‘I suspect you might even enjoy this story.’
‘Really?’ Pepper said warily. ‘Does that mean it has a happy ending?’
Josephine thought for a moment.
‘That,’ she said, breaking off to sip her gin, ‘very much depends on you.’
‘Me? Why me?’
‘In order for you to understand completely,’ she said, ‘you need to know everything. But for that to happen, I will need to take you back to when I was a young woman – right back to 1966.’
‘OK.’ Pepper was perplexed, but she was also eager to listen. Josephine’s stories were invariably as enthralling as they were entertaining.
‘As you know, many people in this country claim that ’sixty-six was a great year,’ Josephine began, giving Pepper a sidelong glance. ‘England won the World Cup for the first – and seemingly only – time in July, colour television arrived with much hurrah, and everyone was in agreement that the Beatles were just about the most wonderful thing to ever happen to music. I think John Lennon himself claimed that the band was more popular than Jesus – which tells you something about the man’s ego – but regardless, it was certainly a year of celebration and liberation.’
Pepper could sense a ‘but’.
‘The mood was very much “can do”, which I suppose is why I felt brave enough to head off abroad by myself. I had always wanted to explore, and defying my poor mother and father felt like such a rebellious thing to do.’
Pepper, who could relate to this, nodded in agreement.
‘I chose Portugal simply because I had read about it in a newspaper that same week,’ Josephine continued. ‘A bridge had been erected that connected Lisbon to Almada, and there were photos, so I knew it was beautiful. I wanted to get a suntan and see all the azulejos – those are painted tiles, of course. I thought I was so grown-up and cultured, but I was only seventeen. I barely knew my ankle from my earlobe at that age.’
The door of the pub opened, and Pepper glanced up, waving back at the two women arrivals, both of whom were regular customers at her mosaic classes. Josephine fell silent, waiting while the three of them exchanged pleasantries, and there was an awkward moment when it looked as if the ladies might attempt to join them.
‘We’re just––’ began Pepper, pulling her best ‘please don’t sit with us’ face. Luckily, the two women cottoned on fast and, with smiling apologies, moved towards the other side of the bar instead.
‘So,’ Josephine went on, so quietly that Pepper had to lean forwards in order to hear her. ‘That is exactly what I did. I packed a bag, booked my ticket, and off I went.’
‘Just like that?’ Pepper was impressed. ‘You must have been so scared?’
‘Oh, not a bit of it – quite the opposite, darling.’ Josephine shook her head. ‘Being alone felt natural to me. I had never really been given the opportunity to look after myself and put my own needs first until that point, and the freedom it offered felt like a revelation. No, no – I was far too excited to be afraid.’
Pepper gazed at her friend with awe. ‘What was it like?’ she asked eagerly. ‘Was it every bit as beautiful as you’d hoped it would be? Did you find the things you were looking for?’
Josephine smiled, her whole demeanour softening as her memory transported her back to another time. She drank some more of her gin and tonic and seemed to relish the feel of it slipping down her throat. Pepper waited, perched as she was on the literal edge of her seat, for what came next.
‘My dear girl,’ Josephine said, fixing Pepper with an expression that was both wistful and mischievous. ‘What I found was not something at all – it was someone.’
Chapter 4
‘Do you believe in love at first sight?’
‘Oh, yes,’ Pepper said gleefully. ‘Not that it’s ever happened to me – unless you count Robbie Williams?’
‘Is he a former partner of yours?’ Josephine asked, and Pepper laughed.
‘If only. No, he was a member of a very popular boyband in the nineties – my friends and I used to squabble over which one of us would marry him one day.’
The pub was beginning to fill up with early diners now, and Pepper kept being distracted by people passing by their table to say hello, ask what new sessions she had coming up and tell her how much their husband, friend or colleague had loved the gift Pepper had helped them create. Josephine did not seem to mind, and smiled warmly at everyone, introducing herself merrily as ‘the resident troublemaker’, gaining herself much laughter in return.
‘We were talking about love,’ Pepper reminded her, as she returned from the bar with a second round. Despite Josephine’s plea that she join her on the gin, Pepper was sticking resolutely to soft drinks. She had not forgotten how close she’d come to breaking down on the beach earlier and knew that alcohol would likely push her over the edge.
Josephine extracted the wedge of lime from her glass and squeezed it delicately.
‘As far as my husband Ian was concerned,’ she told Pepper, ‘he was the one who turned my insides to mush. And it’s true – I was drawn to him the instant we met. It was on Aldeburgh beach, you know – have I ever told you that?’
Pepper shook her head.
‘My family and his had taken us there for a holiday over the same long weekend. He taught me how to skim stones and, because he knew the area so well, he also knew where to find all the best shells.’
She smiled faintly at the memory.
‘But he wasn’t your first love?’ Pepper said.
Josephine looked down towards her lap. The hand that was clutching the gin and tonic quivered slightly.
‘His name was Jorge,’ she said. ‘And without sounding too trite, he was simply the most beautiful man I had ever seen.’
‘Was he Portuguese?’ asked Pepper.
‘Yes. But he could speak English perfectly; he had spent some time over here when he was a boy, so although he spoke with a rather heavy accent, I could understand him. We understood each other, you see, that was the thing. We had this connection, right from the first moment we met until the day I left him behind in Spain.’
‘You travelled around together?’ Pepper sat back in surprise. ‘For how long?’
‘Oh, only for a few weeks,’ Josephine said, her voice faint. ‘Jorge was an aspiring artist, you see – he had always wanted to see the magnificent architecture in Barcelona, so we went there together from Lisbon and it was all so perfect. The two of us were so in love that we felt invincible.’
Pepper was enraptured.
‘Why did you leave so soon?’ she asked. ‘Surely, you could have stayed longer?’
‘I had promised my family that I would be back,’ Josephine said. ‘I had barely any money and it wasn’t as easy to find work abroad as it is now. I thought I would go home and get a job, save some funds and make the return trip when I had the means. Jorge and I were in love, and of course, that felt like everything. We agreed that a few months apart would not break us, that we would stay in contact and see each other as soon as possible. The day I left, I truly believed that I would see him again.’