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Back Escape to the French Farmhouse Save as PDF
Chapters (79)
  1. COVER
  2. About the Author
  3. Also by Jo Thomas
  4. DEDICATION
  5. ONE
  6. TWO
  7. THREE
  8. FOUR
  9. FIVE
  10. SIX
  11. SEVEN
  12. EIGHT
  13. NINE
  14. TEN
  15. ELEVEN
  16. TWELVE
  17. THIRTEEN
  18. FOURTEEN
  19. FIFTEEN
  20. SIXTEEN
  21. SEVENTEEN
  22. EIGHTEEN
  23. NINETEEN
  24. TWENTY
  25. TWENTY-ONE
  26. TWENTY-TWO
  27. TWENTY-THREE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR
  29. TWENTY-FIVE
  30. TWENTY-SIX
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. TWENTY-NINE
  34. THIRTY
  35. THIRTY-ONE
  36. THIRTY-TWO
  37. THIRTY-THREE
  38. THIRTY-FOUR
  39. THIRTY-FIVE
  40. THIRTY-SIX
  41. THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. THIRTY-NINE
  44. FORTY
  45. FORTY-ONE
  46. FORTY-TWO
  47. FORTY-THREE
  48. FORTY-FOUR
  49. FORTY-FIVE
  50. FORTY-SIX
  51. FORTY-SEVEN
  52. FORTY-EIGHT
  53. FORTY-NINE
  54. FIFTY
  55. FIFTY-ONE
  56. FIFTY-TWO
  57. FIFTY-THREE
  58. FIFTY-FOUR
  59. FIFTY-FIVE
  60. FIFTY-SIX
  61. FIFTY-SEVEN
  62. FIFTY-EIGHT
  63. FIFTY-NINE
  64. SIXTY
  65. SIXTY-ONE
  66. SIXTY-TWO
  67. Epilogue
  68. Acknowledgements
  69. RECIPES
  70. Lavender shortbread
  71. Apricot jam sponge cake
  72. Lavender lamb
  73. READ MORE
  74. Prologue
  75. ONE
  76. TWO
  77. THREE
  78. FOUR
  79. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

‘It is for me. More than enough,’ I say quietly.

‘And for me,’ he crouches beside me, ‘it’s much more than enough to be content. It is everything! I would be a rich man! You are my family, Stephanie and Tomas too. We may not have children, you may not have given birth, but you have created a family, here and in the town. I want to be at your side until I’m old, sharing family life with you.’

Without thinking, I reach out and touch his face, because I can’t not. I hold my hand to his cheek and he kisses my palm, keeping his lips there, sending fireworks through my body, like Bastille Day celebrations, when the French rejoice in a new dawn in France’s history. And this, I think, is mine. I can’t fight it. I can only celebrate it. This is my new dawn with a man I love and a family that has come together through love and trust, and that’s enough.

‘Now,’ he stands and I wonder if he’s leaving, ‘will you please let me take you to bed,’ he says, picking up the wine bottle and the glasses, ‘and let me enjoy starting our new family life together? I don’t need a baby to want to spend the rest of my life with you, Del. You are all I need.’

‘Really?’

‘Trust me. Because we do at least have that.’

I smile and take his hand. I have everyone around me that I love, and that is more than enough. I know that Mum, looking down on me, would agree as the sun disappears over the horizon of the lavender fields, preparing for the new dawn.

Epilogue

There is lavender everywhere, in milk churns, across the terrace over an arch at the clearing with the lavender field behind it. Everything is set. Cream and lavender ribbons blow in the breeze.

‘I want Ralph to come with me,’ says Tomas, in his thick French accent, now totally bilingual and impressing his teachers when he started school.

‘I’m not sure Ralph would make a very good ring-bearer,’ I say, attaching a small lavender corsage to his buttonhole.

‘I want Ralph!’ he says, and his face starts to crumple.

‘Okay, okay, Ralph can come too!’ I don’t want anything to spoil the day as we make our way out into the lavender field.

Everyone is there, on the white chairs from the brocante, in the cool of the spring sunshine.

The music begins and Tomas, holding Ralph’s collar, leads him down the aisle to the lavender-covered archway, where the celebrant, the mayor, is waiting and smiling.