Free Unknown by Unknown

wishes. Now, I’m sorry, but it’s all arranged and it’s too late for second thoughts. Perhaps you won’t be so hasty in future. And the boy has been vaccinated. He was done when Theo proposed to take him to Crete with them.’
    ‘When Theo proposed to take him!’ Kate raised her lip in a delicate sneer. ‘Your brother couldn’t have cared less whether he had a son or not!’
    Jerome walked them across the pavement and after bestowing Philip in the back of the car, pushed Kate in through the front passenger door with a far from gentle hand. He walked round the car and got in himself and sat with his hands on the steering wheel, staring bleakly through the windscreen. ‘Are you deaf as well as blind, Kate?’ It was almost a snarl. ‘Who is it that Philip is always asking for? Not his mother! Yes, Theo proposed to take the boy with him to Crete. You can believe it or not as you please.’
     

CHAPTER FOUR
    Much later, when Kate looked back on that week, she could only find a confused blur in her memory. Things had happened because Jerome Manfred made them happen. He started the wheels in motion and, once turning, they ground on relentlessly and Kate found herself a victim of the system.
    She was very foggy about everything, although some episodes stood out clear in her mind, as when, on that first day in London, they had done their shopping together.
    In the register office they-had sat waiting side by side on very hard chairs, and Kate had been hard put to it to control Philip, who had grown bored with the delay and wanted to enliven the process by pretending that he was a train. His shuffling feet and his constant, noisy whoo-whoos had caused raised eyebrows and deprecating looks from the other people waiting, and he refused to pay any attention to Kate’s remonstrances. It was not until Jerome rose, captured him and sat him firmly on a chair that peace reigned once more. Then in the Registrar’s office, a very untidy office, she thought, she sat mute while Jerome gave the required information. It still didn’t seem real and she was astounded to find that, instead of paying attention, all she could think of was that she was terribly thirsty and would have given her eye teeth for a cup of tea. She thought of the tea as she listened to Jerome and the Registrar. It would be in a dumpy little pot and would come out of the spout in a clear golden stream.
    Outside the building, the desire for tea didn’t disappear, it grew, so that she was forced to turn to him.
    ‘Could we go somewhere and have a cup of tea?’ She ventured the question and he had nodded quite amiably. He had frowned at the sticky cake which Philip had chosen for himself and replaced it with something plainer and had checked Philip’s howl of anguish with a quelling look. At her third cup, he had looked at her.
    ‘If you’re ready,’ he indicated Philip’s wriggles, ‘I think we should continue with our business. Harrods, I think.’
    Several times, while she sorted through dresses, Kate was aware of his eyes on her and she hurriedly gathered up a pile and went off to the fitting room to try them on. They were all very plain day dresses and she eventually chose one in a cream wool, softly draped and with a matching, loose coat trimmed with coffee- coloured braid. He inspected her choice carefully.
    ‘It won’t do, Kate.’ He shook his head. ‘The wedding is to be in a church and my mother will expect you to be dressed traditionally. Something long and flowing with a train and a veil. My mother likes traditional things.’
    ‘Your mother isn’t getting married,’ she told him brusquely, ‘I am, and I refuse to dress up for this mockery, nor,’ she added, ‘have I any intention of promising to either love, honour or obey you. Why couldn’t we have had a civil ceremony and cut out all this hypocrisy?’ She hardly troubled to lower her voice, speaking in her normally clear tones, and was aware that the saleswoman was listening