We have been writing Cunningham and Petrov fiction since 2020, filling in the gaps in the Adventure Series books to show what Bill was getting up to off-page. As he was around for a lot of The Island of Adventure, and didn’t know anything was up until he fell into, and was present for, the ending of The Castle of Adventure, we skipped those.

So we started with The Mystery of the Missing Aeroplane which is set during The Valley of Adventure and covers Bill’s search for the missing children after they disappear from the aerodrome, then adds some detail to the chapters where Bill and his men round up the enemy.

Then we wrote The Mystery of the Missing Agent, set during The Sea of Adventure, mostly chronicling what the Petrov half of the partnership was up to in the search for Bill, with some bits about Bill’s time in captivity.

Our most recent was was The Mystery of The Missing Children which, naturally, is set during The Mountain of Adventure and details Bill’s search for the children in the Welsh valleys.

The next book, of course, is The Ship of Adventure, but Bill is so fully embroiled in that one that it was hard to find any gaps to fill in order to write a story. So our minds turned to something that happened off-page, shortly after the events of Ship. We couldn’t make it fit the Mystery of the Missing… format, but never mind.

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“I don’t see why you can’t marry each other?”

Lucy-Ann’s clear voice was still ringing in Bill’s ears as Allie walked him out to his car that evening. His “do you think it’s a good idea?” had not been the sort of proposal he had been planning at all, but Lucy-Ann had thrown the idea out there so neatly… and Allie hadn’t rebuffed it. 

In fact she had looked as if she had been positively encouraging it. It would have been impossible for him to have dismissed the notion at this point so there had been nothing for it but to propose. Casually of course, as he hadn’t wanted to give the game away that it was already on his mind and that he had been planning to ask Allie for a while now. However he wasn’t entirely sure that he had managed to sound casual about it. Despite Allie’s smile he hadn’t been all that sure that she would accept after the children’s latest adventure under his watch. 

Turning back to Allie after unlocking his car door Bill had the grace to look abashed as he cleared his throat and said, “That wasn’t how I had planned to ask you to marry me.” 

“But you were planning on asking me?” she asked softly, reaching for his hand and giving it a squeeze. 

Bill thought of the engagement ring that was sitting safely in his suitcase in the car boot, just in case he had gotten the chance to use it when he saw Allie again. “Yes. I didn’t have all the details worked out, but it was going to be just a touch more romantic,” he said wryly. 

“How long-” Allie began, but Bill put his hand up to stop her. 

“I’m not revealing my secrets.”

“But you don’t know what I was going to ask!” 

“You were going to ask me how long I had been planning to ask you to marry me,” he retorted smugly. 

Allie folded her arms, smiled equally smugly and with a teasing glint in her eyes, “No actually. I was going to ask you how long you were going to make me wait.”

Bill whistled through his teeth, “Oh, just until you had forgiven me for my latest misdemeanour. Whatever it might have been at the time.” 

“So, almost never then,” Allie laughed. “As you seem to go round and round in circles with trouble? The same as my children!” 

“Just as well that Lucy-Ann said something then, isn’t it?” Bill asked, his eyes glinting now. 

“Very much so.” 

Bill pressed  a quick kiss to her lips. “You’d better get back inside, it looks like rain. How about I take you out to dinner tomorrow and we can celebrate?”

“I’d like that very much,” Allie said, stepping back so he could open the driver’s door. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she added as Bill beamed at her. He saluted before sliding into his seat and then waved over his shoulder as he pulled away.

Allie returned indoors, glad that the children had already gone up to bed and mercifully had taken Kiki with them. The bird had been chanting all through dinner “God save the King!” and “Pop goes the weasel!” along with any other phrases she could remember, driving everyone mad to the extent that even Jack had told her to be quiet. 

The next evening Bill arrived to collect Allie for dinner. “A vision as always,” he said as she opened the door, dressed for an evening out in a deep blue evening dress. Looking past her he saw Philip coming down the stairs in a surprisingly smart getup, and in the middle of knotting his tie.

He looked quizzically at Philip and then at Allie. “Philip!” Allie said. “I told you, it’s just Bill and I going for dinner tonight. There’s a cold pie and some other bits in the larder for you all.”

“But Mother,” he protested as the other three came down the stairs, similarly smartly attired. “I do think we ought to be allowed along as well. After all, getting married was all Lucy-Ann’s idea in the first place!”

“That’s an argument for Lucy-Ann to come, not all four of you,” Bill replied, thinking of his bank balance. 

“You did agree to take on the four of them on, as well as me,” Allie reminded him. 

Bill held up his hands. “All right, but my reservation was only for two! I’m not sure they can accommodate six.”

“And a parrot,” Jack reminded him.

“And a m-”

“No!” both Bill and Allie said very firmly.

 “There is no restaurant in England that would accept a monkey as one of the party,” Bill said. “If you want to come it’ll have to be without Micky.”

With Micky safely shut in the boys’ bedroom the six headed out to dinner. When they returned Allie sent the children inside to get ready for bed, and instructed the boys to clear up any mess Micky had made. 

