‘You’re very quiet today,’ Jack said as I stared thoughtfully into my coffee one morning in the campervan.
‘Hm?’
Jack waved a hand in front of my spaced-out eyes. ‘Hello? Anyone home?’
‘Jack, are we a couple?’ I blurted out suddenly.
‘A couple of what?’
‘Don’t be cute, you know what I mean. Are we in a relationship?’
He shrugged. ‘Sure. Whatever you like.’
‘I mean it. Are we girlfriend and boyfriend? Because I’ve never once heard you call me that.’ I looked up from my coffee to glare at him. ‘When I was talking to your mum up in Scotland, she said every time she saw you, you had a new pet. I’m starting to wonder if that’s not what I am, when it comes right down to it.’ I jerked my head in the direction of the little caravan hooked behind the camper. ‘I’ve even got my own kennel.’
‘Now you’re being silly. You know you never fetch those sticks I throw you.’
I refused to let myself laugh. ‘How do you feel about me? Really?’
‘Well when you look at me like that, terrified.’ He sighed and came to sit by me. ‘You know how I feel about you, Kit. Different than I feel about anyone else.’
‘And how’s that?’
‘I feel… simple. Know what I mean?’
‘No, not really.’
‘Being with you. It’s simple. Easy. Like I don’t need to be anywhere else.’
I allowed myself a smile. ‘That’s how I feel.’
‘So what’s the problem? We’re happy, aren’t we?’
‘Well, yes, but—’
‘You can label it if that’ll make you feel better. Call me your boyfriend or whatever you like.’ He reached out to stroke my cheek with his thumb. ‘I’m just glad I’ve got you with me.’
I sighed. ‘I suppose what I’m asking is where we go from here. What’s the future? We have to talk about it some time.’
‘Why do we, if we’re happy now?’
‘Because it’s coming. There always is a tomorrow, no matter how much you try to ignore it. And I’d like to know what mine’s going to have in it.’
‘But none of us really know that, do we?’ He sighed. ‘I don’t know what you’re asking me to say here, Kit. You know I want to be with you, that’s future enough for me.’
‘But what’ll happen?’
‘I don’t know, do I? That’s the joy of it. We take each day as it comes and see where life throws us.’
I should’ve known that’d be the answer. When did Jack Duffy ever plan for anything?
And yet I knew he’d done the whole relationship thing before. Properly, like other people did. Lived with someone, loved her, married her, planned a family with her. But it was like his parents had told me. Whatever had happened to him the day he lost his wife seemed to have left him incapable of anything but short-term thinking.
‘I care about you very much, you know.’ He was still stroking my face. ‘Maybe I don’t say that often enough, but I do. There’s no one quite like you, Kitty. It’s been another life, having you here.’
‘For me too.’
‘Kiss me then,’ he said gently. ‘We don’t want to be fighting, do we?’
‘No.’ I leaned forward to kiss him. ‘You’re right, I’m being daft.’
‘It’s not daft if it’s upsetting you. Anyway, if you want us to be a couple, my treasure, then that’s what we’ll be.’
I smiled. ‘It’s funny when you call me that.’
‘Why, what did I call you?’
‘Treasure. My grandad used to call my nan that. I always thought it was an old folk thing.’
‘Maybe it is.’ His eyes were gazing into mine, trying to fathom what I was feeling. ‘Did they make each other happy, your nan and grandad?’
‘They did. Never a cross word in forty years, Nan used to say. I mean, it was a massive whopping porkie, but they loved each other to bits all the same.’
‘Then I’ll always call you it.’ He gave me a kiss and stood up. ‘Right, I’m kicking you out into the caravan once I’ve got the awnings down. I need to take the van into Keswick and pick up the post.’ When he reached the doorway he turned back to look at me, his large frame silhouetted against the bright autumn sunshine. ‘Hey. What do you say to moving on today?’
‘What, away from Aunty – I mean, my mum?’
