The Summer Fields by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788633680
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2020-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

Part II

The Scarlet Caterpillar

Chapter 1

April 1704

The North Sea off The Netherlands

Elen watches the horizon tilt as another huge swell pushes beneath the vessel. They have been wallowing within sight of The Hague all day, waiting for the tide to be high enough for them to dock.

Dr Argyll is curled up in a ball of misery on the bench beside her. After days of discreet vomiting over the side of the boat throughout the voyage, he is quiet and she is free to let her mind wander. She can hear the boom of the surf against the shore, the cry of the seagulls wheeling overhead before they drop and skim the surface of the grey, heaving water; noises unfamiliar to her barely two months ago. Yet now, as she turns her face towards the stiff breeze laden with the smell of salt and seaweed, they are just another in a battery of new sensations.

She looks out across the vast ocean. In her mind’s eye, she retraces her journey back through East Anglia, where she and the doctor spent several weeks organising reception stations for the wounded, and west across the country to the borders of Wales and Duntisbourne.

At this time of day her father will be calling to the cows for the afternoon milking. The countryside will be filled with the blush of early spring, the hawthorn hedges fresh green, the sycamore trees around the dairy still bleak and bony from winter. She longs to be back in the milking sheds, her cheek resting against the warm flank of a cow as the milk hisses into the pail. But her desire to return has a profoundly deeper reason.

As she leaves the leagues behind, she feels as if there is a thread connecting her to Mordiford. At first she feared it would break, now she knows it cannot. It is lashed around her heart, tightening like a poacher’s knot as the distance between them increases and the pain of separation becomes unbearable.

Her farewell was hard because behind her father’s stalwart words of resignation and encouragement, he struggled to keep his emotions in check. His courage upset her more than if he had wept like a child. If only she could have read the other parting as well.

No amount of distraction or new experiences can override her crushing sense of shame. How could she have been so attracted to Ned? Why did she let his looks and flattery blind her to any traits of character that did not shine a good light on his personality? His casual cruelty to Joan, his swagger and vanity. She shudders at her own gullibility and the feelings he excited in her. What were they? Forerunners of the new emotions that now overwhelm her?

Compared to Ned, she sees Mordiford as the other face of Janus. His sickness robbed him of any physical beauty, leaving him at the mercy of her most penetrating observations. She arrived at the hall prejudiced against him because of the gossip she had heard. In his eagerness to drive her back to the safety of her home, he confirmed all her preconceptions.

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