Following Bobby’s departure, Dorothy told Toby to wait downstairs in Mrs Kwiatkowski’s flat while she got ready. She was sure their elderly neighbour wouldn’t mind Toby’s company for a little while. As soon as she was on her own, Dorothy sat and stared at the kitchen wall for a full five minutes, her head spinning. Seeing that time was ticking on, she realised she had to get a move on. She had to forget what had just happened with Bobby, push it to the back of her mind until she was on her own again.
Twenty minutes later, Dorothy looked at herself in the mirror. She had managed to plaster on the make-up as well as what she hoped was a convincing look of excitement and anticipation at her unexpected date with Toby. Before he’d left the yard, Toby had told her they were going somewhere special and to put her glad rags on. Walking down the stairs to Mrs Kwiatkowski’s flat, Dorothy could hear Angie’s voice. She’d obviously got back from the shops and was chatting away to Toby and their neighbour. As she reached the doorway of the flat, Dorothy took a deep breath, once again trying to obliterate any thoughts of Bobby.
Appearing at the doorway, Dorothy struck a pose, as she usually did for her audience of three, congratulating herself on being able to act so well and disguise the turmoil inside.
Toby whistled. ‘Well worth the wait,’ he declared, jumping up and putting out his arm.
‘Have fun!’ Mrs Kwiatkowski said, smiling at the young couple.
‘Yeah, and dinnit forget to bring us back a doggy bag.’ Angie forced herself to sound jovial, although she felt anything but. She had walked in on Dorothy and Bobby and walked straight back out again. Neither had noticed.
Toby smiled, saluted and bade them farewell, then guided Dorothy out of the flat, through the main front door and down the stone steps.
‘So, what’s all this about Bobby and his mam?’ he asked as he took hold of Dorothy’s hand and they walked down Foyle Street.
‘Oh, huge drama,’ Dorothy said, wondering how quickly she could steer the conversation away from him. She was still unsure if Toby had picked up that something had been going on between them as he’d arrived at the flat.
They walked on.
Toby laughed. ‘Yes? And the huge drama being?’ he asked. It was unlike Dorothy to need any encouragement to talk.
‘Oh, he’s finally sorted everything out with Gloria,’ Dorothy said, trying to act as though she was not the least bit interested.
They turned right into Borough Road.
‘Well, that’s great news,’ Toby said, eyeing Dorothy and wondering why she wasn’t regaling him with every detail. She had spent the past three months giving him earache about bloody Bobby not doing what she wanted him to do, and now she barely had two words to say about the matter.
‘So, he’s forgiven her for divorcing his father?’ Toby continued to probe as they crossed the road.
‘Sort of,’ Dorothy said, wishing now she hadn’t gone on so much about the Bobby and Gloria situation to Toby. ‘Although I don’t think he was so much against the divorce.’
Toby stopped at the stone-pillared entrance to the Palatine, the town’s most exclusive restaurant. Dorothy’s eyes widened. Her mind had been so preoccupied with what had just happened with Bobby that she hadn’t even thought about asking Toby where they were going.
‘Oh my God!’ she said. ‘What are we celebrating?’
Toby opened the heavy swing door and Dorothy walked through.
‘Peter being alive?’ Dorothy made a guess. ‘Us conquering Normandy?’
Toby smiled but didn’t say anything.
The maître d’ appeared and showed them to their seats. Dorothy guessed that Toby must have been in earlier to pick out a table for two set back from the main dining area.
‘Oh, Toby, I feel thoroughly spoilt,’ Dorothy said as the waiter pulled out her chair and she sat down. She smiled, desperately hoping the guilt that she was presently drowning in was not apparent.
‘You deserve it,’ Toby said as he too sat down.
Dorothy pushed back yet more waves of guilt.
Seconds later, the sommelier arrived with the champagne. Normally, Dorothy would have been desperately holding back a shriek of excitement. As it was, she felt terrible. Disloyal. If only she hadn’t kissed Bobby. What had she been thinking of when she already had Toby? Lovely, kind, handsome Toby.
‘A toast,’ Toby said.
