likely he was sitting in a corridor somewhere scrolling through his phone to catch up on work emails before he came back in here. Maud wouldn’t tolerate devices when she was holding court and this wasn’t the first time Julian had sneaked off to the toilet and taken forever to return.
‘Why didn’t you say anything sooner?’ Lucy asked now.
Maud hesitated, her hand on her brooch, fingers rubbing the glass. ‘Because I didn’t want you to stop coming.’
‘Julian would never stop, you know that.’
‘I didn’t want you to stop coming.’
Lucy got up and went to sit in the chair next to her. ‘The only reason I’d ever be put off coming here is because I don’t want Julian to think he’s got another chance to pick up where we left off. So, as long as he keeps Sundays or evenings as his visiting times, how about you and I see each other at a different time?’
Maud squeezed her hand, belying the frailty she did her best to hide with confidence and a strong smile. ‘That sounds like a good plan to me.’
When Percy came over to say hello, Lucy exchanged a Merry Christmas with him and left Maud chatting away. She’d already offered Percy one of the cookies she was supposedly keeping for herself when Julian sauntered back this way and Lucy caught him at the door before he could get any closer.
She led him back into reception. ‘Why did you lie to me about your family coming tonight?’ When he opened his mouth, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and added, ‘Don’t even think about making something up.’
Unsure of himself, he pushed his hands into his trouser pockets and looked to the floor before he met her gaze once again. ‘I want you back, Lucy, simple as that.’
She had no idea what to say.
He reached out and took her hand. ‘I knew you were going to pull the pin on all this after New Year and I’m trying to spare Gran any pain.’
‘Don’t bring your gran into this. This is about us.’
‘You don’t care about her?’
‘Of course I do, so enough with the guilt trip – that’s what got us into this mess in the first place. But I’m telling you, Maud is way stronger than you give her credit for. How can you not see that?’
‘She won’t handle this.’ An innocent lock of blond hair at his temple almost hid the frown of frustration forming across his forehead. Maybe his boyish good looks had always been part of the reason he got away with the lies he’d told along the way. ‘We don’t divorce in this family.’
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, you’re not the royals.’ And before he could say anything else she got in there first. ‘She knows. She knows we’re divorced and that I live on my own in Heritage Cove. The lie is finished, Julian.’
His face fell and a tiny part of her felt terrible, but then, wasn’t that what had kept her with him for so long and then convinced her to keep on pretending for Maud’s sake when she knew now that it had really been for his?
But she couldn’t let her guilt keep her in this place any longer. The truth was out, the marriage was over once and for all and the dishonesty she couldn’t bear could be left right here. She hoped one day Julian would go on to meet someone else, but more than that, she hoped he’d see that a life of untruths wasn’t what anyone deserved.
With Julian lost for what to say, shattered his gran might be upset by this news and clearly wondering what to come up with to persuade Lucy to stay, she kissed him on the cheek. ‘Have a merry Christmas, Julian. I’ll wave a quick goodbye to your gran and then I’m off.’
‘So that’s it?’ he called after her as she went to the door, leaned into the lounge, got Maud’s attention and blew her a kiss. Maud winked back and it gave Lucy even more confidence to walk away at last.
‘Be happy,’ she told him with a squeeze of his arm as she passed by. And even though he called after her again from the door to Aubrey House, she didn’t turn back.
Lucy drove to Heritage Cove with a smile on her face. She felt a sense of freedom that even signing those divorce papers hadn’t quite provided. Her happiness only began to fade when she drove into the village and around