Free Mothers and Daughters by Minna Howard Page B

soon as he could he’d head off for his house near Port Grimaud, and relax and sail.
    He showered and then, feeling restless after being cooped up in a plane for so long, he went out into the bustling streets and walked up the hill to the Maison de Balzac. His mind was focused on Alice now. He remembered when he’d first seen her when Julian brought her to a party, having told him he’d met the girl he wanted to marry, only she was so much younger than he was.
    ‘Love is love,’ he’d said, amused that Julian had been so smitten, until he had met her. There was more to Alice than her looks, a sort of joy in life that captivated him. Her face had a pure beauty of which she seemed totally unaware, she was slight and slender and utterly in love with Julian.
    He was pleased for his friend, of course he was, he should be anyway, he deserved so much, and yet Frank couldn’t help being drawn to Alice himself. There were so many reasons why he could not be with her. Besides, kind and friendly though she was to him, she only had eyes for Julian. He’d kept away all these years, seen Julian when he could, but he’d rarely seen her.
    The years had passed now and she must have changed, grief anyway would have altered her. And he was different too, he’d been married and had grown-up children, knew how the problems of life often eroded love. It was easy to love from afar, when the object of one’s affections was rarely seen and then through gilded eyes and while on their best behaviour, letting the love grow unchecked by the foibles of character and life’s problems.
    He was too experienced now to be seduced by feelings he’d experienced so long ago, tempted back into a youth that would not return. He’d contact Laura, congratulate her about her engagement and ask if there was anything she or her mother needed him to do, but there would be no mention of him once, long ago, being in love with Alice. He would keep a respectable distance; there were too many reasons, even now, all these years on, why they could never become close.

9
    ‘I do wish you hadn’t made those ridiculous remarks about paragliding to Johnny.’ Laura greeted Alice some days after the tea party. ‘He won’t stop saying you are going to take him to do it and Elspeth, Douglas’s mother, is having a hissy fit and of course…’ her face was anguished, ‘she’s taking it out on me.’
    Alice sighed, tension squeezing at her and irritation with this woman for upsetting her daughter. ‘I’m sorry, darling, but…’
    ‘I’ve just come from seeing her, she really pisses me off, she always has a go at me, first it was about Evie having a baby she shouldn’t be – little digs like “it’s so selfish to have children as possessions and with another woman’s husband,” now she’s criticizing you for saying you’re going to paraglide and take Johnny with you.’ Laura glowered at her.
    Alice dreaded meeting Elspeth, just the sound of her made her feel rebellious, provoking a determination to shock that she hadn’t experienced since her school days. Julian may not have been keen on the more adventurous side of life, but he was fun, had a wicked sense of humour, and although he would not have approved of Evie and Nick’s situation, he would not have been judgemental.
    ‘I don’t know why it’s upset
her
,’ Alice was indignant. ‘I’m not suggesting
she
does it.’
    ‘And nor can you, Mum. It’s for young, fit people. Johnny’s got it into his head that you have done it or will do it and take him with you. He’s a very imaginative child and now you’ve said this to him he believes you and is upset that you’ve let him down.’ Laura dumped her bag on the kitchen table and slumped down on a chair, her face creased with frown marks, making her look quire disagreeable. Alice hoped she didn’t show such a face to Douglas, but then, she thought darkly, perhaps if she did he’d call the wedding off.
    ‘
I’ve
let Johnny down. I have