Impossible Things (2 page)

             
Lucy was shocked. Horrified. “London? But Sam, why London?”

             
He must have seen the look of fear on her face and it was clear that he didn’t understand it. “Why London? It’s for you of course. I know you miss your grandmother and it was because of me that you didn’t go see her that first summer that we met. So I thought you’d like to live in London to be near her while she’s still alive.”

             
Lucy shook her head trying to clear the image of her grandmother dying. Such a thought felt like a stab in the heart. Though she hadn’t seen her grandmother in years Lucy still pictured her as a strong, forty-something woman. A world without her grandmother in it wasn’t one that Lucy wanted to be in.

When she didn’t respond Sam went on, “If its money
that you’re worried about, don’t. The internship comes with a salary. Plus I’ve been saving all these years. We’ll be fine, I promise.”

             
Lucy tried to control the tide of emotions that swept through her. She was scared, confused, but most of all she was furious. He had it all wrapped up, and was presenting it to her with a bow on it, and though he claimed it was for her, he hadn’t really thought about her at all.
She
was doing an important internship, one that would ensure a good job and she was working hard to prepare for her examinations.

It was the worst possible time for her to leave the States, and what gave him the idea that he could decide their future without consulting her?

He smiled at her, proud of himself, confident in his decision, and in his right to dictate her life, and she wanted to smack him. The urge was so strong that she had to fight it, to reach down and clasp her hands together so that they didn’t reach for him of their own accord.

He leaned forward to kiss her and when his mouth touched hers she wanted to bite him.

But she didn’t.

Like she did with everything else in her life, she pushed the anger down.

When he pulled her hard against him and whispered in her ear, “I love you so much Lucy,” she nodded against his neck and said, “I love you too.”

             
Her answer was automatic, a learned response. She did love him, but she was hurt and angry.

She tried to tell herself that she could find an internship in London and continue to study for her exam. She would also be close to her grandmother whom she had loved and worshiped as a child. It would be fine.

She was…almost positive of it.

When she pushed it down hard enough her anger at Sam taking control of her life without asking vanished like a puff of smoke. But it was quickly replaced by a new and more powerful emotion-fear. The fear that her grandmother hadn’t changed and that she wouldn’t like Sam and wouldn’t understand the person that Lucy had become.

              After all, she was the one who had introduced Lucy to a different kind of life. She was the one who had whispered stories of a different world, of a different path, to young Lucy. She was the one who made her want things that she shouldn’t want.

             
Her grandmother had said that those things were in their blood, that their very blood contained a legacy of longing, of dreams, and of wanting a life that was far from ordinary. Lucy had strayed far from that path. What would her grandmother think of her now?

                            So Sam and Lucy moved to London, and everything was fine. For a while.

             
Her Grandmother hadn’t changed at all during the twenty years that they had been apart. She met Sam and Lucy at the airport and as Lucy walked through the baggage claim area strong arms wrapped in mink enveloped her.

“Luciana Ophelia, I have missed you so much!”

              Lucy smiled at Sam’s laugh and when her grandmother let her go she turned to him with a blush on her face. Sam smiled and raised an eyebrow and asked, “Luciana Ophelia?”

             
Before she could reply her grandmother reached out, grabbed Sam, and pulled him to her. “What a handsome young man you are. No wonder my Luciana Ophelia fell in love with you.”

             
Lucy couldn’t help but laugh at the look on Sam’s face as he was engulfed in her grandmother’s strong arms. He was at least a foot taller than her grandmother, and he had to bend at an odd angle to stay upright as her grandmother pulled his head to her shoulder. Pushing him back her grandmother looked up at his face before grabbing him again and planting a kiss on his cheek that left behind a red lipstick stain. “Young man I am so glad to meet you!”

             
Sam smiled at her in bewilderment, but said, “You too Ma’am.”

             
Her grandmother made a clicking sound of displeasure that Lucy remembered well and said, “None of that nonsense now, no Ma’am for me. Call me Isabella.”

She pulled Lucy to her again and kissed her before turning back to Sam and saying, “I can see from your expression that our Luciana never told you her real name. Now that’s a story to tell, so come along and let’s get a drink.”

              Before Sam could protest her grandmother had him by the arm and was pulling him along with her. Lucy smiled at him when he turned to look at her. She’d started to follow behind them when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned to see that a man, only a few years older than she was, and wearing an immaculate dark suit, was standing at her side. He smiled at her and extended his hand. “Luciana pleased to meet you. I’m Rodrigo.”

             
He was gorgeous, probably the most gorgeous man that she had ever seen. He was young, and Italian, if his name and the accent that she heard in his voice were anything to go by. She grinned at him and couldn’t help asking as she shook his hand, “Measure for Measure?”

             
He nodded, smiled and bent his head over her hand to kiss it in an old world manner that instantly charmed her. He stood straight, waved his hand and two porters instantly appeared who proceeded to load her and Sam’s luggage on a cart.

“Is this all you have?” he asked.

              She could hear the surprise in his voice and she smiled. “This is everything that we own.”

             
Rodrigo smiled and shook his head in surprise. “Well don’t let your grandmother know that unless you want to be taken shopping.”

             
When he held out his arm she hooked hers through it.

“Please allow your grandfather to escort you,” he said and she laughed as they followed the scent of her grandmother’s perfume.

