One Last Summer

by Connelly, Victoria

  Honor seemed to visibly relax at hearing this. ‘Good,’ she said, and then she opened the first of the photo albums.

  ‘Oh, look at you!’ Harrie said, sighing with pleasure as she gazed at the photo of her baby girl at three weeks old, wearing the sweetest little bonnet trimmed with lace.

  ‘I look like Little Bo Peep!’

  ‘You look like an angel!’

  ‘You always made me look like a doll.’

  ‘I didn’t! You managed that look all by yourself!’

  Honor shook her head, but Harrie could see that she was smiling.

  ‘Isn’t this my first school photo?’ Honor asked.

  ‘Yes! Remember you cut your own fringe? I’d bought you a little pair of scissors because you really loved to cut coloured paper into shapes. I never imagined you’d use them on yourself!’

  ‘So that’s why my hair is such a mess!’

  ‘Preserved forever by the school photographer,’ Harrie said with a laugh. ‘And, if I remember rightly, you also gave one of your dolls a nice haircut too.’

  ‘I did not!’ Honor protested.

  ‘You don’t remember what you did to Ruby?’

  Honor frowned. ‘Erm, something’s coming back to me.’

  ‘Which is more than can be said for her hair!’

  They both laughed and turned the pages of the album.

  ‘I love the feel and weight of a real photograph album, don’t you?’ Honor said.

  ‘Everything’s digital now,’ Harrie said. ‘You have to make a real effort to print photographs out and have them framed or put into albums.’

  ‘But it’s worth doing.’

  ‘Absolutely.’

  ‘We’ll have to take plenty of photos here, won’t we?’

  ‘Yes,’ Harrie said, feeling the subtext of the conversation, as she so often did these days.

  ‘Make sure we get some of us together,’ Honor said. ‘It always seems to be either you or me in the pictures because one of us is taking the photo.’

  ‘We can get Audrey and Lisa to take some, okay? As many as you want.’

  ‘I want to fill a whole photo album.’

  ‘That’s a good idea.’

  ‘So that we’ll never forget this summer.’ Honor’s voice was little above a whisper now, and Harrie could see the tears glistening in her eyes, making them so very bright.

  ‘We’re going to have a wonderful time, darling. No time for tears, remember?’

  ‘I know.’

  But, as she put an arm around Honor’s shoulder and squeezed her tight, she knew that she could do absolutely nothing to stop either her daughter’s tears or her own that were now threatening to fall.

  Chapter 9

  It might not have been a very successful shopping trip as far as Lisa was concerned, but it had been a lot of fun. Lisa liked Audrey when she loosened up a bit. You just had to get her away from her laptop and spreadsheets for long enough and the funny, sunny Audrey would emerge. Lisa was certainly going to miss her when she left.

  The car bounced down the track that led to the priory, turning the final corner.

  ‘Whose car is that?’ Lisa asked.

  ‘Another gardener’s?’ Audrey suggested, parking neatly beside the mystery car. The two of them got out and Lisa looked into the driver’s window.

  ‘I don’t think this is the car of a gardener,’ she said.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because there’s a bottle of pink nail varnish on the passenger seat.’

  ‘Why can’t a gardener wear nail varnish?’

  ‘Just doesn’t seem practical,’ Lisa pronounced.

  ‘Well, who can it be then?’

  ‘There’s one way to find out.’

  The two of them went through the wooden gate and walked along the path towards the front door of the priory, entering the kitchen a moment later.

  ‘I guess we can’t ask Mrs Ryder,’ Lisa said, acknowledging the fact that the housekeeper had left for the day. ‘Harrie?’ she called up the stairs. ‘We’re back!’

  ‘Lisa? Audrey?’ Harrie’s voice came from upstairs.

  ‘We’re in the kitchen!’

  Harrie appeared a moment later, a big grin on her face. ‘I’ve got a surprise for you,’ she announced.

  ‘Whose is that car out there?’ Audrey asked.

  ‘That’s part of the surprise.’ Harrie turned around just as Honor entered the room.

  Lisa gasped. ‘Honor!’

  ‘Hi, Lisa! Hi, Audrey!’

  Lisa raced across the room to embrace Honor. ‘What a surprise!’

