‘She is only a baby,’ Flavia agreed.
‘And I would say … Lucia’s eyes flashed, but Roz willed herself not to listen and wondered why Adam didn’t stop it. He had turned briefly and smiled at her, then turned away again, and now as she watched his back, it struck her that he was standing very still almost as if he was waiting for something … Not for them to come to blows, she thought with horror, surely not?
It was Richard who stopped it. He said suddenly, ‘Mother, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t speak for me as if I wasn’t here. As for you, Aunt Lucia, I’ve behaved with the utmost propriety towards Nicky. Now I don’t know what you use as a yardstick for eligibility, but I should have thought, the one thing that would make me ineligible would have been that I’d taken advantage of her. I haven’t done that—although I could have.
He stopped and waited with a look of cold politeness, but for once Lucia was without words.
He turned to Adam. ‘If I’ve made one mistake. it was to try to hide it from you, Adam. But Nicky was so sure this would happen …However, I rang her up yesterday and told her that we couldn’t go on like this any longer, that we would have to come out into the open. l also told her that your were unlikely to lock her up in a convent or send me off to fight a war, but if the family didn’t approve then I would feel honour bound to wait until she was twenty-one before we married—which I’d already told her, incidentally. But I didn’t know she had this in mind, because if I had, I wouldn’t have allowed her to do it.
I …’ he hesitated for the first time, ‘I do know she’s very young and is often impetuous and it will cause us problems from time to time, but I love her for it … that’s Nicky,’ he finished.
Roz waited with bated breath, and so must everyone have been, because you could have heard a pin drop. Then she saw Adam’s shoulders relax and knew immediately that he had been waiting for Richard to prove himself one way or the other.
He spoke at last. ‘Richard, Roz has made a suggestion. which I have to admit I was in two minds about until—about two minutes ago; Now it has my unqualified support. I see no reason why you and Nicky shouldn’t become formally engaged,’ Lucia and Margaret both gasped, but he ignored them, ‘and if you’re still both of the same mind in twelve months’ time we can discuss marriages. In the meantime thank you for taking such good care of her, I’m sure it means as lot to all of us.’ And he moved forward to shake Richard’s hand .
Roz couldn’t see Adam’s expression, but she saw Richard’s and had: to swallow a lump in her throat.
Then, while Margaret and Lucia were still too floored to speak, while Amy stared at Adam with her mouth open and Angelo with a glint of speculation in his eyes, Flavia created a diversion. She put away her handkerchief and advanced upon Richard, stood on tiptoe and kissed him warmly. ‘I didn’t believe young men like you existed any more,’ she said then with a twinkle in her eyes. ‘So proper, so right-minded, so brave! But most importantly I think you understand Nicky, which is a very good thing. You Have my blessing too!’
‘Th-thank you,’ said Richard, suddenly looking rather young and bewildered. ‘Thank you very much …’
‘But it’s not me you should be thanking,’ Flavia interposed. ‘Nor Adam, for that matter. It is Roz, because she had the wisdom to work it all out before any of us!
‘Oh!’ Roz said faintly, but Richard came over to her and hugged her, which gave her a warm feeling, especially as Adam didn’t seem to mind, but she did wonder how Margaret would take it.
But it seemed Richard not only had a way with Nicky, because he crossed the carpet swiftly towards his mother then and said, ‘Mum, don’t be angry. You told me once, it was the last thing you could make to work to order, falling in love.’
Margaret’s eyes softened. ‘So I did,’ she said, and wiped away a tear. ‘Actually I feel … proud of you, and,’ she turned to Roz, ‘thank you for having faith in Richard. Not that I didn’t, but,’ she shrugged, ‘you were unbiased.’
Roz caught her breath and glanced at Adam, but he said, ‘It has to help,’ and winked at her. Then he said, ‘Well, shall we bend our minds to getting her back now?’
Everyone agreed except Lucia, who was looking venomously at Roz. Roz blinked and wondered why she particularly should be on the receiving end of Lucia’s ire, but Milly broke the moment by saying, ‘Er … I don’t think we have to do that—bend our minds, I mean.’