The Barn on Half Moon Hill by Milly Johnson

what had been worrying her all this time. That was an anxiety and a half to be carrying around with her.
    â€˜I know it sounds mad . . .’
    â€˜Do you know what I think?’ He said, cutting her off. ‘I’ve seen a few good men, young men, who left this earth way before they should have and, in my darkest times, I
had thoughts along those same lines as you. Then I began to wonder that if our spirits do go on to something else, maybe they dwell in many houses of happy memories and moments with all the people
who loved them, not just one. That’s how I processed it into some shape that I could make sense of and, in the absence of any solid evidence, it’s what I like to believe. We don’t
know what there is beyond this world, but this has helped me to deal with those I knew who died much too soon.’
    He looked into her eyes, which were as green as Christmas trees. There was something she hadn’t told him yet, he could sense it. Then she did tell him.
    â€˜I’m pregnant, Jacques,’ said Eve.

Chapter 6
    â€˜You own this?’ Franco half gasped, half laughed.
    â€˜Yep. I’ve been a right stupid idiot.’
    â€˜Why? I mean . . . well, I mean, why?’
    There was a bench outside the door of the dance school-cum-barn, which appeared to be the most solid structure around. Cariad sank down onto it.
    â€˜I had the mad idea of opening up a dance school.’
    â€˜Well, that’s not a bad idea, is it?’ said Franco.
    â€˜The woman who used to own it, Mavis Wickersley, was famous around here. She worked in Paris as a Bluebell girl and then came back home and founded this place. She had a fantastic
reputation. She wanted it to carry on being a dance school, which is why her estate wouldn’t sell it for any other purpose.’
    â€˜You should do this, Cariad.’ Franco was insistent. ‘And you should never have stopped dancing.’
    â€˜But I’m a—’ She cut herself off.
    â€˜You’re a what?’ Franco sat down on the bench beside her. ‘Cariad, talk to me. What are you?’
    Cariad sighed. Oh, where to begin? ‘Do you remember there was a time when I didn’t write to you for ages? When my dad died.’
    â€˜Yes, I do. Then you started writing again and that’s when you told me you weren’t going to be a dancer any more.’
    â€˜I was in the same car crash that killed my da. My leg was crushed. They thought I might lose it at one point, but they managed to patch it up with a lot of metal and operations. But I had
to wave goodbye to any ambitions to be the principal dancer in
Swan Lake
.’
    â€˜Oh.’ Franco hadn’t been expecting that. He thought she told him everything in those letters. ‘You didn’t say.’
    â€˜Boring, innit? Who wants to hear hospital news?’
    â€˜So that’s why you gave up wanting to dance?’
    â€˜I never gave up
wanting
to dance. But I can’t dance, can I? I tried to forget about it, but I couldn’t. It’s like it’s in my blood.
    I came up here for fish and chips and I saw this place the very day they were hammering the For Sale notice in the ground. I had a lot of compensation money sitting in my bank for a little house
but this mad idea overtook my whole brain:
I might not be able to dance properly, but I can teach others to, can’t I?
Never mind half moon, I think there must have been a full moon
that day that turned me bonkers. All I could think of was my da saying to me, “Cariad Williams, don’t you dare look down at a little moon in a puddle, when you can look up and see it
big in the sky.” So instead of a nice little flat, I went and bought this instead. On a mad whim. How stupid can you be? My mam and my uncle Effin would kill me if they knew.’
    â€˜I’m a great believer that what is meant to be will be, if that helps?’ said Franco, after a few moments’