Maxine! Alison, felt shock-waves of jealousy surge in her stomach. Who was Maxine? She must be the third person in Rosie’s picture. The one with long, brown legs, the pretty floral dress... and the large ruby ring!
‘Here, let me help you, you look quite pale,’ Max urged kindly. ‘Come and sit in the porch for a bit, until you feel better... Maxine’s there too. She thought it best if I came to greet you on my own.’
Speechless and unable to resist, Alison found herself led numbly towards St Faiths, vaguely aware as she did so, of a car door opening and closing in the distance.
Nearing the porch, Alison stared wide-eyed into the shadows and discerned a slim, sun-tanned body wearing a violet-printed summer frock, and white leather sandals, racing towards her.
‘Al’son! You came! Oh, I just knew you’d come! I told Max you...’
‘Rosie! But...?’ In complete bewilderment, Alison turned to face Max. ‘You said Maxine and I thought...’
Max grinned broadly and looked to where the ecstatic Rosie was hugging tightly onto Alison’s waist.
‘Ah, but she’s Maxine now,’ he whispered proudly, ‘after me... Well, at least the first three letters are after me. Apparently, she discovered an actress or singer on the television and told her mother she wanted to be called Maxine, at least while she was helping me at Craven’s Stables. However, Michelle and Darren only agreed on condition that she wore a frock. Hence the new dress.’
With a knowing smile, Alison reached down and tilted Rosie’s chin towards her. ‘It was you on that drawing,’ she said, through her tears. ‘There were two of you. Rosie in her serape and Rosie in her dress.’
‘No! Maxine in her dress!’ Rosie corrected, swiftly.
‘But you look so pretty and you’ve grown so tall.’ Alison turned to Max and whispered as an aside. ‘Then what do I call her now?’
‘For the moment,’ he replied, out of earshot. ‘I would suggest Maxine. That is until she changes her mind again. Anyway, as it’s getting late, I’d better see about getting her home.’
At the mention of home, Rosie ran excitedly down the footpath in the direction of the carpark.
‘Oliver’s offered to take her home,’ Max announced. ‘You see, I promised Rosie a ride in a car. Just like a film star.’
‘Oliver!’ came the startled response. ‘How did you know Oliver was bringing me? Did Bunty tell you?’
Seeing a fleeting flash of anger, dart across her face, Max held out a reassuring hand. ‘No, don’t look so alarmed. It wasn’t Bunty who told me. It was Oliver himself. He rang me from New York a few days ago. He said he felt extremely guilty, because having mislaid a favourite pair of cufflinks, he decided to see if Jasper had borrowed them...’
‘What have Oliver’s cufflinks to do with me?’
Max kissed the tip of her nose. ‘Don’t be so impatient. I was just getting to that. You see, Oliver found not only the missing cufflinks but also the letter I’d written to you after you first left Church Haywood.’
‘You replied to my letter?’ Alison asked, incredulously.
‘Yes, of course I did. Only I understand you never received it. And, because you never wrote back in return, I assumed you’d met someone special in New York and didn’t want anything more to do with me. Someone who was at least au fait with Singin’ in the Rain and wasn’t so pigheaded.’
‘Come on, you two!’ a chirpy voice called. ‘He’s waiting.’
*
Looking ahead, Max and Alison saw Rosie in animated conversation with Oliver. Reading Alison’s mind, Max said, ‘No, they haven’t met already, but she’s seen his face often enough on the covers of my CD’s. Surprisingly, she’s even beginning to like Beethoven, Schubert and Saint-Saens.’
Linking her arm in his, Alison laughed softly. ‘You know, nothing from now on will ever surprise me about Rosie. Did she... did she really tell you I would come back?’
‘Absolutely convinced of it, she was. Though I have to confess I wasn’t so sure myself. She kept insisting and quoting her granddad. Telling me, if I really wanted something to happen, then I had to wish for it really hard.’
‘And did you?’ Alison enquired in a hushed voice.
