Looking For Lucy
Page 39
As we sat down to the meal that Sarah, Jamie—now working for Clementine’s after chef Paul’s timely defection back to The Ash House—and I had prepared over the past few days, I looked down the table at all the guests who we’d managed to accommodate around the one huge circular table in the summer house.
Sitting together, and laughing loudly at something Sophie had just shouted across at them, were Izzy and Declan, Mel and Julian, Harriet and Nick as well as Grace and her husband, Dan. Down the other end were my parents, the Hendersons, Annabelle Ahern and the Honourable Lady Anne—my mother obviously over the moon to be in such hallowed company as my natural grandmother as well as Yorkshire’s top businessman and his wife. Sitting across from me were my half-siblings—Jennifer, Jamie and Poppy—along with their mother—my beloved Sarah—and her partner, Ben Carey.
Sophie rose from her seat and calmly helped mop spilled orange juice from Allegra’s new white dress as my daughter surreptitiously buried her stockinged toes into an uninvited guest’s black fur under the starched, snow-white tablecloth. Allegra grinned up at her stepsister, pointing to George’s just visible black nose, before Sophie returned to her own seat next to Max.
The man to my right stood and, clinking a spoon against his glass, asked that the guests join him in a toast. He looked around the summerhouse, his glance resting first on Theo, his seven-year-old son, and then on Lucy sitting between Sarah and Allegra. Looking down at me with love in his eyes, he raised his glass. ‘To Clementine, the one true love of my life.’
I looked back at Rafe, at his dark hair and blue eyes, at his face so full of love for me and knew my cup of happiness ranneth over.
About the Author
Julie Houston is the author of The One Saving Grace, Goodness Grace and Me and Looking for Lucy, a Kindle top 100 general bestseller and a Kindle Number 1 bestseller. She is married, with two teenage children and a mad cockerpoo and, like her heroine, lives in a West Yorkshire village. She is also a teacher and a magistrate.
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