‘Oh do give it a rest, Arthur,’ said Kit, rousing her sharply from her thoughts. ‘You’ve made your point repeatedly, and while you’re perfectly entitled to your views, please bear in mind that if we don’t go along with Romily’s wishes, she may well report back to Roddy and that could be the end of our inheritance. Can’t you just play along?’
‘You might have become totally emasculated and devoid of all pride,’ answered Arthur, ‘but I have not. I refuse to be treated like a child by that damned woman!’
‘Then stop acting like one,’ said Allegra. ‘And please watch your language in front of Annelise.’
This was too much for Arthur, and lighting up another cigarette, he strode off, shoulders hunched.
Allegra noticed that Kit was smiling. ‘What’s so funny?’ she asked.
‘You telling him to watch his language when Annelise can’t understand a word of English.’
Allegra smiled. ‘Not yet she can’t, but she will very soon. I wonder if Hope knows what she’s taken on.’
‘In what way?’
‘In all ways. Because let’s face it, once war breaks out, that poor girl is unlikely to see her parents again, is she? Through no fault of her own, she’s going to end up a member of this wretched family for life. Just as I did.’
Kit frowned. ‘Is that how you really see it, even after all this time? That Jack adopting you was the worst thing to happen?’
No, she thought, the worst thing to happen to her was meeting Luigi and ending up in the mess she was now. Distracted by the sight of a tall, muscular man emerging with a wheelbarrow from the gate that led from the kitchen garden, she said, ‘Who’s that over there? There’s something familiar about him.’
‘Don’t you recognise him?’
Allegra shielded her eyes from the glare of the sun. Seconds passed as she watched the man push the wheelbarrow across the lawn towards a holly bush. Her heart suddenly lurched.
‘It’s Elijah Hartley,’ said Kit when she didn’t say anything.
‘It can’t be,’ she murmured.
‘I assure you it is. I spoke to him briefly yesterday on my way back from the village; he took over the job of gardener here when his grandfather died.’
‘Did you tell him I was here?’
‘He already knew you were.’
And he hadn’t come and sought her out, thought Allegra sadly.
Dressed in a collarless shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, a cotton scarf knotted at his neck, and a pair of loose olive-green trousers held up with a thick belt, he was now clipping at the holly bush. ‘Why haven’t I seen him around before today?’ she asked Kit.
‘Apparently he works three days here and the rest of the time he’s up at Melstead Hall working for old Ma Fogg. You two used to be as thick as thieves, didn’t you?’ continued Kit in his infuriatingly blithe way.
As thick as thieves … Oh, it had been so much more than that! But how very different Elijah looked, how tall and handsome he had grown. The same age as Allegra, he’d been such a slight boy when he’d tagged along to help his grandfather in the garden here. Occasionally Allegra had gone to have tea with Elijah in the cottage where he lived. One time it had been his birthday and she’d taken him a book as a present – a book she had stolen from her uncle’s study. Only later did she discover how useless a gift it was because Elijah couldn’t read, something he had kept from her.
Back then Allegra had felt she had more in common with Elijah than with the family that had adopted her. Perhaps that was because his parents had both died from Spanish flu after the Great War, and his widowed grandfather, Joss Hartley, a devoutly religious man, had brought him up. His childhood had been a lonely one, just as hers was. Maybe that was why there had been such a strong bond of friendship between them, and why they had made a pact never to abandon each other.
But Allegra had broken that promise, and watching Elijah now, she accepted what she had always known but had tried to ignore: that it was one of her biggest regrets.
‘I say, Allegra, where are you going?’ asked Kit as, guided by an unstoppable force, she rose from her wicker chair and began to walk in Elijah’s direction. ‘You’re not leaving me here alone with Annelise, are you?’
Ignoring the desperate plea in his voice, Allegra kept on walking, held in the powerful grip of the past – a past for which she knew she had to atone. She had treated Elijah badly and she owed him an apology. Even after all this time.
As though sensing her presence, or more likely hearing Kit calling after her, Elijah stopped what he was doing and turned around. Giving no sign that he recognised her, he stood very still and watched her approach. When she was level with him, he stared at her in unnerving silence. She stared back, at a loss what to say. Whatever she said wouldn’t be enough.
It was Elijah who broke the silence. ‘I thought it was you over there with Kit,’ he said.
‘You didn’t want to come and say hello, then?’
‘I didn’t think you’d want the likes of me disturbing you.’
