Primrose Square (36 page)

‘Better warn you, we're a bit the same,' said Elinor cheerfully. ‘We've had rationing since February.'

‘Oh, no, don't tell me! Surely, Maule's will still have butter for their scones?'

‘I'm sure they will. This is our lucky day, isn't it?'

‘Our lucky day  . . . The first of many, Elinor?

‘Of a lifetime,' she said seriously.

But as they let themselves out and she relocked the gate, she gave a little sigh.

‘The only thing I'll miss is the square, you know. The gardens mean a lot to me.'

‘Why, you could be a member of the ladies' club!' Stephen told her, waving his stick at the house across the road. ‘And have your own key to the gardens. What could be better?'

‘Stephen, you're no' serious?'

‘Never more so. I'll pay your sub for a wedding present. What do you say?'

Smiling, she shook her head, still in disbelief that she should ever turn into a club member, and put her arms around him, just as Major Henderson, having shown out a patient, looked down from his window and saw them. By the light of the street lamp, he could even see their faces, and at their radiance, gave a quiet little sigh.

‘Come in, Corporal Armstrong,' he called over his shoulder, as a tap sounded on his door. ‘Be with you in a minute.'

‘Right you are, sir. Mind if I smoke? Only joking.'

Over at Maule's tea room, Stephen and Elinor, facing each other across their lucky two-shilling tea for two, were so overcome with feeling, it was some time before they ate anything at all.