Now, as if reading his thoughts, Alice swallowed hard over her disappointment. ‘Of course, Sam – you should be there tomorrow,’ she said. ‘I quite understand.’
‘I know it will be a fascinating experience to see this op taking place,’ Sam went on, unable to hide the sudden enthusiasm in his voice, ‘ it’s to be on a very small child with a particularly difficult brain tumour – which I know I will find uncomfortable to watch. But the surgeon is a brilliant man…I must look, learn, and inwardly digest,’ he added.
They quickened their steps back to the house, Alice unable to stop feeling disappointed and rather miserable that Sam was going back tonight. Tonight of all nights. The night of their engagement. So much for their wine and cosy conversation later, and their bacon and eggs in the morning…her euphoria so soon replaced by an acute sense of loss.
And although she readily saw his situation – couldn’t he, just for this one, very special evening of their lives, waive his point of view? Couldn’t he have put her – well, them – first, and not gone to the pre-op talk in the morning? So they could have had most of tomorrow together?
Then Alice pulled herself up short. What was she doing, having these thoughts! Because she had sealed her own fate when Sam had proposed to her. Then, she herself, had assured him that any wife of his would be pleased and proud to support him, and his chosen way of life, his profession. And she had meant every word. And did mean every word!
Still…it would have been lovely to have had her fiancé all to herself. Not to share him with anybody else. Just for this one, very special weekend of her life…
Was that really too much to ask?
It was 3.30 the following Sunday. Alice had been met at Temple Meads by Fay, and Eve had come over to Bristol by bus. And as the three greeted each other exuberantly outside the Royal Hotel, one or two passers-by glanced at them quickly. Obviously some sort of celebration going on over there…
Fay glanced over her shoulder, giving a rather lop-sided victory V sign to one particularly interested observer. ‘’Ave I got something belongin’ to you, or are you just admirin’ me get-up?’ she called out, turning around with a swirl to give a better view of herself.
Eve caught hold of her, laughing. ‘Oh, Fay…you are awful!’ she exclaimed. ‘We can’t take you anywhere! Now you’ve embarrassed the poor chap!’
‘So what? He shouldn’t be staring at us like that,’ Fay said firmly. She glanced behind her again. ‘Still – he’s a good-looker, isn’t he? Perhaps he’d like to join us for tea – or join me later for something stronger!’ She put two fingers in her mouth and emitted a long shrill whistle. ‘Oy, you over there – I’ll be up the Mauretania later,’ she shouted suggestively.
The other two instinctively put their arms around Fay’s waist and escorted her into the entrance, and Alice said – ‘Fay Reynolds, you have not improved one bit since we last met! Remember how you were always teasing poor Roger like that? On our very first night you shouted down the stairs asking him to come and tuck us up! Remember?’ Alice shook her head. When you turned up at the farm, life was never going to be the same for him again!’
‘I certainly hope hot,’ Fay replied smartly. ‘He needed a kick up the pants, spending his whole life in solitary confinement down there.’ She grinned. ‘Anyway, he enjoyed a bit of a tease, didn’t he…’
‘And you were the one who always gave it to him, Fay,’ Eve said, sighing. ‘I always envied your cheek, how you always seemed able to get away with anything.’
Alice glanced at the other two fondly. Being with Fay and Evie again was like putting on a pair of lovely, comfy shoes…shoes that she knew wouldn’t suddenly expose underlying problems…
Inside, as they took their seats at the low, round table, there was a distinct air of excitement between them…well, they hadn’t been together for months, and Evie had such a lot to tell and had waited too long to get it off her chest – in person. Now there would be no stopping her!
And presently Alice would tell them her news. She had deliberately kept her gloves on to keep her secret for just a bit longer. Besides, the main reason they were here was to listen to Evie – who’d insisted that today’s occasion was to be her long-awaited treat for them all.
Fay, who was dressed in dark slacks and a bright red blouse the colour of her lipstick, her long hair dyed blonde, as usual, looked across at Eve and grinned. ‘Come on then, our Evie, spit it out,’ she said.
‘Well, I told you most of it on the phone,’ Eve said, ‘but the thing is, it’s still all going brilliantly – with Max and my parents, I mean. You remember I told you that they’d invited him to tea just after Christmas? Well, that’s become more or less a weekly occurrence – and I still can’t believe that it’s happened quite so easily – or so quickly. They’re beginning to treat him like one of the family!’
Eve paused for a moment, letting her words sink in. Then – ‘I only found out at Christmas time how they’d loved to have had more children,’ she said slowly, ‘so I was wrong, wasn’t I, in thinking that they’d resented having me…in fact, they said they were really sorry not to have given me a brother or a sister to grow up with.’
Alice dropped her gaze for a second as she listened to what Eve was saying. Yes, she thought, having a family, a family of your very own, always there to support you in every way must be wonderful. A family whose genes you shared, genes which bound you all together for ever. And however close she felt to Sam – and to his family – she could never really belong to them like a proper relative. It was just not possible. She bit her lip at her own thoughts. Sam still had his father, and four siblings…four! Just one or two would be enough for Alice. And he also had an uncle, and cousins…blood relatives, proper relatives…while she had only ever had her mother – and her father for a very short time. The uncles she’d heard about had been killed in the Great War, and she’d never met either of her grandparents because they had all died very young.
‘Anyway,’ Eve went on, ‘my father’s scones are getting better all the time – in fact we have Victoria sponges as well now. And of course my mother loves getting out her rosebud china tea service for each occasion.’
Both the others smiled at Eve’s exuberance – and thought how lovely she was looking. She was wearing a pretty, floral print dress and green jacket, her wonderful auburn curls framing a face which was alive with joy and excitement. Today was going to be a far happier event than the last time they’d been together, when Eve had been so certain that her parents would never accept their daughter having any sort of relationship with a divorcee.
‘And how is it between you and Max at work?’ Alice asked. ‘Do the rest of the staff know that you’re seeing each other – properly, I mean?’
‘Oh yes, they do now,’ Eve replied. ‘I think they’ve always known that we, well, like each other, but it must be obvious that we’re going out together. And I’m working four days a week now, so we see each other even more.’ She smiled at the others. ‘He’s teaching me the guitar – honestly, Max can play so many instruments! He puts me in the shade with my piano playing.’
‘No one will ever put you in the shade, Evie,’ Fay said firmly.
‘And as well as that, he’s going to tune our piano at home,’ Eve went on, ignoring Fay’s remark. ‘He does that as well, and he’s always out and about visiting clients – he’s promised my father that he’ll come over soon, and tune ours for us. And I can assure you that my parents are very, very fussy about who has anything to do with their precious instrument – which after all did feature so strongly in their professional music careers.’ Eve’s eyes clouded for a moment. ‘Of course, there’s still lots going on about Max’s divorce, but he should soon be free. Until