Octavia's War (42 page)

Tommy was suddenly standing between them, with his arms round them both. ‘Aren't you starving?' he said. ‘I know I am.' Octavia was too excited to be hungry but she realised that she and Tommy had to lead their guests into the wedding breakfast and that they were all standing around waiting for them to do it.

‘Oh Tommy,' she said, ‘my dear, dear man. This is absolutely wonderful. All these people. I don't know how you managed it. You must have been working on it for months.'

He pretended to groan. ‘Are we eating or not?' he said. ‘Tubby says he's fading away. Isn't that right, Tubby? I don't want to have to catch him if he faints.'

‘Then I must take pity on him and lead him to the food,' she said.

It was an extraordinarily good meal – how did he manage that? – and they had extraordinarily good champagne for the toasts. And when the first toast had been drunk he made an extraordinarily good speech.

‘In a wedding like this,' he said, ‘you mustn't expect anything to be done by the book. The invitations certainly weren't. And while I remember it, thank you all for keeping it under wraps the way you have. That wasn't done by the book either and it's much appreciated. Fact is, Tavy threw the book away years ago – and that doesn't surprise you does it? – so we all have to improvise. There was a time when that would have terrified me but, over the last few weeks, I've come to see that there are one or two advantages in having to improvise, especially when you're making a speech. For a start it usually results in something pretty honest. Or more honest than the general run of diplomatic speeches which I don't need to tell my friends here are usually sycophantic tosh.' He paused to give his friends a chance to laugh, which they did. ‘So,' he went on, ‘when I thank you all for coming here this afternoon, you will know that I mean it, and when I say I understand what your presence here means to Tavy, you will know that I mean that too.'

He paused again and gave Octavia a rapturous smile. ‘Strictly speaking of course,' he said, ‘we've got no right to be sitting here at the centre of the high table.' And when some of his guests looked surprised he explained. ‘We should be sitting at the end of the high table, not at the centre. That was where we first met, at the end of the high table at Emmeline's wedding when we were both eighteen, and years later we met again at the end of the high table at the double wedding of Dora and Edith. Now and just for once, I think I've persuaded our Tavy to take centre stage although how
long I shall be able to keep her there is open to question. But then I think I'm safe in saying that it is Tavy's method to question everything. And the one good thing to say about that is that it does keep you on your toes. It might present you with a few problems but it does keep you on your toes. Take for example the problem of what my new wife is to be called. When I first asked her to take my name she told me she'd already got a name. And a jolly good one too. So naturally I'm not going to ask her to change it now. She might be Mrs Meriton to me and to the Passport Office but in her school and in the wider educational world where she does so much good, she will always be Octavia Smith.'

He picked up his champagne glass and raised it to her. ‘So when I give you the toast, ladies and gentlemen, you will understand that it has to be in these words. No others will do. To the incomparable Octavia Smith.'

‘That,' she told him as the toast was drunk, ‘was perfect.'

B
ERYL
K
INGSTON
has been a writer since she was seven, when she started producing poetry. According to her, it wasn't very good but she had a few more years to hone her skills before her first book was published in 1980. Kingston was a schoolteacher until 1985, becoming a full-time writer when her debut novel became a bestseller. She lives in West Sussex, and has three children and five grandchildren.

www.berylkingston.co.uk

Gates of Paradise

Octavia

Octavia's War