THE MARCH WAS to start at ten o’clock on the Saturday morning. Our wedding was at two. There was time, but it was going to be horribly close.
Bunty and I went down to the kitchen and pored over the train timetable, which in peacetime would have made perfect sense. Now though, everyone knew that it made little or none.
‘When it comes down to it,’ said Bunty, ‘it’s a gamble. Everything on the winner, no hedging your bets.’ She blew out her cheeks. ‘It’s going to be awfully tight.’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘But I promised. Oh, Bunts, you should have seen Anne this morning. This means everything to her and I won’t let her down now. I’m going to go as a reporter. I haven’t heard back from all the magazines yet, so I may still get someone to take the story. And anyway, doing their own event was my idea.’
‘Then you have to go,’ said Bunty.
‘But what if I can’t get back?’
‘Then don’t,’ said Bunty, who was playing devil’s advocate far too well for my liking.
I grimaced.
‘This is horrible,’ I said. ‘If I don’t support the girls it goes against everything I believe in, and if I can’t get back to London in time, I’ll miss my one chance to marry the man I really do love.’
I got up and wandered around the kitchen.
‘I need to speak with Charles,’ I said. ‘We didn’t even say goodbye properly. I hate that with anyone, let alone him. In fact, I’ll send a telegram tomorrow morning. I’ll write a proper letter as well, but I can’t spend all weekend wondering about things. I’ll go mad.’
‘What will you say?’ said Bunty.
‘No idea,’ I said. ‘Something like, I’m sorry I was cross, and I do want to marry you more than anything, it’s just that I wish you’d said before you’d gone ahead and sorted things without talking to me. You know, something like that.’
Bunty was counting on her fingers.
‘I don’t want to be unkind, but you do know it’s a penny a word after the first sixpence, don’t you?’ she said, smiling. ‘How about you just ask him to give you a call. Then you can talk it through properly.’
‘Bunty Tavistock,’ I said, pretending to scold, ‘my entire future is hanging by a thread and you’re telling me to watch the pennies so the pounds will look after themselves?’
Bunty shook her head.
‘No, you chump,’ she replied. ‘I’m telling you to talk to him so he can help us come up with a plan.’