Cruise to a Wedding. Бетти Нилс

      ‘Your car wasn’t outside,’ stated Rimada uncertainly.

      ‘Ah—nor was it. I took it round to the garage so that Jos could give it a quick clean.’ He beamed at her, ‘Loveday has just been telling me all about your trip—it sounds very interesting.’

      Loveday, from behind his enormous back, frowned and nodded and made an urgent face and then smoothed it to instant calm as he turned to face her. ‘We shall enjoy ourselves enormously,’ she made haste to say with over-bright enthusiasm; Rimada seemed to have lost her tongue. ‘The cruise lasts for two weeks, you know, and we’re both keen to see Gibraltar and Lisbon—that’s during the second week.’

      She could almost hear Rimada’s sigh of relief. ‘There are some summer palaces,’ she went on, glad that she had read up the guide books so thoroughly. ‘We hope to see as many as possible, don’t we, Rimmy?’

      The Baron had sat down again, close to Loveday. Rimada cast her coat down on a chair and went to sit by her mother, who had remained silent but now broke into lighthearted chatter about mutual friends and various functions she hoped to go to. Her nephew waited for her to draw breath before he asked quietly: ‘I hope you will invite me to dinner, Aunt.’

      She was instantly in a fluster. ‘Of course, Adam. Had I not already done so? I fully intended…we have no guests for this evening, just we three women. You won’t be bored?’