‘Just for a few weeks, then we’ll come back this way for a visit. There’s so much to see.’
I glanced out of the window at the sparkling breadth of Buttermere. It was a beautiful place. I’d miss it, but Jack was right: there was a world of horizons out there for the taking.
‘That sounds good,’ I said. ‘Where will we go? Snowdonia?’
‘I might have a thought about that. We’ll talk about it when I get back.’
***
I frowned when Jack arrived home a few hours later and sought me out in my little caravan. He was carrying a bag – not a plastic carrier, but from some sort of clothes shop. It was the fancy paper kind with string handles, a feminine-looking logo on one side.
‘What’s that, lingerie?’ I asked.
‘Now why didn’t I think of that?’ He dumped the bag on the floor. ‘Sadly not. It is something for you though.’ He pulled out something big and soft, wrapped up in silvery paper. ‘It’s your size. Hope I chose right.’
I unwrapped the little parcel curiously, then gasped as I shook out the contents.
It was a dress. Correction: it was the dress. The dress I’d probably fantasised about as a five-year-old who still had a lingering affection for Disney princesses. It was satin, a gorgeous cloud silver. Layers of tulle gave the skirt a fullness that’d make you want to skim the dancefloor with it till the early hours, pumpkin coaches be damned.
‘It’s… wow,’ I whispered.
‘Good wow or bad wow?’ Jack said. ‘Ladies’ outfitting isn’t really my area. It was a bit of a wild guess based on factors such as shininess and depth of neckline.’
‘Good wow. It’s stunning.’ I shook my head. ‘You really shouldn’t buy me things.’
He took a seat next to me and slung one arm around my shoulders. ‘Ah, but you’ll need this for where we’re going next.’
‘Why, where’re we going?’
‘Dorset.’
I blinked at the dress. ‘Dress well down there, do they?’
He laughed. ‘They do at this place. I got us tickets to the theatre.’ He shuffled round and took my cheek in his palm. ‘I was listening, Kit,’ he said softly. ‘What you said this morning, about being a proper couple. I’m taking you out on a real, grown-up date. All arranged for the day after tomorrow.’
I blinked at him, touched. ‘Really? You did that just because of what I said?’
He planted a little kiss on my forehead. ‘Of course. That’s what boyfriends do, isn’t it?’
***
‘Come on, girl, are you not done yet?’ Jack called from the awning. He and the dogs had been evicted from the van while I got ready. ‘The performance starts in an hour.’
‘Just a minute.’ I took a last look in my hand mirror to make sure my eyeliner hadn’t smudged while I’d been struggling into the humongous gown, gave its satin sheen a brush with my palms to rid it of any dog hairs and went to join Jack.
‘So? How do I look?’ I asked, glancing up at him through lowered lashes.
‘Woah,’ he said, running his eyes over me. ‘You’re… huge.’
I laughed. ‘Not quite the response I was hoping for.’
‘Come here.’ He wrapped me in his arms – as well as he could without treading on the mountain of dress – and kissed my hair. ‘You look gorgeous. Like a fairytale.’
‘Thanks,’ I said, blushing. ‘Aren’t you getting changed?’
‘Now you’ve finished doing all your lady things in the van. Won’t take me long.’
I think I might actually have goggled when Jack emerged from the camper twenty minutes later, my eyes popping out on stalks with a cartoon badadadoing. If I looked like something out of a fairytale – or a pantomime, possibly – that was nothing compared to the transformation he’d undergone. In a dinner suit and black tie, clean-shaven and with his permanently unruly hair neatly gelled, he’d gone from rugged-backwoods-lumberjack sexy to James-Bond-on-the-pull sexy. The difference left me speechless for a second.
‘Will I do then, Kit?’ he asked, smiling bashfully.
‘God, you look… where did you get that?’
