by Anne Hampson
‘Oh, how could you! My poor mother!’ She pulled away from him. ‘How dreadfully unkind. I don’t know how you do it!’
‘You wish I hadn’t?’ he asked curiously.
‘Yes - no - I mean -- ’
He laughed and resolutely pulled her to him again.
‘Let’s have no more of that nonsense. You’re inordinately grateful to me for bullying your poor mother, as you call her.’
She bristled.
‘What a pompous man you are! I always knew it—’ The rest, which she did not mean anyway, was smothered by his kiss.
‘I knew Mother was too shy to ask you to marry me,’ said Gale when at last she was given the opportunity to speak. ‘I should have known at once that the idea had not been hers.’ She told Julius that she had been conscious all the while of some mystery, mentioning the slips her mother had made, but which had not helped Gale to clear up that mystery. ‘She seemed quite distraught, on one occasion, when she thought I might not be happy.’
‘You didn’t let her know you weren’t happy?’
She shook her head.
‘I couldn’t - but oh, I was so frustrated all the while!’
‘Woman’s innate curiosity, eh?’ he laughed. I expect you were angry with everyone concerned - when you were forced to marry me, I mean?’
‘I was, yes; but, strangely,’ she added on a reflective note, ‘I was never as angry with Mother as with anyone else. It must have been because, subconsciously, I really was glad the marriage was forced upon me by her.’ Julius merely shrugged his shoulders and as Gale pondered on various incidents she asked him suddenly why he had not revealed his anger, that day on the beach, when she was rude to Daphne.
‘You never said a word until we’d left her,’ Gale added, looking curiously at him. He held her away, his eyes glinting, and Gale wondered vexedly why she had been so foolish as to bring this up.
‘Rude to Daphne? It was the order you gave me that got you into trouble!’ Gale nodded, and averted her head and for a long moment Julius left her to her own thoughts. But eventually he said, ‘The reason why you were allowed to get away with it was that I didn’t want to humiliate you before Daphne. I loved you, remember, and a man thinks twice before subjecting his loved one to embarrassment.’ She bit her lip.
‘I’m sorry, Julius,’ she murmured contritely. ‘It was a strange thing,’ she continued when he made no comment, ‘but I gained the impression that you were reluctant to humiliate me. I think I’ve been very blind all this time.’ ‘Very, my love. You should have gained a clue when I told you, almost at the beginning, that until lately I had never seriously contemplated marriage.’
‘That did register - some time afterwards,’ she told him. ‘But I thought you wanted me just for - for—’ ‘Well, I didn’t! I wanted you for my companion and
friend, as well as my lover.’
Gale thrilled to these words, but just had to say,
‘What would have happened if that pipe hadn’t burst?’
He laughed with sheer amusement.
‘How like a woman to think of that! It did burst, and so you were saved from a fate worse than death.’
She had to laugh then, in response to his continued amusement.
‘I rather think you would have married me, just the same.’
‘I rather think you’re right,’ he agreed, and drew her to his heart again.