‘Oh, yes. To quote Rosie, really, really hard, in fact.’
Oliver extended his hand Max’s direction. ‘Max. I’m delighted to meet you at long last. I’ve heard so much about you. Now is this the young lady who wants a lift home in this hired limousine of mine?’
Max nodded and shook Oliver’s hand warmly while Alison looked on, sensing the instant rapport between the two. One, her adored stepbrother and Max, the man she loved like no other.
‘Is this really, really, a film star’s car?’ Rosie was heard to gasp as Oliver helped her inside.
‘Sure is young lady, and if you just press that button there, you can lower the window and wave to your friends as I drive you home.
‘See you tomorrow,’ Rosie called excitedly, practising a regal wave.
‘Oh, yes, see you folks tomorrow,’ Oliver called, opening the driver’s door, ‘but not too early I hope?’
‘What about tomorrow?’ Alison asked with a puzzled expression on her face. ‘And what about me. What am I going to...?’
‘I think Oliver thought - and I was secretly hoping - you would come back to Craven’s Stables with me. Apart from one small detail, it’s almost complete. I thought you might like to have a look round.’
Unable to look him in the eye, while she pondered the meaning of ‘have a look round’, Alison found herself swept into Max’s arms and once more felt the longed-for lips on hers.
‘But where’s your car?’ she asked, when he’d released her from his embrace. It’s not in the churchyard car park is it? I would have noticed, otherwise.’
‘No.’ Max grinned. ‘Rosie - or should I say Maxine - and I parked it at the golf club, once we’d put the violets on your mother’s grave. Then we just walked back to St Faith’s and waited patiently - which for Maxine was exceedingly difficult I might add - until Oliver’s phone call and text.’
‘Phone call and text?’
‘Oliver rang me to let me know you were on the way. Once from a service station on the motorway and then a text from the car at eight o’clock.’
Max produced his own newly acquired mobile phone from his breast pocket. ‘I was only thankful the clock was chiming eight, so you didn’t hear my phone. And… as it’s now nine o’clock, can I suggest we make our way back to Craven’s Stables before it gets dark?’
Admiring the view from the upstairs landing window, Alison gazed about her in wonderment. ‘What an amazing view across the valley from here, I never realized you could see so much.’
‘It’s even better from the bedroom window,’ Max said. ‘Come along, I’ll show you.’
Standing by the open window, watching the last pale orange stain of sunset, Alison breathed in the warm scent of the balmy summer evening.
‘Perhaps not quite like the New York skyline,’ Max began, interrupting her train of thought
‘Maybe not, but it’s equally impressive.’
‘And do you still like New York?’
‘Oh, yes! It’s simply wonderful. So exhilarating and vibrant and everyone was so friendly. I was even offered lots of commissions for apartments and...’
Aware of the look of sadness in Max’s eyes, Alison moved towards him and laid her head against his shoulder. ‘But I don’t intend to go back. Not just yet...’
‘You don’t?
‘No. Wonderful as it is, Max, I don’t think it’s for me. I miss Church Haywood too much. The greenness of it all I suppose. The trees and narrow country lanes, not to mention the banks of primroses, bluebell woods and of course the rain.’
‘The rain? Don’t they get rain in New York?’
Alison smiled tenderly. ‘Yes, but it’s not quite the same as English rain on dewy covered banks of violets. By the way,’ she said, turning to look at the assortment of posy bowls decorating the
bedroom, all crammed with tiny purple blooms and green heart-shaped leaves, ‘how did Penny manage to find so many?’
‘I placed a special order for a special lady.’
‘Oh, you mean Rosie? Or should that be Maxine? I’m so confused by the change in her appearance.. She’s grown so much…’
‘No, I mean you Alison, I thought...’
‘And I thought… when I saw Rosie’s drawing of someone I didn’t recognise, with long, tanned legs, wearing a pretty frock and a very impressive ruby ring.’
‘Ah, yes. That dreadful ring!’ Max laughed. ‘I bought her that.’
