have to follow me… Don’t feel you should… Take the scythe in hand and hack your own path,’ she said, and then her eyes closed in a long blink.
Her sister raised her hands to her tweed-covered hips and sighed.
‘Hope, you should rest now.’ She had the same sharp, jerky mannerisms as Miss Lott, the same kindly manner too. ‘We’ve a long drive to Scotland ahead of us,’ she explained to Natalie.
‘Enjoy the motorcycle, my dear,’ was the last thing Miss Lott said. The hand stroking Murray’s back came to a halt and then her chin led her head’s descent, the rise and fall of her chest almost imperceptible.
After a few moments, her sister wrote her Highland address on to a piece of paper for Natalie and then sensing that she would want to say goodbye to Miss Lott alone, she shook Natalie’s hand and clopped off up the curved staircase to the room above.
Natalie crouched down by the arm of Miss Lott’s chair. Murray twisted his neck to see what she was doing. The poor dog – he’d been just a puppy when Miss Lott first got him. He was going to miss his mistress terribly when she was gone. She stroked the white wisps of fur on his head, feeling the fragility of his skull underneath, pushing his ears down. He must know. Animals don’t need language; they sense these things. She did this for a while before she turned her attention from Murray to Miss Lott.
Her jaw slack, her face gaunt and shrunken. Her illness had tightened its grip now that she had nothing left to fight for.
Natalie rubbed her own palms together and then placed one warm hand on top of the one Miss Lott still rested on Murray’s back. She held it there for a few moments, whispering her thanks and love to her old teacher.
Once she’d lifted her hand with care, she snatched up her books and ran from the Lodge, out on to the gravel path and through the woods until she reached the riverbank, where she sank to her knees and cried and half-heard her own anguish, half-noticed as her tears darkened the dried, cracked earth.
Well she wasn’t going to become a relic after all. There was nothing left for her here now. It really is time to go.
The standing comeback
The diver jumps backwards off the board but then swoops forwards before facing down and entering the water.
‘Perhaps a break by the coast is what you need?’ Delphi asked as she topped up her glass. Natalie’s knife and fork hovered above her plate. ‘This could be your way of making it up to me after the Prunella debacle.’ They both laughed. They had reached a point where they could see the funny side of it, and it was such a relief to laugh: the glow in her belly, the lightness in her face.
She had run to West London, to Delphi’s family. She had avoided facing her brother William and their strained relationship, avoided having to tell him how she’d thrown it all away. Avoided the lecture, avoided his wife, and him finding her a job, any job, whether she wanted it or not.
‘But seriously,’ Delphi pressed on with the same request she’d made earlier that day. ‘A holiday would do us both the world of good and Jack has been working on Mother and Father to let me go. They’re much more likely to say yes if I’m with both of you.’
Jack’s escape plan had come together. He had got a job, as the Lido Manager in a resort on the south coast. He’d been trying hard not to look too pleased with himself, but the whistling betrayed exactly how happy he was.
‘The British diving coach will be travelling the coast this summer,’ he’d explained. ‘He will watch all of the competitions and select his team for the Berlin games next year.’
The escape plan applied to Delphi too. He had an idea she could teach keep-fit at the Lido; a more realistic option than training as an instructor with the League. Delphi had been weighed down by tiredness since their trip to Olympia, and this had made her more determined than ever to get out, keep busy and stay awake. What appeared to be standing in the way of this plan was Natalie.
‘It will be perfect. Dance halls and concerts and What the Butler Saw on the pier. And our own fitness classes too,’ Delphi pressed on.
‘I’ve told you, I don’t think I can.’
‘You’re not still holding out on that letter you wrote to the Board of Education, are you?’
She forked in a mouthful of roast potato.
‘Oh, Natty dear. They don’t understand the meaning of clemency. To hell with them, I say.’
‘It’s easy for you to say when your parents are happy to feed and clothe you and
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