She went inside only long enough to pour them both a glass of sherry which they took outside into the garden. Bill had already lit his pipe and puffed contentedly on it as Allie put her free arm through his and guided him across the lawn to the bench overlooking a small pond. 

“I’m glad Kiki was better behaved tonight,” Allie murmured. There had only been one outburst of hip-hip-hoorays this time after another table had sung happy birthday. 

“Yes, I think the old dear was quite pleased at having a parrot join in on the well wishes,” Bill said with a laugh. “But really, I’m just glad she approves of us.”

He pulled the pipe from his mouth before letting out a billow of smoke. He looked down at Allie through the haze. “I hope that you do too,” he added, his voice thick with emotion. He knocked out his pipe and stowed it in one pocket before reaching into another and withdrawing a small velvet box.

“Shall we make this official?” he asked as he opened the box to show her the simple solitaire diamond ring with a plain gold band. 

“Oh Bill,” she breathed, taken aback that he already had a ring ready for her. “Of course we can make it official.”

Bill grinned like a fool and slipped the ring (which was thankfully the right size) onto her left ring finger. He had noticed that she had no longer been wearing her late husband’s rings recently but he suspected that she may have moved them to the chain round her neck. He cupped her face in his hands and then lent in to kiss her the way he had wanted to kiss her since he had casually asked her to marry him the night before. 

Allie let him kiss her, and kissed him back, her hands on his chest. When they stopped she pulled back a little and teasingly asked:

“You didn’t feel the need to go down on one knee, then?”

“Not with my knees,” Bill laughed. “You’d have to help me up again, Allie, love.”

She laughed and he kissed her again. Before they had finished this time a cackling floated over the night air and a large white bird settled on the fence next to them, cawing delightedly. “Silly Billy, hip-hip-hooray! God save the King!” 

“Oh Kiki,” Allie exclaimed. “How did you get out?”

“The boys must have opened their window,” Bill said darkly. “Away with you Kiki, old girl. Nothing to see here!” He waved a hand towards her as he spoke. Kiki lazily flapped her wings and took flight still chanting “Hip-hip-hooray!” Bill and Allie had no choice but to laugh. 

On his way home that evening Bill gave a sigh of relief. Allie had liked the ring he had chosen. He’d had a rough idea of what he had been looking for when he had visited the jeweller’s – something simple and understated, but elegant at the same time. And yet when he had been shown a selection of rings he had suddenly realised that he had come woefully unprepared. He had known that diamonds came in different carats and cuts, and that there were other stones to choose from. What he had not considered was that these factors could be combined in quite so many different ways. And then he found himself looking at trays and trays of rings, wondering how on earth he was supposed to choose. He hadn’t wanted to look like a fool so he had taken his time and considered the full array carefully. When the sales assistant had suggested that perhaps he could begin by ruling out any stones or styles he didn’t like, he had realised that perhaps he was making a fool of himself regardless.

With a little guidance from the assistant he had been able to narrow down the selection to just a few, choosing to rule out anything too similar to her first engagement ring, whilst also not picking anything outrageously different. 

At least he had known the size of the ring he needed. It had not been difficult to secretly measure Allie’s wedding ring when she had taken it off to wash the dishes one evening. 

He had then, in a moment of doubt, asked Anatoly for a second opinion. Why he had asked Anatoly of all people, he did not know. He hardly expected the boy to have any real input on the matter. Yet he found himself a trifle embarrassed to ask anyone else. Marrying at his age for the first time marked him out as different as it was, he didn’t need anyone thinking he couldn’t even choose a ring for his prospective bride. Besides, if Allie said no, he didn’t want it getting around that he was unmarriable. 

So he had held the ring out for inspection. “Da, that is a ring,” Anatoly had confirmed after staring at it with what had looked like serious concentration for several seconds. Bill had cuffed him on the shoulder for that. 

“I know it’s a ring. But is it the right ring?”

Anatoly had looked doubtful, leading Bill to worry. “I am not sure that I am the right person to ask. It is Allie’s opinion that will matter.”

“Yes I know that,” Bill had said as patiently as he could manage. “But asking her would rather give the game away now, wouldn’t it?”

Anatoly had given a non-committal noise in response. “I think you know her better than most people and if you have spent time choosing a ring for her, it is probably not too far from the perfect one.”

Bill had chosen to accept that mostly positive answer, and had sent Anatoly back to whatever it was he had been supposed to be doing when he had summoned him. Gone were the days where Anatoly was at Bill’s beck and call for work matters. He had his own special areas of expertise now, and usually went out alone. Bill missed their teamwork, and he worried sometimes that Anatoly had thrown himself too much into the job. It could be a lonely life. He himself had spent many lonely years already, never having found love before, though he did have colleagues that he considered friends, and some distant relatives that he saw semi-regularly. He had often wished that he had found someone earlier, when he was younger (and had more hair). But now he knew that it would not have been Allie, and therefore no longer wished such a thing. Allie had been more than worth waiting for.

To be continued.