The Shadow of the Sycamores (33 page)

Henry gave him a playful punch on the shoulder as he went past. ‘I didn’t honestly think you would. Are you ready to go to bed, my Fairy?’

There was rather an awkward silence between the two young people for a moment or two after the door closed, then Mara whispered, ‘I’m so sorry, Leo. My father has spoiled everything.’

Leo grinned roguishly. ‘Did you want me to take liberties with you?’

Colour flared up in her cheeks again. He added hastily, ‘I’m sorry, Samara. I shouldn’t have said that. I was only joking.’

She ignored his apology. ‘I wouldn’t mind if you did … take liberties.’

With a quick intake of breath, he slid his arms around her. Thirty minutes had never passed so quickly for either of them and perhaps small liberties
were
taken but none so drastic as Henry had feared. Leo was keeping his promise, breaking off the kisses and caresses before they went beyond the point of no return. At last, very reluctantly, he whispered, ‘I had better go, my darling. I do not want to antagonise your father.’

‘No,’ she agreed. ‘It would be best not to.’

Their last kiss was almost Leo’s undoing but he managed to slide free of her embrace. ‘No, sweetheart, we must stop.’ He stood up to show that he meant it.

Giving a small sigh, she also got to her feet. ‘I nearly forgot, Leo. Mother said she would like you to join us for a meal tomorrow night – tonight, I mean. That is, if your mother isn’t …’

‘Tell your mother I am delighted to accept her invitation.’

After seeing him out and getting only a quick peck on the cheek, she went back to the parlour to turn out the light – the council had installed gas for them the previous year. It was already twenty-five to one, she noticed, and smiled because there was no sound from her parents’ room. As she climbed the stairs, she wondered how long it would be before Leo asked her to marry him. She had hoped that it would be tonight, this special night, but it hadn’t happened.

Even though he had to watch his feet in the ruts and humps of ice, Leo was thinking along much the same lines as Mara as he wended his way home. He had originally intended to ask her father for her hand tonight but, during some early talk about the progress of the war, a new concept had arisen in his mind – a concept that would need deep consideration before he committed himself to anything else.

He had made only one friend since coming to Ardbirtle with his father and stepmother four months ago but Samara had more than filled the place previously held by the pals he had
left behind in Edinburgh – not that there had been many of them for he had never been a great socialiser. He had been only ten when his mother died and his father had had a succession of housekeepers who had mostly been interested in their employer’s financial position and had no time for little boys.

His father had stood out against them for many years but had at last fallen for the blonde, curvaceous Madeline Kerr who was somewhere around forty years of age. It was difficult to tell. Instead of making her objective obvious like her predecessors, Maddy had shown neither interest in his money nor any aspirations towards marriage and her tactics had worked. Within five months she had become the wife of James Ferguson, head of the maternity unit of the General Hospital and heir to the long-retired wealthy stockbroker, John Murdo Ferguson.

His grandfather had died just over a year before, Leo recalled sadly, for he had been very fond of the old man, and while he himself had been left the goodly sum of three thousand pounds, his father had inherited everything else. This had been when Maddy came into her own, pleading and cajoling with her husband to stop working and buy a house worthy of their new status. Still besotted by her, he had not taken long to agree and had, in fact, purchased two properties – one was an impressive mansion in Edinburgh’s Morningside and the other, as a holiday home, a not-too-small cottage on the outskirts of Ardbirtle in Aberdeenshire.

Maddy had been delighted with the first, showing it off to her circle of friends, mostly upstarts like herself, and lording it over the servants she had persuaded her husband to employ; but she was not impressed by the second, apart from being able to boast about their ‘country house’. It had, however, become a sort of haven for Leo, who had taken up almost permanent residence there since meeting Samara Rae. He had told her nothing about his family and nor had he mentioned his good fortune – he meant to propose to her first. That way, he would know that she loved him for himself, not for his money, and he was quite looking forward to seeing her beautiful
face transformed with pleasure when he eventually told her the truth.

