Then She Fled Me

by Sara Seale

  Sarah was in the kitchen being looked over by Nonie. “Ah, sure, you’ll come into your own this night,” the old woman said. “Miss Kathy has her mother’s beauty, God rest her soul, but you’ll not want for partners, me doty.”

  “I wish,” said Sarah, twisting her hands, “I wish my father could have seen me tonight.”

  “Och, he died too soon for you,” Nonie said. “But you do him credit, Miss Sarah. Take that thought with you to the ball and be sure there’s none there that won’t envy you.”

  Sarah hugged her.

  “Darling, Nonie, you always comfort me,” she said, and Nonie pushed her away with a gentle hand.

  “Ah, get along with you! An’ remember, now, no sitting with your dress pulled over your two knees and you thinking you have the trousers on. You’re one of the young ladies of Dun Rury an’ don’t let anyone forget it.”

  She ran into the snug. They were all there, waiting for her, and she looked at Adrian in his unfamiliar clothes and thought: now he looks just like his photograph on the program. They all admired her frock again, and she said gaily: “Everyone’s contributed to turning me into a young lady. Aunt Em bought the stuff, Kathy made it, Nonie provided the stockings, and Danny silvered my shoes. Thank you all.”

  Adrian said, one eyebrow lifted:

  “I haven’t contributed anything, but here it is—the best I could do in Knockferry.”

  For the first time since he had known her she seemed uncertain of him. She took the worn leather case he held out to her without a word, and opened it slowly, lifting out the delicate, old-fashioned necklace of moonstones and holding them up to the light.

  “Here, let me put it on for you,” he said, and snapped the necklace round her throat.

  “It’s exactly right,” Aunt Em said, sounding bewildered! “It’s exactly right for the frock.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Adrian said. “But I wasn’t so lucky with Kathy. This is all I could find to match Joe’s pendant.”

  The puzzled unhappiness flew from Kathy’s eyes as she took the small brooch with the single aquamarine stone which he held out to her, and pinned it to her frock.

  “Oh, Adrian, thank you,” she said. “You shouldn’t have done it after that lovely wireless you gave us, but thank you—I shall treasure it always.”

  She flew round the room, displaying her present to each member of the family in, turn, laughing and exquisite, but Sarah stood fingering the moonstones, and had no words for anyone at all.

  Joe was waiting for them at the entrance to the Assembly Rooms. He had got his hair under control, but beside Adrian’s fair sleekness he still looked a little untidy.

  “There’s glory for you!” he said when he beheld Sarah but Kathy was too anxious to get to the ballroom to pay attention to stray quotations. She had the first dance with Adrian, and Joe, inviting Sarah on to the floor, said solemnly:

  “I wouldn’t have believed it. My scraggy little tomboy! Well, it only goes to show.”

  “What?” asked Sarah with interest.

  “I haven’t an idea. Concentrate on your dancing.”

  She was nervous when she got up to face Adrian. She remembered her reluctance to come to this dance and she remembered, too, his hands on her shoulders and his voice saying: “Look at these hands ... are they so objectionable to you?” She slipped into his arms and thought only of the music.

  “You see,” he said when the music stopped, “there was nothing to be afraid of.”

  After that it was easy. Adrian danced well in a conservative manner, but he had few surprise steps and she found him quite easy to follow. There were no tables to sit at, only rows of chairs round the room, and between dances they either sat on these or sought the stairs or other convenient places. It was Sarah’s evening. After the initial uncertainty, she enjoyed every minute of the dance, and Adrian was amused to see she attracted more partners outside their party than her sister did.

  In the interval he bought her a drink, and she looked hastily round before bringing the glass to her lips.

  “Would you have preferred it in the ladies’ cloak room?” he asked, and she giggled.

  “You’re awfully nice, Adrian,” she said. “I’m glad I came.” She fingered her necklace and her eyes were suddenly shy. “I never thanked you for it,” she said. “I—I’m not used to presents from strangers, you see.”

  “I’m still a stranger?” he asked, his eyes on the delicate hollow under the necklace.

