Page 34 of The Little Island Flower Stall
‘You know, the war tunnels. I think it’s in St Lawrence. It’s in some of the tunnels they dug during the war.’
‘Hmm…’ Celestine sipped at her tea. ‘You’re very interested in the war all of a sudden.’
‘It’s a big part of the island’s history, isn’t it? It’s hard to ignore really, and I’ve become more interested since I got here. It’s hard to understand what went on, but I think it’s important people try to understand, don’t you?’
‘I suppose so.’ Celestine was silent as she sipped once more at her tea. ‘It was such a long time ago,’ she continued. ‘I know what you say is true, but sometimes I wonder if it’s better left in the past.’
‘I’m sure you must feel that way because you lived through it. Must be painful to remember?’
‘Yes, sometimes. But don’t let that stop you from going to your museum. What time are you thinking?’
‘I thought I’d finish breakfast, tidy round a bit and then head off.’
‘Don’t mind this place – go whenever you’re ready. I can tidy up.’
‘No, I’ll do it. It’s the least I can do in return for staying here rent free.’
Celestine put down her cup and smiled. ‘If you really want to. Thank you.’
‘I should be the one thanking you. I’m having a lovely time so far.’
Celestine raised her eyebrows playfully. ‘Even though you’re working?’
‘Especially the working. I’m really enjoying learning everything about flowers.’
‘You might not be saying that next week. We have all those arrangements to do for the Liberation Day celebrations, remember? It’s going to be busy – we might even have to work over a few evenings to get them finished. Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come over to help me. I’m sure I would have been at work morning, noon and night. It would probably have finished me off.’
‘Don’t say that.’
‘I’m an old lady, even if I try to pretend I’m not. Who knows how long I’ve got…’ Celestine chuckled softly. ‘Still, I’d rather not fall off my perch from exhaustion with my face in a bucket of carnations.’
‘I’m looking forward to the celebrations. I haven’t seen them since…I think I was about nine or ten. We didn’t stay with you that time; we were at a hotel. Not sure why, now I come to think of it.’
‘I expect your uncle Roland was ill. He was ill a lot later on. His heart, you know. He never looked after himself, and he didn’t make it easy for me to look after him either.’
‘Do you still miss him?’
Celestine looked up at Bella, and her next words took her by surprise, even though she’d half suspected it to be the case. ‘Not really. I miss having company, but…’ She let out a sigh and shook her head slowly. ‘That sounds terrible, doesn’t it? I’m sorry for saying so, but he wasn’t easy to live with at the end. He wasn’t that easy to live with in the beginning either. When I look back, I often wonder what drew us together.’
‘But you loved him?’
‘Yes. At least, I think so. But I never had another man, so…’
Celestine’s gaze went to the window. Bella wanted to ask more, but she got the feeling the conversation was over – at least for now. Her thoughts went to what she’d been told by Dolly. Celestine, Roland, Violette and her sister Anais, and Dolly had all been friends way back in their teenage days. And then it had ended – suddenly and with bad feelings, from what she could gather, a fallout between Celestine and Violette that had broken up the entire group. That fact alone made it even stranger that Celestine and Roland had ended up together. Could it be that Dolly’s recollections weren’t entirely accurate? Otherwise it was hard to understand why Celestine would have ended up marrying Roland.
Bella drained her cup and got up. ‘I think I’ll have a bath before I eat; I’m not hungry just yet.’
Celestine’s reply followed Bella as she left the room. ‘Make sure you eat something before you go out. Don’t want you getting faint later!’
The bus to St Lawrence was busier than she’d expected, and Bella had spent the ride crammed into her seat next to a very tall man whose legs seemed to be wherever she wanted to put hers at all times. It was hot and sticky on there, even with a window open, and every time the man coughed without covering his mouth, Bella imagined a new disease she might have just caught.
The journey had started serenely enough, and the man hadn’t bothered her at all, but then she’d been foolish. She’d done the thing she ought to have saved for that evening when she’d arrived back at Villa Rosa. She’d opened her inbox to check her emails.
There, at the top of the list, was an email from Sean, basically laying out what he saw as the terms of their divorce – none of them giving her an inch. She hadn’t wanted to profit from this,only to escape with what she felt she was due, but Sean was making it clear he intended to leave her with nothing. All the years she’d set aside her own career, her own path to support his, just as he’d asked – she realised now it had never been about anything but power. He hadn’t wanted to care for her out of some endearing if outdated sense of chivalry; he’d only sought the control that her lack of independence would give him. It felt like now, when she was at her lowest, when she needed that money the most, she was going to pay a heavy price for letting him get away with it for so long. How could she have been so stupid?
She’d fight, of course. She might even have a decent chance of winning, but it wasn’t a fight she’d been looking to have. She’d only wanted to slip quietly out of his life, for them both to move on and put the last fifteen years behind them. She wasn’t even angry about his infidelities now – to be angry with him at this point was like being angry at a pigeon for crapping on a pavement as it flew overhead; the pigeon couldn’t help crapping on the pavement because it was a pigeon. And Sean couldn’t help wanting to sleep with every woman who walked by because he was Sean. It had taken too long to understand that, but she understood it well enough now. She only wanted to leave with some of her dignity intact, however little that might be, and with some chance at a new start. But it seemed Sean had other ideas. He wanted to pulverise her to nothing, to destroy any dignity or agency she might still have, to smash any fond memories she might be holding on to from the last fifteen years of marriage before he let her go.
Fine. Bella hadn’t been looking for a fight, but if Sean wanted one, he’d get one. Since her arrival in Jersey, she’d been too busy – and frankly too happy – to instruct a solicitor. Perhaps it had been a case of sticking her head in the sand, but the first thingshe was going to do when she got back to Villa Rosa was to find one.
