Read Online Blue Bedroom and Other Stories by Rosamunde Pilcher - Free Book Online Page B

around, but one of the caterer’s ladies had seen you come down the garden, so I came too. Just to make sure that everything was all right.”
    Laurie said, “I’m fine.”
    â€œYou’re not ratting on the wedding?”
    â€œOf course not,” she told him coolly. “And hadn’t you better go back to Andrew before panic sets in?”
    William glanced at his watch. “It’s all right. We’ve got ten minutes to spare.” He stretched and looked about him. “What a fantastic spot this is. Like being on the bridge of a ship.”
    Laurie leaned back in her chair. “Did you know,” she asked him, “did you know that this wasn’t always an estuary? Long, long ago, before it all got silted up with sand, it was a deep water channel that reached a mile or more inland. And the Phoenicians came, sailing their ships up on the flood tides, with cargoes of spice and damask, and all the treasures of the Mediterranean. And they would tie up and unload and barter, and finally start back again on their long and hazardous journeys, loaded to the gunwales with Cornish tin. About two thousand years ago, that happened. Just think. Two thousand years.” She looked at William. “Did you know that?”
    â€œYes,” said William. “But I like hearing it again.”
    â€œIt’s nice to think about, isn’t it?”
    â€œYes. It keeps things in proportion.”
    Laurie said, “Grandfa told me.”
    â€œI thought he probably had.”
    Without thinking, she said it. “I miss him so much.”
    â€œI know you do. I think we all do. He was a great man. He had a great life.”
    She had not thought of someone like William missing the Admiral. She looked at him in some curiosity and thought, I don’t really know him at all. It wasn’t like talking to a stranger on a train. Suddenly it was easy.
    â€œIt’s not that I was with Grandfa all that much. I mean, lately I’ve been away from home more than I’ve been here. But when I was little, I was with him all the time. I can’t even get used to knowing that he’s never going to be here again.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œIt wasn’t just his telling you things, like the Phoenician boats two thousand years ago. So much had happened in his lifetime. The whole world changed under his very eyes. He remembered it all. And he always had time to talk. He could answer questions and explain things. Like how a boat can sail against the wind, and the names of stars. And how to use a compass, and how to play Mah Jong and backgammon. Who’s here now to tell Robert’s little children all those marvellous things?”
    â€œPerhaps that’s up to us,” said William.
    She met his eyes. His expression was sombre. She said, “You think I’m being impossible, don’t you?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œI know I’m being impossible, and everybody thinks I’m spoiling things for Jane. I don’t mean to. It’s just that if I could have had a little more time … But this wedding…” Suddenly her eyes filled with tears. “Oh, if only we could have put it off. Just for a little while. I can’t bear the thought of having to go into the church. I can’t bear the thought of having to smile and be nice to people. I can’t bear any of it. Everybody says that Grandfa would have wanted us to go ahead, just the way the wedding was planned. But how does anybody know what he would have wanted? They couldn’t ask him, because he wasn’t here to ask. How can they know …?”
    She couldn’t go on. The tears were spilling down her cheeks. She tried to wipe them away, but William took a handkerchief out of his trouser pocket and tossed it across to her, and Laurie accepted it wordlessly, wiped the tears with the soft cotton, then blew her nose. She said, hopelessly, “I wish I could just sit here for