Sign of the Times (44 page)

“There you are,” Holly hugged and kissed her aunt and uncle.
 
She greeted Oscar whom she had met a few times at parties at her aunt and uncle’s.
 

“Glad you could make it. Grab a gondola whilst you can,” Holly advised them.

Since she’d been back in the country, Holly had been spending a lot of time with Antonia, as a result of the situation with Lucy and Felix.
 
It was an unwritten rule that they wouldn’t discuss those topics tonight.
 
The past few months had been hard. Tonight was about celebration.
 
Maybe that was why Holly had gone so over the top with the décor, Antonia thought, as she looked around
.
 
She’d previously confessed to Holly that Felix, relieved at the rape charges being dropped had broken down and confided in his mother.
 

“Mum. She’s the only girl I’ve ever slept with.”
 
Antonia had told him not to worry about it any more.
 
But Felix was insistent. “Mum, you don’t understand. She’s the only girl I’ll ever sleep with.
 
Why did I have to pick her?
 
I’m gay, Mum,” and he had burst into wrenching sobs.
 
It wasn’t common knowledge. Antonia felt the family had been under the microscope enough recently.
 
She was waiting for the right moment to tell Jack.
 
It hadn’t arrived yet.
 

Antonia had needed to take a leave of absence from work.
 
The timing couldn’t be worse given recent announcements regarding redundancies, but her family needed her and for the first time in a long while, it took precedence.
 
Jack and she had talked at length about Jack’s proposal to set up an independent estate agency with Oscar.
 
Jack, naturally, would be a sleeping partner. But what was to stop Antonia working there? She would have a vested interest.
 
The property market had to recover sometime. Why not be ready for it?
  
She was seriously considering it and she knew from the many talks they’d had with Oscar that he was completely fed up at National.
 

They sat in the gondola adjacent to Jennifer, Ben and Maggie.
 
Ben started when he saw Oscar.
 

“Oscar, what are you doing here?”

“I’m a friend of Jack’s.
 
Who are you here with?”

“This is my girlfriend, Jennifer. You remember I met her in Glencoe?”

Oscar trawled his memory banks, but drew a blank.
 

“Ah yes,” he said.
 
“Nice to meet you.”

Oscar and his wife Gaby were making tentative moves forward with their relationship.
 
After much soul searching, he had given his wife another chance.
 
She had cheated on him, but then again, so had he, even if it was after finding out she was pregnant with another man’s child. It was almost tit for tat.
 
They weren’t living together again yet, but they were spending quite a bit of time together, trying to recapture the essence of their relationship.
 
Oscar had been ready and willing to raise the child as his own, but it hadn’t been necessary.
 
Gaby had miscarried not long afterwards.
 
They weren’t sure whether to be saddened or glad. Oscar had accepted that he needed to spend time with his wife and as a result, had cut back his overtime at the office.
 
They had talked at length about the future they might have.
 
Whilst he could never forget what had happened, Oscar hoped he could forgive and was determined to try. Hopefully it would make them stronger as a couple and maybe they would give each other the attention they needed now.
 
He found himself wondering how much Gaby had told her brother.
 
His brother-in-law was affable enough with him, but he hadn’t seen Ben since he and Gaby split up.
  
It didn’t appear as if there were any hard feelings there, but then why should there be. It was Gaby who had become pregnant by someone else.
 
During the course of their many discussions late into the night in some instances, they had agreed that if they were able to sort things out, then they would try for a baby.
 
But they were a long way from that yet.

How odd,
thought Ben.
 
Of all the places to run into his brother-in-law, this was the last one he’d expected to meet him.
 
Gaby had given him the whole sorry tale. He had been shocked.
 
From the conversations he’d had with his sister in the preceding months, it had been obvious she wasn’t happy, but getting pregnant by another guy was taking things to a whole new dimension. He really liked Oscar, but his loyalties naturally lay with Gaby.
 
He’d felt awkward about contacting Oscar, unsure as to the reception he could expect.
 
And of course, he’d been busy with his own new circumstances.
 
Gaby had needed him too, in the weeks after discovering Oscar naked on their lounge floor with another woman, the wife of the man Gaby had cheated on Oscar with.
 
The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on her, but it hadn’t made it any easier. At least when she had lost the baby, Oscar and she were already trying to make a go of things.
 
It brought home what a decent guy Oscar was, Ben thought, that he’d been prepared to raise someone else’s kid as his own.
 
He didn’t know if he would have done the same.
 
People commented on his taking on Jennifer’s mum, but that was different.
 
He wanted to be with her and her mum came as part of the package.

Fortunately Jennifer had been reasonable and heard him out when he’d finally got to her through Maggie, whom he’d initially thought would have been the port of most resistance.
 
He’d explained matters to Maggie, as Jennifer wouldn’t return his calls, or his letters. Mindful of her mother’s condition, he’d stopped short of turning up at the door.
 
Maggie had looked at him as if he were a complete moron when he’d finished cataloguing the whole mess for her.
 
Her expression said he had created this whole shambles and it had all been unnecessary. Telling the whole truth from the beginning would have saved a whole lot of hassle.

*

Holly had a lot to handle. The launch was a fabulous success so far, going by the numbers.
 
She’d barely spoken to anyone for more than a minute or two. Her neighbours had arrived, some old friends from uni, a group of girls from the gym. She’d invited everyone and anyone she could think of.
 
If nothing else, they’d all buy a signed copy of her book. Czeslawa was over by the signing stand, waving at her.
 
Ah, another taker.
 
Here we go again
.

Anastazy found Maria sitting chatting with Tom and promptly flopped down in the gondola beside her, his hand resting lightly along the back of the gondola, caressing her shoulders.
 

