‘I don’t know. Conserving her energies somewhere for her appearance in the divorce courts next week.’ His face hardened. ‘I’m afraid it’s going to be very nasty. She’ll probably cite you.’
‘I don’t care,’ and she began to kiss him.
‘Are the children really all right?’ she said later. ‘God, I’ve missed them so much.’
‘They’ve missed you — if I hadn’t come down here, they were threatening to get on a train to London and fetch you themselves. We’ll ring them up and give them the good news in a minute. Christ, it is good news.’
Only one thing was nagging Harriet. ‘How’s Sevenoaks?’ she said.
‘Well actually he’s here,’ said Cory. ‘I thought he’d have withdrawal symptoms if we both abandoned him, so I brought him with me.’
‘Oh, you are sweet. Can I see him?’
‘Sure, he’s in my bedroom, down the passage.’
He followed Harriet to the door, adding, ‘He’s greatly improved by the way. In your absence, I took the opportunity of teaching him a few manners. In actual fact he’s quite trainable if one’s firm. He sits and stays now, and comes when he’s called. And at least I’ve stopped him climbing onto beds and chewing everything up.’
‘That’s amazing,’ said Harriet, opening the bedroom door, and looking inside.
On the bed sprawled Sevenoaks, his shaggy grey head on the pillow, snoring loudly. Beside him, chewed to bits, lay the remains of a pair of suede shoes.
‘Oh doesn’t he look sweet lying there?’ said Harriet.
Sevenoaks opened an eye, and suddenly saw Harriet.
‘Stay,’ thundered Cory. ‘Stay.’
Sevenoaks took a flying leap through the air, and landing at Harriet’s feet threw himself on her in ecstasy, nearly knocking her sideways, moaning with joy.
‘Stay,’ howled Cory.
Sevenoaks gave Cory an old-fashioned look and took no notice at all.
Harriet caught Cory’s eye and went off into peals of laughter.
‘Oh, darling,’ she said, ‘are you sure you really want to marry me? You won’t get fed up?’
‘Of course I will, but not for very long,’ said Cory, pulling Sevenoaks off. ‘I mean we’re virtually married already. We’ve got three children and a problem dog between us. We’ve spent long evenings discussing their education and what we feel about life, you’ve cooked and washed and kept house for me. The only thing we haven’t done is slept together, and I don’t have any major hangups about that.’
‘We’ve eaten all the gingerbread,’ said Harriet ecstatically, ‘and now we can enjoy the lovely, lovely gilt.’
‘Exactly,’ said Cory, and he began kissing her. .
THE END