I shivered. I had no problem with any kind of creepy crawly and I was rather fond of rodents, but I had an irrational fear of snakes that I wished I could shake off. I wouldn’t have liked to have been in Bob Jameson’s shoes.

Molloy rooted out some jam and butter and finally we sat down to eat. He smiled. “Well, isn’t this a domestic little scene?”

I looked up, butter knife suspended in mid-air. There was something in his tone that made me suspect he was going to address the elephant in the room. But did I even want him to?

He gave me a wry look. “Did you think I was never going to mention it again?”

“I …”

“Did you hope I was never going to mention it again?”

I shook my head. “No. I …” I seemed to be failing to complete a sentence. Just as well I wasn’t in court.

“Come on, Ben. I asked you to marry me and you ran away to America for six months. It’s hardly the response a young man setting his cap at a lady is after.” He raised his mug in a toast.

I looked down at my chewy toasted roll. Then I realized he was laughing. I wasn’t sure how to react.

He took a sip of his coffee. “It’s fine. It was a spur of the moment thing on my part too. I surprised myself when I said it.”

“Did you?” I knew it was ridiculous of me to feel hurt, but I did.

He quickly reached out for my hand. “I wasn’t surprised about how I felt about you. But I was surprised by that. I mean, we weren’t even together.”

“I had noticed that.”

“You were with that doctor.”

I avoided his gaze, concentrating again on my buttering. “I wasn’t really ‘with’ him.”

He raised his eyebrows. “No? It seemed as if you were. Anyway, it was a bit impulsive. Not really the kind of thing I do.”

I looked up and my eyes met his. “Is that why you asked me? Because you thought I was with someone else?”

“No,” he said slowly. “At least, not entirely. I may have been afraid of losing you, but I also knew I’d let you down and you had good reason not to trust me, with everything that had happened. I wanted you to know that you could trust me and that I wasn’t going anywhere and …” He faltered and shook his head. “Oh, I don’t know. I thought it might have been something that you wanted. I cocked up, though, didn’t I? It wasn’t what you wanted at all.”

“Not then, no.” I paused. “Or now, I don’t think. Do you want to get married?”

He didn’t reply.

“Do you? Come on, you were the one that asked.”

“Okay then. No, I suppose I don’t.”