“So, what do you think? Is it a success?” Anastazy asked.

“It’s certainly bigger and better attended than the first one, but then she really has gone to town on this one. Look at this place.”

They all agreed that it was one hell of an event.
 

Tom watched the interaction between Maria and Anastazy. Was something going on between them? The Polish man seemed very comfortable in her presence, very casual.
  
Maybe they were seeing each other. Intuition wasn’t his strong point. He’d need to ask Holly, as his curiosity was getting the better of him.
 
It was the first time he had met Anastazy or Czeslawa.
 
Initially he’d thought they were man and wife, but then noticed the family resemblance and soon dismissed that notion. Watching the preparations and the way they worked tonight, he felt confident about using
Occasions
for their wedding.
Ah finally
.
 
There was Holly making her way back towards him.

“Well, hello stranger,” he smiled up at her, rising out of the gondola to give her a quick peck.
 
“Everything OK?”

“Yes, just mad busy.
 
You guys OK?”
 

“Fine,” Tom fibbed. “Just wondering where you’d got to. That’s some dress,” he admired his fiancée’s petite frame in it.

“Thanks,” Holly grinned at him.

“So what’s the script with those two?” he whispered, gesturing towards Maria and Anastazy.
 

“Who?”

“The organisers,” Tom said.

“Oh, you mean Anastazy and Maria?”

“Yes.”

“Tom, do you ever listen to anything I say?”

“Not if I can help it,” he joked.

“Anastazy is Czeslawa’s brother. He was over visiting her and Amy, Maria’s daughter fell and had to be taken to hospital. Anastazy was her knight in shining armour who took her there in his chariot.”

“Sorry?” Tom appeared suitably confused.

“She was shaken up because of the amount of blood pouring from Amy’s head, so he drove. Since then they’ve been seeing a lot of each other.”

“So, does he live here?”

“No, but I think he’s working on it.”
 

“OK,” said Tom, curiosity satisfied.

“So, what do you think of the launch?” Holly quizzed him.

“I think it’s amazing,” he said frankly. “You obviously put a lot of thought into it.”
  

“I did, but it was a lot of fun,” Holly admitted.

“I’m so proud of you, Holly,” Tom pulled her to him and gave her a hug.

“Thanks, but don’t crush my dress,” she scolded.

“Sorry,” Tom said apologetically.

“I’d best go. There are more guests. See you in a bit.
 
Have fun,” and with a squeeze of his hand she was gone.

As he watched Holly march off, he sighed with relief that he hadn’t pursued things with Shirley. He loved Holly and couldn’t wait to marry her. What had happened with Shirley a few months earlier had been an aberration.
  
She was a lovely girl and if he hadn’t already been with Holly, who knows, but he had hurt her and he hadn’t meant to. No wonder she had been mad with him.
 
For a while, he wondered if she would cause problems for him with Holly.
 
But on reflection he’d decided she wasn’t like that. She was a decent woman.
 
Tom despised himself for his betrayal and had resolved to more than make it up to Holly when he married her
.

The voice of local DJ, George Barnes burst out over the microphone.
 
“Everyone. Could I please have your attention? I’d like to welcome to the stage, one of the UK’s most original travel writers, a woman who makes us want to literally follow in her footsteps, who brings the places she writes about to life, imbues the familiar with a sense of the extraordinary and who is here tonight to talk about her second book,
Venetian Dreams
.
 
Please welcome Miss Holly Jameson.”

Holly shone as she climbed the few steps to the makeshift stage, which was in the form of the Bridge of Sighs.
 
She coughed nervously, sipped from the water glass provided and then began,

“Good evening everyone. Thanks very much for coming to the
Venetian Dreams
launch. I’m sorry I haven’t managed to speak to everybody yet, but the night is young.” She paused as laughter pervaded the hall.

“I fell in love with Venice one December, when it was at its least smelly.” More laughter. “So much so, that I went back in February for Carnevale with my better half,” she nodded to Tom. “I had always been captivated by the tradition of the masked ball and managed to swing us an invite, a miracle, as you have more chance of winning the lottery than getting one of those tickets.
 
Only a select few have the privilege of receiving a much sought after invitation and I was delighted that I had managed to wangle it.
 
The Devil is waiting on the other side for my soul.” Further laughter.

“It was utterly captivating. Then I just kept going back. If you can see past the whiff of the Grand Canal in high season, it’s well worth the trip. I found the most amazing places in Venice.
 
Some bargain rooms to sleep in
,
in people’s houses as opposed to the bank balance depleting usual suspects,” Holly glanced quickly at her notes to jog her memory.
 

“I found a chocolate shop, which made hot chocolate so thick, I was able to turn my cup upside down and it didn’t come out.
 
It was a meal, more than a drink. Absolutely exquisite, but totally sickening, in a good way,” she hastened to add.

“I’ve been overcharged for gondola rides and not cared and been fleeced the following day and minded greatly. A lot depends on the gondolier and the weather.” I’ve done all of the cultural things, been inside St Mark’s Basilica, after being subjected to the security searches and endured the pain that is leaving your bags at a cloakroom on the other side of the square. I’d like to say I’ve chased pigeons in St Mark’s Square, but I hate pigeons and birds in general flocking me, so I didn’t actually participate in that notable pastime. Alfred Hitchcock’s
The Birds
will do that to you. I’ve visited the
Palazzo Ducale di Venezia
.
 
The carved marble façade inside the courtyard of the Doge’s Palace and the two most visible facing out onto the Venetian Lagoon and St Mark’s Square are sights
worth beholding. The Bridge of Sighs to its right is one of the most contemplative places I’ve ever been. There are countless more cultural sights to explore, but for me discovering a city is not only about covering the tourist angle, but about unearthing those things only locals know about.”