  ‘It’s so lovely to see you,’ Audrey said. ‘You look so well, Honor.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘How’s work going?’ Audrey asked.

  ‘Very well.’

  ‘Oh, Aud! You always zone in on work,’ Lisa chastised. ‘She doesn’t want to talk about work!’

  ‘I really don’t mind,’ Honor insisted. ‘I love my job.’

  ‘But I don’t want to hear about work,’ Lisa said. ‘I want to hear about your love life!’

  ‘Lisa!’ Harrie cried.

  ‘What? Come on! We all want to know about that, don’t we?’

  Honor laughed. ‘There’s really not that much to tell. I go to work, I come home.’

  ‘Oh, nonsense!’ Lisa said. ‘You’re a beautiful young woman. There must be someone out there who’s caught your eye by now?’

  Suddenly, everybody’s eyes were on Honor, who was beginning to look decidedly uneasy.

  ‘You don’t need to answer that, darling,’ Harrie said, touching her daughter lightly on the shoulder.

  ‘It’s okay, Mum. Actually, there is somebody.’

  ‘Really?’ Lisa said excitedly.

  Harrie did a double-take. ‘Is there?’

  Honor smiled. ‘Kind of.’

  ‘Do tell!’ Lisa said.

  ‘When did you meet him?’ Harrie felt just a little hurt that she hadn’t been told this news until now.

  ‘It was only recently.’

  ‘What’s his name?’

  ‘Benny.’

  Audrey turned to put the kettle on and got four mugs out of the cupboard.

  ‘Tea?’ Lisa said. ‘Don’t you think this calls for wine?’

  Harrie smiled and nodded.

  ‘We could take it outside,’ Audrey suggested as she went to the fridge for a bottle of white.

  ‘Lovely idea.’ Harrie was still reeling from the fact that her little girl was seeing somebody. Somebody she might go on to have a relationship with. Someone who might give her Harrie’s grandchildren. She swallowed hard. She was getting carried away and yet she couldn’t help it. That was the way her mind was working these days – taking flights of fancy into a future where she wouldn’t exist.

  Shaking these thoughts off, she followed the others into the garden, each carrying a glass of wine. They sat on the two benches in the herb garden: Harrie and Honor on one and Lisa and Audrey on the other.

  ‘Right, back to Benny,’ Lisa prompted.

  ‘Well, I met him at work,’ Honor began. ‘He’s the same age as me and he’s really nice.’

  ‘Got a photo?’ Lisa continued.

  ‘Lisa!’ Audrey cried.

  ‘Oh, come on! You want to see him too, don’t you?’

  Honor surprised them all by getting her phone out of her pocket. A moment later, she showed it to her mother and then turned it around so that Lisa and Audrey could all see the screen, and there he was. Benny.

  ‘Honor!’ Lisa cried. ‘He’s gorgeous!’

  ‘Let me see again,’ Harrie said, and her daughter turned the phone around. ‘I’d love to meet him, darling.’

  Honor turned to her. ‘You will.’

  ‘Soon.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Bring him here!’ Lisa suddenly said.

  ‘Oh, no.’ Honor shook her head and switched her phone off quickly.

  ‘Why not? We’d all love to say hello.’

 
‘It’s too soon,’ Honor insisted.

  Lisa sighed. ‘Well, if you’re still together at Christmas, maybe we can all have a get-together. What do you think?’

  Honor glanced at Harrie. Lisa couldn’t quite read the look that passed between them, but she couldn’t help feeling like an outsider.

  ‘You’re already doing something then?’ she asked.

  Harrie nodded.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Lisa said. ‘Another time.’

  The four women sipped their wine, taking in the glory of the afternoon garden. Somewhere in the tower, a pigeon was cooing and a pair of swifts flew overhead, filling the sky with their happy shrieks.

  ‘Benny and Honor,’ Lisa said after a moment. ‘Honor and Benny. I think it’s got a nice ring to it.’

  Harrie almost spluttered on her wine. ‘Don’t marry her off yet!’ She turned to her daughter. ‘You’re not, are you? Thinking of getting married, I mean?’

  ‘No, of course not! But . . .’

