The Tender Winds of Spring (16 page)

‘Nor Erica for you?’

‘She never was,’ he assured her.

‘But were you for her?’

‘In a way, yes. She was fed up with this father of hers, the same as I was with mine. Fond enough of them, I suppose, but still occasionally wanting to strangle them.’ Abel grinned again.

‘When my own bane lost a wager to Erica’s bane, the odds were me for a husband for her (hopefully so, of course, introductions, persuasions, the advantages of matrimony, all that). Well, Erica thought: Why not? It could be worse, and at least I’d escape. So she came up here after me. But instead Gavin happened ... two pairs of eyes met ... the rest.’

‘And what about the two troublesome fathers?’ asked Jo.

‘Troubles are temporarily over. They joined forces in a big bet and it came off. They’re now on a world tour, no less,’ Abel laughed.

‘Tours end,’ Jo pointed out.

‘Yes, but with Gavin at the controls there’ll be little trouble, and Gavin has already declared that he’ll take that over. In a way he would have been good for the children. They’re still frequently objectionable.’

‘Also frequently lovable,’ said Jo. She added: ‘And loved. That is, Amanda and Dicky. I’ve never won Sukey yet.’

Abel yawned rudely. ‘Does it matter?’

‘Of course it matters. You see, I love her. Once you said it was all only in memory of Gee, and it might have been in the beginning, but now it’s not. I love those children.’

‘Dear, dear, a pity when you’re going to lose them, not just two of them but all three.’

‘Abel—’ she began.

‘But it has to be, hasn’t it? For you were only soothing Amanda when you said what you did, weren’t you?’ He was looking at her sharply, but Jo did not look up to see.

‘And being a gentleman,’ Abel continued, ‘and I am, Josephine, I will understand how fraught you must have been to have told the child such a lie.’

‘I—’ she began.

‘Poor girl, you’ve had a rotten time, haven’t you? I’m rather exhausted myself. Shall we call it a day? If we don’t we’ll be Calling it a night instead. It’s almost three.’

‘Three?’ Jo said blankly. To herself she was crying: ‘All three gone ... no, four, really, because Abel will be gone as well. No, that’s wrong. Abel stays here. I’m only here because of his goodwill.’

She got up and stumbled along the hall to her room.

‘Goodnight,’ Abel called.

Not one out of three, Jo was still thinking, the whole three. All three—and Abel.

‘Goodnight,’ she called back, and went to her bed and cried as she had over Gee, in pain and hopelessness.

When she came out in the morning the breakfast was on the table.

‘I gave Abel his in bed, I was bringing you yours but you were asleep. Now you’ve spoiled it all and got up,’ Amanda said reproachfully. She carried a tray to the table. Beside the coffee there were two flowers.

‘When penguins like each other,’ Amanda said, ‘they put a pebble at their mate’s feet. Did you know Dicky was in love with you? That’s why he put this flower. I wouldn’t let him put a pebble.’

‘I’m too old for Dicky,’ Jo protested.

‘Yes, I told him that, I said you’d be deteriorated by the time he was twenty.’

Jo gulped but decided to pass that over.

‘There are two flowers,’ she observed.

‘The other’s from me.’

‘You can’t be in love with me.’

‘I just love you,’ Amanda said simply, and the two of them cried happily into Jo’s coffee.

That left Sukey, Sukey and-—But Jo dared not think beyond Sukey.

She ate her breakfast and told Amanda she had done enough and that she, Jo, would do the dishes. She was putting the plates and mugs into the drainer when she felt someone beside her. It was Sukey with a tea-towel.

‘I know how to wipe up,’ Sukey said.

‘Yes, dear, and you can cook toast.’

‘But now I’ll wipe up and we’ll talk.’

‘That will be nice. Start talking, Sukey.’

Sukey took a deep breath and did.

‘What’s heaven like? Have you a picture of it? Are there curtains in the angels’ houses? I think your sister would like curtains. Do angels’ nighties have extra holes for their wings? Do men angels shave? Would Mark? Can you ring heaven and ask to speak to an angel? Is there a phone there? Would your sister answer? I was sorry about your sister, she was pretty.’

‘Yes, Sukey, Gee was very pretty. Prettier than I.’

‘She was, too,’ agreed Sukey, wetting the edge of the towel with her tongue and then pursuing a stain round the rim of a cup. ‘But you’ll do.’

Jo put down a dish. She did it very carefully, otherwise it would have fallen and smashed in her pleasure.

‘Will I do, Sukey? Will I?’

‘Oh, yes, you’ll do. Can I go now, Jo? I’ve done enough.’

‘Yes, darling, you’ve done enough.’ Jo watched her leave, then she fairly raced along the corridor.

‘Abel,’ she cried, running into his room, ‘Abel!’

‘Beat it, I’m only half-dressed, Josephine.’ Abel was glowering at her from the other side of the bed.

‘She likes me—Sukey does. Well, it looks like that. She says I’ll do.’

‘Such love talk,’ he marvelled. Then he stopped. It was a long pause. ‘Want to hear the rest?’ he asked.

‘What rest?’

‘The rest of it all.
I
like you, too. In fact you’ll do. But what about you?’

‘You mean do I—’

‘Yes, Josephine, I mean just that.’

‘Then I do, too. Oh, Abel, Abel!’

She had run to him. The half-undressed part of him was his big bare chest, and she could feel his heart beating. She wondered ecstatically if he could feel hers ... if he knew there really was only one beat between them, that two hearts beat together.

‘Get out while I put on my clobber. I’ll be with you in a jiff.’ Abel kissed her and gently turned her towards the door.

She joined the children in the garden, and when he came out and stood on the verandah he looked down at them and knew he had before him all a man could ask.

There they waited, his own four winds ... more winds yet to come, he smiled to himself. His four tender winds of spring, summer, autumn, winter, of all his seasons ahead. From here to eternity, his sweet and beloved elements. Amanda, Dicky, Sukey and—

And Josephine, his most tender wind of all.