‘Oh, her young man let her down apparently.’
Hardly able to believe what he was hearing, Luca stared at Maureen incredulously.
Her words had the desired effect. Before she could say another word, he began to stride towards the farmhouse. She smiled. She could do no more.
When Luca arrived at the door of the farmhouse he tapped on it and strode in, and there was Charity washing pots at the sink.
‘Luca!’ She looked shocked. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I could ask you the same. Scarlet told me that you had married a farmer and that you didn’t want me any more!’
‘But she told me that you and she had got together and . . .’
They stared at each other in shock as they realised what Scarlet had done to them. And then suddenly he was across the room and she was in his arms. Everything was right with the world again.
‘As if I could ever loveanyonebut you,’ he breathed as he rained kisses on her face, and she snuggled into him. ‘And to find out that I’m going to be a father, it’s wonderful!’
His lips came down on hers then and there was no more talk for some time.
It was almost an hour later when Maureen returned to find the young couple beaming.
‘I’m afraid Scarlet lied to both of us,’ Charity told her.
‘Yes, she did. And when she found I still wasn’t interested in her she transferred her feelings towards another of the circus chaps.’
Luca looked adoringly at Charity. ‘Had it not been for you we might never have realised what she’d done.’ He gave Maureen a grateful smile. ‘So, you must be the first to know. I have asked Charity to be my wife and she has agreed.’
Maureen clapped her hands with delight. ‘Why that’s wonderful. When is the big day to be?’
‘Just as soon as I can get the local vicar to marry us.’
‘I’m so pleased for you. But I’d ask you both just one thing. Once you are married, please visit your folks. It might just be that they’ll want to be part of their grandchild’s life. If they don’t you can always come back here and live in the cottage. I’m sure Eddie would be glad of another pair of hands to help about the place.’
Charity and Luca were married four weeks later in the tiny village church in Orton. Eddie and Maureen were their witnesses and the happy couple looked ecstatic.
Maureen had laid on a small tea party back at the farm for them once the service was over and it was there that Eddie made an announcement.
‘First of all, I’d like to drink a toast to the happy couple.’ He raised his glass of home-made wine and they all sipped. ‘And secondly, Maureen and I would like to share a little news of our own.’ He smiled at Maureen fondly and she blushed prettily. ‘I have asked Maureen to be my wife and I’m delighted to say she has agreed. Love must be in the air!’
Charity and Luca were thrilled for them. One way and another it had been a very happy day.
Chapter Twenty-One
‘Come on, my love. Just one more good push and this baby should be here!’ Charity’s mother encouraged. It was a bitterly cold day in late January.
Thankfully, because they were such good friends, the two sets of parents had held a meeting when they discovered that the young couple were now married, after each receiving letters from Luca. And although it went against tradition, each set had agreed that they should be given a second chance and be accepted back into the fold. As Luca would be running the circus one day it made sense for them to return there where they now had their own trailer.
Outside, Charity’s father and Luca’s parents were pacing the ground outside the couple’s home. They were anxiously waiting for the arrival of their first grandchild.
Charity’s Gypsy family was parked in the next field to the circus in Nuneaton.
Luca felt as if the baby was never going to come and couldn’t keep still. ‘Surely it should be here by now,’ he said to his father.
‘Babies have a habit of coming when they’re good and ready. But it shouldn’t be much longer now,’ his father soothed him.
Then suddenly the sound of a new-born baby’s cry rent the air and Luca stopped in his tracks.
Seconds later the trailer door burst open and Charity’s mother told him, ‘You have a fine healthy son, Luca. And he looks just like you. Would you like to come in and see him?’
