The Forget-Me-Not Sonata(78)

‘Where is he now?’ Audrey asked, hoping that Cicely hadn’t noticed the desperate tone in her voice.

‘I don’t know. I’m afraid I asked him to leave.’ Cicely pursed her lips regretfully and played with a strand of greying hair that had come away from the clip. ‘He was just hanging around moping, playing the piano and taking off on long long walks. He’s a grown up, he can’t just sit around doing nothing expecting his family to support him. I don’t know what he was doing in South America. I think he was teaching music or something because he seemed to have earned a living. I told him to find himself a job around here. I knew he wouldn’t go to our parents for help so I didn’t dare suggest it.’ She was trying to justify why she hadn’t done more for him. ‘I housed him and fed him for a few months then one day he packed his bags and left. I swear I could still hum that tune . . . how did it go?’ Audrey froze as Cicely began to hum tonelessly the tune Louis had composed for her.

Then suddenly the tears were spilling down her cheeks and she was wiping them away, but she was unable to disguise her misery and Cicely stopped humming and reached out her hand. ‘I’m so sorry, Audrey, I didn’t mean to upset you. It must be hard hearing about Louis. He must be your last link with Isla.’

Audrey shook her head and sniffed, sweeping a hand across her face. ‘I’m sorry. I’m fine, really. It’s just that I haven’t seen Louis since Isla died. I would so love to see him.’

‘And I would give anything to find him. He left, you see, without a word and none of us have heard from him or seen him since. I feel so guilty. I just turfed him out.’ Then she added sheepishly, ‘He didn’t get on with Marcel.’

‘He seemed to rub everyone up the wrong way in Hurlingham. But I saw him differently. I understood him.’

‘Isla must have been very special. Louis has never lost his heart to anyone before and I doubt he will ever love like that again. He must have connected with her in a way we just can’t imagine. She must have been a very compassionate woman.’ Audrey was so overcome she could no longer speak.

Cicely suddenly looked at her watch and gasped. ‘Barley! I’ve forgotten to fetch him from the vet’s. You don’t mind being left here, do you?’ she asked, jumping to her feet. Audrey shook her head. In fact, that was just what she needed, some time alone to digest all that she had been told. Cicely smiled apologetically then rushed out of the room with her Alsatians, leaving a light smell of tuberose in the air and a heavy sense of relief. Audrey waited until she had heard the front door slam and then walked over to the piano.

Looking once again into the face of the man she had never stopped loving she was suddenly suffocated by a tremendous feeling of loneliness. She traced her eyes slowly over his features, caressing them and loving them with her tears as if he were dead and she were mourning him. He may just as well have been dead for she didn’t know whether she’d ever see him again. Life was short and she had let him go. Besides, how could she explain to him that she had married his brother? If his heart was broken now such news would certainly splinter it and then what? As his sister had said, he was fragile. She cursed her own lack of courage.

Gripped by an overwhelming desire to vent her grief she sat down on the piano stool and positioned her trembling fingers over the keys. She was aware that Louis had sat on the same seat and touched the same notes only months before and her senses sharpened as she could almost feel his presence and smell his skin. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She hadn’t played it for years, not that tune, not their tune. But she was alone in the house and her desire to do so was too strong to withstand. Her fingers glided across the keys as if they had been eternally programmed to play that piece. With the familiar, haunting sound of ‘The Forget-Me-Not Sonata’ she felt the pressure lift from her spirit and her heart inflate with hope. She didn’t notice a little brown sausage dog wander in and lie beneath the piano to watch the pedals move up and down, nor did she know that at the very top of the house Marcel heard the echo of her music and paused his paintbrush to listen.





Chapter 16



Florien wasn’t very talkative. Not that Alicia noticed, she was far too busy telling him about herself. Leonora fell naturally into her usual role, trying to be kind and put him at his ease – she was used to her sister dazzling people until their tongues grew thick and heavy and barely worked at all. She knew that was what had happened to Florien even though Aunt Cicely had said that he was a sullen boy. He was just shy, she thought, and overwhelmed.