  “No—no, you’re not,” she said with surprise. “I feel I know you quite well.”

  He smiled a little crookedly.

  “You know me as well as anyone else,” he said cryptically.

  They went back to the ballroom, and on the way they were stopped by a friend of Joe’s whom they had met earlier in the evening.

  “I’d like you to meet Mrs. Mallory,” she said. “She’s over from England on a visit and thinks she’s met you before.”

  Sarah looked at the woman who was turning to greet Adrian. She was smart, sophisticated, very English, not the sort of woman who ordinarily attended the Assembly Rooms in Knockferry.

  “I don’t think—” Adrian was saying courteously, and Mrs. Mallory broke in with a drawl:

  “Flint, didn’t you say, Michael? Aren’t you Adrian Flint, the pianist? We met once at a party after your Brussels recital four years ago, and I was at the Albert Hall concert the night of that awful fog—your last public appearance, wasn’t it? My dear man, you look marvellously well— such a tragedy that they couldn’t patch you up again. Do come and see me when you’re back in England. You’ll find me in the book.”

  Adrian made some polite rejoinder and they passed on to the ballroom. She could feel his hands trembling as he took her on to the floor.

  “You mustn’t mind,” she said fiercely. “You’ve got to get used to it.”

  He held her a little closer, so that she could not see his face.

  “Yes. I’ve got to get used to it,” he said. “The trouble is I’ve hidden myself too long.”

  “Does it matter?” she said. “Does it matter about silly women like that? What you had all those years, what you gave to the world, no one can take from you. You should be proud to have had so much.”

  He brushed the top of her head with his chin.

  “Wise Sarah,” he said. “What a pity you can’t be as wise for yourself.”

  “For myself?” She looked up at him, puzzled.

  “Never mind. Perhaps someone will be wise for you. Now don’t talk any more.”

  They danced in silence till the music stopped, then the band struck up an eightsome reel and Sarah ran to her sister and Joe who were sitting silently side by side on two chairs. “Come on!” she cried. “This is real dancing.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Adrian stood at the edge of the floor watching the dancers. Sarah partnered Joe while Kathy had Tom Blake who was light on his feet for a reel. Only one set was made up, and the rest of the dancers crowded round the floor to watch and keep time by clapping. They were a good eightsome, and Adrian watched with enjoyment. Ladies in the centre ... Kathy was demure and charming, but Sarah was neater and her rhythm impeccable. In her leaf-green frock, with her soft, straight hair swinging on her shoulders, she was a delight to watch. Set to partners ... The light caught in her moonstone necklace as she swung from Joe’s arm. Chain ... Away she went, light and sure as he had seen her dance across the lawn at Dun Rury.

  “You’re full of music,” he told her as she left the floor.

  “Me?” she laughed. “I know nothing of music but I love a reel. Joe, I’m thirsty. Come and buy me a fizzy ginger beer.”

  They sat in a bend of the stairs and Sarah drank her ginger beer too fast and made her nose prickle. “Oh!” she said. “That was fun. The whole evening’s fun. Joe—is anything the matter?”

  “She’s turned me down,” Joe said flatly.

  Sarah put down her ginger beer on the stairs beside her. “Kathy?” she
said. “She’s turned you down? Oh, no, Joe, you must have misunderstood.”

  “There’s no misunderstanding,” he said. “When I pressed her she said if I must have an answer now then it was no.”

  She stared at him with dismay.

  “But, Joe, I can’t believe it! After all these years! We all took it for granted.”

  “That, it would appear, is half the trouble,” he said bleakly. “According to Kathy I took it for granted, too.”

  “Perhaps you did,” she said slowly. “I always said I couldn’t understand how you could wait.”

  “Well, I’ve waited too long. Now she’s infatuated with a stiff-necked Britisher who may or may not have honorable intentions.”

  “Do you mean Adrian? Oh, but that’s absurd!”

  “Maybe it is, but she says he speaks her language. He understands what she’s talking about and none of the rest of us do.”

  “But, Joe, that’s just a phase. Kathy is like a child reaching for the newest toy. She knows Adrian isn’t serious.”