‘A toast.’ Dorothy pasted what she hoped looked like an ecstatically happy look on her face as they raised their glasses.
‘To Peter and Rosie,’ Dorothy said.
Toby smiled. ‘Yes, to Peter and Rosie. And also, to us.’
‘Of course, to us!’ she said, clinking glasses a tad too robustly and causing a little champagne to spill.
As they took their first sips, the starters arrived. French pâté on toast. Dorothy thanked the waiter and widened her eyes at Toby.
‘My favourite!’
Dorothy forced the first course down, making a show of enjoying every mouthful, clapping her hands in glee when the lobster thermidor arrived, all the while doing her best to banish images of Bobby and the kisses and caresses they had shared. If only she had stopped it and sent him packing. But she hadn’t. When she had slapped him, it was as though she were slapping herself for not having realised that she had let herself fall in love with him. She felt herself blush as she recalled telling him so in his deaf ear.
Why did she have to fall in love with Bobby when she had Toby?
She loved Toby, didn’t she? But the way she felt about Bobby was different and a little scary. He made her feel alive, and more than a little reckless. If Toby had not arrived when he had, she wondered if she would have been able to stop herself from going further with Bobby. She had held off sleeping with Toby – was determined to wait until she was married – but a few moments with Bobby and all those resolutions seemed to have vanished into thin air.
‘So, tell me more about Peter and how you found out he was still alive,’ Dorothy said. She needed Toby to talk while she dealt with the tsunami of thoughts crashing in her head.
Toby chatted on, telling Dorothy what he could. His own head, though, was full to bursting with other thoughts, and as they finished their chocolate mousse dessert – another favourite of Dorothy’s – he started to feel the full throttle of nerves as they approached the reason they were there.
‘So,’ Dorothy said, playfully, ‘you got me and Ange to deliver the bad news to Rosie, but the good news you drive all the way up here to divulge yourself!’
Toby laughed.
‘Actually, there was another reason I put the old gal through her paces to get here in record time.’ His face looked serious.
‘And what would that be?’ she asked.
Please, no, please don’t. Not today. Not now.
She could feel the colour drain from her cheeks as she watched Toby dig his hand into his trouser pocket and pull out a small leather box.
Watched as he dropped to one knee.
This was all she had wanted for so long. But now it was really happening it was the last thing she wanted.
Damn Bobby!
‘Dorothy Mary Williams …’ Toby opened the petite red box to reveal a beautiful, sparkling diamond ring.
‘Oh, my goodness,’ Dorothy said, her hand going to her chest. ‘It’s beautiful.’
Toby looked at the woman he loved; her eyes were sparkling as brightly as the diamond he was offering her.
‘Dorothy, I want you to be my wife more than anything else in the world. Will you marry me?’ He looked up at the woman with whom he’d been madly in love since first setting eyes on her at Lily’s.
Dorothy opened her mouth, but nothing came out. It was as though she had been struck dumb. For once in her life she had no idea what to say. She was aware of the other diners looking at her and Toby. She knew what she was supposed to say and do, but she couldn’t. It was as if she had become temporarily paralysed.
Toby stayed a few more moments on bended knee, but, seeing the look of confusion on Dorothy’s face and taking it to mean she was feeling overwhelmed, he pushed himself up and sat back down on his seat. He took her hand, squeezed it and smiled.
The curious diners, sensing that this scene was not about to be played out as planned, turned their attention back to their own partners and meals.
Toby scrutinised Dorothy. She looked as though she were about to burst into tears. He had never guessed she would react this way. Had something changed? Had her feelings changed since he had seen her last? Surely she was just overwrought. The news about Peter had affected them all.
‘Are you all right?’ he asked gently.
Dorothy nodded vigorously, but still didn’t speak.
‘I’m guessing this has been all a bit too much. What with the news about Peter and now me springing this on you?’
Again, Dorothy nodded; tears had started to well in her eyes. Tears of guilt.
She looked at Toby and all she could see was Bobby.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Dorothy said, choking back the tears.
She gave him an apologetic smile.
‘I just don’t know what I want.’
Or rather, who I want.