‘Oh, bravo!’ exclaimed Eddie when he saw Fran appear in the doorway of the drawing room. ‘Your chariot awaits, Milady Juliet.’
‘Juliet didn’t have a chariot, did she?’ asked Mellie.
‘Didn’t she say something about wanting one?’ asked Henrietta. ‘I’m sure I remember something about it at school. Doves drawing Cupid’s chariot, or something was it?’
‘It’s the speech in Act II,’ said Fran. ‘“Loves heralds should be thoughts, which ten times faster glide than the suns beams—”’ She came to a halt, blushing slightly lest the Edgertons might think her a show-off or a bore.
‘Good heavens!’ cried Roly. ‘You don’t just look the part, you actually know it.’
‘Do go on and give us some more,’ begged Eddie, but Fran shook her head, protesting that she didn’t know the rest and then Mellie asked whether they oughtn’t to see if the cars had been brought down from the garage.
The party at the Lyndons’ turned out to be far more fun than she had expected. Most of the costumes were considerably more elaborate than anything she had encountered at the modest fancy dress parties she remembered from childhood, with everything from teddy bears to Tutankhamun represented. Mabel Trenchard’s Charlie Chaplin disguise was so successful that no one initially recognized her, though her sister’s elaborate Britannia took a bit of managing, leaving Fran secretly grateful that her own outfit fitted her so well and was surprisingly comfortable, apart from the beaded skull cap, which needed a lot of well-concealed Kirby grips to keep it in place.
There was a splendid buffet supper, an endless supply of fruit punch laced with gin and a professional band had been engaged for the dancing, which took place in a real ballroom, for the Lyndons’ residence was much larger and grander than Sunnyside House. Though she knew no one but the Edgertons, Fran experienced no shortage of partners willing to take her for a turn around the dance floor, and Eddie made a point of ensuring that she was never left on her own between dances. She could hardly believe it when she realized that everyone was beginning to leave.
As they joined the line which had formed to thank their hosts, Fran took a lingering look at the portraits on the walls and the decorated plaster ceilings. It wasn’t every day that she got to dance in surroundings like this – in fact, it wasn’t any day and it might never happen again.
‘Such a pleasure to meet you,’ Emmeline Lyndon said in response to Fran’s thanks. ‘I do hope that we’ll be seeing a lot more of you in the future.’
There wasn’t time to explain that she was only in Devon temporarily and besides which it seemed impolite to respond that she would probably never see them again, so Fran just nodded and smiled and said ‘thank you’ again.
‘Phew,’ said Eddie, as he climbed into the Riley, having seen Fran safely into the passenger seat. ‘At last I can take off this blasted beard. It’s frightfully hot and itchy.’
‘In that case, I am removing my cap too,’ said Fran. ‘One of those pins is sticking straight into my scalp.’
‘Toss it into the back with the beard,’ said Eddie. ‘What say we go back via the coast road? It’s not much out of our way and it’s such a beautiful clear night.’
‘Morning,’ she corrected him. ‘Goodness, but it’s ages since I’ve stayed up so late – or had so much fun.’
The beam of the Riley’s headlights sliced through the darkness of the lanes. They met nothing on the road and within about a quarter of an hour, Fran could see that they had reached the coast, for when the road emerged on to high ground, she was immediately confronted by an expanse of dark water stretching out before them, overlaid with a glittering mantle of silver, where the moonlight had made a pathway across the sea.
‘Oh,’ she gasped. ‘How lovely!’
‘There’s a good place to stop here.’ Eddie slowed the car as he spoke, steering it to the side of the road. ‘Come out and see it properly,’ he instructed. ‘Hold on. Let me put this rug around you so you don’t get cold.’
After draping the rug about her shoulders, he guided her a few steps away from the car, and sure enough she saw that the land fell away gently, revealing an even lovelier aspect.
‘It’s beautiful,’ Fran said. ‘I’ve never seen anything quite like it before.’
‘The drawing room at Innominate House faces the sea. This will be the view from there every night, when the moon is in the right place.’
Fran was silent. Vistas of dancing and laughter and coming home to a beautiful view and someone who cared tremendously for one swam enticingly on a silvery ocean of moonlight and a little too much gin.
They stood in silence for a few moments before Eddie spoke. ‘I know we’ve hardly known each other for a week yet, but sometimes that’s all it takes. No, no … please don’t say anything yet … You see, you are the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met – and I know you’re probably in the same camp as everyone else, thinking I’m a complete and total idiot, and I don’t mind that. Only don’t say “no” just yet. Let me keep my hopes up, Fran – darling Fran – that one day, soon, you will agree to be my wife.’
Fran opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.
‘I expect you’ve got a string of fellows in pursuit and you must think it’s jolly presumptuous of me to ask, but you see I saw that you had taken off your wedding ring and I thought that maybe you were doing it as a sign … to let me know that, well, you’d seen how much I care for you.’
‘Oh no.’ Fran managed to get a word in. ‘Oh no, Eddie, I didn’t mean anything by it at all. Nothing was further from my mind.’
‘Of course not. Of course not,’ he hastened on. ‘As if you are the sort of girl who would ever encourage a man or lead him on in any way at all. I didn’t mean that, of course I didn’t. I’m an idiot, such an idiot. The thing is, that … well … I’d be honoured. Only … well … yes … as I say, please don’t give me an answer now. Please think about it first. Take as long as you like. Only promise me that you won’t say “no” tonight.’
Fran couldn’t see his face, but she could imagine it, his eyes looking earnestly into hers. She made no objection when he put both his arms around her and kissed her. It was very nice to be kissed, properly kissed, after such a long time. When the kiss was over, he released her, very slowly and gently, saying, ‘Promise me you will think about it.’
‘Very well, I promise.’
They walked back to the car in silence.
‘You won’t say anything to your family?’ she asked.
‘Not until … unless, you say “yes”.’
‘Everything just as normal tomorrow,’ Fran said, firmly.
‘Of course. Everything just as normal.’