The Whispering Grove Page 21

  He glanced at his watch and stood up, then took her hands and drew her gently to her feet. ‘I suppose we’d better get back,’ he said reluctantly, ‘or a search party in the form of Juliet will be arriving.’ But he remained standing before her, the light of wonder still in his eyes, and said inconsequently: ‘I like your hair flowing free. Will you wear it like that sometimes?’

  ‘Of course.’

  For a moment he was silent, considering, then he took a thick strand of the silky tresses and divided it into three parts, trying awkwardly to reform the neat coronet his hands had drawn free that tempestuous hour ago ... At her questioning glance he smiled and desisted. ‘I just thought that perhaps you’d better revert to the cool, classical Toni they’ve come to expect, for this morning, anyway.’ He lowered his tone to a conspiratorial whisper: ‘At the moment you have the look of a woman who has been very thoroughly loved.’

  A lovely colour deepened in her cheeks and she looked down. His hands strayed through the dark cloud of hair and stilled to cup her face towards him, and suddenly the echoes of another time whispered through the grove.

  He said softly, ‘Toni, tell me ... were you really tight that evening here when you ...?’

  She made a small negative movement and stayed silent. That was the only memory which could still bring pain.

  ‘I’ve often wondered. Somehow it wasn’t you, but by then I was afraid. You had always concealed your feelings so guardedly, and effectively. You still seemed so wrapped up in your dancing. I believed it was still the one great love of your life. Something I couldn’t hope to replace.’

  ‘But it wasn’t!’ Suddenly she knew that she could never withhold a single secret of her heart from Justin. ‘Oh, for a long time dancing was my life - until you came into it. That night I was trying to tell you, trying to ask you to love me, just a little. I felt I couldn’t go on without— But I didn’t know how to - to—’

  ‘And I was a blind idiot, not to see. Instead I hurt you

  more.’

  ‘No.’ She put her fingers to his lips. ‘You mustn’t blame yourself. It doesn’t matter any more.’

  ‘No.’ His arm fitted her closely into the hollow of his side as he turned their steps homewards and said in a tone of deep satisfaction: ‘It doesn’t matter any more - now!’