Windflower Wedding. Elizabeth Elgin

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СКАЧАТЬ if Mom and Pop could be there? Oh, she’s delighted about us. She always knew my English half would get the upper hand and I’d marry an Englishman. I think she even secretly hoped it would be you, darling. So let me wallow deep in my pink cloud – just for a little longer? Let me stay starry-eyed – please?’

      ‘Kitty Sutton, you always speak in superlatives! You always did. To you, everything must be larger than life – even being in love.’

      ‘And you, my darling, are dour and sensible and you’re still reeling from the shock of being bowled over by my glittering personality. So why don’t you come and join me on my pink cloud? I stayed awake ages last night, thinking you might knock.’

      ‘Yes, and I lay there for ages, wanting to come to you.’

      ‘So what happened?’

      ‘Don’t know. Suppose I dropped off, eventually …’

      ‘No, you wanted to sleep with me, but when you think about it, darling, it wouldn’t have been right – not here, at Rowangarth.’

      ‘Me creeping along the passage, you mean, like we were using Rowangarth for a dirty weekend?’

      ‘Mm. We’d get caught, anyway …’

      ‘Yes. Those boards creak something awful in the upstairs passage.’

      They began to laugh, then agreed that not for anything would they sleep together at Rowangarth until they were married. Any place else – every place else – but not Rowangarth.

      ‘When we get back to Liverpool,’ Kitty whispered, ‘will you have to go back on board right away?’

      ‘No. I’ll just report to the quartermaster, then push off to the Adelphi, I suppose. Shall you come with me, darling?’

      ‘We could spend the night at my digs. Ma won’t mind.’

      ‘The Adelphi would be better and I could sign the register Andrew and Kathryn Sutton without so much as a blush.’

      ‘And I’ll twist my ring round on my finger so it looks like a wedding ring and then everybody’ll be happy! And we’ve got to be together every minute we can, because you never know the day I’ll get sent to London. I’ve been expecting it for a while now.’

      ‘I’ll hate it if you go.’

      ‘Yes, but had you thought – I could lodge with Sparrow and it would be just great sharing the spare room with Tatty. Do you suppose Aunt Julia would let me?’

      ‘Sure of it. And I know Sparrow would like it too. But don’t let’s talk about you being sent away, Kitty – not till it happens?’

      ‘Okay. And when – if – it does, we’ll think about Daisy and Keth who are miles apart. At least you and I will be able to ring each other. We’ll have to do what your gran did; count our blessings and oh, Drew, wouldn’t she have been pleased about you and me? Didn’t she always just love a wedding?’

      ‘Mm. If I’m at sea, darling, will you phone Mother when it’s the first anniversary of her death next month?’

      ‘I will – word of a Sutton. And my bottom’s getting cold on this seat; let’s skip afternoon tea and go for a walk? Let’s go to the top of the pike so I can say hullo to Pendenys. And, darling, when we’re married and the war is over, will Uncle Nathan and Aunt Julia go to live there? Well, it’s his now, or will be when the military gives it back.’

      ‘Mother will only go there under protest. She doesn’t like Pendenys. Well, who would when they’ve lived all their lives at Rowangarth? But we’ll worry about that when the war is over and the Army gives it back.’

      ‘I’m surprised the soldiers are still there. I’d have thought Grandmother Clementina would’ve haunted them out of it ages ago.’

      ‘Kitty Sutton, I’m surprised at you! You’re getting as bad as the locals. It isn’t haunted. It’s just that the army lot are so secretive about what goes on there and it makes it sort of mysterious.’

      ‘What d’you think they’re really doing there? Spying? Cloak-and-dagger?’

      ‘Can’t make up my mind. There’s all sorts going on that most people don’t know a thing about. I’m sure Keth’s a part of something like that. He’s so vague when you ask him what he’s doing.’

      ‘Yes, well whatever it is he’s doing it in Washington, which is rotten luck for Daisy.’

      She held out her hand and they began to run; across the lawn and the wild garden and over the stile, into the wood. And when they had passed Keeper’s Cottage and were hidden in the deeps of Brattocks Wood, they kissed long and hard.

      ‘I love you, darling,’ he whispered. ‘Have I ever told you?’

      ‘Not in Brattocks, you haven’t. So kiss me again and then we’ll climb to the top of the pike and you can tell me there that you love me. And I shall stand and shout it out to the whole Riding. Kathryn Norma Clementina Sutton loves Andrew Robert Giles Sutton and they’re going to be married in All Souls, and you’re invited to the wedding, all of you!’

      ‘I do love you,’ Drew laughed. ‘Don’t ever change, will you? Don’t ever stop being dotty?’

      And she said she wouldn’t, then asked him to kiss her again.

      Keth blinked open his eyes, looked questioningly around him, then realized he was in a castle in Scotland and that he was home!

      ‘’Mornin’, sir.’ His batman had opened the blackout curtains and placed a large mug of tea at his bedside.

      ‘’Morning, Lance Corporal.’ Keth stretched, then swung his feet to the floor, making for the window. All around were wooded hills and in the distance, the glint of early-morning sun on water. The loch they had passed on their way here, perhaps?

      ‘What did you say this place was called?’

      ‘I didn’t, sir, but you’ll doubtless be told. It’s Castle McLeish.’

      ‘And it’s – where?’

      ‘Somewhere in Scotland, Captain, though if you was to press me, I’d tell you it was in deepest Argyll and more than that I’m not prepared to say.’

      ‘And who lived here, before the Army took it?’

      ‘A gentleman who made his money from whisky. He passed the business on to his two sons, then came here to spend the rest of his days in peace and solitude – or so he thought. But now he lives in a croft about five miles away and both his sons are in the Navy. It’s a funny old world, isn’t it?’

      ‘A funny old world, Lance Corporal.’

      And a wonderful world with Daisy only hours away. Argyll. On the west coast of Scotland and directly north of Liverpool by about two-hundred-odd miles! So near, and if only he could find a telephone she would whisper that she didn’t believe he was home again and it was true, wasn’t it? He really was home? And when was he getting leave and when would they be married?

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