Eva Ibbotson - A Company of Swans

It was thus only Henry who remained as a witness of Harriet’s return to Follina and it was he himself who had given Isobel her cue.

‘Uncle Rom will be awfully sad too,’ said Henry, blinking back his tears at the news that Harriet had decided to go and be a famous dancer, that she would not be coming back. ‘He likes Harriet; he likes her very much.’

‘Yes, he does,’ said Isobel. ‘So I’m afraid he will be extremely sad. What will make him particularly sad is that she said goodbye to you and not to him. It will hurt his feelings, don’t you think? So perhaps, Henry, it would be really kind not to tell him? Just to keep it a secret? You’re grown-up enough for secrets, aren’t you?’

Henry was. Sinclair of the Scouts, in the Boy’s Own Paper , was continually keeping secrets, some of them calculated to burn a hole in a lesser person’s breast. Aware of the child’s passionate desire to please her, Isobel was sure that he would keep his word — and if anything went wrong she could plead, naturally enough, an unwillingness to cause Rom pain. There had only remained the sending of the cable to Professor Morton — for it was not Isobel’s intention to let Harriet reappear in Rom’s life as a glamorous ballerina — and the deed was done. After which she settled down to her role as comforter.

‘You must be happy for her, darling,’ she said to Rom. ‘I met Dr Finch-Dutton at Belem and he told me that it was all that Harriet had wanted all her life. Just to dance… always to dance.’

‘We will not speak of Harriet,’ was his only answer.

Yet he accepted without question Isobel’s version of what had happened. Count Sternov, whose friendship it was impossible to doubt, had been at the Metropole just after Simonova’s miraculous recovery and had heard her offer to take Harriet to Russia. Both he and the Metropole manager had seen the ballerina depart in triumph, walking to the hansom with her arm round the shoulder of the English girl, while Miguel himself had seen Harriet go aboard with the Company.

So what had occurred was clearly what Rom had both feared and expected. Overcome by this sudden marvellous opportunity, Harriet had gone and perhaps wisely made the break cleanly without messages or farewells.

He made no further enquiries and, concealing from everyone the degree of his wretchedness and the hurt she had caused him by not trusting him enough to speak honestly of her ambitions, he pursued his plans: transferring his possessions, making provision for his Indians, issuing instructions to MacPherson concerning Stavely. He had set himself to restore his father’s house and he would do so, but the burden of loss he rolled through his days — as Sisyphus rolled his stone — seemed only to grow heavier as the grey weeks passed.

Isobel, however, did not give up hope. It was of course absurd that she should live in Paradise Farm, even with the generous allowance Rom had proposed, while he ruled alone at the Hall. The suggestion was an insult. Her place was by Rom’s side and as his wife, and now that the detestable girl was gone he would come to see this. So she changed her clothes five times a day, flirted, brushed against him ‘by accident’ and would have been surprised to learn how infrequently Rom even noticed that she was there.

Harriet had been gone for a month when, in the hour before sunset, Rom walked through the tall trees towards the Indian village, bound on business with old José. The light had slanted in just that way when he had first gone in search of Harriet and found her cradling Manuelo’s baby. He had known then really, that he wanted no children who were not hers — and suddenly the sense of desolation so overwhelmed him that he stopped and put out a steadying hand to the trunk of a tree.

At which point there entered a deus ex machina.

It entered in an unexpected form: that of a lean, rangy and malodorous chicken. Exuding the sangfroid of those reared as household pets, enjoying its customary evening stroll from the village, the bird stopped, examined the unexpected figure blocking its path, gave a squawk of displeasure — and retreated…

Leaving behind a small mottled object… A single chicken feather, to which Rom stooped and which he held for a surprisingly long time in the palm of his hand.

Then he turned abruptly and made his way back towards the house.

Henry, conversing on the bridge with the manatees, was the first person to see him. Uncle Rom looked different — the way he had looked on the first day, not all grim and shut-in as he had appeared since then — and emboldened by the change in his hero, Henry beamed and said, ‘Hello!’

‘Hello, Henry!’ Rom, ashamed now of the way he had been neglecting this endearing child, held out his hand. ‘I was just on the way to find your mother. I’m going back to Europe tomorrow; I’ll book a passage for you soon, on a fine steamer, but I have to leave at once.’

Henry nodded. ‘You’re going to find Harriet, aren’t you?’ he said with the quick insight of those who love.

‘That’s right,’ said Rom, greatly surprised.

‘I’m so glad!’ The little face was transformed with relief. ‘I’ve been awfully worried about her because I knew she shouldn’t dance when she had the measles! I went to a dancing class once and it was horrible: you go round and round very fast in slippy shoes, and if you did that with the measles you’d fall down and get bronchitis and—’

‘Wait a minute, Henry. When did you think Harriet had the measles? In the maze at Stavely?’

‘No, when she came here to—’

He broke off, bit his lip, hung his head in misery. He had betrayed a secret and now would never grow up to be like Sinclair of the Scouts.

‘When was that?’ Rom had managed to speak calmly, almost casually, but the child shook his head and cast an involuntary glance of fear in the direction of the terrace where Isobel reclined.

They had reached a trellised arbour with a stone seat, to which Rom led the little boy. ‘Henry, do you remember what it says on the mantelpiece in the Hall at Stavely? Carved into the wood?’

‘Yes, I do remember. It says: TRUTH THEE SHALL DELIVER — IT IS NO DREDE. And “deliver” isn’t like delivering milk, it’s like making you feel better. Only keeping secrets is good too,’ said Henry and sighed, caught on the horns of this ancient and troublesome dilemma.

‘Yes, it is. It’s very good.’ Rom made no attempt to minimise the seriousness of the problem. ‘Except when someone is in danger — or ill — and then keeping a secret is not as important as telling the truth.’

Henry deliberated in silence, made up his mind. ‘You see, Mummy said it would hurt your feelings if you knew that Harriet had come back and not said goodbye to you. Only, I didn’t realise she was going away because she had a basketful of presents all wrapped up in interesting paper. And she was so nice to me when I was afraid of you being my stepfather.’ He paused, flushing, but his uncle’s face was so utterly kind that Henry knew he would not be offended by anything he said and in a rush — blessed with the total recall of those who have uncluttered minds — Henry repeated his last talk with Harriet. ‘She said she didn’t have measles, but her eyes were streaming like anything when I kissed her good night and she was shivering — and the spots come later, you know’ His face grew pinched again. ‘And I’m sure she shouldn’t dance if she feels like that. If she got that thing you get after bronchitis, she could die! And I don’t want Harriet to die!’

‘She won’t die, Henry,’ said Rom. ‘I promise you!’ And as Henry gazed up at his uncle he knew that he had been a little bit silly once again. Because when Uncle Rom looked like that — so powerful and triumphant — no one could possibly die. No one could do anything except live and be happy.