As the ambulance staff helped Lexi, Jake and their baby from the train, I wondered if I should get off with them. Thanks to Gideon and Julia, it wasn’t as if I needed to complete my journey. I considered the long cold night ahead, supposing if I stayed put, I could at least enjoy the relative warmth of the carriage a little longer.
Despite my predicament, as we waved everyone off and retook our seats, I couldn’t help but smile. Never mind telling our grandchildren, Alex and I would no doubt be dining out on the night’s events for years. I pictured Erin and Joyce when we told them, wondering if they’d even believe us.
I let out a contented sigh. I was about to experience the worst Christmas Day imaginable, with no clue how I was going to get home. Yet neither issue seemed to matter. Thanks to Lexi, Jake and baby Alex, that year would always go down as one of my most favourite Christmases ever.
Gideon suddenly got up from his seat, an action that pulled me out of my reverie.
‘Hattie,’ he said. He straightened his hair and tugged on the hem of his shirt to tidy himself up. ‘I simply have to say your performance tonight was fantastic.’
Knowing I hadn’t acted alone, or been the one directing events, I stared at him, confused as to why he was singling me out. ‘It was a team effort, Gideon.’ My cheeks reddened at the unnecessary attention.
‘I know. But I saw a side of you I’ll never forget.’
Julia huffed. ‘I doubtanyof us will forget tonight.’
‘You handled everything with such calm.’
‘Like I said, we all played our part.’
‘Not quite all,’ Brian said, gesturing to Julia.
My chest tightened as Gideon lowered himself down onto one knee. ‘What are you doing?’ I asked. A nervous laugh escaped my lips, wondering if we should call the paramedics back to check him over too.
As Julia’s eyes darted from Gideon to me and back again, I looked to everyone else. Experiencing the same disbelief as me, everyone stared at him, jaws slackened.
‘Gideon, I think you should get up,’ I said, my voice shaking.
Ignoring my plea, he put a hand up to his chest. ‘Hattie. Would you please do me the honour of becoming my wife?’
CHAPTER39
While Alex concentrated on his phone, Martha leaned against Brian’s shoulder, the two of them having dozed off. Their tiredness obviously the result of the evening’s ups and downs, my adrenaline rush had yet to properly wane. I glanced around the carriage, trying to avoid looking at Gideon and Julia. But as their eyes bored into me, their attention was hard to ignore.
Gideon gave me a slow disbelieving headshake. Sat, arms folded, his expression was mocking, as if turning down his marriage proposal was the biggest mistake of my life.
Mouth pinched, Julia’s expression couldn’t have been any more scathing if she’d tried. Anyone would have thought I was the interloper in our sorry situation, not the other way round. She, too, sat with her arms crossed over her chest and no doubt, like Gideon, relished the prospect of me spending the night on a train station platform.
I silently scoffed. Looking like a couple of bitter and twisted book ends, they didn’t spoil a pair. Revelling in their victimhood, they deserved each other.
I considered the events of the last month, for the first time grateful their affair had taken place. Without it, I’d have never fully understood Erin’s words of wisdom when she’d said some relationships weren’t supposed to last. People came and went at just the right time.
Gideon had never been able to see beyond himself and while I’d thought he’d been there for me after Gran had passed, we hadn’t really connected on any deep or meaningful level. I supposed that was Erin’s point. We weren’t meant to. Gideon was the bridge that led me from my old life with Gran to my new life without. Be it because I was grieving, I felt beholden, or simple naivety, looking back, I’d been a fool to think we were in it for the long haul.
A part of me wondered if I should thank Julia. Without her, I could have ended up in a relationship that left me lonelier than I’d ever have been on my own.
Unable to stand the weight of their stares any longer, I reached for my belongings and rose to my feet.
Alex looked up from his phone. ‘Everything all right?’ As he manoeuvred himself out of my way, his expression was one of concern.
I smiled. ‘I just need to stretch my legs.’
I headed down the aisle and once through to the next carriage, continued to walk as far away from Gideon and Julia as possible. Finally, my pathway came to an end, and I plonked myself down on the train’s very last seat. Resigned to a night of pavement pounding, I looked skyward. ‘I hope you’re in a chatty mood, Gran,’ I said. ‘Because I’m going to need someone to talk to.’
The train slowed, and the conductor appeared from his cabin. He jumped back in surprise. ‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph.’ Clutching his chest with one hand, he chuckled as he grabbed a headrest with his other. ‘There’s been enough shenanigans this evening without adding a heart attack into the mix.’
‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.’
‘This journey has been one surprise after another,’ the conductor said. ‘What with snowdrifts, newborns, and now you.’ He shook his head. ‘Never mind the last thirty years, after tonight alone I think I’ve earned this retirement.’
