A Perfect Proposal (20 page)

‘Well, why should she be?’

‘And while you did look lovely in those wide pants, no one your age would wear them.’

‘I’m very impressed that you knew that, Luke.’ Sophie looked up at him, trying not to smile. ‘Or are you in the habit of buying your girlfriends’ clothes?’

‘You’d be surprised,’ he said.

‘Oh, I don’t think so,’ said Sophie. ‘I can imagine.’ She put on a soft, sweet voice, with a hint of an American accent. ‘Luke, honey, would you help me pick out an outfit? Oh, baby! I don’t seem to have my credit card with me!’

He laughed. ‘You’ve got that quite wrong. It’s all a lot more subtle than that. Now come on. I’m taking you to Mystic!’

Sophie bounced up and down in her seat, barely able to stop herself hugging him for joy. ‘What a wonderful treat! Thank you so much!’

Was he this nice to his trophy girlfriends, she wondered, the ones Matilda disapproved of? Or wouldn’t they like being driven miles just to eat pizza? Just for a little while Sophie let herself imagine what it would be like. Pretty nice, she decided, and then firmly switched off the daydream. He was so not her type.

Sophie was glad that the shopping hadn’t taken up too much time. It was further to Mystic than she’d been expecting. They joined the Interstate 95 – a motorway to Sophie – and passed through some urban sprawl, and then they got into some really beautiful countryside. There were no horizons here, not like in England with its endless vistas of farmland and gently rolling hills. The Connecticut shoreline had miles and miles of trees, dark green pine and fir, with an occasional scattering of yellow and scarlet leaves among the now skeletal branches of oak and maple. And through the trees patches of water shone like polished steel in the sunshine.

After they’d crossed what Luke told her was the
Connecticut River the scenery became even lovelier. And at last they arrived in Mystic.

It was delightful. Luke drove slowly along the seafront while Sophie exclaimed with pleasure at the clapboard houses, churches with pointed steeples and gingerbread decoration.

She was enchanted. ‘This is so pretty! I love this place! I can’t believe I’m really here! I can’t wait to tell my sister – she’ll be so jealous.’

‘I’m glad. Now I’ll park the car and find you a pizza.’

After he’d found a spot, which took some doing, Sophie couldn’t help putting her arm through his as they walked along. He didn’t seem to mind.

‘I really love the seaside,’ said Sophie. ‘I love where I live and everything, but I really wish I was nearer the sea.’

‘I know what you mean. At least in England you can’t be too far from it, even in the middle.’

‘It seems far,’ said Sophie.

‘Here’s the place,’ he said later. ‘The very pizza restaurant they used for the movie.’

Sophie clapped her hands. ‘I feel like I’m in one!’

When the waitress had taken their order she leant forward. ‘This is all so American, somehow. I love it!’

Luke laughed. ‘I have to confess it’s refreshing to take out a girl who’s so enthusiastic. It is only pizza.’

‘That’s what makes it special! I love pizza and I love being here. Thank you so much.’ Her hand moved across the table on its own. Sophie stopped it just before it reached Luke’s. She wasn’t sure Luke would want his hand patted. He was being really nice; they were having a good time together; but Sophie wasn’t sure how much exuberant affection he could take. She wasn’t sure trophy girlfriends went in for that sort of thing.

‘Here you go, guys,’ said the waitress, setting down
enough pizza to feed two small families. She must have sensed Sophie’s feelings. ‘If you can’t eat it all, we’ll box it up for you and you can take it home. It comes from a proper wood pizza oven, you know.’

‘It looks and smells amazing!’ said Sophie, looking up at her.

‘Oh, you’re English! Cute!’ she said, and left them to it.

‘Eat your pizza, Cutie,’ said Luke, laughing.

Sophie refused to rise to his bait, picked up a slice and took a bite. ‘This is so good!’ she said with her mouth full. ‘What a shame we’ll never eat it all.’

‘It does always feel like that when the pizza first arrives but it’s amazing how much of it you do manage.’

