‘I love this photo,’ Pepper told her, taking a sip of her gin and spluttering as the neat spirit hit the back of her throat. ‘You both look so young, so carefree.’
‘And so we were.’ Josephine smiled. Today was a good day – Pepper could tell. There was a colour in her friend’s cheeks, and she’d taken the time to apply a dash of lipstick.
‘Why did you choose this one to give me?’
‘Well, because it’s the only one I have . . .’
‘Then I mustn’t take it!’ Pepper was aghast. ‘I mean, I’m really flattered and everything, but you should keep it.’
‘Whatever for?’ Josephine fixed Pepper with one of her stares. ‘Darling girl, once I leave here, it is probable that I will not return. No, no – let me finish. I wanted to go back and relive that summer I spent with Jorge, and so I did, thanks to you. It has been so wonderful, seeing it all again and remembering how blissfully happy we were. But now I have done all that, and it’s time to move on to what’s next.’
Pepper couldn’t bear it. She closed her eyes, as if somehow the words would become less true if she didn’t watch them being said.
‘I am going to organise all my affairs before I leave,’ Josephine went on. ‘And the first of those is this photo. You are a part of my story now, so it’s only right that you get to keep the only physical piece of it that I have. Georgina won’t even know who it is in the photo – if I take it with me, it will only end up forgotten, plonked in a shoebox underneath a bed and left to gather dust. At least if you take it now, I know it will be seen in the way it was intended to be. It is the way I want you to remember me. As that young, adventurous girl with an open heart and nothing holding her back from what she wanted. Promise me that you will keep it?’
‘Of course I will,’ Pepper was crying now, she couldn’t help it. ‘Sorry,’ she blurted, wiping her face with the back of her hand. ‘I’m a wreck lately – a watering can with extra holes.’
‘Darling girl.’ Josephine took a step closer and put an unsteady hand on her arm. ‘You have been through a lot – and I don’t mean just Finn and the fire,’ she added. ‘I know how much you miss your sister – I can see it. Grief is an absolute beast. When Ian died I felt as if all the threads holding my patchwork pieces together had unravelled at once; I was this great big useless heap on the floor.’
‘How did you get from there to here?’ Pepper asked, looking down again at the photo. ‘I feel like the broken bits of me have never mended.’
Josephine sipped her gin, a smile playing around her lips as she considered this.
‘You know, if you thought about it,’ she said. ‘If you put your artist hat on, then really thought about it, you would realise that you already know the answer to that question.’
Pepper opened her mouth, but Josephine talked over her.
‘Now,’ she said, pulling out one of the rickety pub chairs and eyeing it with mild alarm. ‘You promised me in Barcelona that I could have an introduction to that wonderful-sounding Samuel chap.’
‘You want to meet him now?’ Pepper asked. ‘As in, tonight?’
‘No time like the present,’ Josephine trilled, lowering herself down and wincing with the effort. ‘I’m in both the silk and the red lippy, and I would rather that neither went to waste – no offence, darling.’
Pepper, who was already reaching for her phone to make the call, rolled her eyes.
‘What did your last slave die of?’ she joked.
Josephine cackled.
‘Why, exhaustion, of course.’
Chapter 41
When Pepper sent Samuel a message asking if he was free for dinner, he rang rather than texted back.
‘Had to check it wasn’t a prank call,’ he had said. ‘This is the Pepper, right?’
‘That depends . . .’ Pepper had rolled her eyes at Josephine’s enquiring glance. ‘Which one do you consider to be the one?’
‘Oh, y’know? Blonde, tells bad jokes, always covered in splodges of paint . . .’
When Pepper then explained that she had someone who wanted to meet him, and asked if he would like to come to hers for a meal in order to do so, an excited Samuel had fired about twelve consecutive questions asking if this person was single, and why she needed Pepper there as a third wheel.
‘She is single,’ Pepper had told him carefully, ‘but she’s also leaving town soon, so I am afraid marriage is probably out of the question. Oh, and it won’t just be me third-wheeling,’ she’d added, suddenly struck by an idea. ‘My mum will be there as well.’
‘This is going to be some blind date,’ he had replied. ‘But OK. Why don’t you come to mine? I’m a dab hand in the kitchen, especially when I have a mysterious lady to impress.’
‘Make that two mysterious ladies,’ Pepper had reminded him. ‘Unless you’ve secretly been dating my mum this whole time.’
‘Chance,’ he had retorted cheerfully, ‘would be a fine thing.’
Samuel lived in a maisonette not far from The Maltings, and as Pepper eased her vast Volvo up onto the kerb outside, he opened the front door, spilling light and music out to greet them. He was wearing a grey and white striped apron and had a wooden spoon covered in what looked like tomato sauce in one hand.
‘Golly,’ muttered Josephine, who had been busy becoming fast friends with Pepper’s mother during the drive over. ‘You look just like that actor, you know, the one in the alien film.’
‘Sigourney Weaver?’ said Samuel, catching Pepper’s eye as he bent to kiss Josephine’s cheek.
‘I think you mean Will Smith, right?’ she corrected. Her mum was still hovering uncertainly by the car, so Samuel strode out to offer her his hand.
‘You must be Pepper’s mother?’
‘Trinity.’ She looked for a moment as if she was going to curtsey, but thankfully settled on a handshake instead.
‘Samuel,’ he said. ‘Feel free to call me that, or the Chief, which is one of my many monikers. Or, of course, you could also call me the Fresh Prince of Aldeburgh, which is one-hundred percent going to be another one after tonight.’
‘I hope we’re not imposing,’ Pepper heard her mum say as they filed into the house.
‘We brought wine.’ Pepper put a bottle of red down on the table, which Samuel had set with proper placemats and candles. ‘This is such a nice place.’
And it was. The décor in the living-cum-dining room was understated yet thoughtful, with little touches here and there making it feel homely rather than bachelor pad-ish. Pepper’s eye was immediately drawn to a large photo collage hanging above the sofa, which showed what could only be Samuel’s two brothers, sister and parents indulging in various acts of foolhardiness. Like him, they all had warm and open expressions, and she could almost hear the laughter coming from some of the more animated pictures. Many of the photos had been taken in what looked like holiday locations, and almost all of them featured food of some kind.
‘I hope you’re all hungry,’ Samuel shouted through from the kitchen. There was the sound of a cupboard door opening and closing, followed by a drawer, then he re-emerged carrying four wine glasses.