Swords and Crowns and Rings (64 page)

Behind the statue she saw a child sleeping, rolled in a dark blanket fuzzed with dew, a newspaper over its face.

Her heart jumped in compassion, then in painful shock. The figure was too substantial for a child's. As though in a dream, she lifted the newspaper from his face.

It had changed so. For a second she thought she had made a mistake. Then her memory of the boy's face was merged in the reality of this sleeping one, a man's face, faintly lined, a bare spot in one eyebrow, a puckered scar on his cheek. The face was no longer handsome; it had set in the lineaments of the dwarf family, formidably strong.

She did not wonder what that face had to tell her; she accepted it.

Jack opened his eyes to see the young woman, golden hair bobbed, green leaves behind her, an anxious sweetness on her face: Cushie Moy magically transformed from girl to woman.

He sat up, his first thought a confused consciousness of his disarray, his unshaven face. He had dreamt so often of finding Cushie again; he had wanted their meeting to be in some way ceremonial.

‘Oh, Cush!' He threw aside the blanket, made a gesture of helplessness.

Her eyes said, ‘I've found you.'

It was so clear a voice that he asked, ‘Have you been looking?'

She nodded, sat down beside him, and put her arm round him.

He said, ‘I thought you were in England, years ago.'

After a while she said, ‘Do you remember when we went up into Paddy's Range looking for the other dwarfs?'

‘Yes.'

‘Dwarfs make swords and crowns and rings,' she said.

‘Do they, Cushie? Still?'

‘Yes.'

He leant his head against her. He felt her heart beating. It seemed that he had always felt it beating, ever since he was born.

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