Fleur began to smile although with tears trickling down her cheeks. ‘He’s such…such a character!’ she said fervently. ‘I’m so very happy for him. But I think what has helped Tom most through all this is that he’s always been loved, even though people have come and gone in his life. And for that, you have to take a lion’s share of the credit, Bryn.’
‘Thank you,’ he said, after a long, long moment when they’d stared at each other wordlessly. ‘Could we talk about us? I mean, have I cleared the decks at all, Fleur?’
She gripped her hands. ‘There’s one other thing, Bryn. Did I…come into your life when you were discovering that Clam Cove was losing its appeal?’
He sat back and sighed. ‘Not Clam Cove itself, ever. But I was beginning to need some new challenges and I was concerned about what my father was going through.’ He paused and frowned. ‘What are you trying to imply, Fleur?’
‘I…it occurred to me you might have been looking for a diversion.’
He thought his way around this one for a long moment. Then he said simply, ‘No. I just need you with me forever.’
‘How will you cope with the head-turning bit?’
‘By reminding myself of how terrible I felt when I knew I’d driven you away.’
‘Did you?’ she asked softly.
‘Worse than I’ve ever felt in my life.’ He looked at her and she saw the shudder that ran through him.
Her eyes widened.
‘You said,’ his gaze had never been more probing, or sombre at the same time, ‘you’d cut all the ties. Was that true?’
She moistened her lips. ‘I came back here because I couldn’t help myself, Bryn. I told myself it was to get my things but then I found it was to…get some answers. Why had it all gone so wrong?’ She stopped and looked at him with her heart in her eyes. ‘I came to the conclusion you were a falling star I would never be able to catch, Bryn.’
‘And now?’ he said softly.
‘There’s just one question I can’t seem to find the answer to.’ She paused and the tears started in her eyes again and her voice was hoarse. ‘How could you not know…how deeply I’d fallen in love with you?’
He got up so swiftly his chair fell over. ‘Because I’m the most incredible fool,’ he said roughly. Then she was in his arms and he was holding her so hard she could barely breathe. ‘Do you really mean that?’ he said into her hair.
‘Yes,’ she breathed. ‘Oh, yes.’
He took her to their bungalow and told her she’d never been more beautiful as he unwound her sarong and helped her out of her bikini. Then he laid her on their bed to once again watch the sunlight and shadows playing over her body before he made love to her in a way that was so very special that she was transported to another world. A world that would always have at its core for her this man….
They ran into the sea afterwards, joyfully naked.
He told her that if she loved Clam Cove so much, they would never part with it.
She told him that it made her very happy to hear it but had he made any decisions about what he wanted to do with his life?
They were sitting on the beach, on their log, during this conversation. He had cooked dinner and she had made a lemon meringue pie to follow it. They’d opened a bottle of wine, and were finishing it as they sat beneath the stars.
‘I…’ he said slowly ‘…my father and I have agreed to sell out.’
‘Oh, Bryn,’ she murmured, looking at him with a touch of concern. ‘Wouldn’t that break his heart?’
‘Strangely enough, no. It’s getting harder and harder to survive the impact of multinational hotel chains and just before his operation he received an offer from one such chain. It’s a good offer and they’ve guaranteed to keep the names of the hotels with theirs added. It’s still the end of an era for the Wallis family.’ He shrugged. ‘Although, perhaps, the start of another one.’
‘So you couldn’t see yourself taking over from him?’
‘No,’ he said, quite definitely. ‘It never was me, it never will be. Not on that scale. And I think that now we’re all back together, Alana as well, he’s finally come to understand and accept it. As a matter of fact, he looks years younger.’
‘And you?’ she queried.
He sipped his wine then studied the glass. ‘One other thing made itself clear to me when I was going through hell thinking I’d lost you for good and by my own hand. I wasn’t restless with Clam Cove, I was restless with myself.’
‘You want to go back to being a war correspondent?’ she asked and her eyes were suddenly fearful.
‘No, never.’ He put an arm round her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. ‘But I think it’s in my nature to be…possibly interfering, nosy and all the rest. Perhaps it’s even in my nature to think I can put things right. I want to go back to journalism but in the form of picking a subject that really bugs me then writing the definitive series of articles about it. A lot of things do bug me. But that means travelling— You’re laughing!’ he accused.
‘Oh, Bryn,’ she laid her head on his shoulder, ‘I love you.’
‘Thank heavens,’ he said devoutly. ‘May I continue without being laughed at?’
‘Please do,’ she invited, although she was still smiling.
‘In between travelling, with you, of course, I would love to come home to Clam Cove, with you. How does that sound?’
‘It sounds wonderful. Could I be your research assistant?’
‘With pleasure!’
‘But…will we close down the restaurant permanently?’ she asked.
‘It’s been suggested,’ he said with surprising diffidence, ‘that we make it into a family enterprise.’
Fleur sat up. ‘You mean your father and Alana?’
‘You don’t mind?’
‘No! I think that’s brilliant. Are they really keen to do it, though?’
He grimaced. ‘My father is champing at the bit. Alana is very keen and of course Tom is delighted at the prospect. There will always be times when we’d have the place to ourselves, though. I don’t think Dad could adapt to the summers, although they’re not as bad right here because we get the northerlies, when they blow. By the way—’
‘The summers here at Clam Cove are the least of my worries, Bryn,’ she broke in.
He hugged her. ‘I was going to say that Julene and Eric are happy to stay on, for a time anyway, so it won’t be a case of dumping Dad, Tom and Alana here while we swan around the world finding causes to fight.’
‘There may be times when I won’t be able to swan around the world with you finding causes,’ Fleur pointed out.
‘Such as?’ It was the old, autocratic Bryn who looked down at her with a frown.
‘Well, I’m not sure about six kids but a couple would be nice,’ she teased.
‘I see. Of course. Well, we’ll have to come up with a plan of action!’
She eyed him suspiciously. ‘For having them or—?’
‘Definitely. I like the sound of that very much, Mrs Wallis, and there’s no time like the present!’
‘Bryn, I didn’t mean right away—’
‘Not even a training session?’ he broke in with the most wicked little smile playing on his lips.
‘Perhaps,’ she conceded. ‘Although we had one not that long ago.’
‘Practice makes perfect, isn’t that what they say?’
‘They might but—Bryn, I’m not going to bed with you until we discuss this properly,’ she warned.
‘I see. My wife has come up with a new set of guidelines,’ he confided to the stars. ‘I shall have to watch my Ps and Qs.’
Fleur sighed. ‘Seriously,’ she said, although she was trying not to laugh.
But all of a sudden he sobered. ‘Fleur, seriously, we can plan and it may work out the way we plan. On the other hand, things may change—who knows? But I’m just as happy to have six kids as you are, if that’s what’s ordained for us, and to adjust our lives accordingly. There’s one master
plan, though, that will never change.’
‘Tell me?’ she said softly.
‘You will always be the mermaid who sings to my soul, the siren I keep coming back to. Now that we’ve found each other—where, how, why—all those things will fall into place, don’t you think?’
She trembled as he put his arms around her and thought of him sensing she was at Clam Cove, of everything that went to make up Bryn Wallis…
‘I do,’ she said against the corner of his mouth, ‘my very own falling star.’
ISBN: 978-1-4268-7312-6
WIFE IN THE MAKING
First North American Publication 2004.
Copyright © 2001 by Lindsay Armstrong.
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Wife in the Making Page 16