Chapter Eleven

Katie had raised eyebrows. ‘Are you sure he’s not just after your money, Will?’

‘How could he be? We’ve been going out together since way before I had any, since before I even knew I was going to have any.’

‘Oh. Yes.’

‘And stop sounding like Jazz. Luke wants me for me. It’s nothing to do with the money. He’s not a gigolo, you know.’

‘What’s a gigolo?’ asked Clive, looming into sight over the top of the filing cabinet.

‘Musical instrument, innit?’ Neil replied.

‘Don’t you two ever do anything independently?’ Katie looked up from her typing. ‘Wills, phone call for you.’

I waited until the boys had gone before I took the receiver from her. ‘Is there really, or did you just want to get shot of them?’

‘No, there really is. A man. Not Luke either, before you ask.’

‘Hey there.’

‘Hello, Cal.’ I sensed Katie pricking up her ears, so I mouthed ‘Ash’s boyfriend’ at her and she shrugged and went back to typing. ‘What’s up?’

‘Ah, nothing. Just got the megrims, that’s all. I had to perform a tracheotomy on a Powerbook and things aren’t good, although I have to admit that I do look sensational in scrubs. How are you?’

‘I’m good.’

‘Right. Deep breath here, Cal, and try not to dribble, the lady doesn’t want to hear the sound of your bodily fluids trickling down the line. Thing is, Will, I wondered if you’d come down to the old house with me at the weekend.’

‘The farm?’

‘That’s the baby. I need to make a few decisions and, well, you seemed to like looking round and, all right, I admit it, I need someone to handle the goat for me. She’s out in the orchard and a neighbour is keeping an eye on her, but I’m going to have to shift her over into the big paddock and she scares the shit out of me if you want the truth. The goat. You didn’t think I meant the neighbour, did you?’

‘Er.’

‘She’s got an evil temper on her and she’s got the hang of knocking me over.’

‘This is still the goat.’

‘Yeah, right. So, just wondering, you know, if I pick you up? Thought I’d check now in case you were planning to be away again?’

‘No. No, I wasn’t. Sounds like … I don’t suppose “fun” is really the word.’

‘Well, it’s a word. But so is “cantankerous”. And “evil”. And, incidentally, “quadrumanous”, but that’s irrelevant. Oh, and she smells completely vile. That is the neighbour. Bye.’

‘He is so weird,’ I said, staring at the phone as though I expected Cal to come bursting out of the mouthpiece at any moment.

‘Oho.’ Katie turned her chair to face me. ‘I sense storytime.’

‘I told you about him. Ash’s boyfriend. Or, probably, ex-boyfriend, if Ash is laying himself down for his country in Slovenia or wherever Prague is these days. Unless they have an open relationship, which I really hope they don’t. Cal deserves way, way better than Ash. He’s really cute, Katie, tall and dark and funny.’

‘The good ones are always gay, aren’t they?’

‘Luke isn’t gay. Fact.’

Katie merely raised her eyebrows at me and went back to typing.

Later that morning, on the pretext of picking up some milk, I popped over to the Roads Department again. Vivienne Parry, Bread Woman, was manning the desk this time and there was no sight of the lachrymose Nadine.

‘Hello. I’m—’

‘Willow Cayton, yes, I remember.’

‘I just wondered if—?’

‘No further news yet about your grandfather’s patent, sorry.’

Had this woman been casting the runes? ‘Oh. I thought I’d ask.’

‘I hear that testing is still going well. They’re into the final stages now before they release for commercial production.’ She smiled at me and her cheeks formed perfect burger bun circles.

‘That’s wonderful, thank you. Oh, by the way, how’s—?’

‘Nadine? Taking some time off, at last.’ Vivienne shook her head slowly. ‘Poor girl. Boyfriend trouble, apparently. Put your foot down, I said. Don’t let him run rings around you.’

I made what I hoped was a ‘sympathetic’ face, whilst allowing myself a tiny moment of internal smugness. I’d done my time with boyfriends who ‘ran rings around me’, while I overinvested in the relationship. Now – now, things were so different it was hard to believe I’d ever been that desperate girl, hanging on to rapidly loosening bonds, so keen to prove that I could be a ‘grown-up’.

