The Perfect Retreat Page 0,118

cheeks.

And finally Willow alighted from the car. She walked around the side, and Jinty appeared. Jinty toddled to Kitty and held out her arms, and Kitty hugged her for a long time.

Willow stood shyly in front of them all.

‘I wanted to apologise. I tried to write a letter,’ she said, feeling terrified, much worse than when she had won her mistaken Oscar. She had tried many times to write to Merritt, but the words wouldn’t come and she would just end up crying and watching reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond on cable and realising that she actually hated Raymond with a passion. ‘Not everyone loves you Raymond, you massive cock!’ she would scream at the TV.

Wearing jeans and a casual jumper – cashmere with pink and yellow stripes – and black Converse, she looked like any normal young mother. Kitty noticed a smear of food on Willow’s shoulder; from Jinty, no doubt.

‘Are you the celebrity?’ asked Kitty, smiling at Merritt.

‘Sorry?’ asked Willow, confused.

‘To look at the house?’ said Kitty.

‘No, I have no idea what you are talking about,’ said Willow, confusion clouding her face. ‘I just drove here direct from London. We came back from LA last night.’

Merritt started to laugh and so did Ivo and Kitty as another car drove up. Rose Nightingale and her husband Max got out of a black Mercedes.

‘Oh my god. You cannot be serious!’ she exclaimed, laughing, and Kitty clutched Ivo’s arm.

‘I love her. Like seriously love her!’ she whispered. Ivo nodded, also starstruck at the sight of Rose.

‘Merritt, how are you?’ asked Rose, and kissed his cheek. Merritt shook Max’s hand and introduced Kitty and Ivo, and Willow stood watching helplessly as her moment in the spotlight was taken over by Rose.

Rose looked at Max. ‘I don’t think this is the right house for us,’ she said, laughing, and walked back to her car. ‘I think this house has found its family.’ She waved as they drove up the driveway.

‘Where was I?’ said Willow, trying to recall the speech she had yet to give.

‘You are here,’ said Merritt, smiling at her.

‘Where’s here?’ she asked, confused. Why was this so hard? It had gone very differently in her head when she had planned out her big moment.

‘Home,’ said Merritt, holding Jinty, Lucian’s hand tucked firmly in his.

Kitty and Ivo snuck back inside the house just as Willow put her hand over her mouth, rushed to the back of the car and opened the boot. George jumped out. Willow walked towards Merritt and he put Jinty down on the gravel, which she proceeded to lick; and he pulled Willow into his arms.

‘Are you serious?’ she asked.

‘I’m serious if you are,’ he said and then he kissed her.

‘I love you, Merritt Edward Oswald Middlemist,’ she said when they finally pulled apart.

‘I love you too, Willow no-middle-name Carruthers.’

They were home, and from somewhere inside, Kitty could have sworn she heard the house give a huge sigh of relief.

No more anger or revenge.

It was the time of the romantics once again.

EPILOGUE

The stairs were steep, and Willow held on to Ivo’s arm as she took the first one. She felt her thin heel catch in her white lace Dior dress and she paused. Ivo bent down and unhooked it.

‘Ready?’ he asked.

‘If terrified means ready, then yes,’ she said, and she and Ivo took three more steps and turned to wave at the crowd.

The roar for Willow was enormous.

The Romantics, Harold Gaumont’s last film, was opening Cannes, and Willow wished he was here. He was the reason everything had turned out so wonderfully in her life.

Ivo had done the red carpet as a favour to Willow, even though he had sworn he was done with acting. She was about to be his sister-in-law, Kitty reminded him as she held out her left hand to admire Clementina’s engagement ring.

Ivo had fulfilled the prophecy in the painting his parents had given him and proposed in the garden at Middlemist on bended knee one Sunday when they arrived for lunch with Willow and Merritt.

Kitty met Ivo’s parents in London several times, and finally he had taken her to meet them at the Casselton estate. She had driven Ivo’s Volvo, having received her provisional driver’s licence, and was stunned when she drove carefully up to the house.

‘Shit, it’s a frigging castle,’ she had said, taking in the enormous stately home in front of her. It was so large it made Middlemist look like the gatehouse.

Evelyn and Perry were at the front door waiting. Kitty