Epilogue
‘Did we really get through this many towels?’
Rose has sent Adriana and Christos out for a walk, while she and Beata are left in the villa tackling the mound of housekeeping left behind after the week.
‘How come towels weigh so much?’ asks Rose, hefting another folded pile into the big laundry hampers they send out to be washed.
She’s taken the sheets off all the guests’ beds, removed the towels from the bathrooms, and is counting it all off Beata’s housekeeping master list.
‘It’s these white towels – they sing to people. “Use me!”’ says Beata. ‘Also, women’s work is never done,’ she jokes, walking past with the trolley of fresh laundry.
‘True,’ mutters Rose.
She’s counted it all out perfectly: two hampers, one for towels and one for sheets, duvet covers and pillowcases.
Normally, she and Adriana would have worked together on this last day of their first retreat. But Adriana needs a rest.
‘You do too,’ her little sister had protested. ‘You’ve been working with the guests all week.’
But Rose had insisted. ‘That’s all emotional stuff,’ Rose says, ‘mental work. Ripping sheets off beds is physical and it’ll be a welcome change.’
She’s done three bedrooms and has just gone into the private part of the house to get some water when she hears the villa phone buzzing and races to intercept it.
‘Hello, Villa Artemis,’ Rose says, aware that she’s out of breath.
‘I’m enquiring about the retreat,’ says a woman’s voice. ‘I’d totally missed the posts on socials about it. I love Ms Talisman. Do you think there’s going to be another one?’
Rose blinks. Wonderful but awkward. Not so cool if guests think she’s there always and answers the phone herself.
It’s much more niche for them to imagine that Rose Talisman drifts in for special weeks but that she never answers the phone.
Or pulls sheets from beds.
‘There might be,’ says Rose, hurriedly trying to channel Grazia’s accent. ‘Can you leaf me your contact details and we vill be back to you.’
After a few minutes, she races up to Beata.
‘Tentative booking!’ she says. ‘Another retreat! I said we have another retreat this month but it was full. Total lie.’
Beata laughs.
‘The woman said if there was another one, she and her mother would be thrilled. They’ll pay anything.’
‘Fantastic!’ says Beata.
‘We can’t overcharge,’ says Rose instantly. ‘It would be wrong but still. Isn’t that great? I can’t wait to tell Adriana and Christos.’
‘You’re planning another retreat,’ says a man’s voice. ‘I would like to register interest.’
Rose catches her breath.
That voice – it can’t be.
She doesn’t want to appear in front of him.
He last saw her five years ago, when she was younger and looked younger too. Now she’s got silver hair and all the stuff she teaches people about accepting yourself seems feeble when the man she loved is standing just feet away—
‘Are you hiding?’
He’s just outside the housekeeping cupboard which is stuffed with spare pillows, toilet paper and towels.
‘Yes. No,’ she says, leaning against the cupboard wall. ‘I’m not sure I can take you on,’ she says.
She hears him approach and yells, ‘You can’t come in here!’
She’s got a lip balm in her pocket. Which is not ideal but it’s better than nothing. Rose smooths her hair and then applies lip balm. She wishes there was a mirror in here but such a thing is not required in a housekeeping cupboard.
‘Why can’t I come in?’ asks the voice.
‘This is a private office.’
Where the hell is Beata? She needs help to get rid of him now and then she can appear when she’s got lipstick on, a better dress, with her hair fixed …
But why?
If he has come all this way, then it’s because of her. He will have to accept who she is now.
Biting her lip, Rose takes up the housekeeping master list and holds it as a shield. Then she stands tall and makes her way majestically out of the housekeeping cupboard.
In front of her is Theo, slightly older but still beautiful.
‘Oh Rose,’ he says softly and he reaches out for her.
Rose clutches the list to her chest and retreats.
‘I’m working,’ she says.
He nods. ‘I totally understand if you want me to go,’ he says earnestly. ‘But I regretted that night so much – I should never have said those things. I pushed you away.’
Rose says nothing.
All week she’s talked about how people need to know their truth and say what is important to them. Now Theo is here, she has so many things she needs to get off her chest and she is saying nothing.
‘When the show went, I looked for you,’ he says. ‘I pestered your agent but she said she knew nothing. I didn’t know how you could just disappear but you did and then …’ His face looks animated. ‘Three days ago, someone mentioned this retreat. That you were back. I got here as fast as I could.’
‘I need a kingsize duvet—’ begins Beata, rounding the corner. ‘Or maybe I don’t.’ She looks at Rose. ‘Do you know this guy?’
‘Yes,’ says Rose.
‘I messed it up,’ says Theo sadly. ‘Am I too late, Rose? If I could just stay for a few days and we could talk? I met Adriana and Christos in the village,’ he’s saying.
Rose is clutching the housekeeping master list close to her chest.
‘They’re lovely people. They were both pleased that I wanted to register my interest. Adriana says I could probably partner with you on the retreat but “Only if she lets you,” as your sister says.’
Beata is looking from Rose to Theo.
‘OK,’ she says finally. ‘I get it. I’m vamoosing,’ and she leaves, snatching the housekeeping list out of Rose’s grasp.
Rose pulls herself together.
She’s Rose Talisman.
Self-made woman. A healer.
‘Your interest in what?’ she says, drawing herself up majestically so that she looks as beautiful as she knows how to be.
‘You,’ says Theo softly.
‘You don’t really know me at all,’ says Rose sadly.
But this time, Theo smiles. ‘I went to Wales,’ he says. ‘It took a lot of digging but I found you and Adriana. You’ve been so brave. You deserved so much more than I gave you.’
Rose’s breath stills.
‘I’m an idiot, Rose. I hurt you. Your agent told me about the email you sent to the producers before the shooting. I understand so much more now …’
Rose’s eyes are taking in all the little details about him. The changes that age have brought. He’s still Theo but he’s older and certainly wiser.
‘I’m not sure I believe in second chances,’ she says now. ‘So much time has elapsed.’
‘Can I stay for a few days?’ Theo asks.
Rose tests the feelings inside. Her instincts are finely honed. Earned from a life not without difficulty.
She feels calm. In Theo’s presence, standing in the corridor outside the housekeeping cupboard, she still feels like herself.
The true version of herself who’s about to give herself another chance with Theo.
‘We start on Monday on the beach,’ she says. ‘You will need to collect a pebble.’
‘I’ll collect a whole beachful,’ he says eagerly.
‘Now I’m making beds. We all work in the villa,’ Rose adds.
‘Tell me what to do,’ says Theo obediently.
‘You really mean it,’ she says in wonderment.
Theo nods and then slowly, very slowly, he moves forward until he’s beside her and his lips meet hers.
‘You have no idea how much I’ve missed you, Rose,’ he says.