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‘I’m going to ring Anna...in private...’
* * *
‘You don’t think that Beth guessed, do you?’ Dee asked Hugo anxiously as she snuggled into his arms beneath the warmth of her duvet. ‘She gave me a very knowing look when she said goodnight.’
‘Well, if she has guessed it wasn’t my fault,’ Hugo responded virtuously. ‘I wasn’t the one playing footsie under the table—and very suggestively too, I might add.’
‘I’ve already told you that was an accident,’ Dee protested. ‘I’d lost my shoe...’
‘Mmm, and I nearly lost my self-control. Anyway, what does it matter if she did guess?’
‘You know we said that we wouldn’t go public until after the committee meeting. If I’d known when she originally invited me to dinner that Alex’s duty invite was you, I—’
‘You mean you said we wouldn’t go public...’
‘We don’t want the other members of the committee to think that—’
‘That what?’ Hugo teased her. ‘That I’m so desperately in love with you that you used your wicked wiles to get me to vote in your favour?’
‘Certainly not. I would never do anything like that,’ Dee protested indignantly.
‘No...? Are you sure?’ Hugo wheedled coaxingly as he slid his hand over the curve of her hip.
‘Mmm...I thought I was supposed to be the one doing the seducing,’ Dee murmured huskily.
‘Mmm. Well, perhaps I’m trying to use my wicked wiles on you.’
‘What for?’ Dee asked him softly as she opened her mouth to his kiss. ‘I’ve already given in to you...’
‘Mmm...you have, haven’t you?’ Hugo agreed. ‘And pretty soon everyone’s going to know that you have, aren’t they?’ he asked her, gently patting her stomach.
‘Hugo,’ Dee objected. ‘How did you know?’ she asked him. ‘It’s far too soon yet, and...’
‘I know for exactly the same reason that you know,’ Hugo told her. ‘What we shared was just too powerful, too strong, too intense for us not to have created a new life together.’
‘We can’t be sure...’ Dee warned him. ‘Not yet.’ But Hugo could see the hope in her eyes, and his heart melted with love for her.
‘You’ll have to marry me now,’ he told her.
‘Yes, but not until after the committee meeting,’ Dee told him teasingly.
‘Not until after the committee meeting,’ Hugo agreed.
* * *
‘And so, in conclusion, I would like to reiterate that in my view this committee has a moral obligation to the original founder of the charity to follow in his footsteps and apply charitable help to that section of the community where it is most needed. As this report in front of you proves quite conclusively, it is needed nowhere more than in the relief of the deprivation that is being suffered by the town’s young people.
‘To give them not just a sense of self-worth, nor even a future to look forward to, but positive and concrete proof of their town’s faith and belief in them would surely be a fitting tribute to the spirit of everything that your founder stood for. By helping those young people we are investing in the future. Not just their future, but the future of our own descendants as well. To deny them the opportunity to become responsible citizens would, in my view, be a grave moral indictment of us as human beings.
‘To take on a task of the magnitude of this one is a very bold and courageous step, there is no doubt about that, but I believe it is one we are capable of making. The question is, do you believe it?’
Dee gasped as Hugo sat down to a standing ovation from the whole committee.
He had completely surprised her when he had asked the committee if he might address them, not as Peter’s representative but as a private individual.
Although somewhat surprised, they had agreed. Hugo’s reputation had gone before him and Dee had seen how impressed they were by him.
Now, as he sat down, her eyes filled with proud tears. Here, in the shape of the words her husband-to-be, her lover, the father of her child, their child, their children, had just uttered, she had heard the vindication of everything that her father had hoped and worked for.
