A Loving Light
Copyright© 2026 by Marc Nobbs
Chapter 5: Altruistic
Marie called me when I got in from my last lecture that evening to tell me she’d arranged a meeting with Alastair Wood for the next day, and a Wintersmith board meeting for the end of the week.
“I didn’t mention your name, or Lana’s,” she said. “I know you like to surprise people. I just told him that representatives from The Wintersmith Fund wanted to speak to him about a possible donation.”
“The Wintersmith Fund? You’re inventing subsidiary companies for me now?”
“No, not at all. I just thought it would be good for branding to have a department or division dedicated to charity donations. It doesn’t need to be a separate company—in fact, it’s probably better if it’s not. I did consider calling it The Wintersmith Foundation, which sounds all official, but David said that implied a separate entity—like a proper charity—and that would be too much hassle to start with. He mentioned that a proper Foundation could be a good idea later on, but not right now. ‘Fund’ doesn’t have the same connotations. It simply means a pool of money that a business has set aside for charity.”
“Okay. I actually think that’s a good idea. The fund and, eventually, the foundation. Can we ask the designers to create a separate logo for it, like they have for Wintersmith Media and WSH?”
“Of course, I’ll email them now.”
“Thanks. So, Alastair doesn’t know who’s coming to see him?”
“No. Just someone from a business he’s never heard of with a charitable fund.”
“Okay, this should be fun. You come here to mine at five tomorrow, then we’ll pick up Lana and go see the look on his face when three ‘kids’ walk through the door.”
Because of the time difference, I had to wait until later in the evening to call Carly. I assumed she’d be sleeping in late after partying all night following her success at the Oscars. I finally picked up the phone and tapped the call icon in the messaging app just after six, which would be mid-morning for her.
The phone rang a few times before she picked up, and when she spoke, she sounded very groggy.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Carly, it’s—”
“Paul!” There was sudden brightness in her voice. “Oh, Paul, I’m so glad you called!”
“I haven’t woken you, have I? I guess you had a late night, right?”
“Hell, yeah! I didn’t get to bed until, like, four or something. It was crazy. We went to this big party, and there were so many big stars there—I mean, huge stars, you know? But Chloë looked after me and introduced me to everyone—she knows so many people. It’s crazy. And Sam knows even more—he’s real nice. A proper sweetheart, you know? And he adores Chloë. It’s so obvious. I think if he were ten years younger and she were ten years older ... But whatever. Yeah, it was a crazy night.”
“Sounds like you had a great time.”
“Oh, I did. I really did. But...”
“But what?”
Her voice turned sad. “It would have been better with you there.”
I didn’t answer. I didn’t know how. Instead, I told her how stunning she looked in her dress and how incredible her performance was.
It turned out to be a really enjoyable chat. I thought it might have been awkward, but it wasn’t. She told me everything she’d done since landing in L.A. on Wednesday and what her plans were for the rest of the week. She said she’d be in L.A. for another couple of days, then she would stay with her family in Alabama for a couple of weeks, as she hadn’t seen them in a long time.
After that, she planned to return to Nashville to start rehearsals for the tour, which was scheduled to begin in early June, aligning with the album’s worldwide release. As Roxie had suggested at the Manchester concert, the tour would start in Nashville, then head east, turn south, and finally go west for a ‘homecoming’ leg in Alabama, with the last two concerts in Huntsville—the nearest city to her childhood home.
“It felt weird when Jimmy called me ‘Huntsville’s Own’ because I hardly ever went into the city growing up. But, I guess, if he’d said, ‘Beaverbrook’s Own,’ most people would have said, ‘Where?’ Right? I mean, it’s such a small town. Nobody’s ever heard of it.”
“Ten people and a cow, you told me, didn’t you?”
“No!” she said, her voice full of mirth. “It’s twenty people and two cows. Well, a cow and a bull. You need a male and a female so that—”
“I get it.”
She giggled. “I’m looking forward to it, though. The Huntsville concerts. It should be amazing. All my friends and family are going to come.”
“Well, remember that because I’m funding it, I can get anyone you want free tickets. So even if you want your whole high school year group to go, I’ll cover it.”
“Oh, Paul, I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You’re not asking. I’m offering.”
She was silent for a few seconds, then said, “Okay. Thank you.” And after a pause, she added, very quietly, “Paul? Will you ... I mean, do you think you’ll be able to come to any of my shows?”
“Carly, I’d love to, but ... I will need to check my schedule. You know, when exams finish and everything.”
“Oh, okay.”
“But if you can get Glenn to email me all the dates, I’ll be able to check it all.”
“Okay. I think he wants to meet with you anyway. You’re effectively the tour’s promoter, which ... Well, I don’t really know exactly what that means, but you do need to be involved. You’re paying for everything, so you need to approve it all, I guess. And I think you get a bunch of free tickets for each show or something. I don’t know the details; Glenn handles all that. I just go where I’m told, when I’m told, and get up on stage and sing.”
“I’ll speak to Ben and Amiee, see what they say. They’re the experts in this, not me.”
“Okay.”
“But, Carly, if you’re not starting the tour until June, then I’m pretty sure that if nothing else, I’ll be able to get to your homecoming concert. How long is the tour likely to last?”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’ll see if I can bring the whole gang.”
