‘I shall help you both, and that’s an end to it, Mrs Partridge. Another word of remonstration and I’ll insist on doing it all myself.’
With a magnificent display of reluctance, Mrs Partridge finally took off her apron and hung it on the back of the door, where she and Florence kept their gas masks, now contained in the Christmas presents Romily had given them – smart new cases, one a shade of magenta, the other navy blue. ‘Very well, Miss Romily, I’ll do as you say, and with as much good grace as I can muster.’
Romily smiled, catching the twinkle in the other woman’s eye. ‘I’m very glad to hear it. By the way, have you seen Florence?’
‘If you can find Billy,’ Mrs Partridge said with a chuckle, ‘you’ll find Florence. They’ve been joined at the hip for most of the evening.’ She gave Romily a half-smile. ‘I don’t know what they find to talk about, I really don’t.’
Out in the bitterly cold garden, hidden from sight behind the big old cedar tree, with raucous voices giving vent to ‘Auld Lang Syne’ from inside the house, Billy and Florence weren’t talking; they were kissing as though their lives depended upon it. Florence often felt that way, that she needed to absorb as much of Billy as she could while she had the chance. It wouldn’t be long before he would be returning to barracks, and when he did, she didn’t have a clue when she would see him again. With a heavy sigh, Billy released her from his grasp. He shuddered and closed his eyes. ‘What is it?’ Florence asked, alarmed. ‘Are you unwell?’
He opened his eyes. ‘I’m not unwell,’ he said with a rasp in his voice.
‘What then?’
He grinned, revealing his uneven white teeth in the silvery moonlight that was shining down on them from a cloudless starlit sky. ‘Can’t you guess?’
She hesitated. And then she thought of what had been pressing hard against her while they’d been kissing. The very first time she had been aware of it, she’d been horribly embarrassed, scared too that Billy might insist on putting it where she didn’t want it to go. She might be naive compared to some, but she knew that was how she’d end up pregnant, and not for anything, not even Billy, who she loved with all her heart, would she let that happen.
‘If you’re talking about what I think you are,’ she said, ‘then my answer is still no.’
He shook his head with a smile and put a hand to her cheek, cupping it gently in his palm. ‘I’m not asking that particular question,’ he said softly. ‘All I’m saying is that that’s how you make feel. I love you, Flo. In fact, I love you so very much, I think it would be only right and proper that we should marry.’
She stared at him, shocked. ‘Marry?’ she repeated. ‘You mean us get married?’
He laughed. ‘Who else would I mean?’ And then dropping to one knee, he looked up at her. ‘Florence Massie, will you make me the happiest man alive and agree to marry me?’
In the boathouse, Allegra sat in the crook of Elijah’s right arm, while his left hand rested gently on her stomach beneath the blanket that covered them both. ‘I can feel it moving,’ he said.
‘She,’ Allegra corrected him. ‘I’ve told you before, it’s a girl.’
‘And I’ve told you before, you have no way of knowing. It could be a boy; a handsome boy just like me.’
‘And presumably just as modest as you, caro,’ she with a smile.
He moved his hand lightly over the baby as it continued to wriggle around. ‘Will you promise me something?’ he said finally.
‘Depends what it is you want me to promise.’
‘Promise me that if you’re wrong and it’s a boy, you’ll still love him.’
She sat up straight, dislodging his arm from around her shoulder. ‘Why would you say that?’
‘Because I’d hate to think of this poor child not being loved just for being a boy.’
‘It’s a girl,’ she said adamantly, ‘so it’s an unnecessary promise to make.’
‘Allegra, don’t be stubborn. Just say the words, “I’ll love this child whatever.”’
‘And since when have you become the one who tells me what to do?’
‘Since I decided that we should get married.’
She stared at him, stunned, not quite believing what she’d heard him say. But then quickly recovering, she said: ‘And you think marriage would give you that right over me?’
He laughed. ‘Not for a minute. But the thought of it did stop you in your tracks, didn’t it? So how about it, Allegra? How about we put an end to all the talk in the village and surprise everybody?’
‘Would that be the only reason for us to marry?’
‘Oh, my darling Allegra, of course not. We should marry because I love you and you love me. And then the beautiful daughter you’re going to give birth to, or the handsome son, will have a father in its life. The child could have my name on the birth certificate to make everything nice and respectable.’
