It’s lovely having a full house again. I hadn’t realised how much I‘d missed having Sophie, Alistair and the girls about he place, although I was a bit surprised when Sophie rang to ask if they could all come over for a couple of weeks. She’s been so busy recently arranging Martin’s loan and even seeing some of his clients, all this as well as everything her own job entails. I didn’t think that she would have time for a holiday yet. But I’m glad she did and the Spanish air seems to be agreeing with her. I’m thrilled that she is looking so much more relaxed than the last time she was here.
They’ve taken the girls over to Liam and Cassy’s farm today and with Martin out playing a few holes of golf I’m making the most of having an empty kitchen and getting some baking done.
Martin is talking about getting back to work soon. I’m not sure if it’s such a good idea for him to be back in London on his own all week again, especially with his track record. He swears to me that it is all over between him and Laura and I believe him, after all what would she want from him now that she knows there’s no chance of getting her grubby little hands on the villa.
No the trouble isn’t Laura; the trouble is that nothing else has changed over there. He would still be working long hours then going home to an empty flat. I can’t help wondering how long it’d be before he found someone else to share his bed.
Am I being mean? Maybe he really does believe it when he tells me that he’s changed. The problem is that I’ve heard it all before, sorry Fliss, I was stupid Fliss, it won’t happen again Fliss. How do I know that this time will be any different and I suppose the question is do I really care?
There I’ve said it – I don’t know if I care anymore – so what if he finds someone else, its not as if the world will end if find myself a divorcee at fifty two.
‘Something smells good Mum, Olivia, Grace come quickly, Grandma has been making pies’ says Sophie as she walks into the kitchen.
‘I must have been miles away, I didn’t realise it was so late. Hello my little darlings, did you have a nice time at the farm?’
‘Oh Grandma’ says Grace ‘the lady goat has had babies and they were drinking milk from their Mummy’s bottom.’
‘No Grace it wasn’t her bottom it was her udder’ explains Olivia very seriously to her little sister. Poor Grace looks shocked and hides her face behind her hands and dissolves into a fit of giggles.
‘Well I think that’s enough biology for one day, come on you two let’s leave Grandma in peace. Who fancies a dip in the pool?’ Alistair says as he shoos the girls out of the kitchen.
‘It sounds like you had a good day’ I say to Sophie who has started to help clear way the baking dishes.
‘It was lovely Mum. Liam and Cassy are so happy and even the baby seems to be thriving on all the fresh air and sunshine.’
‘If I didn’t know better I’d think you were jealous’ Sophie is smiling, her face glowing from a day in the sunshine, her eyes sparkle as she says
‘Mum, how would you feel about us moving out here to Spain?’
‘Sophie darling that would be wonderful, but what about your jobs and your house in London, what about the girls’ schools.’
‘Alistair and I have been doing a lot of soul searching since the last time we were here. All we seem to do is work and sleep. We never have time for each other and precious little time for the girls. You were right Mum, they are growing quickly and we’re missing so much of it.’
‘So why here, why Spain? I thought that you wanted a house in Italy so that you could be close to your friends.’
I suppose it was seeing how happy Liam and Cassy are. They have such dreams Mum. So many ideas about their future, the only thing holding them back is the lack of money.’
‘And how does that affect you?’ I ask
‘A partnership, that’s what we were talking about today. We’ve put a proposition to them, if they would sell us their bottom field, you know, the one buy the river? We could build our own house there.’
‘Oh Darling how exciting but you know that there’s plenty of room here if you need to live somewhere before the builders have finished. What would you do for work? I can’t imagine that Crabtree and Wright would be very happy with you working from home.’
Sophie laughed ‘No Mum, I don’t think they would. That’s the second part of our proposal. We have offered to go into business with them. With our money going into the business we would be able to convert their big barns into holiday accommodation which would give a far better return that the B&B they originally planned. Alistair would still be able to work in Brussels until he found a suitable position in Madrid and I would like to put some stabling up in the old yard so that we could offer pony trekking as well as the holiday lets.’
She’s done it again. Just when I think that I know all there is to know about Sophie she surprises me yet again.
For the first time in a very long time I think that there really is something to look forward to.
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