‘Vinny.’ The soft tones of a well-known voice startled her reveries. She jumped to her feet and turned to see him standing at the entrance to the enclosed garden.
‘Jonathan!’
‘May I join you?’
‘Oh—yes—of course, but …’ she hesitated as he came towards her. Her eyes searched his face.
‘I didn’t know you were coming. Grandfather is expecting guests but …’ Again she paused, hardly daring to believe the impossible idea forming in her mind.
His smile, so beloved by her, his sideways smile was at the corner of his mouth. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘Lord Rowan is expecting guests—the Eldon family.’
‘Then who—who is the young man he said—he said …’
Jonathan’s smile faded a little and a wary look came into his eyes. He seemed ill-at-ease.
‘Vinny—I am the young man who wishes to … to …’
The look upon her face would have answered his question even before he asked it for radiance flooded her eyes, but he had looked down as if almost afraid to meet her gaze. She stepped closer to him, her eyes never leaving his face.
‘Vinny, Vinny, my love,’ he took her hands in his and raised them to his lips. ‘I love you so much—I know you can never love me—but do you think …?’
‘Jonathan,’ she said softly, ‘why do you think I could never love you?’
Now he looked into her eyes again searching their depths, puzzled.
‘Giles said …’ he hesitated.
‘Giles! Oh and he promised,’ she cried, but not angry now. For now she had heard those magical, unbelievable words from Jonathan—words she had never dared to hope she might hear—she could forgive anyone anything.
‘He didn’t tell me who it is.’
‘Who is what?’ she asked. ‘Now, tell me exactly what Giles did say.’
‘Well, I wouldn’t be here saying this but for him,’ Jonathan admitted. ‘We were talking about you and he said “poor Vinny, she’ll never make a happy marriage.” I asked him what he meant and he said, “ she’s given her heart to some worthless fellow who never even notices she exists and doesn’t deserve her.” Vinny, I know I am a poor substitute but I do love you so and I’ll try to make you happy if …’
Lavinia laid her finger against his lips and laughed softly.
‘Jonathan, shall I tell you who that “ worthless fellow” is?’
A look of pain crossed his eyes. ‘ If you must, but I think I’d really rather not know.’
She moved even closer and laid her cheek against his shoulder.
‘He is you.’
There was a pause, so long that she began to think he had not heard so she went on. ‘Giles knew I loved you a long time ago, even before I went to France. Strangely enough, it was just here, in this garden, he found out. He came to look for me and I was sitting here sketching,’ she drew back and looked up at him. ‘Sketching dozens of portraits of you—and he guessed just why my pencil kept drawing your face.’
‘You really mean it? I thought—when Giles said that, that perhaps it was Lord Selwyn or,’ he smiled ruefully, ‘even Giles himself.’
She could still read the disbelief in his voice and on his face.
‘I’ll spend the rest of my life convincing you that it is you,’ she said.
‘But I’m so much older than you and—and there’s this.’ His fingers touched the scar on his face.
‘Oh that,’ she said casually. ‘ That’s a sign of maturity. We’ve all got scars, Jonathan, left by the pains of growing up, but they’re not all visible like yours, but they’re there for all that. And fancy you thinking I could have fallen for the man who caused you so much unhappiness.’
Jonathan smiled—really smiled—and gathered her into his arms.
‘Well, well, well,’ said a voice behind them and they turned to see Giles grinning at them round the corner of the hedge which enclosed the garden. ‘I thought I’d never get you two together. I had the devil’s own job, Vinny, getting it across to him without actually breaking my word to you.’
He came and stood before them grinning happily.
‘You always seem to come at the wrong moment, my boy,’ Jonathan drawled, but Lavinia heard the amusement in his tone. ‘You’ve done it before—frequently.’
‘Oh I know, but that was to save Vinny embarrassment usually.’
Giles stood with his back to the fountain quite close to the edge. The same thought must have flashed through the minds of Lavinia and Jonathan simultaneously for they looked at each other, smiled mischievously and moved towards Giles, hand in hand.
‘A “worthless fellow” is he, Giles?’ Lavinia laughed.
‘What shall we do with him, Vinny?’ Jonathan asked.
‘I don’t know.’
They moved forward again.
Giles took a step backwards and another.
‘Now, wait a minute, aaah …’
With flailing arms he fell backwards and sat down in the pool whilst the fountain showered over him.
‘You—you—wait,’ he spluttered.
Jonathan and Lavinia burst out laughing, turned and, hand in hand, ran from the garden and across the smooth lawns to the house, whilst Giles sat beneath the fountain and smiled benignly after them.
Copyright
First published in 1970 by Robert Hale
This edition published 2014 by Bello
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Copyright © Margaret Dickinson, 1970
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Portrait of Jonathan Page 16
