The Forget-Me-Not Sonata(102)

‘Why aren’t you angry?’ she asked. He continued to play for his fingers had no need of his mind or his concentration.

‘How can I be angry? You love me. I’m the happiest man in the world.’

Audrey smiled and lowered her eyes. ‘But I married your brother.’

‘I left.’

‘I missed you.’

‘I missed you too. I bled for years.’

Audrey gently lowered the lid of the piano. He withdrew his fingers. She swallowed hard and her face turned solemn. ‘I’m still bleeding, Louis,’ she whispered, ashamed to speak of such pain.

‘I know.’ He stood up and drew her into his arms. She wound hers around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder. He felt warm and soft and reassuring. Then she felt his fingers pull the pins out of her hair so that her curls broke free and cascaded down her back. He scrunched them in his hand and breathed in the feminine scent that lay within them and felt their silken texture against his face. ‘Oh Audrey,’ he sighed. ‘I’ve lived every minute of the last twelve years for this moment. I’m alive again.’

‘Why didn’t you wait for me?’

‘Because I knew it wasn’t going to work and I couldn’t bear to be near you and not have you.’

‘But Louis,’ she protested, then remembered her conversation with Cicely. Louis couldn’t cope when things went wrong for him. She pulled away and looked into his features. ‘I never stopped loving you. You left with a part of me, the most important part of me, I was incomplete without you. Then Cecil . . . Cecil . . .’

‘I know. Cecil remained constant and loyal, everything I should have been. I left when you needed me most and I regret it. But I can’t fight my nature. I can only regret it later.’

‘So you don’t blame me?’

‘No, I don’t blame you,’ he said and his face creased into a wide smile. She smiled back and touched his face with great tenderness, the way a mother caresses a child, the way a woman caresses a lover. ‘I ask your forgiveness.’

‘You have it. You’ve always had it,’ she laughed and wrapped herself around him again. ‘I’m so happy you’ve come back. I need you so much. I have so much to tell you.’

‘Come out to the country with me tomorrow,’ he suggested. ‘It’s stifling here.’

‘What will we say to Cecil?’

‘He won’t know. He’ll be at work.’

‘We’ll have to explain where we’ve been.’

‘Why? You barely communicate as it is. He will just presume you’ve been with your mother or aunt. He probably won’t even ask.’

‘I’ll think of something,’ she replied optimistically.

‘Good. I met a man in Mexico who has an estancia not far from the city. We’d be there in a couple of hours.’

‘Can he be trusted?’

‘Trust me, my love,’ he said, gazing down at her, delirious with joy. Then he kissed her. His mouth was soft and she sank against his body, holding him tightly so that their hearts accompanied the music in their souls and beat in time. It didn’t feel wrong. Audrey was married and her loyalty to her husband had been unwavering. But with Louis it felt right.

‘Did it ever feel right with Cecil?’ Louis asked and Audrey answered truthfully.

‘It always felt like a compromise. I gave him my hand but not my heart. My heart has always belonged to you.’

He kissed her again and closed his eyes. Once more they were dancing over the cobbled streets of Palermo beneath a navy sky studded with stars. He had dreamed of holding her again and had never lost hope. While there was hope there was life. Such was the power of dreams. But the dreams were only beginning. He felt as if he could conquer the world. With Audrey he really believed he could defy gravity and fly to the moon. Nothing was beyond his reach, even a future with the woman he loved.





Chapter 21



‘My dear Audrey,’ Aunt Edna exclaimed happily, pulling her niece into her foamy bosom. In the last few years Edna’s hair had paled into the grey of a cygnet and she now wore it tied loosely on the top of her head so that wisps of it hung free, floating about her face and neck like feathers. She had got fatter too. After all, besides her family, what gave her more pleasure than food?

‘It’s good to be home,’ Audrey said with a contented sigh, returning the embrace.

‘Let’s go and sit outside, it’s a beautiful day,’ suggested Aunt Edna boisterously.

‘As long as you don’t get cold.’

‘Cold, in this sunshine? Dear girl, you must be exhausted after your journey,’ said Edna, following her through the doors into the garden where Louis stood beneath the veranda in the shade. ‘Hello, Louis, my dear.’ Louis’ face opened into a wide smile and Edna wondered why she had never noticed his charm in the days when he had lived at the Hurlingham Club.