I left the Roads Department and set off to walk back to my office, but got caught in a daydream, leaning against the parapet of Lendal Bridge, staring upstream to where the railway crossed the river, and beyond the city boundary to the fields. In the hopeful spring sunshine, people were walking beside the river with their dogs and pushing toddlers in buggies. There was also someone waving at me from a bench.

‘Hey, Willow.’ It was Luke, sitting on a riverside seat with one long leg crossed over the other, wraparound shades keeping the sun from his eyes. ‘Come down and join me.’

‘I should be getting back to work,’ I puffed, having jogged down to reach him. ‘I only came out for some milk. They’ll think I’m persuading it out of the cow.’ But the relaxed presence of Luke and the glorious sunshine made me linger. Plus I couldn’t see the point of hurrying back to a headline which read, ‘Local Cat Wins Show.’ It wasn’t exactly Pulitzer Prize-winning material.

‘So, what are you doing with yourself today? Thought you were sorting out that showroom?’ I squinted up at the sky.

‘Yeah, sorted. No, I was looking across the river there.’ Luke pointed at a new development of riverside apartments being sold at extortionate prices. ‘When, sorry, I mean if of course. I realise I haven’t done the deed formally, as it were. If we get married, then we’ll need somewhere to live, won’t we?’

‘Oh’ was all I could think of to say. My mind was busy doing a little celebratory dance that I hadn’t, after all, wasted fourteen quid on magazines.

‘Good a time as any, I suppose.’ Without removing his sunglasses, Luke slouched off the bench and crouched down in front of me, balancing on one knee right beside a large dog turd. ‘Willow, would you do me the great honour of agreeing to be my wife?’

I looked around to see if anyone had noticed, but there was only a single rower hauling heftily on his oars, as if trying to pass by before anything more embarrassing happened. ‘Yes, all right’ was my less-than-effusive answer.

‘Good. I’m glad that’s over.’ Luke straightened up again. ‘Hard on the old Paul Smith, all that on-bended-knee stuff.’ He tweaked at the leg of his trousers accordingly. ‘Well, then. Would the new future Mrs Luke Fry like to see what I’ve been looking at?’

I walked with Luke back across the bridge, savouring the name. Mrs Willow Fry. Willow Fry and her husband, Luke. Following Luke down a narrow strip of boardwalk, I had to stuff my knuckles into my mouth to avoid myself squeaking aloud. Mrs Fry – oh my God, I was going to marry him! I wished I could tell the old me, back at university, where Luke was too shy to speak to me. Wished I could sit myself down and tell myself not to worry, that it would all turn out all right in the end, that he was as nervous as I was. That we were, as I’d always hoped, destined to be together. I admired the back view of my husband-to-be, his hair coiling into loose curls just over the collar of his jacket, a jacket which fitted to absolute perfection across his slim shoulders and tapered down to not quite cover his delicious buttocks. Not, of course, that these were visible to the naked eye, but I knew they were there, which is what counted.

We stepped out of a glass lift, which had carried us to the second floor of one of the blocks of apartments, and into a light, airy hallway. Luke opened the door to one of the flats with a key he had in his pocket. ‘I asked the agents for this, so that I could look around. Now. Do you want to see the kitchen first, or the bedroom?’

As proudly as if he was already the owner, Luke showed me around. The flat was small, one en suite bedroom, another bathroom, kitchen and living room, but it had phenomenal views of the city, a balcony hanging over the river, bare wooden floors and pale painted walls like a colour supplement ad. ‘What do you think? I know it’s probably not quite what you had in mind, but it’s convenient for both of us for work and it’s extremely prestigious.’

I was in a mental void, I literally did not know what to think. I had only just come to terms with the fact that this man wanted to marry me and now I had to get my head around the whole new life that this would entail. ‘It looks pricey,’ I squeaked.

‘Ah, yes. It’s not really. Not that bad, at any rate, for what it is. And, of course, we don’t have to decide anything here and now. That would be stupid. It’s only that’ – Luke looked a little crestfallen – ‘I fell in love with the place when I saw it advertised and, moron that I am, I kind of thought that you would love it as much as I did. But it’s okay. I mean, we can look at places you like, too.’ He gave a deep sigh.

