Page 29 of The Little Island Flower Stall
‘It’s just a loaf – don’t worry about it.’
‘That’s very kind of you,’ Dolly said.
Michel boxed up Bella’s order, and she paid for it all. Bidding him goodbye, she and Dolly left the bakery together.
‘Are you off home now?’ Bella asked.
‘I expect so.’
‘Is it far? I mean, will you be all right?’
Dolly gave her a wry smile. ‘I’m sure I will – I do it every day, after all.’
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean that to sound quite as patronising as it did.’
‘That’s all right; I know you didn’t. Are you going back to the stall?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’ll walk that way with you then, say hello to Celestine while I’m at it.’
‘That’d be nice. And I can pump you for information on what a naughty girl Celestine was when she was young so I can use it to bribe her when I need to.’
‘Oh!’ Dolly chuckled. ‘I’m sure I could tell you some stories! What a gang we were back in the day.’
‘Who’s that? Who was in the gang? Only the cool kids, eh?’
Dolly began to shuffle along, and Bella was careful to keep a steady pace for her. ‘I don’t know about that, but we caused our fair share of trouble.’
‘I bet. Were you all around the same age?’
‘Violette and Roland were a couple of years older than Celestine?—’
‘Roland? My great-uncle Roland?’
‘Oh yes, he was sweet on Violette. She wasn’t interested in him though.’
‘But he ended up being married to Celestine.’
Bella considered, for the briefest moment, that her own great-uncle might be the mystery man who’d got Violette pregnant. But from what Dolly was saying, that seemed unlikely. Should she mention it to Rory anyway? The idea made her uneasy – it seemed just a bit too close to home and a bit messed up. Not to mention she wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea of being related to Rory, no matter how distant it might be. Because if they were in any way related, then they could never…
She banished the idea and turned her attention back to unravelling the mess of information she was currently getting from Dolly.
‘Funny how things turn out, isn’t it?’ Dolly continued. ‘Nobody saw Celestine and Roland getting married, but the end of the war changed a lot of things. I was a few years younger than your aunt. I hated that – they used to take me along on their jaunts, but they always seemed annoyed about it.’
‘That’s kids for you, I suppose. Who else used to hang out with you?’
‘Violette’s sister sometimes came along. She was between Violette and Celestine in age. She died just after the war, scarlet fever I think it was – I forget now.’ Dolly shook her head. ‘They had some terrible times in that family.’
‘I suppose you all did during the war.’
‘I hardly think of it these days.’
Bella nodded slowly, her mind going back to the crumbs of information she had about Celestine’s life during the wartime occupation of the island. It didn’t seem like nearly enough. She’d often wondered about it as a girl, but the longer she spent in Celestine’s company here, the more she wanted to hear about it. In some ways, she felt it would help her understand how Celestine had become the amazing woman she was. ‘Were you scared?’
‘I was so young when they arrived I don’t remember it so well now.’
‘How old were you?’
