Book Club Reads: 3-Book Collection: Yesterday’s Sun, The Sea Sisters, Someone to Watch Over Me. Amanda Brooke

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СКАЧАТЬ the new year, when he was home for good and the date had passed when Libby was meant to be conceived.

      ‘Well, if you need company, you know where I am,’ Billy said, shaking her from her thoughts. ‘If you don’t mind me saying, you don’t seem yourself. You should get out more. It’s not good for a person to lock themselves away.’

      ‘I go to the village, I have Tom’s parents, and then there’s always Jocelyn,’ Holly told him. ‘Besides, I speak to Tom every day.’

      ‘You can be in a crowded room and still be alone,’ Billy answered.

      ‘Sage words,’ agreed Holly, taken aback slightly by the seriousness of Billy’s warning. ‘I’ll bear that in mind.’

      ‘And next time you speak to that husband of yours, you tell him his conservatory will be ready for a grand opening when he comes home.’

      ‘Shall I tell him the garden will be fully landscaped too?’

      ‘Hmm,’ replied Billy with a stern look that turned into a smirk, ‘the less said about that the better.’

      Although the teashop wasn’t bustling with customers at this time of year, Jocelyn was busier than ever. When she wasn’t doing the day job, she had more than enough extracurricular activities to keep her occupied. She seemed to be on almost every committee or voluntary group for miles around. With harvest time in full swing, her schedule was so full that she couldn’t get away from the teashop to visit Holly for their usual Sunday brunch, but she wasn’t about to let Holly off the hook so easily, so she invited Holly over for brunch at the teashop instead. Holly suspected that Billy had shared his concerns about her frame of mind with Jocelyn and there was simply no way to turn down her invitation.

      The atmosphere in the village felt as crisp and fresh as the late September air, a stark contrast from the dusty atmosphere of her studio, and Holly felt invigorated as she walked to the teashop. Holly just wished Tom was home to enjoy it too.

      He was due home in a week and although she knew, thanks to the moondial, that Tom would return home in one piece, she still worried about him. Each time she spoke to him he seemed to be becoming more and more lost. He was passionate about his job and had stepped up to the challenge of reporting on global environmental and political issues, but that hadn’t prepared him for the human tragedy he was witnessing in Haiti. Tom was becoming increasingly frustrated with his own inability to make a difference.

      It was clear to Holly that this trip was going to be more than just another assignment. It was changing Tom’s perspective on life and that would no doubt affect his career. Although Holly had glimpsed Tom’s future, she had never really seen beyond his grief to understand what might or might not be happening to him on a professional level. He had obviously taken up the anchorman role, judging from the paperwork she had seen in his study, but she had also seen his scrawled notes on the scripts, their angry tone suggesting it wasn’t a job he enjoyed – and now she was beginning to understand why.

      As Holly arrived at the teashop, she had to put her fears for Tom to one side. He wasn’t the only one causing concern.

      ‘We’re worried about you,’ Jocelyn told her.

      They were sitting at a table in the teashop, which was in a rare state of calm, midway between the breakfast mania and the lunchtime rush. Lisa was prepping some food in the back and the only customers in the place had already been fed and watered. The teashop was filled with the welcoming aromas of freshly baked croissants.

      ‘Would that be you and Billy, by any chance?’

      ‘If someone as socially inept as Billy can sense there’s something wrong, then there’s something to worry about,’ Jocelyn replied.

      ‘Well, we both know exactly what it is I have to worry about.’ Holly was picking at a few crumbs around the Danish pastry Jocelyn was trying to force-feed her with.

      ‘Have you decided what you’re going to do in the next few months?’ It was Jocelyn’s turn to look worried.

      ‘I have to avoid conceiving Libby, I know that and it’s not going to be difficult. I have contraception injections every three months and my next one would be due in November. The plan I agreed with Tom was to stop the injections and start making babies at the end of this year. Now, thanks to the moondial, I have to keep that appointment, don’t I?’

      ‘The moondial gives you a window which looks out onto your future, but it’s you that has to make the life-changing decisions,’ Jocelyn told Holly. ‘It’s a big responsibility, I know that, and I’m here when you need me, but I can’t make those decisions for you. I won’t make them for you, not when your own life is at stake.’

      Holly knew that Jocelyn was the only person who could really understand the torture she was going through. For Holly, the options were somewhat easier to put into effect than it had been for Jocelyn, but the burden of the decision weighed just as heavily. ‘Did you have to manage on your own? Was the gardener the only person who knew?’

      ‘Even Mr Andrews didn’t know everything; I was too ashamed to tell him exactly what I had seen. For a long time I kept the secret of my future to myself, but eventually I told my sister Beatrice. She helped and influenced where she could but it was still down to me to navigate my own way into the future. The burden was mine and mine alone.’

      ‘I understand and I wouldn’t let you take any of my burden either. You don’t want someone’s life on your conscience,’ Holly concluded, but then blushed when she realized how thoughtless the comment was under the circumstances.

      ‘I don’t want anyone else’s death on my conscience. One is enough.’

      ‘I’ve spent the last week or so trying to find a way to wriggle out of this deal with the moondial. Don’t look so worried,’ Holly added, seeing the look of alarm growing on Jocelyn’s face. ‘I know I can’t try to hold onto Libby without risking someone else’s life. I wouldn’t only be risking my life. I know I could just as easily be risking Tom’s.’

      ‘That’s why I won’t tell you what to do. I’m so sorry, Holly, you have to make your own choices and live with the consequences. But don’t go playing games with the dial and don’t let your guard down. Please, Holly, not when you’re playing with people’s lives.’

      ‘I wish I’d never uncovered the cursed thing.’

      ‘If it gets to save your life, then it’s a gift not a curse, but be careful. Don’t forget about the choice of path not being free. Remember that raindrop on the window,’ she warned.

      ‘You think it’s going to take more than simply making an appointment at the doctor’s to avoid conceiving Libby?’ Holly’s frown matched Jocelyn’s.

      ‘Sometimes you change the circumstances around events, but then they still happen. Remember what happened at Hardmonton Hall? Edward went to great lengths to protect the Hall from a fire, but all it did was change the cause of it.’

      ‘You’re not putting my mind at rest, Joss!’ laughed Holly, but the laugh was hollow and laced with fear.

      Jocelyn sighed in quiet submission to the will of the moondial. ‘I just believe that there’s a universal balance and I know without a doubt that changing the future isn’t easy. If the moondial has taught me anything, it’s taught me that there’s less chaos in the world than we might think. People spend so much time wondering СКАЧАТЬ