Chapters (39)
- Cover
- Title
- Author’s Note
- Glossary
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Acknowledgments
“They sound something like someone sawing wood. But every one of them is different. So they can tell one another apart—know whether there’s a stranger in their territory or a possible mate.”
“Did you hear a leopard? Here?”
The girl was quiet for a moment.
“How did you know you wanted to, erm, marry Derek?”
Faye smiled, amused by how Clare’s thoughts meandered from Geoffrey and Derek to leopards and returned to Derek. She’d rather hear more about leopards.
“Pfft. It’s so long ago, I can’t really recall.”
It wasn’t true; she remembered well. Faye had been thrilled when Derek proposed. She hadn’t thought about the possibility until, a few days after Geoffrey and Michelle announced their engagement at the get-together at Michelle’s parents’ home, she bumped into Diane at the supermarket.
“So, I guess you and Derek will be next,” said Diane, as they walked towards the tills together.
Faye stared at her. “Gosh, I hadn’t thought about it.”
“You’re the only woman I know who I actually believe when she says that. Don’t you want to get married? Or just not to Derek?”
“I think so.”
Diane laughed and they went their separate ways, Faye thinking for the first time about marrying Derek. She hadn’t thought about it because it hadn’t seemed possible. Even though she was in love with him and being with him had opened a new world to her, it wasn’t her world. Derek and his friends went places and did things she’d only dreamt of. They were welcomed at the trendiest clubs and invited to the best parties. Then it occurred to her; if they did get married, Faye would, for the first time in her life, maybe feel as if she was in the inner circle.
It wasn’t as if she’d had a deprived childhood, but rather that her family was more accustomed to living on the outside, looking in. Hotels were places others checked into during the holidays, while Faye’s family camped at the beach or stayed with grandparents. The only restaurant she’d eaten at before she met Derek, was the pizza place the family frequented every first Friday of the month.