Full Circle (20 page)

Then they headed to the Templar church. It was open this time and there was a service in progress. They slipped in and listened to the sermon waiting for a chance to explore. Emma was anxious to see the effigies of the knights and to find the one that was different. She had a copy of “The Da Vinci Code” in her bag and took it out to re-read the passage describing the church. The knight was easy enough to pick out and they stood staring at him for a few moments before moving on. The church was much smaller than they had expected and they were in and out in a half hour.

Next stop was St. Paul’s. Emma and Rachel went up to the top, but Rebecca stayed below. She hated heights and she enjoyed just walking around and looking at the stained glass windows. She was trying to determine if she had ever “been” there before, but she honestly couldn’t tell. Everything looked so familiar, yet so foreign. She sat down in one of the pews and thought of James. She was hoping there would be a message last night when they got back, but there was none. “Maybe today,” she thought. She was surprised by her desire to see him. After what happened with Sergei she should be wearier of charming strangers. After all, he was just someone she met on the plane. What did she know about him? Nothing. Why did she feel so disappointed that he hadn’t called? She was getting restless and hoped that Emma and Rachel would come down soon. They came down ten minutes later breathless with excitement.

“Beck, it’s so beautiful up there. You can see all of London. Oh, you should have come, you ninny. It wasn’t scary at all,” gushed Emma. “I am starving. Let’s get some lunch.”

After they finished eating they unanimously decided to go to Hyde Park. It was a glorious October day perfect for strolling through one of London’s most famous parks. The Serpentine sparkled in the autumn sunshine and Becky could almost feel a sense of something as she watched couples gliding by in small row boats.

The park was lovely. They expected it to be something like Central Park, but it wasn’t as commercial. There were no vendors every few feet selling hot dogs and t-shirts and the whole place just seemed more serene. They walked along the Serpentine enjoying the foliage and the cool breeze off the river. Rebecca didn’t mention anything to the other two, but in this place she felt a sense of recognition. Probably because the park hadn’t changed as much as the rest of London. She felt like she had been here before. She knew from her dreams that Lily and Nick and then Lily and Ian had come there often. It felt a little strange, but not in any kind of threatening way, so Rebecca enjoyed the walk trying to retrieve the minor details of Lily’s visits there.

“I am tired. Let’s take the bus back. I love those buses. Wish they had them in New York,” said Rachel.

“They do. For tourists.”

By the time they had gotten back to their hotel much later at night, there was a message for Becky at the front desk and a bouquet of flowers. She blushed with pleasure as she read the card. It said, “Dearest Rebecca. I so enjoyed meeting you and would love to take you out to dinner to one of my favorite restaurants. Please call me so we can make plans. Kisses, Jamie.”

Rebecca smiled at she dialed his number. What a lovely trip this was turning out to be and she hadn’t even started looking for Lily yet.

“I have a surprise for you!” George Stratton announced as he came home from the hospital on the second day of Nick’s visit. “A colleague of mine had a cottage to let by the beach and I have acquired it for the rest of Nicholas’ leave. It’s our belated wedding gift to you.”

“Oh, Dad! Thank you so much. That’s the absolute best present we could have asked for!” Lily gushed. Staying with her parents was a bit awkward with them being right in the next room. Three weeks of privacy would be absolute bliss.

“Well, it’s yours starting this afternoon, so off you go. It has everything you need other than provisions. Lily, since we’ve used your rations, Mum will pack you some things to take with you. I’ll drive you once you are ready.”

“Grand!” Lily yelled as she ran into her room to start packing. It took them less than an hour to pack some clothes, bathing things and toiletries while Martha prepared a basket of food that would last them several days. Lily was in absolute heaven. This would be the honeymoon they never had.

George dropped them off in front of the blue painted door and bid them farewell. Lily waved as her father drove away while Nick opened the door and walked in. It was a small cottage with a kitchen and parlor on the first floor and a bathroom and bedroom on the second. It was pleasantly furnished and the back windows faced the sea. Lily threw open the windows filling the room with the briny smell of the sea and the sound of waves crashing on the beach below. She could see the white sail of a distant boat and hear the scream of sea gulls as they fought over a juicy bit of fish.

They stayed downstairs long enough to put the food into the ice box and then raced each other upstairs to the little bedroom. Nick threw Lily on the bed giggling and jumped on top tickling her mercilessly until she was breathless with laughter. He silenced her with his mouth and Lily rolled him over on the bed straddling him in the process. She gave him a seductive look as she slowly unbuttoned her blouse and unhooked her brazier. Nick sat up and his lips closed around her nipple making Lily throw back her head and moan with pleasure. She slid her hand inside Nick’s pants to return the favor. He was already hard as a wooden club and she allowed him to flip her back down on the bed and wrapped her legs around him. By the time they finished she was thoroughly satisfied and her last thought before she drifted off into an exhausted sleep was of how happy she was. She would not allow herself to brood on the future. They were together right now and they would make every minute special.

Over the next few weeks Lily and Nick enjoyed the honeymoon they never had. They slept in, had breakfast in the tiny kitchen and then went out to lie on the warm sand and swim in the surf. Some days George lent them the car and they went to explore the many coves and cliff-top walks that Western Cornwall is famous for. They would leave in the morning and come back in time for dinner, tired, sunburned and happy. On rainy days they stayed in and lounged around in bed or read poetry to each other. They were content to be alone and undisturbed.

