Chapter Three
CHAPTER THREE
Ottilie had just showered and changed when Heath arrived at Wordsworth Cottage. After a quick kiss and enquiries about their working days, he opened a tote bag onto the kitchen table, a pile of shiny magazines sliding out.
Ottilie picked up the top one and burst out laughing. ‘ Dream Weddings ? Someone’s keen!’
Heath’s grin was sheepish and he shrugged. ‘One of the girls in the office has just got married. She had these on her desk for the recycling, and I asked if I could have them.’
‘So you can pick out your dress?’
He laughed. ‘Yes. That’s exactly it. But I thought it might give us some ideas.’
Ottilie flicked idly through the magazine. Every page contained dreamy bouquet ideas, evocative photos of magical venues and impossibly romantic dresses. ‘Since when did you care about this kind of thing?’
‘Since I cared that you might care.’
‘Thank you,’ she said, putting the magazine down and tidying the pile. ‘We’ll look at them after we’ve eaten.’
From another bag, he took out a bottle of milk. ‘I called at the shop, just in case you were short. We’ll always use it.’
‘We will when you’re around,’ Ottilie said. ‘I think in a secret life you were an extra in Bugsy Malone .’
Heath laughed lightly. ‘I like milk, what can I say? Geoff told me what he’d said to you about using their place. I told him if you were happy with it, then so was I. He tried to pretend you’d told him what the party was for so I’d slip up, but don’t worry, I was smarter than that.’
Ottilie grinned. ‘Little bugger.’
‘So I think that’s the venue settled?’
‘Then we can talk to him about what date suits them and we can send our invites! I’m properly excited now! It’s lucky they both love you so much.’
Heath put the milk in the fridge. ‘I think it’s you they love. I’m just the carry-on baggage.’
‘No.’ Ottilie prodded him playfully in the chest. ‘Magnus has convinced himself you’re Icelandic. Wishful thinking, I think they call it.’
Heath laughed. ‘Me? I’m sure I’m about as Icelandic as a pineapple!’
‘He said it was the teeth.’
Heath shook his head. ‘In fairness, for all I know I might be, but I doubt it. I’ve never really thought about it before.’
‘About being Icelandic? I don’t suppose that’s everyone’s waking thought.’
‘I’ve never even thought about ancestry. Everyone’s doing those tests in our office. I wasn’t bothered – I’m fairly certain I won’t find anything interesting.’
‘Me neither, apart from some Irish on my dad’s side.’
Heath rolled up his sleeves. ‘Irish? You never said.’
‘We never talked about it before. So you’re quite sure you’re not a bit Icelandic?’
‘You’d have to ask my parents. Ask my gran and she’d tell you I’m half Martian on my mother’s side.’
Ottilie let out a giggle. ‘Your poor mum – Flo really has it in for her.’
‘Gran would have me taking a DNA test just to be sure I’m not.’
‘Fliss said she did one and it was really fascinating – guessed her hair colour and everything. And Lavender was saying her friend found loads of relatives in America and she’s going to visit them. It’s crazy, isn’t it? Imagine saying all this to someone when we were kids – they’d have thought you were mad.’
‘Relatives in America, you say?’ he asked, rubbing his chin and pretending to ponder. ‘Perhaps we ought to do one. That’d be the honeymoon sorted.’
Ottilie turned on the tap to wash her hands. ‘Knowing our luck, we’d have long-lost relatives in some place that was at war. Though I must admit, I’m a bit curious.’
‘I suppose it would be interesting. We’ve got enough on our plates right now, though.’
‘Not really. Now we’ve got Magnus and Geoff on the case, we’ll hardly have to worry about anything as far as the party is concerned. You know what they’re like – they’ll want to get involved in everything. Might as well just hand it all over to them.’
‘As long as they’re not planning to get involved in the wedding, I’m fine with that.’
‘I bet they’d arrange a lovely wedding. They do great parties, after all. You’d have to ask Magnus to be your best man – seeing as you’re almost certainly Icelandic and probably his long-lost cousin.’
Heath grinned. ‘If that’s the case, it might be better if none of us know. Shall I make a start on dinner? What do you fancy?’
‘I’m not massively hungry. Pasta and tomatoes would do me, if you’re happy for something light.’
‘That’s fine with me too. We could go out for a walk later if you like.’
Ottilie nodded and went back to the pile of wedding magazines. She opened one up. The page showed the banquet room of a Highland castle, decked out in lights and white linens.
‘You know…’ Heath’s voice caused her to look up. ‘You can have anything you want.’
‘I don’t want a lot,’ Ottilie said. ‘These magazines are all very well, but they’re dreams, aren’t they? That’s why they’re in magazines – they’re aspirational; they’re not meant for ordinary people.’
‘What I mean to say is, whatever you want, I’ll try to give it to you.’
