‘Congratulations to you both.’ Joy and Quentin said the words almost together, and unexpectedly Sam began to laugh.
‘And let’s hope I can say the same to you two before the night’s ended,’ he observed. ‘Don’t wait until it’s too late, or until something happens to make you feel you might lose the one you love, the one who means everything to each of you...’
He turned away and left the door of the kitchen. Wordlessly they looked at one another.
‘You kept your promise, Joy,’ Quentin said gently, ‘you can always be proud of that. Now, would you like to make one to me?’
‘I will if I can, Doctor,’ she told him, and suddenly her eyes were dancing, and to Quentin she looked more beautiful than the girl who was her sister and the recognized beauty of the family. Here, he thought, was love, devotion, loyalty, all the womanly virtues as well as the beauty of heart, mind and character which enhances the beauties of physical charms and which outlasts them through all the years which lay ahead. Gently he drew her into his arms.
‘Give the house to Cousin Emma, Joy,’ he suggested. ‘You could make it a sort of trust, to be handed on to the twins, one or both of them, when Emma’s done with it. I want you to give me another promise, darling, a promise of a very different kind. Sister Benyon’—he put one finger under her chin and tilted her mouth towards his own—‘will you promise to love, honour and obey me, till death do us part, so long as we both shall live?’ he asked gravely, and the twins, watching unseen but wide eyed through the little side window where they had halted on their way in from the garden, afterwards swore they had caught the faint whisper of Sister Benyon’s solemn ‘I will.’
Promise the Doctor Page 20