Jubilee (31 page)

Again there was a silence.

‘You know, I think I must have guessed.’ His voice quivered. ‘I must have worked it out subconsciously. Perhaps that’s why I needed to speak to you so urgently. I just
can’t believe it.’

‘Nor can I.’ I let my heart give a little skip. The excitement felt delicious. I hardly dared to enjoy it after all the years of disappointment. ‘But I don’t understand
how it happened. The dates . . .’ I shrugged.

‘Bugger the dates,’ said Luke. ‘For the last year all we’ve done is worry about dates, the right date for this injection or that blood test or this new fertility drug.
And now – this. You star, Rachel.’

The lump in my throat threatened to render me dumb, something that had never before happened in the seven years of our marriage. We exchanged a few more words, half choked by emotion, and
finished the call.

Jessamy came downstairs, her hair still damp from the shower. She’d borrowed my towelling dressing gown. When we were children we’d swapped clothes all the time: my smartly labelled
French skirts and cardigan for her Marks and Spencer trousers and hand-knitted jumpers.

‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I wanted to ask if I could put this on while my clothes dry but you were on the phone. Do you mind, Rachel?’

My answer was to pull her into my arms and hug her. ‘I have missed you so much,’ I whispered. ‘You can have no idea.’

‘Yes I can.’ She shook her head, relaxing in my grip. ‘Every single day I thought of you.’

It was what I had needed her to tell me.

‘Every time I came down here to stay I’d lie up in that room of yours and think it must be a game, that you were hiding in the cupboard or under the bed.’ I shuddered,
remembering. ‘It felt . . .’ I couldn’t tell her what it had felt like but the image that came into my mind was of a three-legged stool, missing one of its legs and never
balancing properly again.

‘You’re going to crush me,’ Jessamy protested, between laughs. But we stayed, arms round one another, for minutes. Then we let one another go. She watched me preparing the food
and picked up the kettle. ‘Let’s use the famous Winter Jubilee mugs and brew up more tea.’ She pointed to her rucksack. ‘I’ve got mine in my bag.’

Almost as a reflex I was going to remind her that the mugs were only ever brought out on high days and holidays, Coronations and Jubilees, for example. But what could be more of a celebration
than today?

Not for the first time I would like to thank Becky Motew, Jill Morrow, Barbara Derbyshire, Kristina Riggle and all the members of the Newplace writing group. My thanks also to
Jane Cooper and Johnnie Graham.

My gratitude goes as well to the Vale and Downland Museum in Wantage, especially to Howard Fuller for showing me the photo archive, and to the inhabitants of Kingston Lisle and
Uffington for being so generous with information about rural life now and in the past.

Two books were particularly useful to me in researching the story of the POWs working on the Burma-Siam railway:
The Railway Man
by Eric Lomax, and
Secret Letters
from the Railway: The Remarkable Record of Charles Steel, a Japanese POW,
edited by Brian Best.

Also by Eliza Graham

Playing with the Moon

Restitution

For Lauri and Jeanette Day

First published 2010 by Pan Books

This electronic edition published 2010 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
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www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-0-330-53294-5 PDF
ISBN 978-0-330-53293-8 EPUB

Copyright © Eliza Graham 2010

The right of Eliza Graham to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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