‘I know it’s soon after Thomas, but my intention is to ask Scarlet to marry me. I cannot see the point in delaying simply for the sake of being polite, because in the weeks that have passed I’ve realised what Thomas couldn’t.’ He smiled. ‘This woman deserves a husband to adore her, and that man is me.’
She let out a breath. For a moment there she’d been certain he was going to share that she was pregnant!
‘Oh, that’s wonderful news,’ his mother enthused, stepping forward to envelop Scarlet in a hug. ‘I will never forget my Thomas, but, my dear, after what he put you through . . .’ She sighed. ‘I didn’t raise my son to treat a woman the way he treated you, and even though I know he saw and experienced so many horrors over there, it doesn’t mean I ever accepted the man he returned as.’
Scarlet held her tight. ‘We don’t need to speak of it,’ she said, not wanting to delve back into the past. ‘Let’s all remember the man we knew before the war rather than the one at the end.’
‘You were a good wife to him, Scarlet. Better than good,’ the other woman whispered. ‘You deserve to be happy.’
Scarlet looked at James over his mother’s head, receiving a devilish wink in reply, and a smile that made him look like the cat with the cream before he hugged his father.
He was a devil, her James, but he was hers, and for the first time since she’d met him, she no longer had to hide it. It didn’t mean they would ever forget Thomas, or the man he could have been. But Thomas was gone now, and she wasn’t going to spend the rest of her life wondering what could have been.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Ellie
‘Anybody home?’
Ellie heard the man’s voice call out, and she carefully slid her baby into her cot, wondering who it would be, coming in unannounced like that. It sounded so like her husband, but . . . She walked on light feet out of the nursery, not quite closing the door behind her. And then she saw him.
‘Spencer?’ His name was only a whisper on her lips; she could hardly believe her own eyes. ‘Spencer!’
He dropped his bag and strode down the hall as she ran down the stairs into his arms, looping her legs and arms around him as she squealed and showered him with kisses.
‘Hello, wife,’ he said, voice husky as he held her back.
‘Oh my goodness! Spencer!’ Ellie squealed, forgetting all about her sleeping baby. ‘What are you doing here? You were supposed to be another day away.’
‘Well, I’m here,’ he said, and she noticed for the first time how weary he looked. ‘And you . . .’
She looked down at herself, realised in horror that she was covered in baby sick, all over her shoulder and now all over Spencer. She probably smelt horrendous, too, and her hair was a mess.
‘You’re not pregnant,’ he blurted, still staring at her. ‘I mean, I know you’re not still pregnant, it’s just that’s how I’ve imagined you all this time, with a rounded stomach.’
‘No! But I’m a mess to look at, aren’t I?’ Ellie shook her head, annoyed with herself that Spencer had arrived home to find her so dishevelled.
He reached for her, smiling, but he paused when a soft cry rang out. It quickly turned into a wail and Ellie sighed, exhausted.
‘You’d better come meet your baby girl, then,’ she said.
‘I can’t believe we have a daughter!’ he said, eyes wide.
‘Yes, darling, we have a daughter, and she has a set of lungs on her that she exercises all day and night.’
He grinned, looping his arm around her and dropping a kiss into her hair. ‘Poor little girl has just been waiting for her daddy to get home, that’s all. I’ll bet she’ll be quiet as a mouse now.’
Ellie laughed and hugged him tight to her side. Spencer was home, they had a healthy baby girl, and the war was over. Finally, everything was back in its rightful place.
EPILOGUE
Scarlet
New Year’s Eve, 1945
The day was unseasonably warm, the sun shining down on them all as they stood outside the church. A gentle breeze touched Scarlet’s cheeks. It had been a beautiful service – a small gathering, which had made it feel intimate – and there was not a person in the church with dry eyes after watching the happy couple recite their vows and celebrate with an exuberant kiss.
‘Ready to help me celebrate?’ Lucy asked as her hand landed on Scarlet’s shoulder.
Scarlet smiled at her, beyond happy for her friend. They’d been through such a lot together, and to know how much Lucy had suffered and how much she’d overcome to even be here today brought fresh tears to Scarlet’s eyes.
‘You look so beautiful,’ Scarlet told her. ‘I know I’ve told you already, but you do.’
Lucy sighed. ‘I feel like everyone is telling me that to make me feel better about my scars,’ she said.
‘I know you think that, but it’s not true,’ Scarlet told her, eyes sweeping over Lucy’s flushed cheeks, hair down and curled rather than fashioned into an updo, so as to cover her neck. It was true that her hand and wrist were an ugly deep red, as was a large part of her neck and jawline, but none of that detracted from how pretty she looked in her beautiful off-white gown. ‘You look alive today, truly alive, so happy and content.’
‘How do you feel?’ Lucy asked in a low voice so no one else could hear. ‘You’re not woozy or anything?’
Scarlet shook her head, smiling. Lucy and Ellie were the only two people, other than her husband, who knew that she was pregnant. They were waiting to tell everyone, wanted to wait a few more weeks since they’d only just been married. It had been a small ceremony, only their parents had been there to witness it, and given what had happened to Thomas, it was what Scarlet had wanted. Lucy’s wedding today had made her a little sad that she hadn’t had her own lovely ceremony in a church, wearing an amazing dress, but it didn’t matter. She looked past Lucy to James, saw him standing there talking to Spencer. She might not have had the fairy-tale wedding, but she had James, and that was what mattered.
‘Come on, let’s get you to your reception.’
The church was within walking distance of Lucy’s family home, where the wedding breakfast was being held. Scarlet lifted Lucy’s train and held it off the ground.
‘Wait for me!’ Ellie called out, hurrying down to walk with them. ‘I’m ready for champagne.’
Scarlet laughed. ‘We weren’t going to celebrate without you.’
‘It seems like such a long time since we were all together. I don’t want to miss a moment,’ Ellie said.
Lucy turned back, her smile wide. ‘I was as excited about seeing you two today as I was about marrying Jack.’
To anyone else, her words might have seemed peculiar, but after all they’d been through together, what they’d seen and done side by side during the hardest months of their lives, it made complete sense to Scarlet.
‘I have something of yours,’ Scarlet said to Ellie as they walked.
‘Me too.’