‘This old thing?’ he said, glancing down at the jacket hanging from his broad shoulders. ‘I’ve had it years. It lives in storage for when Di forces me to go to awards ceremonies.’ He held out his crooked arm to me. ‘Shall we then, milady?’
I smiled, slipping my arm through his. ‘We shall, sir. What’re we going to see anyway?’
‘It’s a surprise. You’ll find out when we get there.’ He glanced down at the flimsy flats he’d bought me to match the dress. ‘Oh, and you might want to bring a change of shoes.’
***
With a handbag clutched in one hand and a carrier containing my walking boots in the other – ballgowns and boots were clearly my look – I stepped out of a taxi at our destination. As soon as I emerged, I realised exactly why this particular trip to the theatre might require a change of footwear.
It was really more like an amphitheatre: steep rows of stone seats cut into a coastal cliff. A simple grass circle that wouldn’t have looked out of place playing host to a few gladiator-hungry lions seemed to be the focal point, although how anyone could concentrate on the stage with the crystal blue-green of the ocean as a backdrop I didn’t know.
‘This is where we’re going?’ I said to Jack in an awed whisper.
‘Yup.’ He reached into his pocket and handed me a ticket. ‘I know it’s your favourite.’
I squinted, sun-blind, at what was printed on it – and my hand flew to my mouth.
‘Mmf-mmf?’ I managed through my fingers.
Jack laughed. ‘Yes, really. It’s the touring production of Les Mis, special one-off performance. Sorry if you were expecting The Chippendales.’
Slowly I let my hand drop, still staring at the ticket. Never in a million years could I have afforded to see the show, let alone dreamt of watching it in a gorgeous open-air theatre on the Dorset coast.
‘But where did you get these?’
‘Di got them for me. She knows a guy who knows a guy who’s sleeping with the guy playing Marius.’
‘Are you a fan then?’
‘Never seen it.’ He grimaced. ‘Can’t say three hours of all-singing, all-dancing French revolutionaries sounds right up my street, if I’m honest, but if you like it… well, I can grin and bear it. Maybe I’ll become a convert.’
‘You will. I know you will.’ I stood on tiptoes to plant a kiss on his nose. ‘Thanks so much for this, Jack. It means a lot to me.’
‘Oh, get away with you. Not sure I can carry off a blush in this suit.’ He took my hand. ‘Come on, let’s find our seats.’
It was a fantastic show. The cast were brilliant, and I don’t think it was more than ten minutes in before I was in tears. I let my head fall onto Jack’s shoulder, where my wet cheek dampened his dinner jacket.
The sun started to sink into the horizon just as the musical moved into Act 3, Marius and friends retreating behind their barricade for a rousing chorus of Drink With Me as the floodlights flicked on. I was half aware of a faint plashing sound, some movement in the ocean, but my attention was entirely held by the music. It was only when Jack nudged me that I managed to drag my eyes away.
‘What?’ I whispered.
‘Do you see them, Kit? In the water.’
I followed his gaze and squinted at what looked like a bunch of shiny black buoys floating on the waves. Then I gasped as one of them jumped, flipped, and disappeared under the water.
‘Oh my God!’
‘Shh,’ Jack whispered.
‘But they’re dolphins, Jack!’
‘Yep. You sometimes see them playing near the shore when the weather’s warm. I always wonder if they’re attracted by the music.’
I stifled a giggle. ‘Are dolphins big on musical theatre?’
‘Oh yeah, they love it.’ He nodded back to the stage. ‘Hush now. We’re missing the story.’
I smiled. ‘You’re enjoying it.’
‘Am not. Shut up. You’re enjoying it.’
‘Ha! I win.’ I shot him a triumphant grin before turning my attention back to the performance.
As the sun sank into the ocean in an explosion of red and gold, I felt Jack’s hand slip into mine. The English Channel whispered its own sweet music under the mournful notes of Marius and his doomed friends, and I breathed a deep, happy sigh, even while the tears cascaded over my cheekbones.
The perfect day.