‘Did he try anything with you?’ he asked.
‘Well, he kissed me a couple of times. Oh, and he asked me to marry him.’
Charlie spluttered. ‘He did what?’
Bobby’s lip twitched to see him react. The jealousy seemed to do him good, overcoming for the moment that weary resignation it was so pitiful to see.
‘He wants me to move to Canada after the war,’ she said. ‘Raise a brood of ruddy, healthy mountain children, living the life of gentlemen farmers. It sounds a wonderful life, in spite of the bears.’
Charlie turned away, scowling. ‘Are you not going to leave? I’ve told you enough times that I don’t want you here.’
Bobby rested against him. ‘Must I? I’m quite happy where I am.’
‘You shouldn’t sit so close. Your fiancé might object.’
‘I don’t think he would at all,’ Bobby said softly. She drew the sapphire ring from her breast pocket and slid it back on to her finger.
Charlie stared at it, then blinked up at her.
‘What does it mean?’ he whispered.
‘It means I don’t love Ernie King. I love you, Charlie Atherton, stubborn, foolish and pig-headed as you are. Whoever you’ve been, whoever you are, whoever you’re going to be, there’s only room in my heart for one man and it’s you. Ernie knows that. It’s why he and Topsy conspired to get me here today. I love you, I’ve always loved you and I bloody well want to marry you.’
‘But I can’t—’
She leaned forward to stop his lips with a kiss.
‘I don’t care,’ she whispered. ‘I won’t walk away from you. I couldn’t, as long as I know you love me still. You do, don’t you?’
‘Of course I do,’ he whispered. ‘But you must care, Bob. How could you not?’
She placed the daisy chain she had been making over his head, and his mouth flickered with a smile.
‘Do you know what Teddy told me the day of his wedding?’ she said. ‘Why he went back to Topsy after having made up his mind she’d be better off without him? It was because he knew that even though he couldn’t give her a child, no other man would be able to love her as much as he did.’
‘Even so, you can’t pretend this doesn’t matter. That it doesn’t make a difference.’
‘I admit it isn’t how I saw our married life together,’ she said quietly. ‘I do want to be with you, body as well as soul. But if I can’t have the first part then I’m grateful to still have the second, and be able to say we belong to each other.’
‘Ernie King could give you so much more than I ever could.’
‘But he can’t change the fact I’m in love with you.’
‘Not… you wouldn’t take me just for pity?’
‘Charlie.’ She pressed his hand to her lips. ‘Don’t you know me better than that?’
He laughed then – a true Charlie laugh – and embraced her fiercely.
‘I thought this was the end,’ he whispered. ‘I thought life had nothing for me any more. And now there’s you.’
She peppered his neck with kisses, and watered it with a few tears too. ‘I’ve missed you so much.’
‘At least go away and think about it though, darling. It’s such a big change in our plans. You shouldn’t make a decision in haste.’
‘If I do, will that make you feel better?’
‘Yes, I think it will. I need to know you truly want this new future. That you’re going into it with eyes open.’ He stroked her cheek. ‘And if you decide it isn’t what you want after all, I’ll never resent you for it. I want you to be happy.’
