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‘How about you just open it, Arthur? Then you can stop guessing,’ her mother said. Holly could hear the worry still choking in her mum’s voice as she swallowed repeatedly, pursing her lips the way she did when she was really nervous.

As instructed, her father opened the envelope and pulled the paper out from within it. Rather than anything fancy, Holly had simply printed off the booking confirmation, meaning there was a lot of jargon on the page, and it would probably take him a little while to realise what the actual present was.

Holly and the others watched fixedly as his eyes scanned down the paper. Even when his eyes stopped moving and lips opened as if he was going to say something, silence swelled around them.

‘Well?’ her mother said impatiently.

Finally, he lifted his eyes from the page and shook his head slowly.

‘You have to be joking?’ he said.

14

No one was speaking. Arthur was still staring at the piece of paper in his hand, which trembled ever so slightly. Holly and Wendy were looking at him. And even without turning her head, Holly knew that Evan was looking at her. And Hope? Well, Hope was now trying to get back the yellow bunny that she had thrown across the room only minutes before.

Was the fact that her father had said nothing good or not? Holly couldn’t work it out. She knew people could be stunned into a silence when there were happy, but she’d never seen her dad that way before. And the longer the silence went on for, the more the tension wrapped itself around the room.

Finally, Holly swallowed down the lump in her throat and spoke.

‘Brussels is meant to be incredible, Dad. You know, there’s that massive place where they had the world expo in the fifties, and chocolate, of course, there’s chocolate.’

‘And I’m going?’

He looked at his wife, then Holly, and only then did she see the glazed sheen in his eyes.

‘Yes… Yes, if that’s okay. I mean, it’s non-refundable, so if you weren’t going to go?—’

‘Why the hell wouldn’t I go?’ His face was awash with disbelief. ‘Brussels? In Belgium? And on a train? You know, I’ve always loved trains.’

‘You have?’ Wendy asked.

‘Well, yes. Who doesn’t love trains? Go to sleep in one country, wake up in another.’

‘I’m pretty sure you can do that on planes, too,’ Holly said. ‘And boats.’

‘But on trains, you can see it all. The entire world passing by your window. I can’t believe it. I really can’t.’

The glaze that had covered his eyes only moments before was gone, but a single tear trickled down the side of his cheek.

‘Thank you, love,’ he said, holding his wife’s face as he planted a long kiss on her lips. ‘Thank you for this.’

‘It was your globe-hopping daughter’s idea,’ she said, throwing Holly a teary grin. ‘And I suppose we should thank Evan for that, too – putting all this travelling into her head.’

‘Well, whoever I should thank, thank you,’ he said. ‘Thank you very much.’

‘It’s only three nights,’ Holly told him, just in case he hadn’t had time to read through all the details yet. ‘We thought it was best we start with a short trip, you know, to find out if you enjoy it. Then maybe we can look at finding other deals in the future. Maybe other parts of Europe.’

‘Three nights?’ he said, his face smiling so wide, it looked close to bursting.

A series of hugs followed, with Holly and her dad, then with her mum, and even Holly and Evan. It didn’t really make much sense, but she was grateful for the extra time to hold him.

When the laughter and hugs had finally died down, her dad glanced out of the window.

‘Well, I guess we better get rid of all of them lingering outside. We’ve got to pack.’

‘We don’t get the train until tomorrow evening,’ Wendy told him. ‘We’ve got plenty of time if you want to enjoy one of Lenny’s sloe gins.’

‘And have a hangover when I need a full day to plan an itinerary and make sure we have the correct clothes for the weather forecast?’