The Breadth of Heaven (20 page)

“We have quite a long journey ahead of us,
cherie
,
and I don’t want you to be tired.” They paused in the doorway of the house, and he looked down at her quizzically. “If you’re not quite sure about the house we can come down to look at it again before we buy it.”

“Oh, I
am
sure. I love it.” She was almost breathless with enthusiasm. “Leonid, we will buy it, won’t we?”

“Yes, of course we will.” He smiled at her soothingly. “Even if I hated it myself, we would have it, because you like it so much.”

The last of the February daylight soon disappeared, and they were travelling back to London by the light of the car’s powerful headlamps, but Kathy found it oddly restful, and in any case she was floating in such an aura of happiness that everything around her seemed gilded with a kind of fairy-tale unreality. She and Leonid talked a good deal, for they had a great deal to talk about, but when silences fell she was happy to lean back and study as much of his profile as she could see in the half-light, or simply stare into the velvety darkness hanging over the countryside beyond the windows.

At last she remembered to ask about Natalia, and immediately felt guilty because she had not remembered before. “How is she?” she asked, rather hesitantly. “Was she
...
very offended when I left so suddenly?”

Swiftly, Leonid turned his head and smiled at her. “She was hysterical, and, as I told you, she immediately decided that it was all my fault. She told me that she had been meaning to talk to me about you.” He smiled again. “She knew exactly how I felt about you, for she really has a great deal of sense, and she told me that I had deserved everything that was happening to me.”

“Will she
—
do you think she’ll be pleased?” asked Kathy shyly. “I mean, when—”

“When she hears that you are going to marry me? My darling, she told me before I left Italy that she wanted you for a sister-in-law, and that I had got to arrange it.” He laughed softly. “I rather think she has something to tell you, too.”

When they eventually reached London Kathy imagined that he would drive her straight back to her hostel for the night, but instead he turned in among the dazzling lights of the West End, and before she quite realized what he was intending to do he had brought the car to a halt outside one of the city’s largest and most famous hotels.

She blinked in the strong light when he led her through the foyer, and into one of the luxurious lounges, but she blinked even more when a familiar voice sounded close beside her, and a slender, graceful vision in a white silk cocktail dress appeared in front of her. She gasped, and stood stock still.

“Natalia!”

“My dearest, dearest Kathy!” The slender vision hugged her enthusiastically, and kissed her on both cheeks. “You are going to marry Leonid, and everything is wonderful!”

“How
...
how do you know?”

“Why, he promised me that if everything was well he would bring you here, and we would all celebrate together!” She kissed Kathy again, and then embraced her brother-in-law. “It is so marvellous, and
I ... and I ...”
She paused a moment, her whole face alight. “And I—I have something wonderful to tell you, too!” From somewhere in the background a tall, masculine figure stepped forward, and Kathy recognized Colonel Zanin. “Karl and I are going to be married.” She looked at the Colonel, and Kathy saw that there was a new poise about her, a new serenity. Instinctively, the other girl knew that Natalia would no longer dwell upon the imagined assassination of her former husband ... no longer run away from life and from her fellow human beings. She smiled at her warmly. “I
am
glad,” she said. “So very, very glad
...
”

“The wedding will be very soon,” Natalia said happily. “In a week’s time.”

“The double wedding,” Le
o
n
id corrected her. “Don’t you agree,
cherie
?”

Kathy’s eyes assured him that she did agree.

A long time later, after dinner, Kathy and Leonid were alone together for a short time in one of the deserted lounges, and Leonid smiled whimsically.

“I have a fondness for London hotels,” he remarked. “I met you,
r
emember, in a London hotel.”

“And you were rather cruel to me,” she reminded him with a smile.

“If I was cruel it was simply because I already loved you ... as I love you now, and as I always will love you, my beautiful blue-eyed Katherine.” He took her hand, and kissed it. “As I always will love you, my sweet princess.”

THE END