by Ives, Averil
"It's easy for you to talk like that," she cried, in a choking voice. "You go away for nearly a month, with someone you admit you were once expected to marry, and expect me to disbelieve your sister when she tells me something that I haven't the slightest reason for disbelieving! You did tell me you loved me, you did kiss me—" catching back an unsteady breath, "but why should a mere nursery-governess place a great deal of importance in that? You also said that I wouldn't understand if you explained, and that you had your obligations . . . You said nothing to give me any confidence while you were away, and you didn't even bother to write to me! I didn't know you were coming back until this afternoon, and I felt I wanted to get right away from the house—"
"But Inez knew I was coming back several days ago! She could have told you then! . . I particularly requested her to do so!"
"Inez!" she choked, and fumbled blindly with the door handle. The tears were once more streaming down her cheeks, and she felt she wanted to die.
But his strong fingers closed over hers and removed the door handle from her clasp, and he drew her forcibly back into his arms. She no longer had the strength to fight, and she sobbed pathetically against the front of his light grey suit.
"Kathleen," he said gently, tenderly stroking her hair, "I realise now that I am entirely to blame! I should have told you more that last night in the garden; at least enough to give you absolute confidence in the future . . . Our future! Oh, my darling," appalled because she had obviously suffered, "men are clumsy, and I seem to have been particularly so! I didn't write because we none of us wanted Carmelita's marriage plans to leak out, and it seemed pointless just to send a few lines and say how much I adored you! That could wait, I thought, until I got back to you, when I would prove my adoration! And I was quite certain you would never have a doubt about it!"
"I didn't until—until! . . ." But she couldn't go on, and he finished for her, grimly:
"Until Inez behaved like a serpent in Eden! She knew very well why I had gone to Paris, but she is angry with me for refusing to allow her to set up an establishment of her own. But now she can do so without delay — any type of an establishment so long as she is away from you! She can go to an hotel straight away if she wishes . . . And take the twins with her!"
"Oh, no," Kathleen begged, "not the twins! They have been my only consolation during this past dreadful fortnight!"
"Then we will keep the twins," smiling at her tenderly but anxiously. He once more put on the roof-light and peered at her gravely. "Darling, how can you
love me when I have failed you so badly? Or perhaps," a little unsteadily, "you don't still love me?"
"I shall always love you, Miguel," she told him, pressing her face against him so that her voice was muffled, which made it seem all the more intense. "That was the dreadful part of it when I — when I thought you weren't serious!"
"Not serious?" He crushed her to him so fiercely that she thought her ribs would crack. "If I am not serious about you no man has been serious about a woman since Time began! I love you with my heart and soul, mind and body, and the one thing I crave is to call you my wife . . . Kathleen, my wife! Oh, darling, darling! . ."
And then wildly he was kissing her, and she kissed him back with the utter desperation of one who had never dared to believe that bliss like this would enfold her again.
Later they drove slowly back to the quinta, but before they did so he astounded her by admitting:
"Your sister and brother knew how I felt about you from the very beginning! Or almost the beginning! That morning after they came to dinner I called on them, and asked your brother's permission to think seriously of you. But I was so uncertain of you at that time that I begged them not to let you know, and to let matters take their course. But if I hadn't exacted that promise from them your sister-in-law Peggy could have put you out of a great deal of agony during these past weeks!" He was furious with himself. "Why did I behave so stupidly."
"Yes, why?" she asked quietly, looking at him sideways. "When I was ready to fall at your feet like an over-ripe peach from the moment you began to treat me like a human being!"
"Oh, sweetheart," he exclaimed, and groaned. "I've been the one at fault all along! But the future will make it up to you!" He glanced at his watch, and realised it was getting late. None of the noises of Amara
penetrated to their quiet retreat. "We must get back and reassure your brother and sister about your safety! And then I think we will invite them over to drink an engagement toast in champagne! And tomorrow I will find out how quickly we can be married . . ."
He felt her nestle shyly into his arms, and kissed the top of her golden head adoringly.
"Sweetheart," he said, huskily, "I promise you that I will make you happy here in Portugal, and any differences in our outlook will never make any difference to our happiness! I will be the most patient and devoted of husbands!"
"And I," she promised shyly, "will never try you too much, by being the sort of young woman you thought me at first! I'm not terribly modem . . . I even think I'd like to obey my husband—always!"
"As an earnest of that," he told her, softly, "you can tell your husband-to-be that you love him more than anything in the world, and give him your precious lips to prove it!"
She looked up into his eyes. The roof-lamp was on, but there was no one to see.
"I love you, Miguel, more than anything else in the world," she whispered, and offered him her lips.
Fully another five minutes passed before he remembered that time was still passing, and started up the car. As they slipped away from the dark alleyway Kathleen was dreamily certain it was the most delectable corner of Portugal.
THE END