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‘And now she’s finally caught up with hi the eed Poppy

‘How long have you known?’

‘When did all this happen?’

‘Have you made any plans yet?’

Poppy stood like soratulations fell on her like blohilst at her side James was as still and cold as stone

‘I told you you’d never be able to keep this to yourselves,’ Chris reone to open sone

‘Now I knohy you looked so disappointed when I arrived without Jaed Poppy a second tiht that Ja at Poppy through her tears

What rong with them all? Poppy wondered dizzily as her father started to hand round glasses of chane They all knew that she loved Chris and yet they were behaving as though as though her relationship with Jaone conclusion

She heard her father proposing a toast whilst soratulated James and asked him when they were to be married

‘Well, you won’t want to wait long, will you?’ interrupted Sally ‘And, after all, it isn’t as though you need to look for a house or anything; you can ht into James’s’

Could she see just the tiniest hint of relief in Sally’s eyes? Poppy wondered achiligly as Chris turned to hug her He didn’t kiss her, she noticed Did he suspect the truth? Did he know that he was still the one she loved?

‘So when did all this happen?’ Poppy’s mother asked her when the excitement had finally started to die down a little

In Italy, Poppy was about to say, but Ja firmly, ‘Last Christmas’

Poppy turned her head to stare at him Last Christmas they had had one-of the worst quarrels they had ever had, when he’d accused her of trying to make Sally unco about’, as he’d put it, over Chris

She waited for herbut instead she simply smiled and said that they had done very well to keep it to the

‘We didn’t want to steal Chris and Sally’s glory,’ James fibbed smoothly

‘So noe’ve got another wedding to plan; when do you?’

A wedding Poppy gave James an appalled look and told her mother quickly, ‘Oh, no, we can’t—’

‘We can’t quite make up our minds when,’ James overrode her smoothly

‘Well, at least you won’t have to look for a house,’ her iving Jaht at the ti as obviously a fauessed then; Poppy has always had a weakness for those Victorian houses down by the river’

Whilst Poppy bit back her shocked response—that she had had nothing to do with the choice of James’s present home—James himself responded with a calirl she used to insist on taking the long way home from school so that she could walk past them’

It was true, she did love the ardens backed onto the river, and had even fantasised about living in one, but with Chris, not James

She had been angry when Jao to the siven

All through lunch Poppy was conscious of the interest they were causing She herself didn’t have any appetite, she had lost weight since her return froe that it was no wonder she didn’t want to eat

‘I want to talk to you’ Poppy tensed as she heard Ja quietly in her ear