  “Didn’t he give her a brooch, and he only a stranger at Dun Rury? Doesn’t jewellery mean more than a box of handkerchiefs or a pair of gloves?”

  “I don’t know,” she said slowly. “He gave us both jewellery.”

  “Och, that! No discrimination. A fine cover up!”

  She tried to think back. There had ‘been nothing in Adrian’s manner towards her sister that had ever led her to suppose that he thought, of Kathy in a serious light. He had been gentle in his manner and open in his admiration, but so were most men.

  “I’m sure you’re wrong, Joe dear,” she said gently. “Adrian is—wrapped up in himself still, I think. Kathy may have helped him—I don’t know—but he’s not your rival, Joe—I don’t think it’s ever entered his head.”

  Joe ran his fingers through his thick hair.

  “Perhaps not,” he said. “Father thinks the same as you do with the exception—” He paused, but after a sideways glance at her troubled face, did not finish his sentence. “Anyway, Kathy’s obsessed with the idea of him and that’s almost as bad as the other way. All this damn poetry and music! Can I help it if I don’t talk her language as she calls it? Do I love her any the less because I can’t pander to her day-dreams?”

  “No,” said Sarah and sighed. “But Kathy’s a child. She’ll learn that’s not important. Will I talk to her, Joe?”

  “It’ll do no good,” he said. “Too many people have talked to her. Let her learn her own fashion.”

  “It’s a phase, Joe,” she said again. “She’ll grow out of it.”

  “Do you remember telling me once that you couldn’t understand people who were content to wait? When you knew what you wanted, you said, you wanted it at once?”

  “And you told me I’d never been in love.”

  “Och, what do we know about other people?” he demanded angrily. “You may not have been in love but you’ve more sense than that moonstruck sister of yours. I should have taken her when I had the chance.”

  She took his hand, linking her fingers with his.

  “Be patient,” she said. “For moonstruck is what she is and she’ll not be different till you or some man teaches her otherwise. Stay away, Joe. Stay away for a bit and let her miss you.”

  “Sure, I’ll stay away,” he said. “I’ll not be hanging around to watch her make sheep’s eyes at your long-nosed Englishman.” His fingers suddenly tightened on hers. “Look at you, Sarah, with your eyes the color of your dress and your white skin, and an understanding of men God never gave to your sister. Why do I have to love her and not you?”

  “I don’t know, Joe,” she said a little wearily. “Perhaps we’re too much alike. You never did think of me as anything but the scraggy little tomboy you’d known all your life.”

  “That was yesterday. Now you’re grown up and at least you and I speak the same language.”

  “Do we, Joe? I don’t know.”

  “I do. I’ve been a fool. Sarah, would you have me if I were to ask you?”

  She looked at him and the tears were bright on her lashes.

  “No, Joe,” she said gently. “We don’t love one another in that sort of way. Because you’re hurt, because you’ve seen me in a new grown-up frock, you think we can make things right the wrong way. You’ll always love Kathy. One day she’ll come back to you.”

  The anger died out of him and he gave her his old gentle smile.

  “You’re worth ten of her,” he said. “But, God help me, you’re right. I’ll always love her.”

  “Of course,” she said, stretching out her hand “Come and dance.”

  Adrian and Kathy were waltzing when they got back to the ballroom and they stood for a moment watching.

  “A handsome couple,” Joe observed bitterly, and Sarah sighed and repeated: “A handsome couple.”

  There was an unexpected pain in this coupling of Adrian and Kathy together, and her feet dragged a little as Joe drew her into the dance. Then the music stopped, and she was surprised to find it was close on twelve. The dancers began making a circle, laughing and crossing hands. Sarah found herself between Joe and Adrian. Adrian bent his fair head and said in her ear:

  “You look very solemn. Do you know you’ve been out of my sight for the last half-hour and the dance is nearly over? You’re supposed to be my partner for the evening, young woman.”

  She looked up at him, studying his face. The coldness was still there, she thought. She mistook the tender twinkle in his eyes for mockery and the calmness of his manner for indifference. She could understand Kathy’s infatuation, but there was no real menace to Joe. He flattered her by his gentle attentions, satisfied for the moment her, discontent and made her feel all the things that Joe could not. Poor Joe who only wanted to love and was content with so little.

