‘Your driver?’ said Alexandra. ‘Last time I was with you, you were in a Deux Chevaux, bumping over the fields.’
‘But I had a driver!’ he said indignantly.
Alexandra laughed, remembering the farmer who’d been so kind and, to her, incomprehensible.
‘The office sent this one. I had to sign some papers and so they collected me from where I was staying this morning.’
‘You were in Paris last night?’ she said, thinking of the pleasant but, for her, desolate evening she had spent with Donna and Bob, who had gone to such lengths to make her happy. To think that Antoine, who had filled her thoughts so completely, had been in the same city and she hadn’t known!
‘I couldn’t come to you last night, however much I wanted to,’ said Antoine. ‘I couldn’t rush off immediately after arriving at my godmother’s house, which was already late in the evening. She would have been deeply offended and shocked at such rackety behaviour. And everyone – all the family – said I had to propose to you properly.’
‘Oh!’ said Donna, excited, looking at Alexandra. ‘And did he?’
Alexandra considered. ‘No, I don’t think he did.’
Antoine instantly went down on one knee. ‘My darling Alexandra, will you do me the great honour of becoming my wife?’
She laughed and took hold of his hands. ‘I think I will,’ she said, pretending to think about it. ‘I might like being a countess.’
Antoine got up and hugged Alexandra, and then Donna hugged them both. ‘So, is it time for more champagne?’ she said.
Bob, who hadn’t yet set off for the office, came in. ‘My wife has become addicted to champagne since we’ve lived in Paris but there was never a better reason for it.’
‘Do you have to carry her back to the country immediately?’ said Donna wistfully. ‘Could we keep her in Paris for a little longer?’
‘We probably should get back,’ said Alexandra. ‘I was organising a wedding, after all.’ She was suddenly filled with longing for the chateau and everyone who lived there; it was her home and the people in it were her family.
‘I think the wedding will manage quite well without us,’ said Antoine. ‘I want to show you Paris. We must buy an engagement ring and there is a fairly elderly lady I must introduce you to. No marriage without her consent will be quite legal, I’m afraid. We’ll go home when we’ve done all those things and the wedding is safely over.’
‘But Stéphie—’ Alexandra protested.
‘Stéphie will understand completely. It was she who gave me very strict instructions that I wasn’t to come home without you.’
‘Are you only marrying me to please your daughter?’ asked Alexandra.
‘Pas du tout. But if I don’t marry you, my daughter – in fact none of my children – will ever forgive me.’
Donna sighed. ‘I am very, very happy for you.’ She paused for a second. ‘Bob, will you take me to that restaurant that all our American friends rave about? I was going with Alexandra, but she won’t want to come now.’
‘Why wouldn’t we want to come?’ said Alexandra. ‘It sounds delightful.’ In spite of everything, of her and his feelings at last being acknowledged publicly, she suddenly felt a little shy of being on her own with Antoine.
‘We can celebrate in company,’ said Antoine, ‘and perhaps postpone the champagne?’
‘Oh,’ said Donna, clapping her hands. ‘Think how cool it will be if we arrive with a real French comte and his beautiful fiancée! I just hope all my ex-pat friends are there!’
‘We’d love to join you, if you don’t mind?’ said Antoine. ‘But before that, I must make some arrangements.’
‘So must I!’ said Alexandra. ‘I must tell my relations I’m going to be married!’ She suddenly felt wildly happy; the man she’d fallen in love with the moment she saw him loved her back. ‘Do I have to write a whole new postcard, do you think? Or can I just say “Forget all that, I’m getting married”?’
Donna tutted and shook her head, apparently disapproving of Alexandra’s flippancy. ‘I think you should add that he’s a comte. They need to know that.’
Alexandra gave her a delighted hug.
When they were alone again, Antoine said, ‘Will it take you long to write your postcard? I want to take you to buy an engagement ring. If I don’t, when I take you to meet my godmother, who is formidable, she’ll make you have a family piece which will be very old-fashioned.’
‘I like old things. It’s probably why I fell in love with you …’ She bit her lip, not sure if he’d find this amusing.
He raised an eyebrow but the corner of his mouth twitched. ‘I must get used to the fact that I’m not marrying a woman who worships her husband.’
