City of Jasmine. Deanna Raybourn

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      “He was. As good as they come and guileless as a lamb. He always thought the next great adventure was just around the corner. When I was eight, he sold his first novel. He was so happy, he glowed with it. There were new frocks for me and for Mama, and that night he took us to the theatre. Peter Pan had just opened, and he was determined to get the very best seats. He took us to Simpson’s first for roast beef and I ate more than I have ever eaten in my life. And when the play was over he took us for ice creams and told us he had bought a share in a business in New Orleans. He was leaving the following week for America to investigate his new investment.” I paused. I didn’t tell the story often, and the words were rusty and stuck in my throat. “Mama insisted upon going. I think he knew she would. He was desperately pleased she didn’t want to be parted from him. So they dropped me in the midst of a pack of aunts and sailed for America.”

      Something in my tone must have warned him. His eyes were soft and his voice was gentle. “What was it?”

      “Yellow fever. Turns out there was a beastly epidemic raging. They died within a week of one another. That’s the only mercy in the whole story.”

      “Good God,” he said faintly.

      I shrugged and affected a casual air I did not feel. “It all happened so long ago, it’s almost like talking about strangers.”

      “Still, I imagine that sort of thing leaves a mark,” he said quietly.

      “It does, rather. I try to be responsible. I try to take care of the things that matter like keeping food on the table and shoes on our feet. But sometimes...well, sometimes I do very thoughtless things. Like running away with Gabriel Starke the night I met him.”

      His expression was delightfully scandalised. “You didn’t!”

      “I did. We eloped to Scotland after we met at a New Year’s Eve party. A mutual friend invited us both because she intended to match us up with other people. But we danced together and that was it. A coup de foudre. We both felt it—at least I thought we did. In any event, he had a fast car and somehow I found myself on the road to Scotland, ready to marry a man I hadn’t even known six hours before.”

      To his credit, Halliday looked more amused than shocked. “It sounds terribly romantic.”

      “That’s very kind of you. I think it sounds mad.”

      Something shrewd stirred in his eyes. “The song you danced to the night you met Gabriel Starke. Wasn’t ‘Salut d’Amour’ by any chance?”

      He gave me a kindly smile and I returned it. “Got it in one.”

      “Ah. Pity, that. And here I thought I was sweeping you off your feet,” he told me with a rueful lift of his silky brows.

      I laughed. “Don’t give up so easily. Just because I’ve learned to keep my feet on the ground doesn’t mean I can’t be wooed.”

      “But you don’t really keep your feet on the ground, do you?” he countered smoothly. “You’re always dashing off in that aeroplane of yours. I must say, I’ve done a bit of flying myself, and it’s a devilish thing for a lady to try. You astonish me, Evie.”

      “But there’s nothing astonishing about it,” I protested. “It was the most logical thing in the world. I worked at a convalescent hospital during the war. I brought them tea and read their letters from home and played cards with them. They were pilots, most of them American and terribly young and so sweet it broke your heart just to see them all swathed in bandages and aching for a chance to get back into the action before it all went away. I adored them, but I could only read so many letters and play so many games of cards before I wanted to scream. So I made them teach me about flying instead. It gave them no end of a thrill to talk about it, you know, and they were terrifically good teachers.”

      Halliday smiled. “You liked them.”

      “Immensely. They were just boys, really. Like brothers to me.”

      He shook his head. “Surely not all of them. I imagine more than a few found themselves smitten with you.”

      I shrugged.

      “You surprise me. I would have thought the dash and romance of a pilot would have turned any girl’s head.”

      I grinned. “Well, there was the odd kiss or two, but nothing more. There was only one I almost lost my head over, but it would never have worked.”

      He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “Aha! Intrigue at last. Was he a pilot?”

      “Yes. He was the one who took me up the first time.”

      “One of those daring Yanks, no doubt,” he said, pulling a face. I laughed.

      “Almost. He was Canadian by birth but brought up in Africa.”

      “Good God. Colonials,” he said with a shudder.

      “And Ryder was more rustic than most,” I told him. “He helped form the flying corps in British East Africa. He was shadowing the highest ranking ace in our flying corps when the fellow was shot down. Ryder came with him to Mistledown while he recuperated, but he was bored out of his mind. He amused himself by borrowing a pal’s Sopwith and getting me in the air.”

      “A direct and dashing way to a lady’s heart.”

      “True. I might have been smitten by any man who taught me to fly. But Ryder was something special.”

      Halliday’s voice was soft. “You were in love with him.”

      “No. Not even halfway. But I was grateful to him. He was the one who got me airborne, convinced me I could do it. He flew like a buccaneer and he taught me everything he could before he was sent back to Africa.”

      “Did you keep in touch with him?” Something like jealousy tinged Halliday’s voice, and I enjoyed that.

      “The occasional postcard. It’s all very polite and respectable,” I said with a prim mouth.

      Halliday leaned closer still. “It’s no business of mine, but I wonder if I should believe that.”

      “It’s the truth,” I assured him. “Ryder never laid a finger on me. Of course,” I said, slanting him a wicked smile, “I put considerably more than a finger on him, but that’s a different matter.”

      Halliday’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open, but his expression was not entirely disapproving. “You seduced him?”

      “I tried, but bless him, he wasn’t having any of it. He understood why I did it and he turned me down so sweetly I couldn’t even be angry with him.”

      “Oh, dear.”

      “I wanted him for all the wrong reasons.” I shrugged. “He reminded me of Gabriel. I don’t know why—entirely different men. But there was something fine about Ryder, something deeply good, and that was what I thought I had seen in Gabriel once. It brought up feelings I thought I had buried.”

      “No man wants to be a woman’s second choice,” he said, his voice low. His gaze was intent, his eyes searching, and after a moment, perhaps not seeing СКАЧАТЬ