“Including Lana?”
“Yes ... She’s ... She’s part of the gang now.”
“Good. I like her. She’s ... She’s like my best friend. I still message her every day.”
“It hasn’t even been a week yet.”
“I know, but ... She’s a real good friend.”
I smiled. I was pleased Carly had a friend she felt she could rely on—even if that friend was on the other side of the world.
“Carly, I need to ask you something.”
She sighed. “No, Paul, I’m not going to change my mind and suddenly tell you who ‘Love’s Light’ is about just because I’m thousands of miles away. I told you. You need to figure it out for yourself—”
“But, Carly, I—”
“Frankly, I’m surprised you haven’t already. I honestly thought it was so obvious that after the show in Manchester, or maybe the next day, you’d have asked me if it was her and I’d have said yes, of course it is, and the two of you would have been together already by the time I flew out here and I’d have been happy to know you were being taken care of. That you were happy. Because I will be, you know that, right? I want you to be happy, Paul, and I know that you’ll be happy with her.”
“Carly, I—”
“Because she already loves you, Paul. I know she does. I can see it. And I know that you will love her too, just as much as you love me and as much as she loves you. I know that you’ll love her because it’s meant to be. It’s written in the stars or something. Everyone can see it.”
“Everyone?”
“Hey, that’s a really good line for a song. I need a pen. I know there’s one around here somewhere, on the desk somewhere.”
“Pen?”
“Yes, I need to write that down, or I’ll forget it, and it’s a really good line. I do it all the time, Paul. When I say or hear something that would make a good line in a song, I make a note of it. I usually do it in an app on my phone, but since I’m talking to you on my phone, I need to write it down and put it in the app later. I’ve got a folder full of great lines, and when I’m stuck in a song, I look in it to see if anything matches. Or when I start a new song, I look and see if there’s anything I can build a song around.
“I’ve been doing it all the time we were together, but because it looks like I’m just ‘on my phone,’ you probably didn’t notice. Yes, here’s one. Right, hang on while I remember what I said.”
“Written in the stars, you said.”
“Yes, I know. Let me get this down... I know that you will love her, because it’s meant to be, it’s written in the stars, and everyone can see. Got it. Right, where were we?”
“You were talking about whoever ‘Love’s Light’ was about, but that wasn’t what I wanted to ask you.”
“It wasn’t?”
“No. It’s about the revenue from ‘Always.’ Marie has given me details for the first week and projections for the total and ... Well ... It’s a lot more than I expected.”
“No.”
“No?”
“No, I’m not taking any of your share, Paul. I told Lana to tell you that.”
“She did. And although I think you should have some, I accept that you won’t take it. No, I was thinking about how I could ‘do something good’ with it. You know, the ‘Altruistic’ thing.”
“That thing your professor talked to you about.”
“Yes. That thing.”
“Okay. So ... What’s that got to do with me? You don’t need to ask my permission or anything.”
“No, but I do need to ask ... Look, I’ve already got ten percent going to Blackfriars’ as payment for them performing on your album—that’s the deal I cut with them. Ten percent of my share, so, like three percent of the total, right?”
“Okay. That’s nearly as much as me. I get five percent as the artist and three and a bit as the writer.”
“Which is why I’d like to give you ten percent of my share too, if you weren’t so stubborn.”
“I’m not being—”
“Yes, you are. But, whatever. I’ve decided I’d like to donate the same amount to the Music Trust here in Westmouth. Lana learned to play with them, and she’s on your album, and after you visited them and everything, I just thought—”
“That’s a great idea! I love it.”
“And I was thinking that, well, is there something similar in Beaverbrook? A charity that helps young people learn to play music?”
“Oh, I don’t know if there’s a charity the same as y’all’s trust, but I know that Huntsville has a youth orchestra—there were a couple of kids in my high school that were members. And I’m sure that the music club at Beaverbrook High would be very grateful for a donation.”
“Okay, that’s ... That sounds perfect. I’ll ask Marie if she can try to make contact with them. Let’s see what we can do. Maybe ... I don’t know, maybe we can have an award at your high school in your name—I’ll fund it, but we give a prize to the best or most promising young musicians each year.”
“Oh, that would be amazing!”
“And maybe you could go back there every year to present it.”
“Well, maybe not every year, but yeah, I’d be happy to do that.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to Marie.” I paused. “I’d better go. It’s getting late here, and you probably have things to do.”
“Yeah, I should get out of bed and get ready for the day.”
“You’re still in bed?”
“Well, yeah. You woke me up, remember? Do you want to know what I’m wearing to bed?”
I paused. Visions of Carly, naked, cuddled up by my side in bed, filled my mind.
“You remember that negligee you bought me in Manchester?”
“I paid for it. You went into the shop and bought it.”
“And it was worth the secrecy to see the look on your face that evening. Well, I’m wearing that. It’s actually really comfortable to sleep in.” She paused. “And it makes me think of you. Makes me dream of you.” Another pause. “I hate waking up alone, Paul. I miss waking up with your arms around me. It made me feel so safe and loved. Oh, that’s another good line...”
“I miss waking up with you, too.”
“Do you really mean that? Or are you just saying it because I did?”
“I really mean it. Ever since you left, I’ve woken up and reached out to the empty space in my bed. I hate it.”
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