The Way We Were_ A Novel - Marcia Willett [18]
‘It worked for you, Aunt Em,’ Tiggy had said.
And so it had: on a fine winter afternoon Archie had turned up at one of those interminable bridge parties so beloved by her aunt and she, Em, had fallen in love with him and he with her. She and Julia often discussed the possibility of Liv meeting someone and falling in love.
‘Of course, nobody will ever be good enough for Pete,’ Julia had said. ‘You know how he adores Liv. I worry about her working so closely with Chris again after all these years, Aunt Em. I know she says it's all over but there's something so dangerous about the whiff of nostalgia, isn't there? Chris represents Liv's youth. Oh, I know she's only thirty-two but, even so, there's something special about the late teens and early twenties. And then, if you've had a fling with someone and they come back into your life, you might wonder if things would have been better if you'd stuck with them. Can you really be entirely indifferent to someone you've been to bed with?’
Em hadn't answered; she had no experience to call upon. Neither of them had mentioned Angela Lisburne but Em knew that Julia had been thinking about her.
Now, despite the warmth of the late April sunshine, Em was aware of a tiny chill shivering her skin. It would be terrible if Liv were to undermine Chris and Val's relationship in the same way that Angela had once tried to destroy Julia's marriage. Em reviewed the morning's conversation, anxiously looking for tell-tale signs or explanations of Liv's condition. She'd talked easily about Chris and Val, as well as Debbie and Myra, but had there been anything particular that denoted a renewal of that past love? Em thought not, but her daydream had ceased to bring her pleasure; all she could think of was Angela's sly, secret smile, and Julia stumbling up the garden steps with tears on her cheeks, one cold February day nearly thirty years before.
‘I think Pete's having an affair with Angela,’ she'd said.
Sitting in the April sunshine Em was filled with a sense of frustration. The joy that Liv had brought trailing in her wake diminished a little: Liv and Andy, Julia and Pete, Charlie and Zack. They were all her dear children and she wanted them to be happy. She was reminded of how much Liv had looked like her mother; the young Julia, Zack astride her hip, the twins with Charlie between them, helping him up one step at a time. Now Charlie was married with two children of his own and Zack's wife, Caroline, was expecting a baby in the summer. Where had the years gone?
‘Do you remember the way we were that long hot summer of ‘seventy-six, Aunt Em?’ Julia had asked her not so long ago. ‘How careless we were about our happiness! We took so much for granted. Oh, I know that there were all sorts of problems but when I look back it seems to have had a special magic that whole time Tiggy was with us. I remember her arriving in the snow and the twins building a snowman the next morning. And that glorious spring and all those jollies in the camper van. How the twins loved it. Do you remember that summer? It seemed to go on for ever. We didn't know how lucky we were. We didn't appreciate it.’
‘I think Tiggy did,’ she'd answered. ‘She'd lost her lover and I think she'd learned exactly how ephemeral happiness is and treasured it accordingly. Whatever guilt you still feel, Julia, try to set it against the comfort and happiness you gave Tiggy. You provided her with a family and a home at a time when she had nothing. No wonder it was a special time for all of you.’
The breeze fell away and the sun was hot. Em closed her eyes, breathed in the heavenly scent of