‘Well,’ he said. ‘What do you think?’

She stared in stunned astonishment at the diamond ring. ‘I think it looks awfully expensive, Rick,’ she murmured.

He laughed again. ‘It was. But so long as you give me the right answer, it will have been worth every penny. So what do you say? Will you marry me? Will you be, not just the mother of my child, but my wife?’

The idea of pushing open the car door and rolling away returned to her, and as though faced with the choice of that, or saying yes to Rick, she took a deep breath before answering.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

As always seemed to happen when Naomi’s family gathered together, there was an undercurrent of conflicting emotions, of something being not quite right.

While Naomi and the girls were off on their shopping jaunt, Ellis, Tom and Rick had gone for a walk to Bosham and had lunch at the Anchor Bleu, followed by the walk back to Tilsham. For some reason though, what should have been an easy-going time was anything but. Perhaps the intense heat of the day had something to do with it; the temperature had soared to a sizzling 34ºC. Bosham and Tilsham were packed with Bank Holiday weekend visitors and with the tide in, what few areas of beach there were, were crowded with day-trippers. The wily seagulls knew when they were on to a good thing and swooped down on the unwary, stealing whatever looked edible from unguarded hands.

It was always possible, Ellis thought, that actually he was the problem and not the hot sun, that Tom and Rick regarded him as an interloper. It made sense that if Martha and Willow didn’t approve of him, there was every chance that Tom and Rick wouldn’t either. But Ellis didn’t really think that was the issue, and anyway, Willow had appeared to accept him as being part of the family now. There certainly hadn’t been a problem the last time he had spent time alone with Tom and Rick, when they’d gone for a drink together the day of the fête.

Things had got off to an odd start when they’d all arrived and Rick, apparently bursting with the need to share his and Willow’s news, announced that he had just proposed to Willow, and she’d said yes. Ellis considered it a strange way to propose, while driving, but then who was he to comment? He’d noticed that while everyone had admired the ring on Willow’s finger, she hadn’t seemed as happy as one might expect her to look. If anything, she looked vaguely embarrassed. Naomi must have decided it was an ideal opportunity to share their own news, a way of getting it over and done with, and had held up her own ring for inspection. A more muted round of congratulations followed, which was perfectly understandable.

Later, when Ellis, together with Tom and Rick, had returned to Anchor House from their walk, there had been a tricky moment when he had suggested that what they needed now was an ice-cold beer to cool them off after being out in the blisteringly hot sun for so long. He’d been about to open the fridge for the beers he’d put in there yesterday after shopping with Naomi, when Tom had beaten him to it. They both had hastily stepped back from the fridge as though each had inadvertently barged in on the other’s territory. Ellis knew from Naomi that Tom had been a great support to her after Colin’s death and could always be relied upon to act as her wingman, whether it was offering financial advice or pouring out drinks for people. Did Tom feel his newly acquired position – his promotion within the family – had been undermined by Ellis? If so, Ellis made a mental note to watch out for that in the future; he needed Tom as an ally if he was ever going to win Martha round.