CHAPTER 36
We had a day to play with before the drive back to Caen, and after the boys had recovered we allowed the children to show us the bits of Paris they had liked best, which included the view of the city as night fell, from the only viewpoint imaginable.

CHAPTER 34
We began a series of those last-minute preparations that always remain last-minute, no matter how many aeons in advance you start them. So much to get ready, so much to sort into little boxes of my attention span. What the boys called “The French Ride” with audible capitalisation was almost on us, there was no way we were going to miss Shrewsbury at the end of the same month, we had some large social event or other a week and a bit later and Polly had apparently stolen a march on everything by starting the documentation for moving Darren’s status forward.

CHAPTER 32
He was smaller in the bed, but the smile was almost there. I had gone in with Darren, of course, the day after Albert had resurfaced. That smile, just the tiniest of quirks on the right side, and a tic in his speech that a stranger would miss.

CHAPTER 29
I was out of the door as soon as one of the boys could fit my bike into the back of a carrier and drive me round. Steph was at the door waiting.

CHAPTER 27
Merry was looking at them with a very practised eye, I realised. This wasn’t a woman flicking through the racks with a vision of tiered romance and fluffy whiteness, this was someone with very clear ideas as to the ideal wedding dress. I turned on her.

CHAPTER 25
It was a good job the others were late back, because our clothes took a little while to find. I grabbed one of my ‘Tabitha’ nighties after a rinse of, well, just there, and joined my lover in our bed, where he had already settled himself after making two cups of tea. He took one look at the nighty, and simply shook his head.

CHAPTER 23
“Hold still!”

“You are tugging too hard!”

“You are not getting wed with hair all over the place, woman! Now bend forward, I need to do the back of the garland”

“If I bend forward, I’ll burst the bodice”

“Well, you shouldn’t be so big!”

CHAPTER 21
It was hot. That sounds really trite, and utterly obvious, but it was almost beyond belief. Almost as soon as we left the air-conditioning, it was as if someone had sprayed me with water in the most embarrassing places possible.

CHAPTER 19
The gifts at home were nothing special in themselves, but special in their import. Little things, like Merry’s cross, chosen for the person with care and precise love.

CHAPTER 16
There was more, of course, more of their voices and power, and I wept, but Eric was there, and Merry joined me as I dropped out of the playing, her arms a comfort above and beyond the joy of the music.

CHAPTER 14
The next morning she was singing, some chapel hymn or other, and I couldn’t help but contrast the state Merry was in compared to that of a certain camp-site morning.

CHAPTER 11
That was all I needed from that weekend, but not all I wanted. Ideas came thick and fast, promises followed behind, and Arwel astonished me by promising to sort out the flowers. It was only later that I discovered the sly old bugger had relatives with a flower shop.

Our second night was spent in the pub, as is only natural, but this time Merry had gone home, and it was a much more sedate evening. Alice had her foot firmly on the brakes with her husband and stepson, and I suspect the hangover hadn’t been forgotten by Eric.

CHAPTER 9
She was groaning in the morning, especially as the light was slicing through the material of the tent. I prodded Eric awake.

CHAPTER 7
So there we were, rolling West once more. Eric had bitten the bullet and hired a car, which I hated to admit made life easier.

CHAPTER 5
Wednesday was my first day back at work, and thankfully it was quiet for an early turn. Den was now back at work, on day shifts and light duties, which at least allowed me to dump odd bits of paperwork on him.

CHAPTER 3
I lay with my man that night, hearing the wind throw a light patter of rain at the tent, murmurs of sound coming from all directions, including what was clearly someone making love. Sounds of life.

CHAPTER 2
I keep coming back to the music and the dancing simply because they are so life-affirming.

CHAPTER 103
I woke up yet again with an arm pinning me to the bed and a full bladder, and heard Kirsty copy me to the downstairs toilet as I found bliss upstairs. She joined me a few minutes later as I worked the kettle in the kitchen. I got a hug.

CHAPTER 101
That was a surprise. Four words, there, that give only a hint of the feeling I had of the floor dropping away from me. There was a whole world of implications in that one word, and I was instructed specifically not to raise it with Den.

CHAPTER 99
Sam let himself in two days after that. He brought flowers, chocolate and news.

“How are the feet?”

“Sore, but it’s the itching that’s driving me up the wall”