A big purchase.
The sort that one way or another was going to change my life.
I was going to ask Iris to marry me, and I was going to do it before she had our baby. I didn’t expect us to get married before then – I’d leave that decision up to her because I’d be happy running off to Gretna Green or Vegas, but I was well aware that women could have different ideas about such things. As long as she became my wife and took me as her husband, she could have whatever wedding she wanted.
So I had the ring, and I hopefully still had the woman, so I just needed a plan of how I was going to propose.
My walk led me to Mavis’ house, the woman herself out in her garden tending her spring plants and moaning about Clover’s cat who she said was defecating in her flower beds on purpose. Moonshine could well have been. The cat was a huge thing, more like a panther but with a lot more fur, and he definitely had a mind of his own.
I stayed out of that debate though. It wasn’t up to me to defend the furry beast – Clover was more than capable of doing that herself – but Mavis had never given me bad advice when I’d asked for it in the past.
“I want to propose to Iris. I need some idea of how to do it.”
Mavis glared at me. “You open your mouth and say the words ‘will you marry me’. It isn’t that hard.” She sipped at her tea, which I imagined had a dash of whisky in it.
“I know what words to say, I just need to think of a good way to do it, so she never forgets.”
Mavis shook her head at me again. “I’ve had five marriage proposals, Gulliver, and I remember every one as clear as if it was yesterday. It doesn’t matter where you are, she’ll remember someone asking to marry her.”
“Five proposals?” I frowned, not sure if I was hearing her right. “How many times were you married?”
“Married twice. Freddie asked me three times – I said yes on the third time. Ron asked me once and there was a boy called Gary who asked me when I was just seventeen. I’d have married him as well only my mother and his mother hated the bones of each other, so I decided it would be a bad idea.” She stared into the distance. “He joined the army and didn’t come back. Shame. He was a good man.”
“Why did it take you three times to say yes to Freddie?” I hadn’t heard this story before.
“Because I wasn’t sure I wanted to actually marry him. He was a flirt and he sniffed around a few of my friends. We weren’t stepping out or courting, mind. I was just the only girl who wouldn’t pay him the time of day so I was a challenge. I had him running round in circles, he was that determined to get me and he did in the end. We were married for thirty years, until he died.”
“What did he die from?”
Mavis smiled. “You don’t know this story? He was a fisherman. The boat capsized in a storm and he never came home. Only one of them came back. It was when we lived in Holyhead, a long time ago. I met Ron when I moved back here and he became the next love of my life, even though we didn’t have long together. He died of pneumonia.” Her usual cantankerous demeanour was lost for a moment. “I stayed by myself after that. Think I was a bit cursed.”
“Just unlucky. What was the best proposal?”
“They were all the best, young man. Stop overthinking it. Just have the ring ready and when the moment arises, take it.” She slapped the arm of her chair. “Now I’ve got a meeting with Linda for a game of cards at the Puffin Inn, maybe you can walk me over.”
I decided to take Mavis’ advice, which I usually did to be fair. Instead of planning something extravagant, I kept the ring to hand and decided to bide my time.
The time was almost when we went back to the cottage hospital for the twenty-week scan.
We were nervous, almost as nervous as when we’d headed to the same place weeks ago when we were anxious that something wasn’t right. We’d talked about whether we wanted to know the baby’s gender several times and hadn’t come to any conclusion, apart from that Iris had the final say, given she was going to have to do the hard work.
Carole met us at the desk again, gushing over the book of mine that she’d just read and asking the same questions about Detective Joe that I was usually asked. It was a nice distraction and it helped that she was happy and positive rather than concerned about everything.
Iris got on the bed, shifting her clothes around and glancing at the screen then me, quieter than usual. Carole chatted away, asking how everything had been and if there were any questions or worries. We ran a few things by her, which we kind of knew the answers to, but wanted to ask anyway.
The heart rate was slower this time, which was right for the stage of pregnancy. It was clear and strong, filling the room with its booming and I saw Iris relax a little more. I leaned over and kissed her while Carole put the gel on.
“Do you want to know?” Iris asked me. “Shall we find out.”
“It’s up to you. I can wait if you can.” I knew it was the right answer with the way Carole smiled at me.
“It’s isn’t one hundred percent accurate and the baby might be in a position where we can’t see anyway. I won’t give anything away unless you want to know.” She pressed a few buttons again and the screen came on.
A few seconds later and the image on the screen looked like a baby in black and white, moving around some.
I stared, grasping hold of Iris’ hand, all kinds of awe making me speechless.
“It looks like a baby.” Iris clutched my hand back harder. “I can’t believe that’s growing inside me.”