Unfortunately, something had occurred that changed his plans. During his last visit to his father in Edinburgh, several women had made scathing remarks in his hearing about ‘the rich young men who were afraid to take up arms against the enemy’. The same had not happened in Ardbirtle – not yet, at any rate, but no doubt it would come and Samara, like all the others, would despise him as a coward.

It would break her heart if he left her now, when they had almost plighted their troth, but he would have to go to fight for his country. Samara would understand. Maybe she was already wondering why he had not enlisted.

Jerry was hoping that it was Anna’s pregnancy that was making her act the way she was doing. He had known that she was very shy with other people and he
had
kind of expected her to be embarrassed on their first night in bed together but he had
not
foreseen her violent reaction to him. He had been kissing her lovingly, tenderly, which she seemed to enjoy and then his manhood had jumped to attention and everything had changed.

‘Take that thing away from me,’ she had screamed, jerking her knee up with great force into his groin. ‘I know what you’re trying to do and I’m not going to let you hurt me.’

He was already out of bed and doubled over in agony so that her last few words did not register in his mind. ‘What’s wrong with you, Anna?’ he muttered as soon as he was fit to speak. ‘I wasn’t trying to do anything.’

‘Yes, you were.’ She cowered away from him as he sat down on the edge of the bed. ‘I could feel your
thing
boring into me.’

He resented this. His fellow workmates had given him advice before the wedding about what he should do and how he should do it but he’d thought they were joking. His body, however, had shown him that they hadn’t been. ‘That’s what it’s supposed to do,’ he snapped before the new fear in her eyes warned him to say no more on that subject. ‘I’m sorry,
Anna,’ he murmured instead, adding beseechingly, ‘It’s freezing cold out here. Will you please let me back under the blankets? I promise not to do anything you don’t want me to do.’

‘All right, then.’ She whipped back the bedclothes but turned away from him. ‘Goodnight, Jerry.’

‘Goodnight.’

He was forced to lie with his back to hers, otherwise his erection would make her think he was about to break his promise. He hadn’t known that lying so close to her would have that effect on him, not so quickly at any rate, and now the damned thing wouldn’t go down.

As Jerry was to find out, his ‘thing’ had a life of its own, rearing up even before he got into bed alongside his wife every night – also in the mornings when he woke. It was very awkward and sometimes almost impossible to ignore but he fought back the temptation to jump on her and let it have its way. He still loved her, of course, and was pleased with how she coped with her new lifestyle. She had never done any sort of housework before but she kept their little home spotless and showed a flair for sewing, making tiny garments that a trained dressmaker could not have faulted.

Because they were expected to take their meals in the large kitchen along with the rest of the staff, she bemoaned being denied an opportunity to cook for him. What was worse, she was growing more and more childish. Sulking if she did not get her way or stamping her foot.

They had been husband and wife for only seven weeks when she said, as they dressed one morning, ‘I wish I knew what was going to happen to me. Tina says I’ll have labour pains but they surely won’t be very bad … will they? I don’t like having anything sore.’

He was quite aware of that – it was why he had kept his needs under control – but he didn’t relish the thought of her wailing at him about pain for the next few months. He had not been told when she was due but, counting back to the day he had given her that first bad kiss, she would just be four months gone with five still to go. That was what he worried
about most. How would the actual birth affect her? Would she cope with such a trauma? Would she make the change easily to being a mother with the responsibilities that entailed? Or would she reject the child because of the pain it had made her suffer?

Tina Paul, too, was worried about Anna but not quite from the same angle as Jerry. The nurse knew nothing of her charge’s refusal to let her husband have his ‘rights’ because of the pain it would cause but the far-away look in the girl’s eyes warned that all was not well in her brain. Anna had originally been admitted to The Sycamores as a result of a nervous breakdown after her sister’s death and was recovering slowly after much special care and treatment. Surely this new experience, a monumental change to any girl’s system, would not undo all the good work that had gone before? Surely she wasn’t about to lose her mind altogether?

Leo had been gone for almost two months before Mara had received his first letter. She had not recovered from the shock of being told that he had enlisted in the Scottish Horse, though she did feel proud of him for being so brave, and her heart lifted as she read what he had written.

