of wine.
Elizabeth, wearing a khaki mackintosh over her kaftan and a silk headscarf tied under her chin like the Queen, appeared from inside carrying all three cats and dropped them gently into the pram, before lowering the hood as a new mother might to protect her baby. ‘See you in a bit,’ she said over her shoulder. ‘The Battenbergs are coming for dinner so drinks in the drawing room at six!’
‘I did warn you,’ said Rory, as Elizabeth pushed the pram down the drive.
‘I like her. She’s different.’ I wasn’t just being polite. Her whimsical, devil-may-care attitude was refreshing. As she trudged through the metal gate at the end of the drive, it looked like she was taking a new granddaughter out for a spin. If anyone peered under the hood they’d get a heck of a shock, although presumably they were used to the sight round here.
I looked at Rory and laughed, before clapping a hand over my mouth. He’d put on a tweed coat and tweedy hat which made him look like Sherlock Holmes. Tufts of blond hair poked out from under the ear flaps.
‘What?’
‘Nothing,’ I mumbled, still laughing from behind my fingers. ‘I just didn’t know I’d be playing Watson while you solved a mysterious crime on this walk.’
‘Florence Fairfax, you are going to pay for that,’ he said coolly.
‘What do you mean?’
In less than a second, Rory had wrapped his arms around me and reached inside my coat to tickle me. I hated being tickled.
‘Oh my God, stop!’ I screamed, wriggling free and running down the path around the house towards the lawn. The wine made me clumsy but I staggered through a narrow gap in a hedge before he caught the hem of my coat and pulled me to the grass.
‘Nice try,’ he said, his arms pinning mine.
‘That hat is ridiculous.’
‘You have red-wine teeth,’ he replied.
Our noses were almost touching and we were being drunk and absurd. But I liked it. This felt more like the romantic weekend I’d envisaged. Two people locked in their own bubble, laughing together as if life in that moment was entirely perfect, nothing else necessary.
He kissed me and put his hand back inside my coat, then reached under my jumper and wrapped his cold fingers around my ribcage.
‘Fancy it?’ he asked, grinning at me.
‘What? Out here?’
He nodded and I could see from the intensity of his stare that he meant it. Also, I could feel his erection against my leg.
‘What about your parents?’ I craned my neck to look back at the house but it was hidden by the hedge. I’d unwittingly run into an enclosed section of the garden, surrounded by the hedge, where herbs were growing in pots and in neat clumps along a flowerbed.
‘They’re not here,’ Rory whispered, lowering his head to kiss me again. ‘Don’t you want to?’
‘Yes, I do. I really do. But it’s just…’
‘What?’
‘I’ve got a wet bottom from the grass.’
‘I can solve that.’ He rolled over, pulling me with him, so that his back was on the ground and I was on top of him. I reached back to feel my jeans.
‘Yeah, knew it. I’ve got a wet bum.’
‘So take them off,’ he said, before he put his hand to the back of my head and pulled me in for another kiss. I wanted to, I could feel myself yielding. But, still, we were outside, lying next to his parents’ hedge and it was four in the afternoon. I thought they had scones in the country at teatime, not sex in the herb garden. And Merlin the giant dog would presumably lumber along any minute and try to join in.
‘Come on,’ he coaxed, ‘do it. Take them off for me. Nobody’s here.’
So, not wanting to seem uptight, I stood and leant to peer through the gap in the hedge at the house. No sign of human or dog. I unzipped my jeans and peeled them down as Rory undid his flies.
‘I’m not doing it with that hat on,’ I said, as I tugged my jeans over my ankles and dropped my knickers on top of them. Rory removed his hat and flicked it like a frisbee over the hedge.
I lifted one leg over him and knelt down, sniggering as I felt the damp grass against my skin. ‘This is a very bad idea,’ I said, as I reached between my thighs and held his erection, before slowly guiding him into me.
‘No, it’s not. It’s a fucking exceptional idea,’ Rory groaned, as I