The Back of Beyond by Doris Davidson Page A

then they all piled into a large hackney carriage to be transported to Guilford Street, where Rosie had seen to making rooms ready for the important visitors.
    The meeting of relatives and soon-to-be-in-laws had gone off very well, Alistair recalled, everyone taking to everyone else, and his mother had even found an opportunity to whisper that she was pleased he was marrying such a nice girl. ‘She’ll make you a good wife,’ she had added, ‘so you make sure you treat her right.’ He would have married Gwen supposing the verdict had gone the other way, of course, but it was better that it was so favourable.
    He was brought back to the present by Dougal’s loud sigh of satisfaction. ‘Thank the Lord, that’s it straight now. You know this, Ally, I’m in a right old state! I don’t know how you can look so calm.’
    â€˜Maybe I look calm,’ Alistair mumbled, ‘but I don’t feel calm.’
    The last five minutes, waiting for the cab which would convey them to the Register Office where the ceremony was to take place, seemed an eternity to both young men, but Ivy, looking very smart in a midnight blue grosgrain suit and matching straw hat, stopped nerves getting the better of them. ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do without you two handsome blokes,’ she giggled. ‘I’ll have nobody to share my bed now when you’re away, Len.’
    Knowing his wife’s propensity for exaggeration, he gave a hearty guffaw. ‘They wouldn’t have come anywhere near you, Ivy, and …’ he pretended to scowl, ‘if they had, I’d have knocked their ruddy blocks off.’
    Ivy chuckled again. ‘A girl can dream, can’t she?’
    The arrival of the taxi put an end to the conversation, and they were soon being borne as swiftly as possible through London’s rush-hour traffic.
    Breakfast was an embarrassing time in the hotel for at least four of the people round the table the following morning. As Dougal confided to Alistair on their way back from seeing their families off that evening, ‘I didn’t think it would bother me, but I felt awful sitting there with them all knowing what Marge and me had been up to. Oh boy, what a time we had, hardly a wink of sleep all night. How did you get on?’
    â€˜We were the same.’ Alistair had no wish to discuss the rapturous hours he and Gwen had spent in their first taste of sexual intercourse, for he had discovered, to his infinite relief, that his bride was still a virgin.
    â€˜My Mam and Dad were really taken with Marge,’ Dougal observed after a minute.
    â€˜Mine were taken with Gwen and all,’ Alistair was happy to say. ‘It’s a pity we’re so far away, though. I’d have liked to show her round the Forvit area.’
    â€˜I promised Mam I’d take Marge up for a holiday in the spring. We could all go together … oh no. The girls wouldn’t get off at the same time, of course.’
    â€˜I couldn’t afford it, any road. Gwen wants us to save as much as we can, in case babies start coming … you know …?’
    â€˜Oh, I see.’ Dougal seemed taken aback at her planning for this at so early a stage.
    â€˜I might manage to take her away somewhere for a few days, though – Kent, maybe. I’ve heard it’s lovely there.’
    â€˜Aye, that would be nice. Em … Ally, how d’you think we’ll get on in the hotel?’
    â€˜What d’you mean, get on?’
    â€˜Well, we’re bound to feel like two goldfish in a bowl with everybody watching us. I did tell Tiny I wanted to buy our own wee house, not too far away so Marge could still work for him, but he wouldn’t hear of it.’
    â€˜Ach, we’ll get used to it.’
    â€˜We’ll have no privacy, that’s what I’ll miss.’
    Alistair grinned. ‘We hadn’t much privacy at Ivy’s, either. She