The Forget-Me-Not Sonata(33)

‘I’m delighted,’ Henry exclaimed. ‘She’s not a child any more but she is inexperienced. I’m glad she’s fallen into your capable hands.’

Cecil was flattered. ‘I’ve spent months deliberating on this, Henry. As I work for you, I was worried it was inappropriate.’

‘What nonsense, my dear Cecil. Rose and I have been watching your friendship blossom for a while. You have our blessing and if you have Audrey’s then you have nothing to be anxious about.’

‘Well, I’ll go and beat my brother at chess now,’ he said cheerfully, getting up from the armchair, his heart as weightless as a cloud. Henry watched him close the door softly behind him and thought how very different he was from Louis. ‘Chalk and cheese,’ he said to himself, shaking his head. For a horrible moment he thought of Isla and Louis as a couple and shivered. It would be typical of his wilful daughter to fall for a man like Louis. Not that there was anything overtly wrong with the boy, just that he’d make a most unsuitable husband. ‘Now, he’s irresponsible, that one,’ he said, picking up his pen and dispelling the thought. Henry never worried about things until they happened, that was his gift. But Rose did and she had noticed Isla’s growing closeness to Louis with dread. She had voiced her fears to Aunt Edna, but there was only one person who could possibly have any influence over the girl, and that was Audrey.

‘Oh, Isla, I don’t know what to do,’ Audrey wailed, falling onto her bed. ‘Cecil’s asked me out for dinner.’

‘Oh God!’ Isla exclaimed. ‘That’s not good.’ She shook her curls until they bounced about her face like springs.

‘He’s so formal. Straight out of a Jane Austen novel. You have to laugh. He’s gone to ask Daddy’s permission.’

‘Oh God! Sounds like he wants to marry you.’

‘Don’t joke.’

‘I’m not.’

‘Well, that will never happen.’

‘Of course not. You don’t have to marry anyone you don’t want to,’ Isla reassured her. ‘Did you agree to go?’

‘I had to,’ she explained, sitting up. ‘I couldn’t say no, not after I’d led him a merry dance for all these weeks.’

‘Your acting must be better than we thought,’ said Isla with a smirk.

‘Thank you.’

‘You have to tell Louis,’ Isla instructed, opening a drawer and pulling out a pad of paper and a pen. ‘Write him a letter now and I’ll slip it to him as he leaves.’

‘Oh dear, I feel so helpless.’

‘You’ll have to go, of course,’ said Isla, sitting in front of Audrey’s dressing table and picking up her hairbrush. ‘Anyway, it’s the perfect cover. As long as Cecil courts you no one will suspect the truth. It’s all part of the game, Audrey.’

‘What if it goes too far?’ Audrey asked anxiously.

‘That depends on you,’ Isla replied, watching her sister’s reflection. ‘You mustn’t let him get too close.’

‘I feel so mean, Isla. He’s so sweet and kind. I’m very fond of him. I really am. I just don’t want to marry him.’

‘It’s a dangerous game, Audrey,’ said Isla, who felt like a spy in the war. ‘But, you have no choice. If you turn him down now you’ll be in danger of exposing your feelings for Louis. After all, just look at yourself. You look like love personified. No one’s in any doubt that you’re infatuated, they’ve just got the wrong man. Imagine looking like that with no one to cover for you. They’d all start speculating and then they’d surely guess, just like I did.’

‘Oh, Isla, you make it sound so scary,’ she moaned.

‘It is scary. This is real life, Audrey, not one of your novels and the stakes are high. Now hurry up and write that note. I think you’d better meet him tonight in the orchard. I’ll cover for you.’

Audrey finished the note, composed herself and returned to the sitting room with her sister. Isla was puffed up with self-importance and strode purposefully across the floor. Rose watched them enter, but her focus was on her younger daughter who immediately took the seat next to Louis to watch the game of chess he was playing with Cecil.

Albert lay on the floor in front of the fire, building houses out of cards with his two younger brothers. Audrey didn’t dare sit near Louis, she was too agitated and feared she might give it all away so she joined her brothers and tried to distract herself with card houses. It wasn’t until Cecil and Louis got up to leave that Rose’s anxieties were confirmed. She saw Isla pass Louis a note. It was a subtle gesture, done with the utmost secrecy and swiftness. Rose wouldn’t have noticed had she not already suspected something to be going on between them. Once they had left she summoned Audrey to her room under the pretence of wanting her advice on an outfit for Aunt Hilda’s cocktail party.