He rolled his eyes, laughing at himself, but Romany thought she saw something else. He really wanted her to understand, to say that he could stay. This new plan was entirely dependent on her say-so.
She didn’t hesitate. ‘That would be fantastic!’ she said. ‘I’d love it!’
She opened her arms and threw them around his shoulders. She could feel him relax as she hugged him, as if he had been building up to this moment for a while and was deeply relieved that it was finally out in the open.
When they separated, he said, ‘I don’t mean that we have to move. That was just an idea. Obviously, this was your mum’s place and it’s full of all her memories.’
Romany nodded. He was right. It was. But the memories were in her head; in Tiger’s, too. She didn’t need a place to attach them to. In some ways, a fresh start as she went off to university might be perfect timing. It wasn’t like leaving her mum behind, but more taking her with her into her new life.
‘I reckon a place with a garden might be nice,’ she said. ‘As long as we’re not too far out of town. I still want to be able to walk home from a night out.’
Tiger was grinning broadly. ‘Well, maybe we can start looking over the summer,’ he said. ‘Get this place valued and see what we could afford. And I was thinking I could get a job. Maybe be a tour guide around the city. I reckon I’d be good at that.’
Romany nodded enthusiastically. ‘You would,’ she said. ‘You’d be really good.’
She tossed his suggestion around in her head for a moment. A part of her was worried that things were changing too fast, that she needed to give herself time to process it all. But then she remembered that this was Tiger. He might have worked out how to use a vacuum cleaner, but he was no Maggie. They wouldn’t be going anywhere fast.
‘You know, you should have said what you were thinking before,’ she said.
Tiger shrugged. ‘I didn’t really know that I was thinking it myself until recently,’ he said. ‘It was something Maggie said. I’m starting to wonder whether your mum didn’t have all this planned out in advance.’
Romany thought about her conversation with Daniel earlier. She nodded. ‘I’m beginning to think you might be right,’ she said. ‘Listen, Tiger, can I ask you something? Something personal?’
Tiger looked slightly uncomfortable, but he nodded.
‘Tiger’s a nickname, right?’
Another nod.
‘So, what are you actually called?’
He looked at her, then up at the ceiling, then down at his feet and then finally back at her.
‘You have to promise me that you will never call me it,’ he said.
‘Okay,’ agreed Romany.
‘And you absolutely, under pain of death, must not tell Maggie.’
Romany nodded.
He dropped his head and in a very quiet voice whispered, ‘Derek.’
Romany bit her lip, but not before a snigger escaped.
57
Hope stood at the bottom of Monk Bar waiting for Romany. The shops were closing up, the streets full of people picking up last-minute things and tourists all determined to make the most of every moment of their day in historic York. The steps up to the ancient city wall were busy with a stream of visitors coming back down and the evening sun shone on the sandy-coloured stone of the medieval turret, making it glow.
Hope wasn’t sure what Romany wanted to talk about, but she could guess, and she was prepared. She’d had time to get her head around it all. She had been confused that first day in the solicitor’s. She’d had no idea why she had been invited, and knew none of the others apart from briefly meeting Maggie at her party. So, when the letter had been read out and she learned what Angie had asked of her, it made no sense.
She had gone home and told Daniel about the strangeness of Angie’s request and he had gone very pale. She supposed later that he could have kept his mouth shut, waited to see how the situation would pan out, but he’d chosen not to. He had made her sit down next to him and then he’d told her everything, pausing only to make sure that she was all right as all the details emerged. And she had listened, horrified at first when she thought he might have been seeing both her and Angie at the same time, and then slightly more calmly when it seemed that he hadn’t.
He had abandoned his child, though. That had taken some time to get her head around. If someone had asked her whether Daniel would be the kind of man to do that, she would have said emphatically no. And yet he had. He had run from his responsibilities.