next twenty minutes and more were almost exactly identical as Alix told Rhys’s parents the news. Next to her own parents, she was closer to them than to anyone, even her own relations, and had always called them aunt and uncle; the knowledge that their relationship was soon to become even closer gave them all the greatest of pleasure. ‘We’re so pleased, darling,’ Aunt Joanne told her. ‘We’ve been looking forward to this day for years.’
Alix accepted their happiness as perfectly natural, quite sure that their pleasure wouldn’t have been half so great if Rhys had chosen to marry some other girl. She had been a proxy daughter to them for so long, and now she was to officially become part of their family. Everything was perfect for them all.
It never occurred to Alix that his parents’ love for her might have influenced Rhys’s decision to propose to her. And it certainly never occurred to her that her own overwhelming love for him wasn’t reciprocated a hundredfold. Everything in the world was wonderful—except for the long, long wait for Rhys to come home and claim her as his own.
Keeping her engagement a secret for the next two months was terribly difficult, especially as her happiness shone from her face and was obvious for all to see.
‘You’re in love,’ Kathy accused her when she went into work the next day.
‘Yes,’ Alix admitted. ‘I am.’
‘Who with? Who did you meet over the weekend? It must have been love at first sight,’ Kathy said enviously.
‘Yes, it was. Isn’t life wonderful?’
‘I thought you were crazy over Rhys,’ the other girl said shrewdly.
‘Good heavens, what on earth gave you that idea?’
‘What’s this new man like?’
‘Oh, you know—just fantastic.’
More than that she wouldn’t say, but her whole outlook changed. Instead of window-shopping outside clothes shops in the lunch hour, Alix now wanted to look at cutlery and linens, at china and saucepans.
‘That’s boring,’ Kathy protested. ‘You’re too young and attractive to become a hausfrau. Anyone would think you were going to live with this guy.’
Alix protested, but was inwardly excited at the idea. Surely that was what Rhys had intended by letting her live in his flat while he was away? When he came back he would just move in with her and they would live together, eventually getting married, eventually having children, and definitely living happily ever after.
The rest of the day went past all too slowly. At the end of it Alix would dearly have loved to have gone home to share her excitement with her parents, but Rhys had said he would phone her again at the flat, so she had to stay in town. Only when he didn’t call that evening did Alix remember that he hadn’t promised definitely for that night, just said he’d ring as soon as he could. She fell asleep disappointed, and turned down an outing with some of the girls from the office to stay in the next night, but was overwhelmingly glad she had when Rhys rang again, earlier this time, at ten o’clock.
‘Hi, urchin. Have you changed your mind?’
‘What about?’ she asked, deliberately not understanding.
Rhys chuckled. ‘Marrying me, of course.’
‘Oh, that. No, I guess I’ll make do with you.’
‘Only two days and the woman’s blasé already.’
‘Oh, I’ll never be that,’ Alix assured him, immediately abandoning her mock coolness. ‘I told the parents. They were so pleased, Rhys. You wouldn’t believe.’
‘Oh, yes, I would. They rang me at some Godforsaken hour in the morning yesterday to congratulate me. All four of them. Your father said I should have asked his permission first.’
‘He didn’t!’ Alix exclaimed delightedly. ‘What did you say?’
‘I told him that if he’d refused to give it you would probably have disowned him.’
She burst into laughter. ‘I would, too. Oh, Rhys, I am so happy. But I do wish you were here. Do you wish I was there with you?’ she asked, expecting a tender reply.
‘No, you’d be completely in the way and I’d never get any work done,’ he said prosaically.
That made her laugh again. ‘When do you think you will be home? I want to know the exact date.’
She could almost hear him shrug. ‘Some time at the end of next month; I can’t be any more exact than that at the moment, but everything is going well, no holdups.’
‘Tell me about it.’
‘It would take too long, and these calls cost the earth.’
‘When will you call again?’
‘Some time next week probably.’
‘OK. If I’m not here I expect I’ll be at home,’ she ventured, not wanting him to phone and wonder where she was.
But Rhys merely said, ‘Fine. Listen, will you collect a couple of jackets I left at the cleaners? You’ll find the ticket in the top drawer of the chest in the bedroom.’
‘Do you want me to send them to you?’
‘No, just put them in the wardrobe. Thanks. I’ll have to go. Take care of yourself, little one.’
‘And you, Rhys. I miss you so much. I——’
‘And you, urchin. Bye.’
Alix heard the phone go dead and slowly replaced her own in disappointment. She had been about to tell him she loved him but he had been too quick for her. But that was Rhys, brisk and to the point; and anyway there was really no need to tell him because he already knew, there was nothing in the world he could be more sure of.
Rousing herself, she went over to the chest of drawers to look in the top one. Rhys had cleared several of them out for her, but this wasn’t one of them. There were a lot of things in it that he hadn’t needed to take to Australia: his gold twenty-first birthday watch, several membership cards, a combined address book and diary. Alix fingered the latter, was strongly tempted to look inside but resisted it. Rhys was hers now; she trusted him implicitly and had no wish beyond curiosity to know about his past.
On Friday Alix went home to Kent and had the most marvellous weekend. To be secretly engaged was wildly romantic, but to be able to share the secret, and discuss it with all the parents, was even better. Her mother and Aunt Joanne were already discussing wedding plans, de- ciding where and when, drawing up lists of guests. Uncle David picked up their combined list and pretended to be terribly shaken. ‘Good lord, John!’ he said to her father. ‘At this rate we’re both going to have to work till we’re ninety to pay for all this.’ But it was said in fun, and they were all as openly delighted as Alix.
The next two months went by agonisingly slowly. Alix didn’t go out much in case Rhys rang, which he did a few times, but the calls were, to Alix, frustratingly short. Instead she sat at home and relieved her feelings somewhat by writing very long
