Chapter Forty-Five
Saskia
“Thanks for coming back,” Leo said as he let her in.
It had been one hell of a day. What had started as an easy drive through the Cornish countryside had eventually descended into motorway tailback hell, despite it being a Sunday.
Saskia had contemplated giving up several times and finding a cheap hotel in which to spend the night, but the knowledge that her family needed her kept her going.
Even through bouts of road rage (“Why do you NEED to hog the middle lane anyway?” she had shouted at one point), anxiety and distress at leaving Kivi, she had gritted her teeth and kept her feet on the pedals.
Every fibre of her wanted to come off the motorway, swing the car around and head straight back for Cornwall.
But she would have had to leave at some point anyway.
She still had her life up in Derbyshire to sort out.
A landlord to sever ties with, belongings to clear out or pack up, family to appease…
But not tonight. None of that tonight. Leo looked exhausted, and she grabbed him into a rough hug.
“All good,” she said, the two words completely inadequate for how she felt. “Where is she?”
“In bed,” he said, leading the way. “With Gilly.”
“Ooh la-la,” she murmured at the insinuation, but he didn’t pick up on it. “And how is she?”
“She’s okay. Bruised, but okay. You’ll see.”
They got to the top of the stairs. Lydia and Gilly had lived in this house for such a short time that Saskia hadn’t actually been upstairs yet.
The doors to the bathroom and second bedroom were shut, but the master bedroom door was ajar.
Soft voices could be heard coming from it, and Leo headed for it, knocking once before opening it up.
“Look what the tide washed in,” he said, and stepped forward so that Saskia could enter the room behind him.
Lydia was laying on the bed in her nightdress, a far cry from her usual glamorous, dolled-up self. Her arms and legs were covered in bruises, and she wore no make-up. But her face lit up when she saw Saskia – just for a second, before she covered her mouth and let out a soft sob.
“My baby,” she said, as tears began to fall from her eyes.
Gilly, smiling, vacated her spot beside Lydia on the bed so that Saskia could replace her.
In an instant, Lydia pulled her in for a tight hug, a total opposite to the awkward, aloof woman who’d raised them growing up.
Saskia hugged her back carefully, scared of hurting or damaging her, and she felt Gilly place a supportive hand on her back.
“It’s more accurate to say ‘what the cat dragged in’,” Saskia said after a moment, extricating herself from the hug and running a hand through the bird’s nest she was sure adorned the top of her head. “I look a fright.”
“I don’t care,” Lydia said, pulling her back in to smooch the top of her head. “But – my God, what are you doing here? I thought you were in deepest bloody Cornwall!”
“I was,” Saskia said. “But Leo called me and-”
“He called? I told him not to!”
“And I had to see you, Mum! As if I was going to let you suffer alone.”
“But I’m not alone! I have Leo, and Gilly, and I knew you were coming back next week anyway, so I told him-”
“Lyds,” Gilly interrupted, now putting a hand on Lydia’s shoulder. “Don’t get worked up. We can hardly send Saskia back down to Cornwall now, can we?”
“I know,” Lydia said, and gritted her teeth. “I just feel bad that she changed her plans for me.”
“You’re worth it,” Saskia said, surprising herself as well as the rest of them. Now Lydia’s gaze zeroed in on her daughter.
“You’re different,” she observed. “Cornwall has changed you. The old you would never have said something like that. Did you meet someone out there? Someone who’s changed you?”
Trust her mum to see right through her. Saskia’s heart lurched – this wasn’t how she’d planned to come out. But her mum had asked, and Leo and Gilly were there, and the moment somehow felt right…
“I did,” she said, and swallowed hard. “A woman. Her name is Kiera – Kivi – and I’m in love with her.”
There was a moment of silence, in which Lydia’s eyebrows almost met her hairline. But then she dropped them, looked away for a moment, and licked her lips.
“Well, welcome to the Sapphic side.” She chuckled. “Tell us all about her, Saskia.” She patted the sheets, then looked up at Leo and Gilly. They joined them on the bed, all looking at Saskia as if she were about to read them a bedtime story, and she laughed.
“Okay. Well, she owns the guest house where I stayed, and she has this dork of a dog called Toto…”
By the time she finished the story of how they came to fall in love while planning Cass and Felicia’s wedding, Lydia was looking tired. But the smile remained on her face, and grew even wider as Saskia concluded.
