Page 63 of All Wrapped Up
‘I think everyone within a fifty-mile radius of Wynbridge must have turned out,’ I happily told her. ‘It was heaving. And,as the person who had been responsible for putting it all together, I had to give a speech. If you can imagine such a thing!’
I was still struggling to get my head around that. Had I really stood up in front of all those people and talked and then put Jason in his place – or attempted to – straight after?
‘My goodness,’ said Mum, ‘that must have been daunting. Did anyone record it? I would love to hear what you said.’
I felt myself go rather warm when she asked that.
‘I don’t think so,’ I said, chewing my lip. ‘I hope not, anyway.’
‘Why?’
‘Because it was really scary and I don’t think I did the best job. I’d barely had time to prepare before I was holding a microphone.’
‘I’m sure you did just fine,’ Mum said kindly.
‘Well,’ I shrugged, ‘either way, I had the best time after saying my brief bit and so did everyone else. Tills were ringing all day in the shops and on the market and the pub and café were packed out, too. It was a fabulous start to the festival and my new life here. I’m so happy now—’
I immediately stopped talking and hoped that Mum wasn’t going to question why I’d said that.
‘But you were happy before, weren’t you?’ She frowned.
It had been a vain hope.
‘Of course,’ I said quickly, feeling annoyed that I’d got so carried away when for the last eighteen months I had been so careful.
‘And your new life in Wynbridge started a lot longer ago than yesterday, didn’t it?’
She sounded justifiably confused.
‘Of course it did.’ I smiled. ‘But yesterday felt like the cherry onthe cake, I suppose. It isn’t every day that you get asked to do something like organise an entire festival and then launch it, is it?’
‘I suppose not,’ she said, looking at me more closely than she had in a while.
‘Don’t go reading anything into what I just said, Mum,’ I started to say, hoping to head her off before her thoughts spiralled.
‘I’m trying not to, love,’ she sighed, ‘I really am, but I can’t help thinking how different you are all of a sudden. How different you’ve been since you started talking about this friend of yours, Lizzie.’
‘Well, that’s because she’s the one who roped me into sorting out the festival.’
‘But before then, you’d never mentioned anyone in particular and you’d never shared any photos like the dozens that landed last night—’
‘I thought you’d be pleased to see them,’ I unfairly snapped.
I felt as cross with myself for opening this can of worms as I was with Mum for taking the bait I’d unwittingly dangled in front of her.
‘You just seem to have changed all of a sudden, Clemmie,’ Mum went on, ‘and it’s made your father and I worry that you weren’t quite as involved in things as you made out before.’
‘But what does that matter, if I’m involved now?’
‘Of course it matters,’ Mum responded. ‘You’ve been living there almost two years!’
‘And they’ve been two essential years in my recovery, Mum,’ I said, going for broke because there was no point in carrying on pretending now she wouldn’t let the topic drop. ‘The truthis, I hadn’t immersed myself in local life before, but now I am. I wanted to walk before I could run and I took the time to find my feet when I got here, so that when I started taking part, it would be in a way that worked for me.’
Mum looked shocked and I thought back to what I’d said about my time at the cottage alone to Ash. I had made out to him that my parents had supported the choice I had made to isolate myself, but in reality, they simply hadn’t known the extent of it.
‘Please don’t make something out of this, Mum,’ I said, starting to feel upset rather than annoyed. ‘I’m the one who has walked this path for the last three years and I’ve taken the steps I needed to and at the pace that’s been right for me.’
‘Well,’ she swallowed, ‘judging by the photos, you’ve found your feet now, so I’ll try not to fret over all the other months when I thought you were getting on with life—’
