heard Harry go into one of the pods, his laughter so loud I could hear him from the outside.
Chapter Three
I was shaken gently awake the next day. It was pitch black but the hand continued to shake me.
‘Harry?’ I croaked, though I knew it was him, I could smell his glorious scent.
‘Yeah, it’s me.’
I leaned over and snapped on the lamp on the bedside table, shielding my eyes from the sudden glare.
‘Here, I made you a coffee. The café isn’t open yet. It won’t be as good as theirs, you don’t have any hazelnut syrup for a start, but it might help to wake you up.’
I took the coffee numbly and stared at him in confusion.
‘You look good by the way, nice pyjamas.’
I peered over at the alarm clock, blearily. It was four a.m. I put the coffee down and picked up the clock to look at it more closely.
‘It’s four o’clock!’ I said, incredulous. I wasn’t even aware that there was two four o’clocks in one day.
‘Yes it is.’
‘In the morning!’
‘How very perceptive of you.’
‘Did we discuss this last night?’ I racked my brains for any conversation that would have alerted me to the fact that Harry would be disturbing me at this ungodly hour.
After leaving The Glade the day before, we had walked along the Thames as the sun set and the moon danced over the water. It had been incredibly romantic, apart from at the end of our wonderful date, when Harry had rushed off to meet another woman. But I did get a goodnight kiss. On the cheek, but still, a kiss was a kiss.
But as we had chatted, there had been no mention of this ridiculously early intrusion. I would have protested if I’d known.
‘No, that’s part of the surprise,’ he said, pulling the duvet off me. I pulled it back, not ready to face the chill of the morning yet.
‘A proposal?’ My heart leapt a little. Despite my reticence about being proposed to, I was actually looking forward to seeing what Harry would do next.
‘Of course. This one’s a good one.’
‘Let me tell you, any proposal that starts at four o’clock in the morning is not going to be a good one.’
‘You’ll love it.’
I threw myself back down on the bed, covering myself with the duvet.
‘No, you can’t make me get up.’
‘Suzie, you have two choices, you can either get dressed now and come with me or...’
‘I’ll take the ‘or’ whatever it is, definitely the ‘or’.’
‘Ok, if you insist.’
‘I do.’
There was silence beyond the duvet, and a shifting of weight indicated that Harry had got off the bed. Had I hurt his feelings? Had he gone?
Suddenly the duvet was ripped off me and Harry grabbed my arms, pulled me up into a sitting position and then threw me over his shoulder. He turned and ran for the door.
‘What are you doing?’ I squealed.
‘The ‘or’ was going in your pyjamas.’
Harry ran down the stairs, opened the flat door and ran outside with me still over his shoulder. The street outside was deserted.
‘No, no, please, I’ll be good, I’ll get dressed I promise, just don’t kidnap me in my pyjamas.’
Harry lowered me to the ground carefully. ‘You promise, you’ll go straight back in there and get dressed right away?’
I put my hand up in a Girl Guide salute. ‘I promise.’
‘Very well, you have five minutes.’
I nodded at him and went back up the stairs, but if I thought I could sneak back into bed that thought was quickly quelled as Harry followed close behind.
*
Harry pulled his car into an empty car park and I looked around blearily. I had dozed in the car, unable to keep my eyes open as Harry’s old Beetle, Betty, bumped along the roads. The heating had two settings, scorching hot or off. In the cold winter morning, scorching hot was the only answer but it had made me even sleepier. Harry had tried to placate my frown with a full English breakfast at some greasy spoon road café. It had woken me up a bit.
Harry leaned over to me and zipped up my fleece I was wearing. I was told