‘I didn’t—I had no idea, oh, Adam!’ Roz sighed
’Don’t cry,’ he whispered.
‘I can’t help it, I can’t believe … I just love you so much… ’
Presently he said, ‘That surprise I brought you from Tokyo—would you like to see it?’
‘So it did arrive?’ she exclaimed.
‘I thought you’d forgotten,’ he said ruefully, and kissed her again, but gently.
‘No, I thought you had—I didn’t know what to think,’ Roz confessed.
‘Come and see it now,’ he invited, releasing her but taking her hand, ‘And you might understand why I … didn’t quite know what to think.’
‘Oh, Adam!’ she breathed minutes later, when his surprise was all laid out on her bed.
‘This, I’m told,’ he said gravely, picking up a length of thin silk, is a traditional koshimaki, and you wear it around your waist in place of underpants. And this is a sort of undershirt … ’ This was a cotton gauze sort of front-wrap garment. ‘Then comes the under-robe.’ He laid the undershirt back and fingered the splash of yellow silk that lay beside the most exquisite pale pink damask kimono and a brocade obi of gold and silver chrysanthemums.
‘Oh, Adam,’ said Roz again, ‘you bought it for me!’
‘Yes, but I did have help.’ He looked at her straightly.
‘I understand,’ she said quickly.
‘Do you, Roz? She said, after the fiasco and I’d explained some things, that you must be very special and she’d like to help me choose something very special to take home to you. But …’ He stopped.
‘Then you couldn’t give it to me because I reminded you of … ?’
‘Something like that—my guilt haunting me.’
She moved into his arms. ‘Can I try it on? I’m dying to, but I’ll have to take these clothes off and …’
‘I’ll help you.’
‘And I should take a shower first because I’m … ‘
‘I’ll help you there too,’ he said perfectly seriously. ‘I’ll take a shower with you. You have the most .brilliant ideas sometimes.‘
‘I don’t … that wasn’t … ’ Her colour fluctuated and her lips trembled.
‘Not the same idea you had about the dining-room table? What a pity,’ said Adam very softly, and with a smile lurking at the back of his eyes.
‘You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?’ whispered Roz.
‘Do you want me to?’
‘No. I love you, I love the way you’re holding me, and I’d love to do it in the shower … ‘
But later, hours later, she stirred in his arms and said, ‘Adam, what if we can’t have babies?’
He kissed her bare shoulders lingeringly. ‘We’ll cope,’ he murmured. ‘We could go a bit dotty and run a zoo or a home for broken-down horses, but so long as we have each other … But Roz,’ he raised his head and pushed himself up on one elbow and stared down at her as he caressed her breasts, ‘we’ve come a long way, and if you can be happy now and at peace with me and with yourself, don’t. be surprised if we do. Would you like to have a small wager with me?’
‘No,’ she said with a smile. ‘I’ve got the feeling you always win your wagers! I love you … I can’t seem to stop saying that.’
‘Don’t even try, because——’ he paused, then sat up suddenly, and she caught her breath as he exclaimed, ‘Bloody hell! That was a car. This place is becoming like a railway station! Are you expecting anyone?’
‘No.’
‘Just don’t let it be …’ He slid out of bed and strode over to the window, then swore again. ‘I might have known,’ he added bitterly.
‘Who is it?’
‘Mother—and Lucia. Come to try and heal the breach, no doubt. I don’t know anyone who has such an annoying, interfering damn family but this …’
‘Adam,’ Roz broke in, sitting up, ‘you mustn’t be angry with Lucia.’
‘Why shouldn’t I be, but I’m going down, to tell them … ‘
‘No, Adam,’ she pleaded, ‘you don’t understand.’
‘… to tell them,’ he finished, sitting down beside her and gathering her up, ‘to stay away for at least six months.’
‘But there’s something … ‘