Love: Classified

by Jones, Sally-Ann

“It’s ours, if we want it.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, my drowsiness gone.

  “I saw Mrs Smart quite often after you’d gone. She came to talk to us both one day and when she discovered you’d left I think she was worried I’d starve so she kept coming to see me with food. Anyway, she said she remembered we’d both liked it and said it was a shame you’d gone because she wanted us both to have it. I think she and Dr Jenkins cooked up a scheme to attract us to the town because they’re so short of doctors.”

  In my mind, I could see myself and Magnus in wicker chairs on the shady verandah of the cottage we’d built. The setting sun, glowing through stained glass windows, threw lozenges of colour onto the polished floor boards. The vine was heavy with grapes and from the greenly shooting almond tree twins flew laughing through the air on a swing.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” he whispered, running his tongue around the whorls of my ear.

  And this time I told him.

  Epilogue

  Jake gave Virginia away on her wedding day. Daisy was the mistress of ceremonies, Peta the matron of honour, Bree the flower girl and Fergus the page boy. Josie did all the readings and Danny took the photos. Josh drove Virginia and her retinue to church. Fiona, Beryl and Colin did the catering but not one dish contained mutton. The mare rescued during the storm pulled the wedding carriage. Five months later, Dr Jenkins and Magnus delivered the Winchester twins. Mrs Smart was their godmother.

  When the twins were a year old, Virginia and Magnus left them with Daisy and Fergus, along with the pets, Barney and Maggie, and the chooks, and went on their honeymoon – to China or Elsewhere.