  “You’re giving me the oddest looks, Sarah,” he protested. “Have I got a smut on my nose?”

  The lights went out before she could reply, the band struck up Auld Lang Syne, and she sought relief in singing. Poor foolish Kathy, with her head in the clouds. She would do no more than graze herself on the Flinty One’s armor. There was no need to be troubled at all.

  She was so relieved that when he said, “May I wish my landlady a happy New Year in traditional fashion,” she raised her face unthinkingly and felt his cool lips brush hers for a moment.

  “Dear me!” he murmured. “You must have been thinking of something else.”

  “Why?”

  “Not to have fled me lifting your petticoat over your knee. But perhaps you don’t wear a petticoat since vests aren’t allowed.”

  “You are absurd!” she laughed, and the spontaneous enjoyment in the evening came flooding back. Poor Joe ... poor Kathy ... but it would all come right in the end.

  It was snowing when they left the Assembly Rooms, and there was already a! thin crusting of white on the streets and the grey little houses of the town.

  “Would you like to come back for a hot drink before you start?” asked Joe.

  “Yes,” said Sarah.

  “No,” said Kathy, and Adrian spread his hands in mock despair.

  “What does one do?” he said. “The ladies appear to disagree.”

  “Kathy...” said Joe, his eyes on her soft young face.

  “No, Joe, I’d rather go home,” she said. “We’ll get something there.”

  Sarah shrugged her shoulders and danced out into the snow.

  “Me, I don’t mind,” she said. “I’m not cold anyway.”

  “You soon will be if you kick up the snow in those thin shoes,” Adrian told her, and calling goodnight to Joe, he took both girls by the arm and hurried them off to the car.

  Kathy curled up on the back seat under the rug, and fell asleep. She seemed tired. But Sarah sat beside Adrian, wide awake, delighted with the snowflakes that came drifting in through the cracked side-screens.

  “It was a lovely, lovely dance,” she said. “Poor Joe!”

  “Why poor Joe?�
�� Adrian asked, amused.

  “Kathy turned him down.”

  “I’m not surprised.”

  “Why not?” She looked at him suspiciously.

  “She has her head too full of day-dreams at present to face up to reality.”

  So Adrian knew it, too. Now Joe had nothing to fear.

  “She knows him too well,” she said gently. “He’ll stay away for a while and that will be better.”

  “You’re very tenacious, aren’t you? You’re determined she shall marry him in the end.”

  “Not if she doesn’t want to, but I think she will.”

  “Don’t interfere, Sarah,” he warned her lightly. “Sometimes it’s dangerous.”

  “Yes,” she said. “I’ll try to remember. Did you enjoy the evening, Adrian?”

  “Very much.”

  “You see? It’s good to come out of your shell once in a while.”

  He smiled.

  “I seem to remember it was I who had to persuade you to come to the dance.”

  “Well, yes, but that was different. I meant you’ve been much more human since you haven’t been stuck away in the nursery so much. Why don’t you join us more for meals?”

  “Perhaps I will,” he said. “At least it would save carrying up trays.”

  “Oh!” she said and stopped.

  “What is it, now?”

  “The extras. I would have to take off the extras or it would be service under false pretenses.”

  He laughed.

  “Don’t let’s spoil a pleasant evening,” he said. “We’ll talk about that some other time.”

  The cold and the unaccustomed excitement were making her sleepy at last, and presently she began to nod, her head slipping to Adrian’s shoulder. Adrian drove leisurely, enjoying the falling snow and the keenness of the mountain air after the heat of the ballroom. He was tired, but not mentally fatigued as he would have been a few months ago. Even the incident of the woman who had recognised him at the Assembly Rooms had not upset him as much as it would have then. He heard again Sarah’s fierce little voice saying: “You mustn’t mind. You’ve got to get used to it.” Yes, he had to get used to a new way of life, but somehow, here at Dun Rury, it was not so difficult.