Chapter 26
MARGOT
Margot was in her compact Toyota Aygo driving from London down to Dorset.
She’d finished five days on and had three days off, and she couldn’t wait to get to Driftwick Bay and see Faye and Bonnie, her girls as she thought of them, even though they were all from a different generation.
They were true friends, just like Trinny and Bethany had once been.
She was in touch with Trinny and had visited her already, and she had plans in the summer to catch up with Bethany.
She hadn’t told either of them the details of her marriage, the reasons why she left Perry, but perhaps she didn’t need to.
Perhaps they already knew. And like true friends they might not have been in touch for a long while but they’d always been there waiting, in the background.
She hadn’t got the cabin crew job she’d first applied for and she’d almost talked herself out of applying for more positions.
She’d wondered whether she was doing something silly, whether she thought she was better than she actually was, but Bonnie and Faye, as well as her sons, had urged her to keep on trying.
She’d got another interview elsewhere, she hadn’t got that position either, and then an interview with a third airline came up and it was that company who had offered her a job.
She had officially been cabin crew for the last three months.
So far Margot had sent her boys postcards from Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Rome, Chicago, Tokyo.
And she planned to send them many more. At some point she’d take holidays to see cities and countries in more detail but with money tight right now she’d have to make do with seeing the world via work.
She was getting quite the collection of photos on her phone too and soon she’d have them put into those wonderful photo books like Bonnie and Howard had done, and add to her collection for as long as she could.
She parked outside her little cottage, the same cottage she’d stayed in when she first left Berkshire.
She’d been back to the house to collect more belongings rather than just what she’d put in the storage unit.
Perry, cold during their marriage, had been the same since she’d seen him that day when he turned up in the bay, and although Margot wasn’t afraid of him it was better that she didn’t go to the house on her own.
Faye’s dad had gone with her just in case, but there had been no sign of Perry and so she’d taken what she wanted and left as quickly as she could.
Perry was in touch with his sons now and then.
Both said any contact was strained, but it was down to Perry to keep a relationship with them both.
It wasn’t something he was entitled to any more.
They were adults and if he treated them the way he had for years, he might well lose them. But that was out of her control.
The cottage was warm with spring upon them.
When Margot had been house hunting last October, she’d enquired with the owner of the holiday cottage about renting it for a while longer.
In fact, she’d asked for a few months and the owner had agreed on twelve, which suited Margot perfectly.
Once she started work she’d been able to give the boys some of their money back and now that the divorce was going through it wouldn’t be long before she could pay them back fully and find her own place to buy and put down roots.
It was a glorious evening, the sun was shining and after a thank-you text came in from Sebastian for her latest postcard and she took a quick call from Alistair, thanking her for the same, she knocked on Bonnie’s door.
The wisteria was in full bloom, great plumes of fragrant purple flowers bordering the front door.
The planters at the front had yellow tulips in them, adding a further pop of colour from the bulbs she’d planted last year.
She could already hear laughter coming from the back garden. It was the sound of a happy home. And one that the Midnight Book Club had guided her towards.