Uncertain Summer

‘Well, I’ve thought about that, and I don’t see how I’m to know unless I go there and see for myself.’ She pinkened faintly. ‘I mean, we—I can always change my mind.’

Joan agreed with her a little too hastily and Betsy said: ‘Your parents, I bet they’re surprised.’

‘I haven’t told them yet. I told them about Laurens coming in and—and how nice he was, and of course they met his cousin.’

‘Oh, yes, I forgot. Though they’re not a bit alike, are they?’

Serena spooned sugar into her post-prandial cup of tea. ‘Heavens, no,’ she agreed, and just for a brief moment remembered the gentle touch of Gijs van Amstel’s hands on the battered baby. She had never seen Laurens working, of course, but he would be just as kind—and he was a good deal more entertaining. She smiled and someone said: ‘Oh, lord, we’ll have to give you a wedding present.’

Serena put down her cup. ‘No, oh no, you mustn’t—I don’t know when—there’s nothing settled.’

‘Time to save up,’ said someone else. ‘Give us plenty of warning, Serena.’

They all laughed and presently dispersed to their various duties, and Serena, caught up in the usual afternoon rush, had no time to think about herself. She got off duty late too, so that the half-formed idea that she would write home and tell her parents came to nothing. Time enough, she argued as she got ready for bed, when she went home the following weekend.