“That’s a lovely story,” she said. “Kivi sounds wonderful.”
“But you’ve only been together for a couple of weeks?” Gilly said, sounding worried.
“Yeah,” Saskia said, and bit her lip. “I know it’s odd. To know that you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, having only been with them for such a short time. But… it works. Somehow. I don’t know how to explain it. But we work. And we will work.”
“Oh, that’s not what I was saying,” Gilly said. “I’m more concerned that this situation has wrenched you apart, in such a crucial early stage of your relationship.”
“That’s true,” Lydia said. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Saskia.”
“It’s not your fault!” Saskia protested, shooting a faint glare at Gilly for bringing the mood down. “It feels like we’ve been together for longer. Almost since I first got there, in fact.”
“That’s still only a month or so,” Lydia said, nodding in rueful agreement with her fiancée. “I think you should go back.”
“What?” Saskia exclaimed, as Leo protested, “Today?”
“Not today,” Lydia said. “But soon. Tomorrow, even. Don’t let her get away, Saskia. Once you’ve felt the love of a good person, don’t let them go.”
“But when I go back to her, I want to go back as a whole,” Saskia said.
“I want to go back to her with my life tied up in a neat, portable parcel. Rather than scattered everywhere, meaning that I have to leave her again. I want to go back forever, Mum. And if I leave Cornwall again, I want her to be with me.”
They all fell quiet as they digested Saskia’s point. Then Lydia shrugged, and winced as she clearly pulled on an aching muscle or something like that.
“Then I think you should crack on with it,” she said.
“Now you’re back. Not that I’m trying to get rid of you – I just don’t want you to sacrifice your shot at true love.
I did…” She looked over at Gilly with a sad smile.
“…and it was pure luck and guts that brought her back to me.” Now she looked back at Saskia, and her gaze nearly skewered her. “Don’t let that be you and Kivi.”
“But… I’ll be moving three-hundred miles away. Doesn’t that… upset you?”
“Of course it does,” Lydia said, and pursed her lips.
“But part of being a mother is accepting that your children will eventually have their own lives. And the wonder of living in the times we do is that we have a wealth of technology at our disposal. I mean, sure, they haven’t invented teleportation yet, but that’s where transport comes in. ”
“We’ll come to see you, and you can come to see us,” Leo said. “Especially since your girlfriend has got a B&B, and all.”
“And there will always be a spare room for you here,” Gilly said. “If, for whatever reason, it doesn’t work out.”
“Your career is portable,” Lydia pointed out. “You’re young, healthy and fit. You have disposable income at your fingertips. Why should we stop you?”
“This isn’t the response I expected to get from you, Mum,” Saskia said. “Leo said that you… that your mental health has taken a beating, shall we say? With this accident? And that you were missing me.”
“Of course I was,” Lydia said. “But I was in shock. It’s only today that I’ve started feeling like myself again. Leo shouldn’t have called you home – but all the same, I’m very glad he did.”
“So am I,” Saskia admitted. It was true. She was missing Kivi like a limb, but now she could finally put her plans into action and start setting up the future. She felt a smile spread across her face at the thought of love, and stability, and-
Lydia shifted in bed, and made a faint groan. Saskia realised that she was still pretty bashed up, despite her attempts to pretend otherwise.
“Okay, as lovely as this is, I think it’s time for you to get some rest, Lyds,” Gilly said. “Saskia, are you staying the night?”
“I wasn’t going to,” Saskia said.
“Oh, do,” Lydia said. “Both of you, kiddos. All of my family in one house for the night. That will make me feel better.”
“Guilt-tripper,” Saskia muttered, but with a smile. She shrugged at her brother. “You in?”
“Yaaaaay,” he droned, dead-pan. “Sharing a bed with my baby sis.”
“Baby sis, my arse,” she said, giving him a playful thwap. “Baby by four whole minutes.”
“Still younger.”
“Am not.”
“You are!”
“Children,” Lydia interrupted, but she was chuckling. “Get your backsides into the spare room and go to sleep. And then you can share some of the finer details about Kivi with us in the morning, Saskia.”
“Like how she is in bed,” Leo said, his eyes glittering mischievously. “It’s a revelation, isn’t it? Having sex with someone of the same gender?”
“Oh, Leo.”
“No more!”
“La-la-la, not listening!”
Thwap!