‘Do you think I’ll do?’ she appealed when she opened the door.
“You look gorgeous” was on the tip of his tongue, but he wisely refrained. ‘You look fine,’ he assured her.
‘So, do you.’ She smiled shyly. ‘Look, I don’t think it’s going to rain. Why don’t you leave that old umbrella behind, in the hall? We’ll be coming back afterwards anyway, for the solicitor. The cook will give us a cup of tea; there’s bound to be a crush after the service.’
When they reached the church, Robert had to admit that Jill had been quite right. The old weather-beaten walls of St. Augusta no doubt had valiantly stood up to hundreds of years of onslaught by Norman invaders in the distant past, but faced with the funeral of a famous novelist, they gave in without a murmur. Today, the doors were opened wide for v
