SPOILERS!!!
Rose’s story is quite sad. Despite admitting they are attracted to each other, nothing much happens between Rose and Henry for two years. Then when they have to travel to Athens for the launch of the new ship that the company has made – I realise that it was a shipbuilding company – we are not surprised by what happens. Rose and Henry stay in a hotel, and after the launch, Henry stays for dinner with Mr Giorgiadis, but unlike the other days, when he returns to the hotel, he knocks on Rose’s door, and they spend the night together.
Back in England, nothing happens between them. They simply go for a meal or dancing, and when he drives her home, they kiss passionately. When months pass, Rose longs for him, and unlike what she thought, a night is not enough. One day when Henry tells him about his wife being away, they plan to spend the night in a hotel. Henry books a room, and Rose packs a bag for the night, leaving a note to Verity about being tied up at work. When they are ready to leave the office, the phone rings. It is a call for Rose, and she is told that her father has died suddenly.
Rose rushes home and stays with her mother. This is a turning point as she knows that now that her mother is all alone, she won’t be able to leave. So she has to quit her job and move back home indefinitely. Henry calls and writes to her, but Rose decides it makes no sense to continue with that relationship when they can’t see each other. In one of his letters Henry tells her he loves her, but she doesn’t reply. Then several months happen, and Henry writes a letter, asking her to meet him as he has something important to tell her. This time Rose agrees to go and see him, and from the first hours of the morning she is all excited and nervous. She eagerly waits for the train which he will be arriving on, but Henry is not on that train or the following one, and after waiting for an hour Rose leaves.
When she gets home, her mother hands her a telegram. It is from Mr Georgiadis, telling her that Henry has died in a car accident. When he was about to cross the street, a car run him over, and he was killed on the spot. Rose is heartbroken and sobs all night. She goes to the funeral, but she refrains herself from showing how horrible she feels.
Then weeks later, she is alone at home when someone knocks at the door. It is Penelope, Henry’s wife. Rose is nervous about what she wants, and then she blurts out that she knows she was her husband’s bit on the side. Rose is flabbergasted, and then Penelope launches a diatribe about Henry wanting to divorce her just before dying. So Rose knows that this is what Henry had wanted to tell her. Penelope also mentions that he also changed his will and has left Rose £30,000. At the end of their conversation, Penelope realises that Rose is not the kind of woman she had thought, and she admits that she has been surprised.
Poor Rose! When life was about to give her the chance to be with the man she loved, destiny snatched him from her forever. What a sad story!!!
As for Eve and Myles, their relationship is gradually getting closer. When Eve has to go away for a conference for work, Myles suggests they could meet that night, and Eve is also as excited as Rose when she was to meet Henry. I find that their stories run parallel, and Myles doesn’t turn up either. When he texts her hours later, he only says that something has come up. Eve is bitterly disappointed and ends up crying. When she talks to him, he says he can’t tell her why he couldn’t make it to the hotel. We know that the reason was that his wife, Celeste, came back home that night when she was supposed to stay away overnight. There is a reason why Celeste turned up. She has accepted a job offer in New York, so this means that the family are moving there.
Myles hasn’t told Eve yet even though he can’t stop thinking about her. He knows that she was upset when he stood her up. Yet, a few days later he calls her and she suggests they could take Rose to the races as it is her birthday and she always talk about the horse races fondly. We know from the prologue in the book that after the races they finally make love. Will Eve’s affair be like Rose’s? Just a single night of passion, and then that is what she will have in her memories?
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