How to Woo a Wallflower by Virginia Heath

Author:Virginia Heath [Heath, Virginia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-07-02T13:41:33+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Jasper couldn’t imagine the web of lies Hattie had spun her family to be stood here with him at the very edge of dusk in Richmond Park, but after the ordeal closing up Cora’s house alone yesterday, he was glad she was. He also had no idea where she had got the delicate Chinese lantern from, but it certainly held Izzy transfixed as the three of them stared up at the emerging stars from their blanket.

‘Isn’t heaven beautiful?’ For the last half an hour Hattie had conjured a world beyond theirs which Izzy seemed to understand. A world where every single star in the sky was a soul living in a faraway paradise.

‘Which one is Mama?’

Hattie bent her head level to the little girl’s and narrowed her eyes, squinting at them all as if considering. ‘It’s hard to tell right now but we will know soon enough. Have you got the gifts?’

Izzy nodded, her gaze never leaving the sky as she rummaged in her coat pocket for the pretty silk handkerchief which had once belonged to Cora. A tiny square infused with love because Hattie had solemnly made her kiss it and hug it before it was tied around a small, folded picture which the child had drawn this afternoon expressly for her mother.

‘Then let us attach it to the lantern.’ She sat back on her hands to allow him and Izzy to tie the precious but light cargo to the lantern. ‘Now I think we are ready to send it to your mama.’

‘Do you think she will like my picture?’

Jasper hugged his new daughter. ‘She will love it and treasure it until you and she can be together again.’ Just as he would this precious gift.

‘And I will definitely be going to heaven too?’

‘Definitely, Izzy. So will I, and one day the three of us will be together again having tea parties in the clouds.’ He hoped that was true too. Hattie’s version of heaven was one he wanted to exist.

Izzy gently held the lantern out to him to light, but then pulled it back to scan the sky with the uncertainty of an anxious four-year-old. ‘How can I be sure she will get it?’

‘The lantern will know the way, won’t it, Jasper?’ Hattie seemed to know exactly the right answer to every question.

‘It will.’ For some reason he was finding this informal, unorthodox ceremony more moving than any funeral. Maybe because there was no expectation that he mask his emotions, as here, cloaked in darkness, he knew Hattie would not judge him for them. ‘And don’t forget your mama is watching, so she’ll be looking out for it too.’ His voice caught and she stroked his back and took control for him.

Hattie smoothed her hand over Izzy’s hair. ‘Are you ready to say farewell?’

‘Why farewell and not goodbye, Hattie?’

Where such a question would have flummoxed Jasper, Hattie answered the child without a moment’s hesitation. ‘Because farewell is a temporary state of affairs, and not for ever, whereas goodbye is final and you will never see that person again.

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