘Now, enough serious talk; these cakes aren’t going to eat themselves.’
* * *
‘Belgian chocolates? You go to Belgium for six weeks and the best you can come up with is Belgian chocolates?’ growled Holly sleepily. She had been woken abruptly by Tom jumping onto the bed like an excited puppy and announcing that he was home. It was two-thirty in the morning.
‘But look at the wrapping!’ Tom replied loudly to make sure Holly was fully awake.
Holly blinked her eyes, still trying to adjust to the painfully bright bedroom light that Tom had just switched on. Her heart was thudding in her chest, partly from the shock of the early morning wake-up and partly from the joy of Tom’s return. She looked at the large red chocolate box. ‘It’s not even wrapped,’ she complained.
Tom undid the top buttons on his shirt and slipped the box inside. ‘How about now?’ He was kneeling with his legs on each side of Holly, pinning her down. He leant over and kissed the tip of her nose.
‘You smell,’ she teased. ‘It would be like peeling a clove of garlic.’
‘Peel away, Mrs Corrigan.’
She kissed him, softly at first and then with a hunger that came from deep within. In her mind, she chased away the shadows of the past and more importantly the shadows of the future. Everything she needed was in the present. All she needed was Tom.
The box of chocolates disappeared beneath a sea of bed linen and eagerly discarded clothing. ‘I missed you,’ she whispered as she lay in his arms. She curled her fingers through his unruly hair and pulled his head back to look into his eyes. They were the same eyes she had looked into during her moonlit nightmare, only now they glinted green and held no hint of the grief that had consumed the man her warped mind had created. Try as she might, Holly couldn’t shake the picture she had now created of Tom in her mind. The fear for the future that Holly had tried to ignore sparked into life and doubt crept in. What if the moondial had summoned the vision? What if it really had shown her the future?
Tom frowned as he recognized the look of sadness in Holly’s eyes. ‘You must hate me for doing this to you,’ he told her. ‘Uprooting you to the country and then abandoning you. I’m a lousy husband.’
‘You’re the best husband I could ever have. I’m blessed to be loved so much, never forget that.’ Holly wrapped Tom tightly in her arms and squeezed away the tears and the doubts. Fully awake and thinking only of the present, Holly’s mind did a double take and she pushed Tom away from her again so that they were face to face. ‘Hold on, why are you here? You were supposed to be staying over in London tonight, ready for the showdown with the studio tomorrow. What’s happened?’
Tom sighed and closed his eyes. He leaned forward and rested his head on Holly’s as if the weight of the world was bearing down on him.
‘It’s bad, isn’t it?’ Holly said, her heart hammering.
Tom lifted his head and tried to smile. Holly knew he wasn’t about to put her mind at ease. ‘I’ve still got a job, or at least I will have,’ he said, but Holly sensed that he was softening the blow.
‘Tell me,’ she demanded softly.
‘Peter Richards is retiring at the end of the year and they want me to be part of the new line-up.’
‘A news anchor? They want you to be an anchorman?’ Holly was almost laughing, partly with relief and partly at the thought of Tom behind a desk in a slick, smart suit reading the news. ‘And that’s bad?’
Tom grimaced. ‘Well, can you picture me in a shiny suit every day? Ah, I see by the wicked smile on your face that you’re already imagining it. But no, that’s not the bad news, not really.’
Holly stopped smiling as she realized there was something else that Tom was trying to tell her. ‘So that’s at the end of the year. What do they have planned for you in the meantime?’
‘The merger has meant joining forces with a couple of other production companies and I’m being seconded. It means more special assignments and they’re going to involve quite a bit of travel. The first assignment is investigating the Canadian oil sands and I have to leave in a couple of weeks. Environmental impact of oil extraction, that kind of thing.’
‘You’re going to Canada?’ Holly knew it was a stupid question and Tom had the good grace to bite his tongue rather than make a smart response.
‘So how long?’ Holly continued.
‘At least a month.’
‘And after that?’ Holly could feel her heart wrenching in her chest.
‘More travelling. I’m sorry, Holly.’
Tom’s eyes were glistening and Holly’s heart pulled some more. She didn’t want to see Tom hurting, not again. She leaned over to kiss Tom on each of his eyes. ‘Kiss me,’ she told him sternly.
‘Even when I smell of garlic?’ Tom asked with a weak smile.
‘It just makes me hungry.’
‘So eat me.’ The smile on his face had now reached his eyes.
Holly giggled and the sound of laughter eased her disappointment. They had each other, they would always have each other, she told herself. She savoured every kiss and every caress and when they made love Holly held onto Tom like she was never going to let go.
Later that morning, when they had worn themselves out and had nothing to sustain their appetites other than a box of very squashed chocolates, Tom and Holly dragged themselves out of bed and down to the kitchen to raid the fridge.
‘So when do I get to see your fabulous new studio?’ Tom asked.