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with an aunt and uncle, Gilbert told me.' There was little or no expression in
his voice as he mentioned his friend, so it was impossible for Lorna to gain
any information as to whether or not Jeff had been correct in his suspicion
that Gilbert had put all the blame on her had in fact told Craig that the
engagement was at an end.
'Yes, they took me when my parents died, within six months of one another.
I was only seventeen at the time. It was five years ago,' she added finally,
and reflectively.
'You were young to find yourself alone.'
'Yes, but I did have my aunt and uncle.' She thought of them, taking her
in a difficult decision, she had overheard her aunt say. They had been good
to her, never once revealing the fact that they did not want her. They were to
be admired, and thanked, for that. But now & They were glad to have her
gone from their home, so that they could have it to themselves again. She
heard Craig say, softly, enquiringly,
'What are you thinking, Lorna, to make you frown like that?'
She gave a small start and said she was not aware that she was frowning.
'I was thinking of my aunt and uncle,' she added when he assured her that she
was frowning. 'They're very much in love.'
His brows lifted questioningly.
'They are?'
'I suppose that was irrelevant,' she returned in a little deprecating voice.
'What I should have said was that it's unusual to find a couple who've been
married for over twenty years as madly in love as they are.'
Craig's eyes flickered.
'Some people do remain in love,' he said.
'Yes, I suppose so, but it's rare to see two people as devoted as my aunt and
uncle.'
'You didn't mind leaving them, apparently?' An undercurrent of contempt in
his voice? Lorna felt sure there was, and on sudden impulse she told him that
she had known that her aunt and uncle had come to the point where they
wanted to be alone again.
'How can you say that?' he asked with a frown.
She hesitated about saying what she had overheard. Craig, she felt, would be
the kind of person instantly to condemn them and this she could not bear. So
she merely passed off his question by assuring him that she knew by instinct.
'It was a sort of intuition,' she added finally.
'What about Gilbert?' he asked. 'You didn't mind leaving him?'
She looked him in the eye,
'Craig,' she said cautiously, 'just what did Gilbert tell you about us... and the
separation?'
The dark eyes became veiled as Craig replied,
'As a matter of fact, Lorna, he told me the truth: that the engagement was at
an end.'
'And which one of us broke it off ?'
There was a small pause and then, slowly, quietly,
'Does it matter? You both obviously realised that marriage for you would
never work, so you wisely brought the engagement to an end.'
His answer was plainly an evasion and a frown gathered on Lorna's
forehead.
'He told you the engagement was broken by mutual consent?'
'I don't believe he did, but that was the impression I got at the time.'
Another evasion, but after a thoughtful pause Lorna decided not to carry the
matter any further. She had to remember that Gilbert was Craig's friend, and
therefore she would not blacken his name. In any case, it would not profit
her anything if she did. But she thought about Jeff's suspicions and was
puzzled, because she had accepted those suspicions as fact, had firmly
believed that Gilbert had put the entire blame upon her. She glanced at
Craig, seeing his face in profile because it was half turned from her. Was he
hiding something? his expression, for instance...?
It was fairly late when he eventually said she ought to be leaving. His voice
was low and gentle, so very different from what it had been such a short time
ago! Lorna knew a surge of pleasure at the idea that he would want to walk
her back to the Dower House, hoping she was not revealing this as he said,
'111 walk with you, Lorna, and see you safely indoors.'
She looked at him with a smile, aware of the profound change that had come
over her regarding her feelings for him. At one time she was sure she hated
him ... but now...
It was almost a full moon that glowed in the dark hemisphere of the sky, and
the grounds of the castle looked eerie and ghostly and even a little fearsome
in its argent light. How easy it was to let the imagination paint pictures of
bloody deeds done in time past, of the silent waiting for an attack by a
marauding tribe....
Craig was beside her, tall and gaunt in the moonlight, his profile angular,
forbidding.
They traversed the path running alongside a massive ornamental shrubbery,
and as they approached a part where shadows lurked, created by the high
bushes, Craig thought it necessary to take Lorna's arm. The action was
unexpected and she felt a quiver of pleasure run along her spine. Her heart
was affected too, beating unevenly, in little jerks, causing a slight
breathlessness within her.
'Watch your step along here,' warned Craig. 'There are one or two places
where the ground lifted in the heavy frosts earlier in the year, and they
haven't quite settled again yet.'
He was close to her; she could feel the movement of his body in rhythm with [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]