It was amazing. Sophie ate most of hers before declaring she would never eat again.

‘Don’t say that. There’s a leftovers buffet tonight, although they make a lot of extra food as well. If you can still walk after you get up from the table, my grandmother and her entire staff will think they’ve failed. Now we’d better get back.’

The next morning, Sophie put on all her new clothes. She had intended not to wear the lovely slouchy boots so she could take them back and not cost Luke so much money, but they were so perfect with the jeans she just couldn’t. She tried them on to check the look and couldn’t bring herself to take them off again.

She was now in the hall, waiting for Luke, although she knew he wouldn’t turn up for another ten minutes or so. She felt if she’d stayed in her room any longer, she might be tempted to take all her make-up off and put it on again, again – she was so nervous about the brunch.

Matilda found her there, sitting on a Louis Quinze sofa, flicking through the
New York Times
, frantically scanning it for future topics of conversation. She might be really put on
the spot at the brunch and asked difficult questions.

‘Good morning, Sophie!’

Sophie leapt up and went towards the old lady. ‘Oh, Matilda! I don’t think I said thank you properly for letting me share Thanksgiving with you. It was so wonderful!’

Matilda chuckled, kissing her cheek. ‘You said thank you very prettily. I always prefer it if we have guests for Thanksgiving, it makes it more special. And I was so touched by what you said you were thankful for.’

‘Of course I’m thankful for meeting you!’ Sophie hadn’t had to think hard when she was asked to start off the tradition.

‘And you joined in with the psalm!’

‘I remembered it from school. Psalm one hundred, “Rejoice in the Lord all ye lands.”’

‘Have you a moment?’ Matilda suddenly looked a little mysterious.

Sophie glanced at her watch. ‘Oh yes. Luke and I aren’t meeting up for five minutes or so. I came out of my room before I could change my mind about my outfit.’

Matilda scrutinised the outfit for the first time. ‘Is that what Heidi picked out for you?’

‘No. It’s what Luke picked out. Heidi picked out a lovely pair of palazzo pants and a top but I wasn’t really happy in it, and Luke said it was something his mother would wear.’ She paused. ‘I’m wearing the bra she chose for me though.’

Matilda seemed amused. ‘Well, I’m glad Heidi had something to do.’

‘It was so sweet of you to phone ahead!’ Sophie didn’t want to seem ungrateful. ‘She was lovely.’

‘She is, but I do understand that maybe her taste is a little old for you. Now come with me. I have something to show you and I don’t want Luke to know about it.’

‘But why? He adores you!’

‘I know, but I have a bit of a project and until I know there’s some point to it, I’d rather just keep it between us.’ She paused. ‘I do have funny spells sometimes – the doctor says it’s nothing to be concerned about, but Luke does worry.’ She paused. ‘Besides, I never think it’s a good idea to tell men everything. They just take over.’

Sophie followed Matilda, who led her through her bedroom (which made Sophie’s seem rather poky) and into what could only be described as a boudoir. It had a selection of antique chairs, a chaise longue upholstered in silk, and the most exquisite bureau, inlaid with mother of pearl and full, Sophie was certain, of secret compartments. It made Uncle Eric’s desk seem positively utilitarian.

‘What a lovely room! Look at all these beautiful antiques.’

‘What? Oh yes, dear. I’m very lucky, I have lots of lovely things, but it’s this I want to show you.’

She pointed to a picture in an alcove. It was of a house and although the painting was very pretty, it didn’t seem to Sophie to be by the hand of an old master, rather a talented amateur. She went up closer and read the brass plaque underneath it. ‘The Rectory’, it said.

‘It’s delightful …’ Sophie began, wondering why on earth Matilda should have something not notably special in her room when she could probably have had a Renoir or something.

‘It’s a house I visited as a child. I want to track it down.’

Sophie began to get an inkling of why she’d been invited into Matilda’s inner sanctum. ‘Where is it?’

‘I’m not exactly sure, which is where you come in.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘I want you to find it for me. I want to know if it’s still standing.’