              They found Isabella and Sam already seated at a small table in the VIP lounge. A waiter was hovering over them and Lucy felt guilty when she saw the shell-shocked look on Sam’s face. She really should have tried to prepare him, but how did you explain someone like her grandmother? It would be like trying to describe a Picasso to a blind person. How could you talk about color and light when the other person had no idea what they even were?

             
Lucy sat down next to Sam, grabbed his hand, and squeezed it. His smile was grateful and she leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek before turning to see that her grandmother was ordering champagne. “Isabella it’s only eight. I think it’s a little too early in the day for Sam and me to be drinking. We’ve been flying for most of the night.”

             
Her grandmother dismissed her concern with a wave of her hand and told the waiter, “Add some glasses of orange juice for the young people please.”

             
The waiter nodded and performed a move that was close to a bow before walking off, and Lucy smiled at the realization that her grandmother still had the ability to make men do her biding with a single flick of the wrist.

Isabella grabbed Rodrigo’s hand and brought it to her mouth to kiss the back of it before reaching out to squeeze the top of his thigh. Her hand was so close to his groin that as she pulled it away it brushed against him and Lucy watched as Rodrigo smiled devilishly at her grandmother.

              She felt Sam jerk in surprise. Obviously he had seen it too, and she squeezed his hand again to try and calm him as she asked, “So how long have the two of you been married?”

             
Sam’s head jerked towards her at that and she felt the tension build in his body. Her grandmother must have seen it as well because she reached out to pat Sam on the shoulder before answering. “Two years now. We met through a mutual friend and it was love at first sight. When he told me his name the next morning I knew it was fate.”

             
Lucy turned to look at Sam and saw the look of shock on his face but before she could say anything the waiter was back again with the champagne and orange juice as another waiter piled the table high with sandwiches and pastries.

Her grandmother reached out, took a mini éclair, and bit into it. There was no such word as diet in Isabella Lennox’s life. In her book life wasn’t about taking things away, it was about adding them. Isabella believed that life was to be lived to the fullest, and she did everything in her power to do just that.

When the cream from her éclair exploded she licked some of it away and then caught the rest with her black-gloved finger and reached out to feed it to Rodrigo. Lucy watched in fascination as Rodrigo took her Grandmother’s gloved-finger and sucked it into his mouth.

She turned to see Sam’s reaction but he was looking at his lap and not at the scene in front of them. Poor Sam.

              Her grandmother finished the éclair and wiped her mouth, careful not to smear her scarlet lipstick. She took a long swallow of champagne and sighed contently. Her words, when they came, were a repeat of Lucy’s thoughts. “Poor Sam I can see that I’ve shocked you. I’m sorry about that. But we Lennox women are known for our passions. As far back in recorded time as you can go, the Lennox women have been known for living large and satisfying
all
their desires.”

             
To punctuate her sentence she reached out and squeezed Rodrigo’s thigh again before turning back to look at Lucy and Sam. “Though I shouldn’t say
all
Lennox women. My daughter Rosaline has chosen a different path and married a stick in the mud. George doesn’t approve of my lifestyle or me, and when Lucy was seven he kicked me out of their home. I didn’t expect to see my girls again in this lifetime, so when Lucy called and said that the two of you were moving to London, I was thrilled. I’m looking forward to spending time with my granddaughter and also getting to know you Sam.”

             
Lucy saw the tension leave Sam’s body and she smiled to herself. She never had understood how it was possible for her father to withstand the powerful Lennox charm, but it looked as if Sam wasn’t able to.

             
She watched as Sam took a drink of his orange juice before he said, “Ma’am…I mean Isabella…you said you had a story about Lucy’s name?”

             
Her grandmother smiled and took another gulp of champagne before saying, “Oh my dear Sam, yes. We have a lot of very wild stories in this family that I’d be happy to share, but the one you want now is about the naming tradition that we have. You see one of our Lennox ancestors was a patron of Shakespeare. Wild Willy the family calls him. Anyway, the rumor was that my great-great…well how many ever greats it was, grandfather, and Wild Willy were lovers. Whether that was true or not, we don’t know. But we do know that when my ancestor and his wife had children, seven daughters to be precise, they named each of them after a character in a Shakespeare play. The tradition has continued ever since. We tend to girls and each of them is named for a character in a Shakespeare play. So your Lucy is actually Luciana Ophelia. Her father didn’t like the idea at all, but for the first, and I think last time, my daughter stood up to him.”

             
Lucy saw Sam smile and she was suddenly grateful to her grandmother. There was a lot more to the story then that but Isabella had cleaned it up for Sam’s benefit.

             
They finished their orange juice and pastries while her grandmother quizzed Sam over his internship. Lucy could tell that her grandmother was surprised when Sam said he was in banking but Isabella didn’t say anything. Lucy knew, with the instinct of a Lennox, that bankers were considered boring and drab. They were the people you hired to watch your money, not the people you married.

She was grateful when Rodrigo said, “London is the best city in the world for banking. This opportunity should get you a lot of offers.”

              Sam smiled at that and Lucy squeezed his shoulder with pride. She looked up, caught her grandmother’s eye and saw a look of concern flash across Isabella’s face. Lucy turned and looked out the window at the tarmac, refusing to acknowledge it.

             
Her grandmother insisted on giving them a ride to their flat despite Lucy’s protests. Rodrigo took his cell phone out, made a call, and when they went outside a long, black limo was waiting for them. The ride was a quiet one as they stared out the windows at the passing scenery. Lucy had been to London many times as a child to see her grandmother but it had been a long time before, and London looked different through her adult eyes.