Part-time Marriage

‘Gypsy tart and or cheesecake,’ her mother replied, and drew breath to turn to her daughter’s ‘steady’ again, but was forestalled when her husband, perhaps having picked up his daughter’s distress signals, beat her to it.

‘You don’t by any chance collect stamps?’ he asked Noah.

‘I’m afraid I don’t. It’s a fascinating hobby, I’ve heard.’

Elexa was glad when the meal was over, and left Noah and her father in the drawing-room while she helped her mother clear the dining-room table.

‘Your father and I will see to the dishes later.’ Kaye Aston beamed. And, because it seemed she just couldn’t resist it, she declared, ‘Oh, darling, if I’d chosen someone for you myself I couldn’t have chosen better.’

Elexa stared at her parent and couldn’t help feeling slightly staggered. Only a week ago her mother had been all for her being ‘nice’ to Tommy Fielding. Noah Peverelle and Tommy Fielding weren’t in the same street! ‘Er—we’re only dating,’ she thought she had better mention. She had no idea yet which way this arrangement, or non-arrangement, was going.

‘You told Tommy Fielding you were seeing someone, long-term. Oh, please don’t tell me you’re thinking of just moving in with him.’

‘I can promise you, Mum, that’s the last thing I’m thinking of,’ Elexa replied, glad to be able to be honest about that at least. While she owned to starting to feel more than a touch confused about what she was doing—she could hardly imagine she’d had the nerve to ring Peverelle the way she had last Sunday—she was clear about that. She had her own place—why would she want to move into his?

Her mother seemed so relieved she came and gave her a hug, ‘You will tell me—as soon as there is anything to tell me?’ she asked urgently.

She meant an engagement, or marriage, Elexa knew that she did, and as her heart went all soft on her Elexa forgot for the moment the weight of pressure—well-meaning, but pressure all the same—that her parents constantly applied in their urgency for her to be married. All Elexa knew then was that she loved her worrying mother, and that if it would mean so very much to her to see her walk down that aisle then, if Peverelle was willing, it didn’t seem such a huge step to take.

‘I’ll be on the phone to you as soon as,’ she promised.

But when, not long afterwards, she was seated beside Peverelle as he drove them back to London she was starting to have second thoughts, and that wedding aisle seemed suddenly ten miles long.

Barely a word passed between them on the return journey, which was all right by Elexa; she had a lot on her mind. She guessed that Noah Peverelle had too, because they had almost arrived at her door before he let her into some of his thoughts.

‘It’s a bit late for us to have any lengthy discussion—there are things I have to ask you, matters you’ll want to clear up with me,’ he said. ‘I’ll give you a call in the morning and arrange a time to talk the whole situation through.’