It was late April and Elan was crossing Paddington Station to pick up the ‘Cornish Riviera’ train to Penzance, when he spotted a small familiar figure in the flood of people flowing off the incoming train. She was wearing jeans with a snazzy little suede jacket he had not seen before. A pale mauve scarf was knotted fashionably at her neck and she looked for all the world like a seasoned city girl. She was scanning the barrier ahead and Elan was just about to wave and call out, ‘Cooee, darling – what a surprise!’ when he saw her face light up. She was laughing with pleasure, throwing back her head in sudden joy.
Elan turned and looked to his right through the crowds. A tall figure stood watching Gabby hurrying towards him. It was the Canadian Elan had briefly met at his exhibition before he had made his escape.
As Gabby reached him, Mark Hannah held out his arms and Gabby walked straight into them, and they stood there to one side of the barrier just holding each other. What a risk they are taking standing there for all to see near the platform for trains to Cornwall. What a risk.
Elan watched with a sinking heart. Still they stood there holding each other and rocking slowly amid the crowds, and Elan saw it was a homecoming, a coming to rest, a serious thing. Not an affair, a fling, a light-hearted tryst.
At last they broke away, gazed at each other for a second in a way that made Elan ache to remember. It’s you. You.
Then they turned and disappeared into the crowd. Elan’s train was being announced and he moved stiffly with a sigh. He suddenly felt very old. What a kaleidoscope life was; jiggle a little and all the colours shifted and changed position.
He thought of Josh. Grown-up or not, Josh would never accept what he would see as Gabby’s betrayal, if she ever left Charlie. He adored his godson, but Josh had never had a thing go wrong in his life, just three adults – four, if he counted himself – who thought he was the bee’s knees. He would not handle this sort of shock well; of this Elan was sure. If Gabby chose to go off with this Canadian she would lose Josh … but maybe it would not come to that.
He could not picture Gabby away from the farm. More than half her life had been spent there. Against all the odds, Gabby and Charlie had stayed together. As he boarded his train he thought of Nell and of the wonderful four days they had had together when she had flown out to join him in Venice.
Then Gabby’s joyful face came back to him, a lighting up of something deep inside her, a radiance he had never seen before. A different Gabrielle. Such happiness. It would be short-lived, as she would learn, for it would have been gained at the expense of other lives.
Elan climbed into his first-class carriage with a sigh. No, he was certainly not going to say anything to Nell.