Faith - Lesley Pearse [211]
Meggie had no such problem. She was rattling away about another property she and Ivy had bought that they were converting into three flats.
‘You are very quiet, Laura,’ Stuart said after a little while. ‘I hope that’s not because we’re boring you?’
‘No, of course not,’ she said quickly. ‘I guess I’m just a bit stunned at being here with you both. It’s a bit odd thinking I’m going to be staying in London too.’
‘Would you rather have stayed here in Edinburgh?’ Stuart asked.
Laura didn’t know how to reply to that. Edinburgh was home, at least in her heart, and Stuart was here too. But she couldn’t say that, it would make him feel awkward and hurt Meggie’s feelings too.
‘No, I wouldn’t want to stay here. I want to be with Meggie, but I’m just a bit nervous about London, it’s a long time since I was last there.’
‘You’ll soon adjust,’ Meggie said, looking at Laura anxiously. ‘Are you hungry? Maybe we should go and get something before we go out to the airport?’
Stuart got up. ‘I’d clean forgotten,’ he said. ‘Julia made a lasagne for us. I’ll go and put it in the oven to warm through.’
‘I’ll do that,’ Meggie said. ‘You sit down and talk to Laura.’
Meggie went off to the kitchen and Stuart sat down again on the settee.
‘How long will it be before you can work again?’ Laura asked.
‘I should be fit for project managing in about two weeks,’ he said. ‘As long as that doesn’t entail doing any manual work myself. I thought I might sign up for a computer course or something in the meantime. Once David goes back to London it’s going to be very boring here on my own.’
‘What if you came to London too?’ Laura said. ‘Maybe Meggie could do with a project manager?’
‘Does that mean you’d like me to come to London? Or are you just concerned that I’ll shrivel up and die of boredom up here alone?’
‘Of course I’d like you to come to London,’ she said, and giggled because he was looking at her so intently. ‘But I suppose I’d like to see you putting your own life back together. One way or another I’ve kind of buggered it up again, haven’t I?’
‘No, you haven’t. It might be true that I came back here because of you, but I don’t feel you’ve buggered me up in any way. It was all my own idea to go over and see Belle, and even if I am a bit stuck now because of the wound, I do at least have the satisfaction of knowing it changed things enough to get you out of prison.’
‘You’ve been wonderful, Stuart,’ she said softly. ‘I was trapped in a very black hole until you turned up and dropped a rope ladder down to me. I can never thank you enough for what you’ve done. You’re such a big man, with an even bigger heart. I didn’t deserve help, not from you.’
‘You have a worrying tendency to always think you aren’t worth anything,’ he said, looking straight into her eyes. ‘It isn’t true of course, it never was. When I first went to work for Jackie in London I was very bitter and sad. Jackie pulled me up about it once. She said, “Never mind that she did the dirty on you. Think about what she gave you.” I couldn’t see what she meant at the time, but I do now.’
‘What?’ Laura asked. She didn’t remember giving him anything other than grief.
‘You opened my eyes to a wider world than Edinburgh,’ he said. ‘You gave me the ability to stand on my own feet, and the determination to make something of myself. But best of all you made me believe I could do anything, and that, Laura, has been the very best thing of all.’
‘You would have got all those things without me,’ she said.
Stuart shook his head. ‘No, Laura. If I hadn’t met you, I might have drifted off on the hippy trail for a while, but I’d have come back to Edinburgh and got work and stayed. No doubt I’d have married, had kids and all that