They had an unspoken pact not to talk about Nick’s time in France or about the news from the front. This was their time, stolen from this bloody war that was raging around the world with no end in sight. Gradually, Nick began to relax and the anxiousness in his eyes began to fade. Lily watched him sleeping peacefully and wished with all her heart that she could protect him from what was to come. Soon he would be returning to the base and start flying again. Once he was out there, anything could happen. “Lord, please have them give him a desk job,” she prayed.

Twice a week Lily snuck off to the Rectory. She had told Nick all about the children and he encouraged her to go. It would be cruel to just disappear for almost a month.

“Those children need you and I am fine on my own for a few hours. It just makes me that much happier when you come back,” he joked as he chased her around the room and pinched her bottom as she ran away from him squealing.

Lily was happy that Nick was so understanding. She had grown very fond of those children and she missed them as much as they missed her. She felt especially close to the twins. Their little faces lit up every time they saw her walking up the path to the Rectory and they waved and called out to her from the window of their room. Lily hoped for their sake that their father would return someday, but if he didn’t, she thought she would love to adopt them after the war. They would make excellent older brothers to the babies they would have. She hadn’t mentioned this plan to Nick. It was too soon and the future too uncertain at the moment. This was just a little private fantasy she had that she shared with no one.

The days flew by very quickly and before they knew it, it was time to give up the cottage and for Nick to report back to base. Lily tried to put on a brave face, but she was holding back tears as they watched the train rumbling into the station. In a few minutes he would be gone and she had no idea when she would see him again.

Nick held her to him and kissed the top of her head. “I will be careful, Lil. I promise. I will come back.” With that he stepped into the train and she saw him making his way through the car until he found an empty compartment. He opened the window and blew her a kiss as the train began to move out of the station. Lily waved until the train was lost from view and then sadly walked back to her parent’s flat.

Rebecca was woken up by the sound of the rain lashing against the window. Rachel and Emma were still sound asleep as she turned away from the rain splattered window. She was feeling very gloomy. The dream was still fresh in her mind and she momentarily re-lived Lily saying goodbye to Nick before she made herself get up and go to the bathroom. She splashed some cold water on her face and reminded herself that she had a date with James in the evening. This cheered her up considerably. In the meantime, she had serious business to attend to.

The plan for the day was for Becky to go to the London Metropolitan Archives at 40 Northampton Road in Clerkenwell, while Emma and Rachel went to the British Museum. They had offered to come along and were a little put off when she told them not to. This was something she wanted to do by herself. Rebecca knew that had she wanted to she could have gotten this information by mail. She had explored their website and learned that for a fee an enquiry team would find the information for her and send in to her in New York, but she wanted to be in London when she learned about Lily. It felt right to be here in a place where she had lived and met Nick.

Becky felt a little apprehensive as she approached the ugly, modern building. It smelled of bureaucracy and red tape. She was eager to learn more about Lily, but at the same time she was hesitant to see it all in writing. That would make it real and inescapable, not just a story playing out in her head. Was she really Lily in her past life? And if so, what was her relationship to Rebecca’s family?

Rebecca folded her umbrella and walked into the lobby. She found the information desk and the elderly clerk explained to her where to go to access the extensive database of the Archives. It was free if you retrieved the information in person, so Becky was planning to get as much as she could. She settled herself at a computer terminal and began to search. She decided to start with Lily. She typed in her name and date of birth. “Lily Margaret Stratton, born October 12, 1918, Penzance, Cornwall.” The computer started searching and came back with information pretty quickly. Rebecca decided that she wasn’t going to read any of it there. She would print everything out and then go to a quiet café and read it at her leisure.

Next, she searched for Nick. “Nicholas John McGuire, born May 2, 1916, Glasgow, Scotland.” She printed that information as well, put it in a folder and prepared to leave. As she walked out of the building she was happy to see that the rain had slowed down to a drizzle and she opened her umbrella and walked down the street. She had spotted a café about two blocks away and she headed there to read through her file and get a hot drink. Armed with a Latte, Becky found a secluded table by the window and settled down to read. She felt oddly nervous and her hands shook as she pulled the papers from her bag.

“
Why are you nervous, you fool?” she chided herself. “Whatever you find here happened a long time ago, so it really doesn’t matter anymore. Does it? It’s just curiosity. Or my life…”

Rebecca sipped her Latte and started to read Lily’s file, then changed her mind and went to Nick first. It listed his name, date and place of birth and the names of his parents. There was Ian listed as a sibling with the dates of his birth and death and then the date of the death of his parents. The next part was about marriage. “Here it is, in black and white,” Rebecca thought “married Lillian Margaret Stratton, October 1, 1940.” Rebecca was sad to see that there were only two more entries after the marriage. One of them pertained to children listing Olivia Jane McGuire as Nick’s only child and her date of birth on May 9
^th
, 1943. She glanced at the last entry on the page and put the paper down.

“
Oh, my God,” thought Becky nearly spilling her coffee all over the papers, “so that’s who you are.”

Rebecca finished reading, then put the papers back in the file and left the café. She was due to meet her friends for lunch at a pub by Leicester Square and she had some time to kill. She opened her umbrella and walked to the nearest tube station. She arrived at her destination with half an hour to spare and just walked around mulling everything over in her head. She knew the basic facts, now all she had to do was fill in the blanks and she knew exactly who to ask for that.