‘God, they were awful, weren’t they?’ Lucy whispered; they had sat as far away from the exhibition as they could manage. ‘It’s just as well that there are other stalls here too to drift about,’ she said as she tucked into a deep wedge of apple pie.
‘I was actually afraid that they’d be right up your street.’ Elizabeth giggled.
‘Oh, dear, no, I’m not that brave.’ She shook her head laughing. ‘I see there’s a little antique shop just across the street from here. How would you fancy going there next?’
‘Perfect.’
They ate their pie in companionable silence and then sat back in the surprisingly comfortable chairs to people-watch and sip their coffee. She was not going to let worries about the debt hanging over her cloud out the lovely day she was enjoying. She had decided, earlier, that if she saw something nice, not too expensive, she would treat herself, because after all, she had earned the money in her pocket and no matter what may come, she knew that there was very little in the house she’d shared with Eric that really had ever counted as hers. ‘It’s nice here, isn’t it? Watching the world go by.’
‘This is heaven, just being able to kick off my shoes and relax. It’s as if all the worries of the world are out there somewhere.’ Lucy waved her arm towards the exit, perhaps trying to keep the tears at bay.
‘It’s okay to cry about your mother, you know?’
‘But that’s the thing, Elizabeth, it’s not just Mum, it’s Niall too. I’m losing him and I’m not ready to let him go yet.’
‘Go on, a problem shared is a problem halved. Isn’t that what they used to say?’
‘I’m not so sure there’s any halving this one.’ Lucy looked at her now, then closed her eyes and said softly, ‘Niall wants to go and live with his father in Australia.’ She opened her eyes now. ‘Don’t laugh, but I thought coming here, taking time out, it might be just what we need.’
‘That sounds reasonable.’
‘That was the idea and starting in the surgery, working with you and Alice, I’m really happy here, but he’s just not settling in…’ She smiled sadly. ‘I was beginning to think, I could enrol Niall in the local secondary school next term. Maybe spend the next year or two here, with him, forging some kind of family around him. In a few years’ time, he’ll be heading off to college, and then…’
‘They say that time flies once they start in secondary,’ Elizabeth said, because she had no real experience of the kind of worries that weighed so heavily on Lucy. ‘Would it be a bad thing, if he went to Australia, made a life out there, with his father and his new wife?’ she asked softly. She didn’t want to upset Lucy, but she’d learned something in the last few weeks and it was this: happy ever after may be very different to how you could possibly have imagined, but that didn’t make it any less happy.
‘Honestly? If all things were equal, maybe I’d be okay with it. You know, it’s going to break my heart anyway, if he takes off for good, but the truth is, I have a feeling he’d just be in the way out there. His father has a new life there with a woman who was never going to sign up for kids. There’s no warmth there, not for Niall, at least. Deep down, I think he knows that, but naturally he wants to be with his dad.’
‘Perhaps they’ll just say he can’t come?’
‘That’s the thing; my ex-husband has never once played the bad guy. He’s always left the dirty work to me. It’s not that he’s spineless exactly, but he’d rather wriggle out of any kind of situation that paints him as being anything less than perfect.’
‘He sounds a bit cowardly to me.’ Elizabeth huffed. ‘Sorry, but you know, I’d much prefer people who say it as it is. I suppose I spent my married life with someone who swept so much under the carpet that since he’s died it’s as if I’ve found an entire continent of secrets and lies and it could all have been so different.’
‘It’s one of the things I love about my mother.’ A flicker of a smile drew up Lucy’s lips now. ‘But of course, Niall is much too young to see that as a real quality worth valuing.’ She shook her head now.
‘What will you do?’
‘I’ve already done it.’ She clapped her hands together; it was a fait accompli, but not one to celebrate. ‘I’ve asked if Niall can come out to Sydney and his dad has, as I expected, said yes. All we have to do now is book the tickets and they will have to sort things out from there.’