Impossible Things Read Free Page B

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.    
                  The city seemed large and impenetrable and Lucy hoped that she would be able to find her way around. She knew it would take time to get adjusted but she wanted it to be sooner rather than later. Sam would be busy with work and she would have to find an internship herself and learn the city on her own.
                  She didn’t remember much about the different London neighborhoods but she was able to see that the houses that they were passing weren’t as nice as those at home. She had never really thought about it before, but London, like any big city, had its bad parts and as they went further and further away from the airport she realized that she and Sam would be living in one of them.
    She kept her eyes on the passing scenery because she didn’t want to see the look that she knew would be on her grandmother’s face, and when they finally stopped in front of a house Lucy gave a sigh of relief. It wasn’t the greatest neighborhood but the house itself was the best on the block.
                  They got out and as Sam helped the driver get their luggage out of the trunk she finally turned and looked at her grandmother and Rodrigo. Her grandmother’s face reflected exactly what she had expected it to. Lucy started to turn back to the house but before she could her grandmother grabbed her arm and said, “Luciana you can’t be serious! You can’t live here.”
                  Lucy turned to make sure that Sam hadn’t heard Isabella before leaning towards her. “This is what Sam found so we’ll live here and we’ll be fine.”
                  Her grandmother shook her