Page 97 of Silent Melody
They had lain quietly in each other’s arms and then made love again and relaxed once more—until he had told her that there were no more sounds, that he was convinced everyone, even down to the last servant, was in bed. They had smiled conspiratorially at each other as they had got up and dressed and slipped down the stairs and outside.
And now they were where they had planned to come ever since they had been alone together for a few minutes in the carriage after their wedding. They were at the falls, standing side by side on the highest rock, the one that jutted out over the water. Their fingers were entwined. It was a beautiful, warm night. The stars seemed almost close enough to touch. They were like lamps in the sky, so that even without the moon, which was almost full tonight, it would have been nearly as bright as day.
“Well, little fawn,” Ashley said, turning her to him and taking her other hand in his free one. “We are back where it all started.”
“Yes,” she said. They had first met in Luke’s drawing room, but this was where they had first talked, sitting together on this rock, her feet dangling in the water. She thought of him as he had been then—very young and handsome and restless. And of herself focusing on him all the love and devotion of her girl’s heart. She thought of lying here facedown, alone, living through the terrible pain of his departure for India. And of his return and all that had followed it.
“But not where it will end,” he said. “Tomorrow we will go home. To Penshurst. To our new life. I have had those rooms cleared out, Emmy. All is gone. And I want you to change everything else that does not suit you. I want it to be your home. Ours. There will be a wedding to attend soon—Henry Verney is to marry Katherine Smith. And I am encouraging my steward to desert me—as he phrases it—in order to move back to the north of England, where he comes from and which he misses. I will offer his position to Binchley.”
She smiled at him, then used their private language to reply.I am very happy,she told him.
I am very happy too.He spoke to her without words. He pulsed a lightly closed fist against his heart.I really mean it. I feel deeply.
But there was something else she wished to say in words, though she could have signed it to him. She wanted totellhim.
“Ahshley,” she said.
“Emmy.” He smiled. “I love my name on your lips more than on anyone else’s in the world.”
“Ahshley,” she said again, using her hands too. “You. Me. A baby.”
She was not quite certain, of course, and she had felt unable to ask Anna. But she was almost certain—with her body. With her heart she knew it beyond a doubt.
She watched his eyes brighten with tears. He bit his lip. And then he caught her up in his arms and held her very close. He was talking to her, she knew. But it did not matter that she neither heard nor saw the words. Words were not important.
She kept her eyes open and looked up at the vast sky and at the stars. The whole sky and the earth too, the whole universe was singing. Did it matter that she could not hear? The melody, the dance, the joy were in her heart. And in his.
And then she could neither see nor hear. His mouth found hers and she closed her eyes.
There was only a silent melody.