‘He’ll be home on Saturday,’ she told her mother, in great excitement. ‘They’ve been on intensive training – that’s why he hasn’t written before but I don’t care, as long as he’s coming home now.’

Fay just smiled, not wishing to spoil her daughter’s happiness by asking how long it would be before he had to go back and it was not until she and Henry went to bed that she voiced her worry. ‘They haven’t seen each other for so long, I just hope they can control themselves. You know, I wish he had married her before he went away.’

‘Ach, my Fairy, don’t fret yourself about them. They’re both sensible adults. She’s twenty-four, remember, and he must be nearer thirty.’

‘That doesn’t matter, not when they’re so much in love and we don’t want an illegitimate grandchild, do we?’

Tutting his impatience at this, Henry said, ‘I don’t know about you but I don’t want a grandchild at all, illegitimate or otherwise. We’re only forty-four.’

She detected a twinkle in his eyes. ‘Stop teasing, Tchouki.’

The old, affectionate use of his given name had the somewhat surprising result of arousing him and Mara and Leo were soon forgotten.

Mara intended rushing home as soon as she finished work at one o’clock on Saturday but Leo came to the office at half past twelve.

Mr Kelly looked the tall soldier up and down. ‘You’ll be Samara’s young man, I take it? I suppose I will get no work out of her now so you had better take her away but I want her back here on Monday morning as bright as ever. Off you go, the pair of you.’

Since Mara would not be expected to be home for another half-hour, they took a slow walk across the square into the trees, stopping to kiss as soon as they were screened from other eyes. ‘Oh, my dear, sweet Samara,’ Leo groaned, ‘I’ve really missed you.’

‘Not half as much as I missed you,’ she breathed, her heart doing all sorts of acrobatics as his lips sought hers again.

‘I was going to wait until we were alone properly but I love you so much I can’t wait. Samara, will you marry me? Not straight away, of course.’ He stopped and fished in the breast pocket of his khaki tunic, bringing out a small leather-covered box. ‘We can be engaged. Look, I bought this in Edinburgh. I hope it fits but, if it doesn’t, any jeweller would alter it.’

He lifted her left hand and slipped it easily on to her finger, looking at her in triumph that he had got the size right. If they had not been in a place where someone could come along at any minute, it is doubtful if he could have kept the promise he had made to her father several weeks before. His voice was hoarse and trembling when he murmured, ‘This means that we are bound to each other for life now, my dearest.’

‘I’ve felt bound to you since the day we met,’ she admitted shyly.

Her parents were delighted to hear their news. ‘It’s a good thing I didn’t use up the drink that was left over at New Year,’ Henry crowed. ‘It would have been awful if we hadn’t been able to celebrate your engagement. Now, when is the happy day to be?’

Mara turned expectantly to her fiancé, her happy smile fading when he said sadly, ‘I … think we should wait until … this war’s over. I might be … I might not come back and … I don’t want you ruining your life.’

Fay stepped in quickly. ‘It’s time we made ourselves scarce, Henry.’ She grabbed his arm and almost pulled him through to the kitchen, adding, to save him protesting, ‘It’s up to them, dear. They have to come to their own decision.’

As Mara could see, Leo had already made his decision, but she couldn’t stop herself from trying to talk him out of it. ‘I would far rather we didn’t wait.’

‘I hoped you would understand how I felt,’ he whispered, miserably. ‘I don’t want to tie you to a long life as a widow.’

‘But nothing’s going to happen to you,’ she said, sharply, the very thought of it making her feel sick. ‘I’ll pray for you every night you’re away from me – God won’t ignore me.’ Her voice broke suddenly. ‘And don’t you … go volunteering for … anything dangerous. Think of me first.’

Jumping up, he crossed the fireplace and pulled her to her feet. ‘I’ll always be thinking of you, my own darling Samara, always, always, but I could not live with myself if I did anything cowardly. I promise not to take any stupid risks, but I have sworn to fight for my country and that is what I have to do – without having to worry about a wife at home, and perhaps a child who would be fatherless if I allowed my personal worries to mar my judgement. Can’t you see that?’

‘I love you,’ Mara said simply. ‘That’s all I can see.’