The Proposal

By the time they had reached the top of a winding set of stairs and pushed through a door into a small bedroom, Georgia was out of breath.

‘Right. Next bit’s a little tricky.’

He jumped up on to the narrow bed and yanked at the window, sliding it up and getting one foot up on to the sill.

‘Here,’ he said, extending a hand towards Georgia.

‘You want me to climb up there?’

‘Yes. Just don’t look down.’

‘Very well,’ said Georgia, gathering up her long skirt and hoisting herself up after him. ‘But if I split a seam, you can buy me a new dress.’

Edward caught her around the waist.

‘Georgia Hamilton, I will buy you all the dresses in Selfridges if that’s what you want. Now come on.’

He lifted her on to a small platform, and as Georgia straightened, she could see where they were.

‘We’re on the roof,’ she gasped.

‘The only place for the queen of all she surveys,’ grinned Edward. He disappeared back into the room and came back with a bottle of champagne and a blanket, which he spread out on the sloping tiles. Nervously Georgia sat down next to him in the little nest he had created; they could see most of the garden, with all the people milling around, yet they were hidden from view, even if anyone had thought to crane their necks upwards.

‘As you can see, I have come completely prepared,’ said Edward, pulling two champagne glasses from his jacket pockets and pouring them each a drink. He chinked his glass against hers.

‘To adventure,’ he said.

‘To us,’ she replied, smiling.

They sat in silence, sipping the wine and enjoying the simple pleasure of being somewhere they shouldn’t, peeking down on the party unobserved.

‘This is a really amazing place,’ she said, wishing she could stay up here for ever.

‘Best bit of the house,’ he grinned.

‘I’m sure this house has lots of great bits.’

He nodded.

‘And as kids, Christopher and I probably found every single one. You know it’s got dozens of hidden passages and stairways, all put in so the servants could creep about without disturbing the lords and ladies. We’d use them to pretend to be explorers or ghost-hunters. This little hidey-hole was our lookout in case pirates decided to sail across the lake to steal

Daddy’s silver.’

Georgia laughed, imagining the two boys playing their games, just as she had, building dens and climbing trees in Devon. The Carlyle boys both seemed so grown up and formal, but she supposed they had once wanted to play just like everyone else. The tragedy was that no one was allowed to carry on playing once they grew up.

‘I still don’t understand why you started work at the bank so soon after you left Oxford,’ she said, staring out into the darkness. ‘We should never stop having adventures. That was one of the things I liked about you when we first met. You’d done so many interesting things, and I don’t think we should stop just because people think that we should all become responsible once we graduate.’

‘Well, I was supposed to go to Borneo to see the jungle and the orang-utans, but something cropped up.’

‘What?’

‘You,’ he said simply.

She turned to look at him.

‘You never told me. We could have gone together.’

‘Plus there’re plans afoot for something I suggested a while ago. My father took it seriously and the wheels are in motion.’