‘Thank you. I expect we’ll be talking about it a lot over the next few months.’ She was silent for a moment, head turned back to the page. And then she looked up at Heath, who was chopping onions. ‘The only thing I really wish, the thing I can’t have, is my dad, walking me down the aisle. It makes me sad you and him never got to meet.’
‘Yeah. I’m sure I would have liked him.’
‘He’d have loved you.’
‘You think so?’
She nodded.
Heath was silent again, only the sounds of his knife against the chopping board filling the kitchen. Ottilie went back to her magazines.
‘Did he get on well with Josh?’ he asked after a time.
‘They had their moments. He had a lot of respect for Josh; I know that much.’
‘I suppose he would – Josh was a policeman after all.’
‘That wasn’t it,’ Ottilie said. ‘Josh went out of his way to be there whenever anyone needed him, and my dad had a lot of time for someone who did that. It’s why I know he would have liked you because you do that as well.’
‘Not always,’ Heath said. ‘But I’m trying to be better.’ He smiled up at her. ‘You make me want to be better. I suppose all this family stuff has made you think about that?’
‘Yes.’ Ottilie closed the magazine. ‘I think about my dad all the time, obviously, the same way I make certain to keep Josh in my thoughts, but it’s strange – as the years go by, I can’t help but feel I’m losing the memories of him. I have that sense of what sort of a man he was, the way he’d look at a certain point, stories of growing up with him, but…’
‘I get it,’ Heath said. ‘How long has he been gone now?’
‘Ten years…or thereabouts. That’s another thing – you lose track. It makes me feel like a bad daughter, but I can’t help it. Life just gets in the way, doesn’t it? Drags you along with it.’
Heath smiled. ‘Again, I get it. God, sometimes I lose track of what day it is, let alone how many years have passed since a thing happened. And each year just goes by that much quicker…’
‘We sound old, don’t we?’
Heath chuckled. ‘Ancient. I think we’d better go and listen to some rave music or something, just to remind ourselves we’re not quite one foot in the grave yet.’
‘I never listened to rave music when I was young,’ Ottilie said. ‘If the truth be told, I’ve always been boring.’
‘Not boring,’ Heath said. ‘Just quiet. Sensitive…’
‘Dull,’ Ottilie cut in. ‘You can say it; I know what I am.’
‘Whatever you think you are, I like it.’
‘Only like it?’
‘I love it. I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.’
She went to stand behind him and circled an arm around his waist. ‘Me too.’ Ottilie kissed his neck lightly, and then let go and went to the kitchen doorway.
Heath turned to look. ‘Where are you off to now?’
‘To get my notebook. So we can make some plans.’
‘You have notebooks?’
‘You never noticed my notebook obsession?’
He laughed. ‘No. Clearly I haven’t spent enough time here.’
‘Don’t worry,’ she said, blowing him a saucy kiss from the door that made him chuckle, ‘we’ll be putting that right soon enough.’
During a brief lull between patients, Fliss put her head round Ottilie’s office door. ‘I’ve forwarded an email to you,’ she said briskly.
‘Oh, right…anything I need to action urgently?’
‘Nothing work-related – don’t worry. I only thought I’d mention it in case you thought it was spam. It’s a half-price offer from those ancestry people I used. You seemed interested the other day, so I thought you might want to see it. Don’t worry if you’re not bothered – just delete it; I won’t be offended.’
Without waiting for a reply, Fliss disappeared again. Ottilie opened her inbox to see the forwarded email at the top. She opened it up.
She’d never been one of those people obsessed by where they’d come from or who their ancestors might be, but the more she’d discussed it over the past few days, the more curious she was. Perhaps her age had something to do with it too. As she grew older, she thought about her family more and more – people she’d lost, people she’d known only briefly in childhood.
She wondered whether Heath might find it interesting. He’d joked about it being boring, but wouldn’t it be funny if he did find he was a bit Icelandic? With a smile at the thought, Ottilie clicked through to the company’s website and ordered two. They’d do them together. She was looking forward to comparing them, even daring to imagine what it might mean for their children – if it wasn’t too late to think about having them.
No sooner had she submitted her order than there was a knock at the office door.
Lavender put her head round it and grimaced. ‘Sorry…your favourite patient is in and wants to know if you can bump her up the list.’
‘My favourite patient?’
‘Mrs Icke.’
Ottilie pulled a face as she checked her online diary. ‘She’s not due until this afternoon.’
‘You know what she’s like – swears blind you told her this morning.’
‘Her selective deafness strikes again, eh?’
‘You mean her non-existent deafness?’
Ottilie glanced down her list and then nodded. ‘I shouldn’t keep doing this for her, but I suppose I could fit her in quickly if I skip my cuppa.’
‘I’ll make you a cuppa. I’ll make you ten if you get her miserable face out of my reception.’
Ottilie gave a weary smile as Lavender went to get the old lady. On the bright side, at least that was one less patient to see later.