  ‘What?’ all three of them said once.

  ‘We are thinking of going travelling.’

  ‘Really? When?’ Harrie asked.

  ‘I don’t know. Not for a while.’ Honor reached across the bench and took her mother’s hand in hers. ‘Benny suggested next summer, but I’m not sure yet. What do you think?’

  Lisa watched the pair of them carefully. Despite her maturity, Honor looked entirely unsure of herself at that moment.

  ‘What do I think?’ Harrie repeated. ‘I think it’s a wonderful idea!’

  ‘You do?’

  ‘I really do! You should definitely go. It’ll do you the world of good.’

  ‘I think it sounds like a terrific idea,’ Audrey chimed in.

  ‘And you never took that gap year, did you?’ Harrie said. ‘You were always so busy.’

  ‘I didn’t mind,’ Honor said.

  ‘Oh, look! Harrie’s getting all emotional!’ Lisa clasped her hands to her heart dramatically as she spotted the tears in her friend’s eyes. ‘Your little girl is growing up.’

  ‘I know!’ Harrie said.

  ‘Mum! I am grown up!’ Honor protested.

  ‘I know you are.’ Harrie touched her cheek and smiled through her tears.

  The four women sat in companionable silence for a little while longer and then Harrie got up and walked back inside with Honor. Lisa stretched her legs out in front of her and gazed up into the sky.

  ‘You okay?’ Audrey asked.

  Lisa nodded. ‘I don’t want to seem mean,’ she began, ‘and I really am pleased to see her, but I kind of wish that Honor hadn’t shown up like this.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Does that sound selfish of me?’

  ‘It does a little,’ Audrey admitted.

  ‘It’s always – well – it’s always just the three of us, isn’t it? The whole point of this time is that we get away from family and home and just be us again! You, me and Harrie. It isn’t fair that she thinks she can break that rule. If she does it one year, we’ll all be doing it and this thing we’ve got – this special thing – will be broken.’

  ‘Harrie obviously wants her here,’ Audrey said. ‘She’s paying a lot of money after all. I think she has the right to invite who she wants.’

  ‘But she should’ve told us, don’t you think? It’s only right when we’re staying here. The whole dynamic’s going to change now, especially with you leaving.’

  Audrey shrugged. ‘Well, just think of Honor as taking my place for a while.’

  ‘But she’s Harrie’s daughter. It won’t be the same. I’ll feel like the odd one out.’

  ‘We’ve always got on with Honor, though.’

  ‘Yes, I know.’

  ‘And you seemed pretty happy to grill her on her love life.’

  ‘I adore her,’ Lisa confessed, ‘and it’s really great to catch up with her, but I can’t help feeling we’ve lost a little bit of Harrie now.’

  They sat a moment, contemplating it all.

  ‘I wish you weren’t going,’ Lisa said at last.

  ‘Now, don’t start all that up again. Just roll out your yoga mat, light a few of those incense sticks you like so much and take a few deep breaths.’

  Lisa nudged her in the ribs.

  ‘You’ll be fine and I’ll be back in no time.’

  ‘Promise?’

  ‘I promise.’

  Audrey said her goodbyes as quickly as possible later that evening. Harrie made a token effort to keep her from leaving, but she didn’t seem quite as distressed by her going now that her daughter was there.

  Now, sitting in the car for the one-hundred-and-fifty-mile journey back to the London suburbs, she couldn’t help feeling a tiny bit guilty for her prompt departure, but it simply couldn’t be helped. She needed to go back. It had been unrealistic of her to think that she could go a whole six weeks without working. She’d done her very best to kick back and relax, to switch off from the hectic life she led, but it had been impossible. She found ways each and every day to sneak in just a little bit of work. She’d been careful about it, making phone calls from her en suite where she couldn’t be overheard by Harrie or Lisa, and catching up with emails late at night, switching her laptop on once her friends were safely tucked up in bed. It had taken its toll on her, though, and she’d found it difficult to sleep after looking at her laptop screen for half the night. She’d found herself nodding off in the garden, hiding behind her sunglasses and pretending to be doing nothing more innocent than sunbathing.

  It had been a very unsatisfactory way of trying to keep on top of things and it was always going to be only a matter of time before she left to check up on things properly.

