The Way We Were_ A Novel - Marcia Willett [26]
Julia smiled to herself: Liv always rolled her eyes and made fearful faces behind his back whenever he talked of her getting a sensible job or starting a serious relationship.
‘Why should I, Dad?’ she'd demand. ‘Yes, but why should I?’ Just as if she were still four years old.
He could never think of any good answer: after all, she was usually solvent, always happy, generally busy.
‘It's about the same size as Andy's flat in Hackney’ she'd said, when Pete complained that she could be doing much better for herself than living in a friend's annexe, ‘and without his crippling rent. And just look at my view! A million limes better.’
There was no arguing with this: the wild coastal sweep across Port Quin Bay towards Rumps Point was breathtaking.
‘After all,’ Julia said to Pete, ‘it's not as if she's never done anything else. She did that gap year teaching in China before she went to university and she worked her way across Australia. She's perfectly capable. In fact, she's got quite a reputation for setting up projects, and she's got every right to choose where she wants to be.’
‘That's the whole point. She could have been a lawyer. Or a doctor,’ he answered crossly.
The fact was that Pete wanted to see Liv fulfilling her potential. Julia gave a little shrug: she simply wanted her daughter to be happy.
‘I hope something really special will turn up for her.’ she said. ‘I think it's a mistake for her and Chris to be working together. Old relationships can cause problems.’
There was an uncomfortable little silence and Julia wondered if Pete was thinking about Angela. She sought to change the subject.
‘So what do you think about a trip to see Charlie and Jo and the babes?’ she asked. ‘In fact, we could see everyone if we make a big effort. What a relief that most of the family live in Hampshire. We could fit it in at the end of the month. What d'you say?’
‘Don't see why not. What about Frobes?’
Julia frowned, considering their very lovable but enormously neurotic flat-coated retriever, Frobisher.
‘I think he's too much for Aunt Em,’ she said at last. ‘Those garden steps could be a bit dodgy. Liv might have him again, though she said that Val hadn't been very keen last time. She's not a dog person. Perhaps we'd better take him. He's not much trouble really and he gels on with Charlie's dogs OK.’
‘Fair enough.’ He put out a hand and touched her knee. ‘It'll be good to have Caroline and Zack a bit closer, won't it?’
Julia smiled happily. ‘It'll be great.’
1976
Although March is a wild stormy month there are often mild, gentle days when Tiggy and Julia can take the children and the dogs off in the van for wonderful adventures. Bouncing around on the brown moquette-covered bench seat, Charlie wedged in beside them in his pushchair with the dogs at his feet, the twins are ecstatic. They picnic by little fords with tumbling streams, on high cliffs overlooking dramatic seas, and on sandy beaches in the shelter of rocks that demand to be climbed. They paddle in icy, peat-brown moorland water and in sun-warmed rock pools, and jump great green curling waves that foam and sink to nothing in the golden sand. Charlie staggers after them, restrained by Tiggy or Julia on the end of his reins, shouting with frustration or suddenly bewitched by a shell or a snowdrop or some other tiny miracle.
The twins adore the camper. They never tire of swishing the orange curtains to and fro, pretending to sleep in the bunks and helping to make toast on the small cooker. It is a mobile playroom, a little house on wheels, and on each sunny morning they beg to be taken out in it.
‘I must admit that it's the greatest toy ever,’ Julia says. ‘They never get bored with it.’
Easter arrives with a freezing wind and a scattering of snow. Unexpected hail showers clatter down, cracking like shot on the granite slabs, and dwarf daffodils the colour of lemon ice gleam in the hedgerows. Then, one April morning of almost Mediterranean warmth, Tiggy drives them to see Tintagel Castle. She's told the twins the legend surrounding the