he was glad. Wasn’t that why she’d done it, safe in the knowledge that it was what Jamie would have wanted?
‘It was your dad. He was the one who set it up.’
‘But you did your bit. You made the effort. I’m proud of you.’
‘Don’t make me cry.’
‘Oh, baby. I love you.’
‘Me too.’ She wiped away the tear that was sliding out of the corner of her eye.
‘You’re doing OK. Get some sleep now. Night, baby.’
Ellie closed her eyes and felt the aching loneliness well up inside her chest. ‘Night.’
Chapter 15
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d looked forward so much to seeing someone again. It almost felt like a date. As he made his way up the hill, Tony had to force himself to slow down. He wanted to see if she was there but didn’t want to be panting and gasping for breath when he reached the top. Or red in the face. Apart from anything else, the color would clash with his purple shirt.
Then he climbed the last section of the hill and there she was, sitting in the same spot as yesterday but this time with her easel facing further to the west. Tony stopped to look at her and felt his heart lift. She was wearing a long emerald-green dress today, with some kind of bright pink necklace around her throat and flat pink sandals on her feet. There was something about the way she held herself, the sense of how supremely comfortable she was in her own skin, that was utterly beguiling. Just looking at her made him want to smile. And not because she was giving him a free painting…
Martha spotted him as he made his way towards her. She waved her paintbrush in greeting and called out, ‘Hooray, you turned up!’
Her voice was mesmerizing, warm and velvety and redolent of the Caribbean.
‘Did you think I wouldn’t?’ Up close, he saw that the necklace was composed of huge uneven pebble-shaped beads painted a dazzling shade of fuchsia pink.
‘No, I thought you would.’ Martha smiled. ‘I hoped you would. Otherwise I’d have lugged this thing all the way for nothing.’ Leaning to one side, she reached down for a flat canvas bag lying on the grass.
Tony’s heart began to beat faster as she slid her smooth brown arm into the oversized bag and drew out the completed painting, professionally double-mounted on ivory bevel-edged board.
‘I still can’t believe you’re doing this. You didn’t have to have it mounted.’
‘Oh, shush, that was no bother at all, I did it myself.’ Her eyes sparkled. ‘I’m a demon with a Stanley knife. Anyway, it finishes it off nicely. You can choose your own frame. Here, take it. Have a proper look. It’s yours.’
The added pen and ink detail enhanced the quirky characters she had observed yesterday afternoon. The result was charming, and captivating in every way.
‘I have no idea how to thank you.’ Tony shook his head. ‘This means a lot to me. You don’t know how much.’
‘I’m just happy you like it. And I certainly do know how much it means.’ Reaching up to touch the pink necklace, Martha said, ‘I felt exactly the same way when my son made me this.’
OK, that explained the lumpy pink pebbles. Tony wondered how old she was. Had she had her son when she was in her early forties?
‘Of course, that was a while ago.’ Answering the unspoken question, she said, ‘He’s twenty-eight now, and a criminal lawyer. It embarrasses him no end that I still wear it. Which is always good fun. But every time I touch this necklace, I see him as clear as day, sitting at the kitchen table in his little shorts, rolling up the clay to make the beads, then painting them with my brand new bottle of nail varnish.’
Tony nodded, a long-forgotten memory flashing up of the day Jamie had rushed home from school and presented him with a clay pot. Glowing with pride, he’d announced, ‘It’s a thumb pot, Daddy! We made them with our thumbs! You can keep your cufflinks in it!’
What had happened to that funny little blue pot? He had no idea. OK, don’t think about Jamie now, don’t mention his name, don’t announce that you had a son too, but he died. It would only create awkwardness and bring the mood crashing down.
Instead he said, ‘It’s a great necklace. It has character. I took a look at your website, by the way.’