‘Well, who did it belong to?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Matilda, a little abashed. ‘I realise it is
difficult. I do have a name though.’

‘That’s all right then. We could look it up on the internet. People search for their ancestors all the time online.’

‘The trouble is, I’m not sure if this is a place name or a surname. Or exactly how it’s spelt.’

Sophie took this in. ‘That does make it a bit harder.’

‘Yes.’

‘Why don’t you ask Luke?’ suggested Sophie. ‘He obviously has all the contacts for tracking people down. He’s finding my relative for me, after all.’

‘That’s here, dear. He knows nothing about England, and where would he start?’

‘Where would I start? I haven’t even got a car!’

‘I’ll give you the details of how we got there. We went by train. It took us quite a long time, I remember. But Dr Beeching did away with all those little stations, didn’t he?’

‘Did he? Can you remember the name of the little station?’

Matilda shook her head. ‘I remember making up words from the letters in it, but not the name itself.’

Sophie sighed. ‘Well, was this person a relative? I’m sure if you give me your parents’ names I could find out who your grandparents were and where they lived.’

‘I don’t know if we were related or not. I just remember having this magical time. I’ve dreamt about that house ever since. I feel I have to know what happened to it. But because I have so little information I don’t want to bother Luke with it. But I know you’ll understand.’

‘Because I’m English and slightly eccentric?’ Although no one had said as much she had picked up that that was the impression she gave.

Matilda chuckled. ‘Something like that.’

Accepting Matilda’s opinion of her calmly, Sophie asked, ‘But couldn’t you hire a private detective or something? I just
don’t feel I’m the best person to ask to do this.’

‘You are the best person because you understand why I’m looking. If I start hiring detectives the whole family would find out about it and think I’m developing Alzheimer’s. They worry about me as it is.’ She gave Sophie a quizzical look. ‘Have you a job at home?’

‘Not at the moment; at least, not a full-time one. I mostly do several part-time jobs. I’m saving up to go on a course.’

‘What course?’

‘Well,’ said Sophie, ‘the thing is, I can’t decide what’s best. I’d really like to learn proper tailoring, so I could make anything, not just add bits of decoration or do simple alterations, but create clothes from scratch. And then there’s soft furnishings. I can make curtains well enough but I’d love to be able to do proper upholstery. But possibly I should do a small business course, so if I did set up something I could actually make money. I need to be practical.’

‘Goodness me, you sound very determined, I must say.’

‘Well, my family are all academics, you see, except my mother, who paints. I need to be practical.’ She frowned. ‘One day, when I’m truly independent, I’ll move to the seaside and run my business from my own home.’

‘Really? Don’t you want a husband and children?’ Matilda seemed surprised.

‘Well, yes, but I can’t just decide to have those, can I? I might not meet anyone. But if I had a business I’d be mistress of my own destiny.’ She chuckled. ‘I rather like the sound of that!’

‘And so do I!’ said Matilda. ‘Go to it!’

‘I will, when I get home.’ She stifled a sigh. Getting the money for all that would not be easy.

Matilda hesitated for a minute. ‘Maybe before you set off on your life’s goal, you might do this little thing for me? Only I don’t suppose it is little, really.’ She frowned.
‘Maybe we should discuss it when you see how life is turning out in England. I don’t want you to waste your time on my behalf.’

‘Oh, I wouldn’t be wasting my time! If you want me to do anything for you, I’d be more than happy. I’ve had such a brilliant time staying with you.’

‘I just know you’re the one to help me. You have plenty of imagination and yet are practical. I also think you understand having a dream.’

‘I certainly understand that!’ said Sophie, smiling.

‘And you’re very kind. I’ll be in touch. I do email you know,’ Matilda said proudly. ‘Luke taught me. But I’m not on Facebook. Luke thought I’d let just anyone be my friend.’

Sophie laughed and hugged Matilda, ending with a kiss on her cheek. ‘Maybe you should Twitter instead.’