Briar Patch by Linda Sole Page B

walked away. Roz felt cold all over. Her uncle offered his arm as she hesitated. For a moment she wanted to run away. She wanted to run after Tom Blake and ask him to take her far from here, somewhere she would be safe and warm.
    â€˜Anything wrong, m’dear?’
    â€˜No, uncle. Everything is fine, thank you.’
    She took his arm and walked into church as the organ started to play.
    â€˜You are so beautiful, Roz,’ Harry said and lifted his champagne glass to her. ‘I know I’ve been saying the same thing ever since we left the church, but I can’t believe my own luck. I kept thinking you would change your mind.’
    â€˜I was scared on the way to church,’ Roz admitted. ‘Don’t put me on a pedestal, Harry. I’m just a woman.’
    â€˜You’re the woman I love,’ he replied and touched her hand as she toyed with her wineglass. ‘I feel blessed – honoured. I’ll be good to you, lass.’
    â€˜Yes, I know.’ Roz sipped her champagne. Her eyes moved round the room. There were more guests here than had come for Philip’s wedding, most of them Harry’s friends and relatives. ‘I need very little – but I do want to be a good wife.’ She lifted her eyes to meet his. ‘Please believe that, Harry.’
    â€˜Aye, I know.’ He looked thoughtful, as if sensing her apprehension. ‘We’d best circulate, Roz. We’ll be leaving soon and I’ve hardly spoken to some of our guests.’
    â€˜Yes, of course. I’ll throw my bouquet for the young girls.’
    Roz walked across the room, stopping now and then to greet people and exchange kisses before reaching the table where her mother and a few of the ladies had gathered earlier to join in the toasts and gossip.
    â€˜I’m going up in a few minutes, Mama. I’m ready to throw my bouquet now.’
    â€˜Stand on the stairs and do it,’ Lady Thornton said and then called out to some young girls loitering nearby. ‘Roz is going to throw her bouquet, girls.’
    Some of the ladies and a group of giggling girls followed them into the magnificent entrance hall. Roz walked up three of the wide stairs then tossed her bouquet over her shoulder and turned to watch. The girls were laughing and jostling with each other and Miss Mary Jenkins caught the bouquet, laughing in triumph as she held it up for everyone to see.
    â€˜I’ll be married next,’ she said.
    â€˜I’ll come up with you, Roz,’ Lady Thornton said, a suspicion of tears in her eyes.
    â€˜Yes, of course, Mama.’
    Rushden Towers was not the medieval fortress its grand name suggested but a rather ugly Victorian house, square and unappealing. However, Harry had built a new facade of a long porch with elegant pillars and an imposing front door. He had also planted an avenue of ornamental cherry trees which softened the approach.
    Roz had visited her new home with Harry a few days before the wedding and he’d given her a tour and shown Roz her own apartments, which were adjacent to his.
    â€˜This looks very smart,’ Lady Thornton said as she followed Roz inside the suite of sitting room, dressing room and bedchamber.
    â€˜Harry had most of the house refurbished recently. Do you like the more modern style, Mama? I think I do – though there are too many knickknacks in here. I shall put a few of these ornaments away once I’ve settled in, but I don’t wish to offend Harry by doing it all at once.’
    â€˜Too many frills and tassels,’ Lady Thornton said. ‘I dare say you will teach your husband to have better taste, Roz. You can’t make a silk purse out of . . .’ She faltered as she saw Roz’s look. ‘Harry is a gentleman; I shan’t say otherwise but some of his family . . .’
    Roz frowned at her mother. ‘Harry’s grandfather bought the farm and his father was a farmer too, but he was sent to a good