Reluctant Wife(33)

‘Very.’





But after a tearful parting and as they had driven to her grandfathers house, Adarn had said, ‘What did she say to you this morning, Roz?’



‘Just… some of the things your said to me, about Mike, I mean.’



‘I wondered if she might try to stop me rushing you away like this,’ he’d said then with a faint srnile.



So did I, thought Roz, but can l blame her for not? No. She was honest with me where many women might not have been, she was kind right up to the end when she could have turned on me … how could l ever blame her for putting her family first and understanding that this seems to be the only solution?’



They had only called in at her own home briefly for Roz to mark the things she would like to keep, and it was from there that Adam arranged transport for the mare and foal.



‘Oh, look, In only borrowed the mare,’ she had said distractedly.



‘Just give me the details and I’ll buy her,’ he had said calmly.’



Then he had taken her to his flat in Brisbane which he used, he had told her, when he had to stay in town overnight. But he hadn’t stayed with her. Instead, by nightfall, a cheerful person by the name of Milly Barker had arrived, and if she had thought it at all strange that she should been summoned to play chaperon to Adam Milroy’s bride-to-be who was also a total stranger, all she’d said was, ‘Oh, I’m so thrilled to meet you and I’m so excited! I’m Adam’s housekeeper, by the way.’



‘And she rules me with a rod of iron, incidentally,’ Adam had put in with a grin.



‘Oh ho! Well, you’ll find out the truth about that soon enough, Roz—may I call you Roz?’



‘Of course,’ Roz had said shyly,



But over the next couple of days she had grown less shy with Milly Barker; it had been impossible not to as they’d shopped for a trousseau and Roz had discovered that Milly had no desire to probe beyond the face value of this marriage—or if she did, she suppressed it very well. Some months later she was to realise that Milly was much more than a housekeeper, that she ran Adam’s social life and that, above all, she juggled his family with supreme tact and discretion, Although, Roz was also to think some time later, it must have tested even Milly to have had to bear the brunt of the family’s shocked amazement when she had broken the news of the marriage. By which time Roz and Adam were married and on their way to North Queensland for their honeymoon.



What Adam had said to her on the subject of his family had been that he had no intention of allowing them any say in the matter, he never did anyway, nor of turning the occasion into some kind of are circus with everyone squabbling over who should be bridesmaids, groomsmen and heaven knew what.



‘But your mother?’ Roz had queried slowly, Milly had filled her in on the basics.



‘My mother’s got enough children to keep her, in weddings for years to come—I’m only, the second to do it so far—then we’ve got cousins and nieces and nephews ad infinitum, I sometimes think. But I’ve written her a letter for Milly to deliver. And among other things, I reminded her that my father persuaded her to run away from home to marry him and then presented her to the family as a fait accompli.’



‘Oh.’



‘Roz—’ it had been the day before their simple register office wedding and they were having dinner that Milly had cooked them ‘—if you’ve discovered that you have any grave reservations about this, now is the time to tell me. I know you must have some reservations, but at least you know me a bit better now and should be able to make a more reasoned judgement.’



She had looked at him across the elegantly set candlelit table. ‘Have you had some doubts?’



‘No,’ he’d said quietly but quite definitely.



Roz had lowered her lashes and remembered what she’d done the day before—checked in the Brisbane and the Gold Coast phone books and discovered that A. Milroy was listed in both and in the Brisbane one at the address of the flat. She had also known why she’d done it—if Mike had really wanted to find her it wouldn’t have been difficult. But he hadn’t, although ten days had elapsed. Perhaps it was foolish to expect him to understand, to wonder if he mightn’t care for her more than all the obstacles in the world and find it impossible to let her do this. But he hadn’t.



‘No,’ she’d said, ‘neither have I.’ And she’d smiled across the candle flame and asked him how Nimmitabel was settling down in her new home.