Epilogue
If you were truly lucky, dreams could come true, and this time it was undoubtedly Jeannie Gilchrist’s turn to be the lucky one.
It was Christmas Eve. She was back in France and her whole family was together.
A family that was getting steadily bigger.
Theo Rousseau was four years old now, a serious little boy most of the time but, right now, he was making his cousin Lili laugh out loud as he made tiny puppets on the end of his fingers pop up from behind the arm of a chair. And wasn’t the sound of a baby’s laughter the best sound in the whole world?
Lilou Elise Dufour was nearly eight months old and she was, of course, the most beautiful baby in the world. She had her mother’s golden-red curls that were a soft cloud around her head but she had her aunty Ellie’s quick smile and the sheer joie de vivre that she had reclaimed. Or did that attitude to life, for Lili, come from her papa?
Jeannie wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen a happier man than Noah Dufour. Or a more charming one, come to that. And, oh my … the way he looked at Laura sometimes made her own heart skip a beat. No wonder Laura had melted into a version of herself that Jeannie had always dreamed her oldest daughter could become.
She’d known love like that herself, long ago, and any sadness that it had been lost was being washed away by tears of joy that it was happening for her girls. First Ellie and now Laura. There was just Fiona who was without a partner in life now, but at least she wasn’t going to be alone for Christmas this year, having finally come, with Jeannie, to visit her sisters.
There was a burst of laughter from the kitchen of this wonderful house in Vence that was Lili’s home. She might have been born in a snowstorm in Scotland, but who could blame her parents for wanting to raise her in the soft sunshine of the South of France? Preparations for the Christmas Eve feast were well under way and both Julien’s mother and grandmother were in the kitchen supervising the cooking, with Laura and Ellie helping. Noah and Julien had gone down to the cellar some time ago to fetch the wine to accompany each course of the fabulous dinner to come, but they’d been gone so long Jeannie suspected they might be tasting them all to be sure of their choices.
Fiona was still missing as well, having gone on some mysterious mission that she’d told Jeannie wouldn’t take long.
It was Ellie who appeared first from the kitchen, wiping her hands on an apron that barely covered the bump of her advancing pregnancy. There was a family joke that Ellie had fallen pregnant at the same time Laura had been giving birth to Lili, but below any teasing was a strong current of joy. All the stronger, in fact, because of what had been overcome to get to this wonderful new phase of her life.
The front door of the villa opened at almost the same moment and Fiona came in, her cheeks pink from the cool winter afternoon.
‘Where on earth have you been?’ Ellie asked.
‘Someone had to go and give the donkeys their Christmas Eve carrots,’ Fiona said. ‘And I took them some ginger biscuits, too. They love me the best now.’ She put a bunch of keys down on a side table. ‘Margot’s really cool to drive,’ she said. ‘Thanks for letting me use her while I’m here. I can see why you don’t want to get rid of her, even though she’s a totally unsuitable car for someone with a baby.’
Jeannie loved the little red 2CV car as much as everyone else. Maybe she’d be brave enough to try driving it herself on this visit.
‘She’s part of the family.’ Ellie was heading towards her sister, clearly intent on giving her a hug. ‘Just like you are.’
Laura came into the room from the kitchen as Lili let out another shout of laughter. She held up her arms with a squeal of glee as soon as she saw her mother, and Laura was scooping her daughter into her arms as Noah and Julien appeared through another door. Noah put down the bottles of wine he was carrying and went straight to Laura and Lili. He made them both laugh as he wrapped his arms around his family and danced a few steps to the Christmas music playing in the background. Jeannie reached for the tissue tucked into the sleeve of her cardigan as she saw the way Laura and Noah were looking at each other as they danced. She could feel the love between them.
From the corner of her eye as she dabbed it with a tissue, Jeannie saw the way Fiona had slipped out of the briefest of hugs from Ellie. ‘I had a quick look inside La Maisonette, too,’ she heard her say – as if she was trying to change the subject. ‘It’s a bonny wee house, isn’t it? Here’s the key.’ She held out the large, cast-iron key.
‘It’s a spare key,’ Ellie told her. ‘You can keep it, if you like.’
‘Why would I want to do that?’
Ellie caught her mother’s glance and smiled at the almost imperceptible nod Jeannie found herself giving.
‘You never know,’ she told Fiona, ‘you might need it one day.’
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