Well, how did he feel? The answer was, lonely. In a way, he was as lonely as she was; and she had changed, she was different. He had never imagined the Amy he knew making a confession of her faults as she had done.
Still gasping, tears still spouting from her eyes, she pulled herself away from him and, her words jerking from her mouth, she said, ‘I…I didn’t mean…I…I meant to be…calm…and ask you.’
He took a handkerchief from his pocket, and his voice, too, was thick now as he said, ‘Come on. Dry your eyes.’ And as he wiped her face her hand covered his and she muttered, ‘I…I promise, I…I…’
‘No more. No more. There’s no need to promise anything. You’re going home…You’re coming home.’ He patted first one cheek, then the other, saying, ‘John said he wanted a matron to run the place. He always knows what he’s doing, that fellow.’
‘Oh Joseph! Joseph!’
‘Now, now. No more. But do you really know in your own mind what you’re throwing away?’
She shook her head slowly now, saying, ‘I’m not throwing anything away, because I never had it in the first place.’
He stood up and held out his hands, saying, ‘Come on. I’ll go and phone the children. They’ll be delighted. Now you go upstairs and pack a case, just your necessary things. You can come back later, or what you need can be sent on, and while you’re up there I’ll go in the kitchen and talk to the others. I’ll explain that this house will have to be sold; and two of them are ready for retirement in any case, I should imagine. But the rest, I’ll find work for them up at our place or somewhere. You have nothing to worry about. Go on now.’
She didn’t move but she stood still before him and, her voice breaking, she said simply, ‘Joseph! Oh, Joseph!’ And such was the look in her eyes and the pleas in her voice that his heart was stirred as she had never stirred it for years and, bending towards her, he again took her face between his hands and gently he kissed her on the lips.
The End
The Black Candle Page 55