‘You did? Why?
‘As I’ve already explained, Michelle and Darren went along with the name Maxine, only on condition that she wore a dress. When I saw the ring in the toyshop window, I told Maxine it would complete her new identity.’
Sensing Alison’s complete bewilderment, Max said. ‘Maxine Ruby - the name of the singer, or was it actress? Anyway I can’t quite remember. Besides, it doesn’t matter now, does it? All I do know is that it certainly did the trick and took Rosie’s attention away from the new baby.’
‘The new baby! Are you saying…?
Max nodded. ‘Yes, that’s right, Michelle’s expecting another baby, so it looks as if there’ll be another Jennings "chris’nin” at St Faiths before too long.’
‘Poor Rosie. Still, at least she’s got her own bedroom now.’
Alison turned thoughtfully. ‘Oh dear! It’s suddenly occurred to me. Now that she’s Maxine, she’ll be wanting all that changed into a film star’s bedroom, with lights round the dressing table and...’
‘No,’ Max reassured. ‘For the moment, I understand she’s still perfectly happy with her cactus and her cow-catcher train. She doesn’t wear a dress all the time, usually she’s in shorts. How else do you think her legs got so brown?’
Alison breathed a sigh of relief. ‘No wonder she made such a point of accentuating them in her drawing, when I think...’
Aware of Alison’s faltering tone of voice, Max slipped his arm round her waist and drew her away from the window. ‘Let me guess. You thought when you saw that picture, Maxine was... just as I did when I saw you with Jasper and heard you calling him Pierre.’
‘Please, Max! I’d rather you didn’t mention it. Not now, don’t spoil things. It’s still too painful to think about. Tell me about the one thing that needs to complete Craven’s Stables instead. You mentioned earlier, it was finished except for one small detail. Whatever it is, perhaps I can help you with it?
‘You can most certainly do that!’ Max replied, sweeping her into his arms. You see that magnificent bed over there?’
Alison nodded. Until now she’d tried to avoid looking at the wonderful Regency four-poster. Swathed in muslin, blowing gently in the warm summer breeze, it was like something from a fairy-tale.
‘Well, that,’ Max announced forcefully, ‘is a marriage bed, Alison Benedict, and I want you to share it with me!’
Placed carefully on to the bed, Alison gazed into his deeply dark and earnest eyes. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Really, really, sure,’ he said, taking her hand to his lips. ‘You once told me you wanted me to be your lover… remember? But I don’t want to be your lover…’ Hesitating, Max gave a bemused smile. ‘What am I saying? Of course I want to be your lover, but I also want you to be my wife.’
Later, entwined in his arms, Alison reached out with her hand and ran her forefinger gently along the faint purple scar.
‘Violets are blue,’ she murmured softly.
‘And purple and white,’ Max added, thinking he was continuing the theme of her conversation.
‘Actually, I was referring to the film I saw, before I left New York. Jasper has this lovely Egyptian girlfriend and we went to see an Egyptian film. Translated its title is Violets Are Blue.’
‘I didn’t know you could speak Egyptian.’
‘I don’t, besides isn’t it Arabic? Anyway it didn’t matter, because I read the subtitles and Layla had already explained the story and the significance of the theme to me.’
Max leant on one elbow and turned to study her face carefully. Somehow he felt what she was going to say was significant to their relationship, ‘And what was the theme?’
Alison held tightly on to his hand, her voice a faltering whisper, ‘Sometimes a smile can come from the heart of sadness.’
‘Oh, Alison!’ Max said, his voice choked with emotion. ‘With you by my side, my heart can never be filled with sadness. Like your dark shadows, my darling, my sadness has gone forever.’
If you enjoyed Secrets from the Past check out Endeavour Press’s other books here: Endeavour Press - the UK’s leading independent publisher of digital books.
For weekly updates on our free and discounted eBooks sign up to our newsletter.
Follow us on Twitter and Goodreads.
Secrets From The Past Page 30