I can see where youre coming from and the need for closure, Daisy said, but sometimes it really is better to let things lie. Caras anger is probably based on guilt because she was sober enough to realise that you shouldnt be driving, yet she let Harry persuade you.
If I really was driving, I said, looking up at her. Because the thing is, Daisy, in that flashback I had, I wasnt. I was in the back seat, with Cara.
Darling, she said, leaning across and squeezing my hand, that might not have been a genuine flashback, because dont forget that the first two people on the scene after the crash said you were in the drivers seat, didnt they?
Yes, though I dont trust Simons father, Dan Clew, in the least but Tom Tamblyn said so too, so I suppose youre right, I sighed. Tom has always been my friend.
A message popped into my phone and I looked at it for a long moment. Kieran. His mother must have got hold of him and well, hes not pleased with me, lets put it like that. Shes on her way to spring Douglas from the clink, but Kieran says his father will lose his driving licence and probably be prosecuted, so it will make his life very difficult.
Thats not your fault, is it? I expect Kieran will see sense once hes had time to think of it from your viewpoint.
Hell have to, because Im not shouldering the blame for things I didnt do, when I still have to come to terms with the things I did, I said.
Before I went to bed I rang Lulu.
Im sorry its all gone horribly wrong, she said when Id told her my news, but Im really glad youre coming home because we all need you! And if youre back tomorrow, you can be at my Halfhidden Regeneration Scheme meeting on Tuesday, cant you? Its in the Village Hut.
Regeneration? I echoed and she said mysteriously that shed taken some of my ideas about involving the whole village and run with them.
Cam has to teach an evening watercolour class in Ormskirk, so hell probably get there only for the very end of the meeting, though he knows all about it. Hes been helping me draw up maps and stuff. So Ill really need your support, she added, refusing to be drawn on the details.
Are you upset about Kieran? she asked.
Yes no, I dont know, I confessed. I did fall in love with him and somehow, I seem to have just as suddenly fallen out of love again. Or perhaps I fell in love with a Kieran who didnt really exist.
I know the feeling, she said sadly. I never want to fall in love again. My friend Solange says that that woman Guys living with keeps coming into the café and crying into her coffee, and its rumoured theyre having huge rows.
Lulus ex, Guy, was still occupying the house in the Dordogne from which shed finally fled. Hed assumed shed left because shed found out about his affair, but shed had no idea till afterwards, when her friend in the village told her the woman had moved in. Still, at least it meant that he left her alone.
I cant say Im surprised, I said.
No, Guy was always a mistake a controlling, bullying mistake, and Im glad I got away.
With Cam, I said slightly pointedly, for I knew their old friendship had taken a slightly different turn on their journey home from France.
Cam has been a huge comfort to me, but we dont want to rush into anything and spoil the friendship we have I mean, its always been the three of us, hasnt it? And we all need space to get our lives back on track.
True, I agreed. Time will tell about many things!