‘It’s eau de love.’
She groaned and gave him a playful shove. ‘That is the most awful line I’ve ever heard.’
He laughed. ‘It’s so bad, even the toes on my prosthetic leg are curling up with embarrassment. To make amends, would you like your Christmas present now?’
She drew her shapely eyebrows together. ‘But Red, I haven’t bought you anything.’
‘At the risk of distressing you with another corny line, waking up beside you this morning was your present to me.’
‘Sweet man.’
‘You didn’t think that of me when we first met. You thought I was arrogant, conceited and self-absorbed, and full of a sense of misplaced entitlement. Yes?’
‘They were your finer points,’ she said with a smile. ‘What did you think of me?’
‘That you were beautiful and smart with a short fuse when it came to men who show up late for lunch. But boy did I get a kick out of being with you that day! So what’s it to be, your present now, or later?’
‘Later, please.’
‘As you wish.’
Pushing himself to his feet, he moved to one side so Romily could get out of bed. Reaching for her apricot-coloured dressing gown, which matched her nightdress, she slipped it on and kissed him.
‘I’m so very glad you came,’ she said.
‘Not as glad as I am.’
She smiled and went over to the window. ‘I see it’s still snowing,’ she said. ‘And judging from the footprints from one end of the garden to the other, two people have been out for a walk. Presumably Isabella and Max.’
He told her what he’d earlier observed.
‘A proposal?’ she said. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Looked like it from where I was standing. I can’t think why else he’d be down on one knee.’
She tutted. ‘I need to talk to Isabella. And Max.’
‘I totally accept it’s none of my business, but they both looked over the moon.’
‘But Isabella’s so young to marry. What will happen to her career as an actress if she marries?’
He frowned. ‘Plenty of girls continue with their acting careers when they marry. It doesn’t have to put a halt on things. And Isabella strikes me as a girl who knows her own mind.’
Romily shook her head. ‘You don’t know Max as I do.’
‘No disagreement there, but we all change as we grow older. Jeez, I wouldn’t want you to hold my past against me.’
‘I believe you’ve done that to yourself,’ she said, staring out of the window.
‘You’ve lost me.’ Although she hadn’t. He knew what she meant, but was surprised at the way she’d said what she had.
She shook her head again. ‘Forget it, I shouldn’t have said anything. It was wrong of me.’ She turned to face him. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘No, go on, tell me what you meant. Please.’
She sighed. ‘You’ve held your past against yourself, Red, you admitted that the other night. It’s why you’ve never given the whole of you to anyone, just the bits you’re prepared to share.’
‘Well, that’s harsh, but also true, I don’t deny that. Can I ask you something?’
‘Yes.’
‘Haven’t you done the very same thing? You said last night that you weren’t as impulsive as you used to be, that it was because of something that happened some years back. Whatever it was has affected how you trust people. Am I right?’
‘You are,’ she said, at length. ‘And I’m sorry for sounding so negative; it’s Max, he’s thoroughly rattled me. I promised Elijah, Isabella’s father, that I would do all I could to take care of her. I just don’t want Isabella to be hurt. By Max, or any man for that matter.’
‘If someone had tried to stop you marrying Jack, would you have listened?’
‘Of course not. And everything you’ve said, I’ve thought myself already. I’d give anything to be able to trust Max.’
‘You need to give him the chance to prove himself.’
‘I know. But, and as if the situation isn’t complicated enough, there’s someone . . . someone nearby who once made the mistake of growing too close to Max, and if he becomes a member of the family, it’s going to complicate matters horribly.’
‘Life is complicated,’ he said. He took her in his arms. ‘Look at us. How are we going to continue seeing each other when we live so far apart?’
‘That’s a very good question,’ she said with a long sigh, her head resting against his shoulder.
He kissed the top of her head and when she released herself from his arms and went to shower, he thought how committed she was to this beautiful house, and the extended family she had inherited through marrying Jack Devereux.
It seemed to Red, based on what she had shared with him, that she resided over the family like a generous-hearted matriarch. But had she sacrificed part of herself to do that? Did they, the Devereux clan, appreciate what she had done for them, he wondered? And could she ever give it up? Even partially?
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Woodend Cottage, Melstead St Mary
December 1962
Stanley
Christmas Day had got off to a terrible start for Stanley.
He’d been woken by Tucker barking and dragging himself from the warmth of his bed, he’d gone downstairs and discovered that the pipes had frozen in the night and burst. The kitchen floor was inches deep in a lake of icy cold water.
Stanley prided himself on having a practical nature, but he knew he’d be better to restrict his efforts to turning off the stopcock and baling out the kitchen, rather than attempt to mend the faulty pipe. Fortunately, the kitchen and scullery were a step down from the small sitting room, so the damage was limited to this lower level of the cottage. Odds on he wouldn’t be the only person facing a burst pipe, not when the temperature had dropped well below zero. It was anybody’s guess when a plumber would be available to fix the problem.
Now, having mopped away the last of the water and stoked up the Rayburn with coal to help dry out the place, he finally got around to making himself some breakfast.
While the kettle came to the boil on the hotplate, and too hungry to bother toasting the bread, he cut himself a thick slice and loaded it up with butter and jam. He was onto his second slice when the kettle boiled. His coffee made, he drank it while standing next to the Rayburn where Tucker was warming himself. Apart from the fireplace in the sitting room it was the only source of heat in the cottage.