‘Do you think she’ll take it?’
Betty whispered, ‘It wouldn’t surprise me if she has a lovely break, enjoy being a mum.’
‘I’ve never seen her looking so cheerful,’ Lucy said. ‘And Annabelis delighted. She’s had a great time getting to know Angus. How curious it must be for her, to find out he’s her real father. And now there’s a chance she might have a sibling before long, too.’
Miranda couldn’t help asking, ‘And who took the position of assistant dresser? Not Miss Driscoll, I hope.’
A laugh came from Betty. ‘It went to a younger woman. Rumour has it the queen and Miss MacDonald wanted someone who moves with the times, someone like Caroline.’ She grinned. ‘A compliment from the queen, no less.’
The doors opened, and in came the couple, both Caroline and Angus beaming with smiles, Annabel a step or two behind them. Instead of white, Caroline wore a fashionable pale-green dress fitted to the waist with matching gloves and shoes.
‘She looks ten years younger – like a different woman!’ Miranda said.
Lucy’s eyes went to Miranda’s dress. ‘So do you, Miranda. No more black! Italy must agree with you!’
Smoothing down her sleek lilac dress, Miranda quickly said, ‘When in Rome! The Italian women are so beautifully attired, and you can’t help wanting to join in.’
After the coronation, Miranda had handed in her notice to the men at the palace, who were vexed to see their star worker leave. She overheard someone say, ‘Who’s going to organize the Coronation Tour now?’
Miranda, however, had no intention of staying. What followed was a hectic few weeks in New York, selling variations on her article about the new era for women to a series of magazines and newspapers. She’d become quite the talk of the town, and after numerous meetings had been offered a position as European correspondent for one of the larger newspapers.
After that, she’d planned to fly back to Betty’s to start her new life in London.
Except that she’d gone via Rome to see Sinclair and found herself unable to leave.
Lucy had already spotted the ring on her hand. ‘Are you engaged?’
Miranda couldn’t suppress a grin. ‘He proposed the evening I arrived.’
It had been incredibly romantic, a trail of red rose petals leading to a candlelit table laid for dinner, a red ribbon tied around a rose on her plate, the ring hooked underneath the red bud, glinting in the dappled light.
As Caroline and Angus took their seats in front of the registrar’s desk, Caroline looked around, catching the eyes of her friends and giving them a quick smile. Just the sight of her, bursting with happiness, made Miranda’s heart glow.
‘When are they moving to Balmoral?’ she asked Lucy.
‘They’re leaving in the morning, taking their honeymoon in their new home, Angus’s cottage,’ Lucy whispered. ‘Angus has a week off work to show them around and introduce Annabel at the local school. She’s nervous, of course, but the town is small and friendly, everyone will welcome her.’
The ceremony began, bride and groom signing the registry, and to the glee of everyone present, the registrar pronounced them husband and wife.
As they rose and turned, they looked so happy that the whole crowd got to their feet, letting out a terrific cheer as they proceeded out into the morning sunshine.
The reception was to be held in a nearby pub, with a roast lunch and, if they were lucky, a few songs from Lucy and Morris.
As they walked, Miranda tucked her arm into Lucy’s. ‘Has there been any news of Richard Villiers?’
‘Your article caused a great stir at the palace.’ Lucy laughed. ‘You described him with just enough detail for everyone to put two and two together. Now they know precisely how he operates. Even though he wasn’t kicked out, he was made to feel unwelcome, and after a desperate attempt to hold on to his position, he handed in his notice the following week.’
‘And what about the Thursday Lunch Club?’
‘Villiers was booted out of that, too. Rumour has it the queen’sadvisors warned that his misdemeanours could end up embarrassing Philip, so he had to go.’
‘Now that we have a bright young queen on the throne, perhaps in twenty or thirty years from now, it’ll be clever women like us at the top, ordering around old curmudgeons like them.’ Miranda laughed.
But Lucy just shook her head. ‘A younger woman bossing around an older man? That’ll never happen. It’s too degrading for a man to work under a woman.’
Miranda gave her a playful slap on her arm. ‘It’s talk like that that stifles our progress, Lucy. We have to believe it’ll happen, otherwise we’ll never get anywhere. We have to see it in our mind’s eye. How will women ever rise to the top if we don’t believe we can?’
After the feast, Angus gave a speech, raising a toast to his beautiful bride, ‘The woman who always should have been mine.’
