Page 116 of The Wedding Pact
Mrs Haverley continued. ‘Pearl fell in love with your grandad and told him that she would end things with Dear Richard as soon as he next got off the boat. What boat she never said, Pearl didn’t know a thing about the Navy.’
‘Was Dear Richard mad?’
‘Hardly,’ Mrs Haverley let out a small tinkle of a laugh. ‘He was completely made up.’
‘He waswhat? Why?’
‘Pearl created this whole character, even cut a photograph out of a magazine of a strapping young naval officer and put it in a locket around her neck. Dear Richard’s sole purpose was as a deterrent for the unwanted advances of men. Until your grandfather came along, and Pearl decided she’d quite appreciate his advances. So Dear Richard had to be retired, as it were. Well, not quite.’
August soaked in this information about her grandmother, happy tears springing to her eyes. What a funny, creative woman she was; she’d always been.
Mrs Haverley continued. ‘I used to say to her, “Pearl, why don’t you just tell these other boys ‘no’?” but she, rightly, argued that sometimes a no doesn’t get them off your back. It should be enough, but it isn’t always. It was a different time.’
‘Hmm, not that different, unfortunately,’ August said.
‘That’s probably true. Callie is often showing me something she calls “DMs” filled with men getting quite cruel if she says she’s not interested. All sorts of name calling. Stupid behaviour.’
It made August smile to think of Callie up in Mrs Haverley’s apartment, having a chin-wag and discussing the pitfalls of online dating. ‘What did you mean by Dear Richard not quite being retired?’
That laugh came again, and Mrs Haverley said, ‘I remember your grandmother telling me that when she and your grandfather first got engaged to be married, she told him, ‘Dear Richard will always love me, and if you treat me badly I shall write to him and he’ll come and show you what’s for and then whisk me away!’ She kept Dear Richard in her back pocket, just to keep your grandfather on his toes.’
August shook her head. Grandma and her stories, honestly. She felt quite proud of old Pearl though. To think, she’d had an entire imaginary relationship also.
But August’s smile faded. ‘Nevertheless, what my grandma did, with the whole Dear Richard thing, wasn’t doing anyone else any harm, it was just something she did for herself, that only really affected herself. What I did was selfish, and I was a complete cow for acting like your wishes didn’t matter.’
‘We all have our reasons we do the things we do, and when you’re within a breath of reaching your dreams it’s easy to get caught up in doing whatever you can to grasp them.’ Mrs Haverley stopped talking for a moment, her thoughts swimming back to her younger days. She then carried on, saying, ‘I’m not saying I’m not angry at what you did, and what Flynn did, and I feel used and embarrassed. But I think I’ll get over it. I was also at fault for trying to discriminate, as Abe has told me numerous times in the past couple of days – now I understand why – and for that I’m sorry.’
Abe had stood up for them? He was a nice guy, he deserved to find someone really special. August sent him a little piece of her heart as thanks, in that moment. ‘But you should get a say in who lives in your house,’ August said.
‘Well, only up to a point.’ Mrs Haverley adjusted herself on the bed, and her eyelids appeared to grow heavy. ‘Darling, I am pleased you told me and I’m not banishing you in any form, but this has been a lot of information, and I need to get some rest. Once Abe gets here in the afternoon he does go on; he’s insisting on reading me the complete works of Austen at the moment, even though he knows I prefer a good Jackie Collins bonkbuster.’
August nodded and stood, picking up her bag. ‘Thanks for listening, Mrs H. And I’m – we’re – truly sorry. We’ll understand, whatever you decide to do.’
‘Hold on, you said Flynn had just moved here from Japan. You and Flynn have started seeing each other now though, haven’t you?’ Mrs Haverley asked, all of a sudden.
‘No,’ August said. ‘We literally met on the day of the open house and nothing’s happened, we’re just friends.’
‘You wouldn’t give two hoots if he met someone new?’
‘No …’ August replied, though her heart thudded in her chest. Because she would. She would. The thought of him reuniting with Yui was one thing, because she wanted him to be happy, but he’d chosen to come back the UK and now the thought of him choosing to move on from what they had was making her wobble.
‘Do you think it hurt him to see you with Abe?’
‘No,’ August said, quieter than before.Did it?
Mrs Haverley’s eyes began to close again. ‘This is very gallant of you both to start screaming your truths from the rooftops, but maybe you need to start being truthful with each other.’
‘We’re just friends,’ August said.
A smile played on Mrs Haverley’s lips. ‘You could have fooled me.’
With her defences crumbling, August felt her resolve rebuilding, and with every moment that passed she became stronger, more sure than ever of what she wanted.
It was time to be brave. Because August was fooling nobody anymore, least of all herself.
Chapter 87
August
