Read In Love Again for Free Online

I’ve never been.”
    Claire smiled. “It’s really an incredible place.” Her face clouded. “I mean, I’m not saying I made it incredible. That probably sounded horribly arrogant—”
    Boppy reached across the space between them, holding up one hand, but not touching Claire. “Relax. Tell me about Wick Castle.”
    “Oh, okay.” Claire took a deep breath and tried to relax. She liked this woman already and she wanted to impress her. But she got the feeling that if she actually made an effort to impress her, that would very much not impress her. “So, when we moved there twenty years ago…” Claire shook her head. She didn’t even feel the press of tears anymore, just the press of time…of all that time. “Sorry, let me begin again. It’s all very new to me, speaking so boldly about myself. It feels very odd.”
    “I’m very interested. I’m asking. Please go on.”
    “Okay, when we moved there twenty years ago, I simply fell in love with the place. It had been so neglected. So unloved. Does that make any sense?”
    “Of course, it’s exactly how I felt about my place in the country. Why didn’t anyone see what a diamond it was? I loved that moment. I think that’s also when I fell fully in love with my husband. Because I saw he felt the same way.” Claire suspected that Boppy had initially mentioned her husband in an offhand way, but she was now looking more carefully to see how Claire responded to talk of husbands in general. The last thing Boppy Matthews needed was some watering pot of a divorcée junking up the place.
    Claire sat up straighter. “Funny. I might have taken a page from your book. Because my husband’s utter lack of interest in the renovation and preservation of his ancestral home should have sounded all sorts of alarms.” Claire waved her hand. “But that’s neither here nor there. In fact, his disinterest really gave me free rein. It was my money, well, again, another story for another time, but I had the resources at the time to really…” Claire paused, trying to think of the right way to say it, how much it had meant to her. “To really bring it back to life. I felt like the buildings and the gardens were on the brink of death, and for once in my young life, I could actually do something about all the hopelessness. Maybe something that didn’t matter as much as feeding the hungry or teaching a child to read, but maybe caring for a physical place did have a meaningful…” Claire trailed off, noticing that Boppy looked almost angry. “I’m sorry. I was yammering.”
    “No! No, you were saying exactly what I feel. I don’t listen to my detractors, not now at least. After forty years of doing what I do, I think I’m finally confident enough not to care. I’ve seen enough people happy with my work—and maybe even happier in their lives from something that I’ve done, to make their lives more beautiful or comfortable—but it still rankles, doesn’t it? That little naysaying voice—usually our own—about the absurdity of our lives? Unless you are, oh, I don’t know, curing cancer, I guess, I think everyone must have those moments of wondering…what’s the point?”
    They both took a quiet sip of coffee.
    Boppy spoke first. “When Sarah’s mother died, that was really the final turning point for me. I had been so concerned with what other people thought of me and my work—I mean, let’s face it, in this business, as in most businesses, it matters . But Elizabeth James was so strong, so clever, so beautiful, so everything , really.”
    Claire smiled. “Sarah hardly ever talks about her. It’s lovely to hear.”
    “I think it must be horrendous for Sarah. Her father pretty much shut down after he lost her. And the second wife is abominable. I mean, that’s probably too harsh. Let’s just say she’s not my cup of tea. Anyway…” Boppy shook her head. “All of that is simply to say, when I lost my best friend, who really was not just my best friend,