‘Wait and see,’ they were told.
Half an hour later Adam steered the car into a country lane. At the bottom stood a thatched cottage, with wild brambles and honeysuckle climbing all over the walls. The windows were crisscrossed with leaded lights, and the beautiful gardens seemed to go on for miles. ‘It’s yours if you want it,’ Adam said, turning to Rosie, his eyes alight with hope.
‘We want it, don’t we?’ Danny asked April, and she screamed with delight. Adam opened the door and, after issuing the warning ‘Stay where we can see you,’ he let them loose.
‘So this is your surprise?’ Rosie whispered, looking up at him with soft brown eyes.
‘Do you like it?’
‘I love it,’ she said. ‘It will make a wonderful home for a growing family.’
‘So, you’ll stay?’
‘You think I’ll stay because of the cottage?’ She was offended.
‘You know better than that.’
She fell into his arms and they kissed long and passionately. ‘Are two children enough for you?’ she asked.
‘Not really.’ His eyes twinkled mischievously.
‘I’ve always thought the more the merrier.’
‘My own sentiments exactly,’ Adam murmured, kissing her again. ‘Shall we go and see what the little monsters are up to?’
When they were out of the car, she led him in another direction. ‘Now it’s my turn to ask where we’re going?’ he declared curiously.
Linking her arm with his, she explained, ‘I saw a post box as we came in just now.’ Taking the stamped letter from her pocket, she said, ‘I wrote this last night. I intended posting it first thing this morning, but you whisked me off to see your surprise instead.’
‘Sounds like it’s urgent,’ he remarked, squeezing her tight. ‘Who’s it for?’
‘It’s for Peggy,’ Rosie told him, popping it in the post-box. ‘This is a very special letter. She’ll be waiting for it, I know.’ Then, her brown eyes twinkling, she turned him back towards where the children were playing. ‘Now then, about this cottage.’
‘You don’t like it after all?’ His spirits fell to his boots.
‘Whatever gave you that idea?’ As she urged him on, his hopes soared. ‘I think we should go and see if it’s big enough for four children?’
Now it was Adam’s turn to whoop for joy. Lifting her from her feet he carried her through the front door. ‘This is our new home,’ he told the children.
‘Are we rich now, Mam?’ Danny asked excitedly.
Rosie’s brown eyes brightly twinkled, and there wasn’t a single shadow of doubt there. ‘What we have, sweetheart,’ she told him, ‘is much more than riches.’
* * *
On the last day of August 1955, Adam and Rosie were married in a simple ceremony at the town register office. Peggy was maid of honour. It was a happy affair, attended by Peggy’s family and many of Adam’s friends and colleagues. Mrs Jessup was there too. The cottage was being extended to make three extra bedrooms, and she was to move in with them. Rosie chose to go to Weymouth for her honeymoon, and the children went too.
* * *
Fifteen years later, on a beautiful day in June 1970, Danny and April made their vows. This time, the ceremony was in the church of All Saints. April looked exquisite in her ivory gown and satin slippers. The two younger children, Susan and Martin, aged eleven and nine, attended the happy couple. The honeymoon was to be in Cyprus.
‘It’s times like this when you realise your age,’ Rosie sighed, walking through the church, her arm linked with Adam’s.
Drawing her to a halt, he regarded her through a lover’s eyes. She was now turned forty, but ever slim and lovely, and her brown eyes still sparkled in that magic way he had loved from the very first. ‘We’ll never grow old,’ he said. ‘We’re too much in love.’ And they were.
First published in Great Britain in 1994 by Headline Book Publishing
This edition published in the United Kingdom in 2019 by
Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
57 Shepherds Lane
Beaconsfield, Bucks HP9 2DU
United Kingdom
Copyright © Josephine Cox, 1994
The moral right of Josephine Cox to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781788633000
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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