Coppelia did begin a new relationship in the spring of that year. In late March she met and began to see someone else, they grew close and a month later spent a week in Paris together. Paris - where HE had always promised to take her, but never had...and she remembered this every second of that week, saw him and heard him everywhere, found herself imagining, dreaming... Coppelia had found the will to insist they no longer had any contact, this was the only way forward from now on. And he was heartbroken.
Her new relationship continued into early summer. He wrote her a poem around then, and contacted her, realising he could not go on without her, that the wall he had built had crashed down around him when he found she would be spending her days in the arms of another.
As life had continued for him with only H for company, the days becoming lonelier, emptier and more pointless, the future too bleak without Coppelia, he reached a decision. He told H he could not go on and would be moving to his holiday home in Sheringham in mid-September. By this time Coppelia's relationship had ended, her heart never really in it, the ache of the past always casting a shadow. When he told her of his decision, however, she felt caution - could she really trust he would carry this through, at last? Would he back down at the last minute? Dare she again open her heart and soul to him, be fully with him in every way, seeing a future together?
They met a few times, Coppelia maintaining a detachment, listening, questioning, feeling her way back to him. He totally understood her reticence, was more than understanding...he would move to Sheringham regardless of whether she joined him as he could no longer stay with H and live a lie to himself. He longed for Coppelia to be with him again...
So it was in a wood in summer as they laughed and played like children, when Coppelia said yes to him. August was days away. Dappled light danced in all directions around them as they spoke of how, when and where things may happen in the following weeks. His cancer checks had continued every six months and he was still in the clear. After the next one they would occur annually.
Hopefully time was still on their side, but nothing was certain and Coppelia knew that, with freedom to be properly together, she would drink in every moment with him.