‘Oh, Luke, no. It’s lovely, really it is. I hadn’t considered … I mean …’ I looked around at the flat again, seeing the nicely proportioned rooms, the superb fitted kitchen with top-of-the-range fixtures, the railed balcony which would catch the summer evening sun. ‘It took me by surprise, that’s all.’

Luke put his hands on my shoulders and looked deep into my eyes. ‘Are you sure? You’re not just agreeing with me to keep me sweet, are you? Because, Willow, I don’t sulk. You should know that about me by now. If I can’t have what I want, I learn to live with it.’

‘You don’t have to,’ I said. ‘I love the place, Luke, honestly. But how would we afford it?’

Luke massaged the base of my neck with his thumbs. He was breathing quickly, I noticed, and there was a sheen of sweat on his forehead. ‘For now we only need the deposit, that’ll reserve it for us, until we can get a mortgage sorted out and that shouldn’t be a problem at all.’

‘How much is the deposit?’

‘Twenty.’ Luke leaned back against the immaculate wall, his eyes still fixed on mine. The sun slid over him. He looked like a David Hockney painting.

‘Twenty thousand?’

‘Yeah, but it’s not so bad. I’ve got about four grand I can put down now, cash.’

‘But …’

Luke stepped up to me again, cupped my chin in his hand and raised my face to his. Kissed my mouth softly. ‘It’ll be worth it, Willow. In the end. You and me, here. Of course, if we decide to have children we’ll have a place with a paddock, ponies for the kids, few chickens scratching around. For now, though, don’t you think this will be the perfect start to married life? Imagine, waking up on a Sunday morning.’ He turned me by the shoulders until I was gazing out of the porthole-shaped window. ‘Lying in bed and being able to see the raindrops falling in the river. Newspapers spread all over the floor, place smelling of fresh coffee.’

‘And a sofa, here.’ I pointed to the space next to the balcony. ‘So we can sit and people-watch.’

A smile spread over Luke’s face like butter on a crumpet. ‘I knew you’d go for it.’ The hand around my shoulders tightened into a hug. ‘Things are going to be great, Willow. I can feel it. You’ll forgive me if I don’t buy a ring straightaway, won’t you? I think all the money we have should go into the business and this place.’

I pulled free of his embrace and walked in what I hoped looked like a taking-in-the-view way to the balcony, where I projectile-vomited over the rail, narrowly missing the solitary rower who was making his way back downstream again.

‘You only went out for bloody milk!’ Katie shrieked, when I enlightened her on the reason for my prolonged absence from the office. ‘And you come back with a fiancé and a flat. You only took a pound, for God’s sake. It’s a good job we didn’t send you with the whole petty-cash tin. You’d probably have come back with Prince Harry and the Taj Mahal.’

The speed of it all had overwhelmed me, too. ‘It was incredible. He did it all properly, down on one knee and everything, and he’d already got the flat lined up for me to look at. It’s just … amazing, Katie, the whole thing.’

Katie shook her head. ‘So, when’s the big day? And what are you going to wear? Oh, please, can I be matron of honour? I’ve never been one before. I’ll do anything, I’ll wear purple, I’ll have visible tan lines, anything.’

I shrugged again. ‘We haven’t really talked about the actual wedding yet.’

‘Will you get one of your brothers to give you away? Ash could do it. He looks great in a suit.’

‘Look, Katie, right now you know as much as I do about the whole thing. As soon as there’s any breaking news, you will be the first to know. But at the moment, can I get on with these ads?’

As soon as Katie went out, I hugged my arms around myself in a tight circle of glee. That had been the performance of my life, trying to be cool and not scream with delight and head for the Yellow Pages to discover the whereabouts of the nearest bridal-wear shop. Let me calm down, have another therapeutic flick through the bridal magazines, and then I’d invite Katie over for an evening of wine, chocolate and detailed planning. For now, life consisted of me and Luke, our home-to-be and enchanting daydreams about our future children.