Winter Wedding Read Online Free PDF Page B

stored up in your head.”
    “The old blockhead is selective. It only remembers the good things—like broken promises.” There was a tinge of accusation in his voice.
    “You can hardly hold me responsible for that. You left,” Clara pointed out.
    “True, I must acquit you of accepting bribery. But did you ever write out the words? I wager you did not. You know, I think, where they might have been forwarded? I have outwitted the world, however, and learned the words by myself. I sing it wherever I go. People plug their ears when they see me approach, music in hand, and dash for the closest exit. I plan to stun the assembly this evening with a rendition. Perhaps you will join me?”
    “I must confess, this old head of mine has forgotten the words, if it ever knew them.”
    “I’ll write them out for you—and I won’t break my promise either,” he said, gazing deeply into her eyes. After a moment, Allingcote shook himself to attention. “But we have detoured from what I was asking you. Where are you staying now?”
    “Here.”
    “I mean after the wedding. Where are you living nowadays?”
    “I am living here for two months,” she said, and went on to explain about her aunt’s wedding trip.
    He looked stunned. “You mean you have been with Aunt Charity for six weeks!”
    “Yes, and shall be for two more.”
    “But why didn’t she—why didn’t you let me know? Braemore is only fifty miles away. We might have met any number of times.”
    “I believe your mama was aware that I have been staying here,” she replied, in a little confusion. “We have been very busy with Prissie’s wedding, and have not done much entertaining.”
    “Mama didn’t tell me you were here. Of course she didn’t know I—you—that we are acquainted,” he said, flustered. “I daresay that explains it. And you will be here for two more weeks, you say?”
    “Yes, till mid-January. That is, we are going to London for New Year’s to visit Sir James’s Uncle Percy, but will be returning shortly afterward.”
    “And after that?” he asked with a strange eagerness. “I mean to get your itinerary quite straight this time, so you don’t tumble away on me again,” he said, with flattering eagerness. “Do you return to Sussex, to the aunt who is presently in Greece?”
    “Yes, as soon as she is settled. They have not chosen a house yet. Both had hired apartments that they have let go.”
    “This is no good. You don’t actually know where you’ll be. You’ll take off to Scotland or somewhere... But I’ll be here till the thirtieth. We’ll be meeting any number of times. In any case, you can always be in touch with me at Braemore. If, by any chance, you are spirited off by your aunt, do let me know where you are staying. A simple note directed to me at home will settle everything. We shall not consider it a clandestine correspondence. Here, I’ll give you the direction.” He pulled a card from his pocket and saw it put in her own before proceeding to any other matter.
    They chatted on in the most amiable way for a quarter of an hour. The two-year interval since the visit at the Bellinghams’ might never have been. They were back on the same easy footing, with Allingcote paying her the same marked attentions as formerly. In Clara’s mind the word “love” did not seem so presumptuous as it had seemed before his coming. She admitted, however, that flirtation might be a better word, considering his clear memory of other flirts as well.
    Still, certain details that emerged lent a stronger inference than mere dalliance to his conduct. His insistence that she be able to get in touch with him by some means, his apparently genuine chagrin at not knowing she had been so close for six weeks, and even more than these, his sharp recollection of all the details of their relationship at the Bellinghams’. Surely a flirt would require a prodigious memory to store up such details of all his flirts.
    “I really must go,” Clara said