Chapter 24 #2
Sophie’s breath was a small sigh. Of relief. Or maybe it was the feeling that a tiny piece of the puzzle of her life had been found and slotted into the place to fill a significant gap.
She wanted to say something as beautiful as Luc had said but while her heart was far too full, her head felt empty.
‘I had to come and find you,’ was all she could find to say. ‘So I could tell you that I love you. I think I always have. I know I always will.’
The look on Luc’s face as he closed the distance between them suggested that he was as moved by her words as she had been by his.
That was how it felt, too, when his lips touched hers in a kiss that was so heartbreakingly tender she had to pull away before it made her cry.
For a long, long moment they simply stared into each other’s eyes.
Drinking in the love. Soaking in a new trust that nothing would ever need to be hidden between them again.
Believing in a future that they would be able to share.
They had found their way back to each other and that was exactly where they needed to be.
They had forever to play with now.
Sophie finally managed to tear her gaze away from Luc but she put her hand in his to keep the contact.
‘Show me?’ she asked.
‘What would you like to see?’
‘Everything. The house. The project you’ve been working on.’
‘Are you sure? It’s getting late. I could take you back to my hotel.’
Sophie smiled. To be alone with Luc in a room with a bed was where she wanted to be more than anywhere else. She knew that their time together tonight would be even more intense than the emotional connection they’d found in Luc’s apartment in Draguignan.
But she needed just a little more time. Because there was something worth waiting for that might make this night even more memorable for both of them. Sophie was very aware of the shape and weight of the phone she was carrying in her pocket. She couldn’t switch off the rest of the world quite yet.
‘Soon. But I’m standing at the beginning of your dream coming true. Will you take me inside and let me share it?’
Luc was holding her gaze again with a look that Sophie thought she might well drown in and she had no desire to try and save herself.
His grip on her hand tightened. ‘Let me show you the fireplace I’m restoring.’
The glow of the restored fire surround was a dramatic contrast to the dusty, faded floorboards of this huge room. She traced the carved pattern of the ivy leaves and ran her fingers over the soft gleam of the cast iron as Luc quietly shared his vision for this space in the house.
‘I want this to be the room that the kids will want to be in. To find friendships that will stay with them for life. To celebrate any milestones that are taking them into a better future. To know that they can come in here and find the support they need when things aren’t going so well.
I want them to know that it’s home, if that’s what they need. That they have a family.’
Sophie looked up to catch Luc’s gaze. ‘The gift of family,’ she whispered. ‘Tom’s legacy.’
‘Come with me. I’ll show you upstairs. Where all the bedrooms are going to be.’
Sophie took one last glance at the result of so many hours’ work by Luc. She touched a fingertip to one of the pretty ceramic tiles.
‘These are gorgeous.’
‘That would be the delphiniums,’ Luc said. ‘Have I ever told you how much I love that particular shade of blue?’
* * *
Luc led Sophie towards the door to get to the main staircase.
‘Did you leave Hannah in France?’ he asked.
‘No, she came back on the same flight as me. Right now, she’s talking to her father.
Telling him the truth. Tomorrow, she’s going to make a public statement to exonerate you.
I’m not sure how but when she helped me find someone who deserved to have the wedding dress I was never going to use, she started on social media and then got on the radio and into newspapers.
She might well be able to change what’s happening. ’
Sophie hadn’t missed the astonished expression on his face.
‘She wants to make up for not believing you,’ she told him. ‘For taking your family away from you when you needed them the most. I think she wants to give that back but she’s afraid that you won’t want to accept the gift.’
The gift…
‘Don’t move,’ he ordered. ‘I’ll be right back.’
His leather jacket was in the corner of the room they’d just left, where he’d shrugged it off before starting the messy work on the fireplace. Luc found what he was looking for in one of the pockets.
Sophie was sitting on the stairs when he got back. She put her phone back in her pocket fast enough for Luc to wonder what she’d been looking at. She seemed glad of an easy distraction, too.
‘What’s that?’
‘Something for you.’ He held out the small box. ‘I had a visit from Natalia and Henri this morning when they came to collect their album.’
‘Did they love it?’
‘They did. They also wanted to give me a message for you. They said they’ve known you long enough to know you’re not the person that Raven Vale thinks you are and they send their best wishes. They know what it’s like to live with scandal.’
‘They do.’ Sophie was opening the box. She gasped.
‘They found it a few days ago. It caught the sun and it was so bright they had to go and see what was caught between the rocks. They had the broken chain repaired.’
Sophie was staring at the diamond heart on the tiny velvet cushion.
‘It was Tom’s gift for you,’ he said. ‘He asked me what I thought and I told him that if I was going to give you something to symbolise how much I loved you, then this is what it would be.’
The blue of Sophie’s eyes was even brighter with the tears that were gathering. Her fingers were shaking as she took the chain of the necklace in her hands.
‘Can I do that for you?’
‘Please…’ Sophie handed Luc the necklace and gathered the curls of her hair into her hand to lift them out of the way.
‘Natalia said something else,’ he told her as he draped the chain around her neck. ‘She said you can’t go back to change things in the past and you can’t see what the future holds, so it’s the present time that matters.’ He fastened the clasp. ‘You need to embrace every moment of joy you find.’
Sophie’s fingers were on the diamond heart but her eyes were on Luc.
‘You bring me joy,’ she whispered. ‘I love you.’
Luc opened his mouth to echo her words but they evaporated as the door opened in front of them.
Hannah Baxter was there. A glance at Sophie told him that she’d known this was coming. That this was why she’d been sitting on the stairs, watching her phone.
Hannah wasn’t alone. Her father was beside her and Luc was a little shocked at how much Martin Baxter had aged in the last ten years.
His hair was almost white and there were deep lines in his face.
The warmth in his smile hadn’t changed however, although it was understandably tentative at the moment.
There was a palpable plea in their presence. A need for something only Luc could give them. He felt Sophie’s hand slip into the curl of his and suddenly it was easy to know what to do. How to take the first step into his new future. That anything was possible with Sophie by his side.
He smiled at these people – the closest thing to a real family he could have ever wished for.
‘Hi,’ he said, simply, not letting go of Sophie’s hand as he got to his feet. ‘I’m so glad you’re here.’