  The last streaks of light were fading from the sky as Audrey arrived home, pulling into the suburban street lined with 1930s terraced houses as far as the eye could see. How strange it was to be back in the crowded street after the graceful space of the priory. Everything felt so crowded and claustrophobic, and she remembered the conversation she and Mike had had just before she’d left for Somerset. He’d been trying to persuade her to move out of London for some time, but she’d never really listened to him. He had a mad dream about living in a small village surrounded by fields and trees and, for the first time, she could understand the appeal.

  There was no point thinking about that now, however. Finding a parking space ten houses down from her home, Audrey got out of the car, grabbing her things from the boot and walking the short distance to number forty-seven. Quietly, she took the key out of her handbag and let herself in. The lights were on and she could hear the faint noise of the TV coming from the living room.

  ‘Mike?’ she called, dropping her luggage.

  ‘Audrey?’ He appeared in the hallway a moment later. ‘Aud! What are you doing back?’

  ‘Aren’t you pleased to see me?’

  ‘Well, of course I am!’ he said, wrapping her up in a big hug and kissing her. ‘It’s just so unexpected. You should have called me!’

  ‘You would have tried to talk me out of coming back, wouldn’t you?’

  He grinned at her. ‘Probably.’

  ‘Which is why I didn’t call you.’

  ‘I bet Harrie wasn’t pleased.’ The two of them walked into the living room and Mike turned the television off.

  ‘Harrie’s okay. Honor’s there with them now. It was Lisa who got all uppity.’

  ‘But you’re going back?’

  ‘Of course. As soon as I get a chance to check in with everyone.’

  ‘I had a feeling this would happen. You’re such a control freak.’

  ‘Yes, but you still love me.’

  He hugged her again. ‘We are managing, you know.’

  Audrey nodded. She didn’t say anything because she didn’t want to undermine her husband, who was helping out at the school part-time, but she needed to be there at the helm of her business. She trusted him, of course, but using anybody else, even one’s own husband, wasn’t the same as doing a job yourse
lf, was it?

  She checked her watch. ‘Actually, I was thinking of driving into the office tonight.’

  Mike ran a hand through his hair. ‘You’re kidding!’

  ‘No.’

  ‘You’ve just driven across the country. I’ve not seen you for over two weeks. It’s after nine at night and you’re going into work?’

  ‘There are just some things I want to check on.’

  ‘Which can wait until morning.’

  ‘I won’t be long, I promise.’

  ‘Aud, you always say that and you’re always wrong. Now, take your shoes off. Have you had anything to eat? Can I make you an omelette or something?’

  Her stomach gave a rebellious rumble at the mention of food.

  ‘Just as I thought,’ Mike said. ‘You’re not going anywhere. Now, sit yourself down and I’ll get things moving in the kitchen.’

  Audrey sighed. There was no point in fighting. She was pretty tired too, she had to admit.

  ‘All right,’ she said, ‘but I’m getting up extra early tomorrow morning.’

  Lisa said she was going upstairs for a long bath with a good book. It was kind of her, Harrie thought, to give her and Honor some private time together and Harrie was making the most of it. Despite the heat of the day, the evening had cooled and Harrie had insisted on making hot chocolate for the two of them and they were now snuggled up on one of the big squashy sofas together.

  ‘This is some place, Mum,’ Honor said, looking up to the high ceiling above them with its elaborate plasterwork.

  ‘Not too shabby, is it?’

  ‘I’ve stayed in worse,’ Honor said, and they both laughed. ‘It’s a shame Audrey left,’ Honor added. ‘I hope it wasn’t because of me.’

  ‘No, darling. She’d been planning on leaving from the start,’ Harrie said with a sigh. ‘The traitor.’

  Honor smiled at that.

  ‘She’s a workaholic, that one,’ Harrie went on. ‘I wish she hadn’t gone. Out of all of us, I think she needs this holiday the most.’

  Honor shook her head. ‘Not the most, Mum,’ she said, and Harrie gave a gentle, knowing smile.

  ‘We all need this holiday,’ Harrie said. ‘That’s the truth.’

  ‘Perhaps we can find a way to stay here forever?’