Chapter Thirty-Five
Juliette and Nico sat in a pew at the front of the church between Emily and Tante Esmé, with Kevin next to Emily and Coral, Andrew and Rachel beside him.
Juliette had her tissues at the ready, but a kind of preternatural calm had settled over her as she waited for Sophie to appear.
Ben was standing at the altar with his best man, Noah, looking suitably nervous, and Véronique was installed in the opposite pew with her siblings.
Esmé Leclerc had called early that morning to say she would be honoured to come to the wedding but might not stay long and didn’t want any fuss.
Juliette had set off immediately to pick her up and was touched to see the old lady wearing what was obviously a dress kept for special occasions and a straw hat trimmed with roses.
She hadn’t wanted to sit with them in the family pew but Juliette had insisted, because where else could she have gone?
She was Mémé’s first child, representing the older generation on that side of the family.
Juliette thought how delighted her mother would have been to have discovered her half-sister; Suzanne had often said she hadn’t liked being an only child, although her father, Jim, had two brothers and a sister so there were always cousins to play with.
Juliette squeezed Emily’s hand, trying to imagine what it must have cost Mémé to part with her daughter. One thing was certain: she would not have done it lightly.
‘I’ve had a peaceful, happy life,’ Esmé had told her in the car, on the way to the church. ‘I don’t feel as though my mother abandoned me. I think she put my needs before her own and you could say that was the ultimate sacrifice.’
‘I’m just so glad we’ve found you,’ Juliette said.
‘I can’t tell you how much it means to know I have family in France, that I’m rooted here.
Paris isn’t so far away – we can visit each other often.
You must come and see the apartment where your mother used to live with her first husband, and the bookshop he ran below. ’
Esmé laughed, the roses trembling on her hat.
‘I don’t know about that,’ she said. ‘It’s nice to know you’re there, though – and you must write me a family tree with names and birthdays, because I’m sure I shall get in a muddle trying to remember them all.
’ A secret smile came over her face, exactly like Ben’s.
‘I’m certainly looking forward to meeting everyone, I must say. ’
‘Well, they can’t wait to meet you,’ Juliette replied. Nico was especially intrigued. Emily said maybe he was looking for another Zizi in his life, but Juliette was touched; here was another thread to bind them together.
Now the organist had begun playing a swirling wedding march and the whole congregation craned around as the church doors opened and Sophie stood on the threshold with her father, dazzling in a beam of sunlight.
Kevin leaned forward to catch Juliette’s eye and she returned his smile.
Their family kaleidoscope had turned, but its pieces had come together in a new pattern that was beautiful in its own way.
She passed her aunt a tissue and blew Ben a kiss, though he only had eyes for his wife walking down the aisle, bringing him all her hopes and dreams as the next chapter of their life began.