‘Why sinful, Nell dear?’ Gussie looked surprised.
‘Well …’ Nell paused. ‘Honestly, Gussie. What I’m saying is that I don’t mind John dying or losing the baby or, on a different level, the cottage at Porlock Weir. It sounds so callous and selfish. But, to be perfectly truthful, I’m happier now than I’ve ever been. Apart from Elizabeth, of course. Oh dear!’ She shook her head. ‘I feel very ashamed.’
‘But you weren’t responsible for any of those things,’ said Gussie. ‘It wasn’t your choice who should live or who should die. Those things happened to you and they are in the past and they have helped to make you what you are. One cannot live in the past. We must do the best with what we have. I think it’s far more sinful to live your life with your chin on your shoulder, staring back. It’s now we must live for.’
‘What a comfort you are, Gussie,’ murmured Nell. ‘Whatever should I have done without you?’
‘Or I without you?’ countered Gussie.
They smiled at each other, conscious of the deep love between them, and instinctively and simultaneously backed away from further displays of emotion.
‘What d’you think of Henry’s shorts?’ asked Gussie surprisingly.
Nell, who had already noticed them, glanced at him and smiled affectionately.
‘I think they’re very Henry,’ she replied. ‘Not everyone could carry them off but I think he looks perfectly splendid.’
‘They belonged to his father,’ said Gussie and her eyes were full of memories. ‘I remember them very well indeed. He was wearing them the day he proposed to me in the rose garden.’
‘Gussie!’ gasped Nell. ‘Did he … ? Did you … ? But why … ?’
‘I havered. I was afraid to commit myself,’ said Gussie. ‘I loved him very much and, to my shame, I loved Nethercombe even more, but I was afraid of such a great emotional commitment. And then war broke out and he joined his regiment and I went away, too. When I came back he was engaged to my cousin Louisa. When I look at Henry, and now Thomas, I sometimes wonder how it would have been if I hadn’t been so cautious and I had been the mistress of Nethercombe.’
‘And?’ asked Nell at last.
Gussie shook her head a little and smiled at her serenely.
‘Like you,’ she said, ‘I wouldn’t change a single thing.’
Also by Marcia Willett
A Week in Winter
A Summer in the Country
The Children’s Hour
The Birdcage
First friends
A friend of the Family
Echoes of the Dance
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.
THE COURTYARD. Copyright © 1995 by Marcia Willett. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-30668-7
ISBN-10: 0-312-30668-7
www.thomasdunnebooks.com
www.stmartins.com
eISBN 9781429992725
First eBook Edition : April 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Willett, Marcia.
The courtyard / Marcia Willett.—1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
1. Real estate development—England—Fiction. 2. Recessions—Fiction. 3. Neighbors—Fiction. 4. Female friendship—Fiction. 5. Nineteen eighties—Fiction. 6. England—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6073.I4235C68 2007
823’.914—dc22
200702145
First published in Great Britain by Headline Book Publishing, a division of Hodder Headline PLC
First U.S. Edition: October 2007
The Courtyard Page 35