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"It is Christmas," she said, "and a beautiful night. The ball is over but the night is not. And Christmas is
not. Edgar and I are going skating. Who else wants to come?"
Everyone looked as stunned as Edgar had felt when she first mentioned such madness. But within
moments he could see the attraction of the idea take hold just as it was doing with him. The young people
were almost instantly enthusiastic, and then a few of the older couples looked at each other doubtfully,
sheepishly, inquiringly.
"That is one of the best ideas I have heard today, Daughter," Mr. Downes said, rubbing his hands
together. "Letitia, my dear, how do you fancy the thought of a walk to the lake?"
"I fancy it very well, Joseph," Mrs. Cross replied placidly. "But I hope not just a walk. I have not skated
in years. I have an inclination to do so again."
And that was that. They were going, a large party of them, with only a few older couples wise enough to
resist the prevailing madness. Atone o'clockin the morning they were going skating!
"You see, Edgar?" his wife said. "Everyone is not as tiresome and as staid as you."
"Or as bourgeois," he said. "I should not allow you to skate,Helena, or to exert yourself any more today.
You are with child. Can you even skate?"
"Darling," she said, "I have spent winters inVienna. What do you think I did for entertainment? Of course,
I skate. Do you want me to teach you?"
Darling?
"I shall escort you upstairs," he said, offering his arm. "You will change into somethingwarm. We will
walk to the lake at a sedate pace and you will skatefor a short while with my support. You are not to
put your health at greater risk than that. Do you understand me, Helena? I must be mad, too, to give in to
such a whim."
"I said I would lead you a merry dance, Edgar," she said, smiling brightly at him. "The wordmerry was
the key one." She slipped her arm through his. "I will not risk the safety of your heir, never fear. He  or
she  is more important to me than almost anything else in my life. But I am not yet willing to let go of
Christmas. Perhaps I never will. I will carry Christmas about with me every day for the rest of my life, a
sprig of holly behind one ear, mistletoe behind the other."
She was in a strange mood. He was not sure what to make of it. The only thing he could do for the time
being was go along with it. And there was something strangely alluring about the prospect of going
skating on a lake one mile distant at something afterone o'clockof a December morning.
"The holly would be decidedly uncomfortable," he said.
"You are such a realist, darling," she said. "But you could kiss me beneath the other ear whenever you
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wished without fear that I might protest."
He chuckled.Darling again? Yes, life withHelenareally was going to be interesting. Not that there was
just the future tense involved. It was interesting.
* * *
She had married a tyrant,Helenathought cheerfully  she had told him so, too. The surface of the ice
was, of course, marred by an overall powdering of snow which had blown across it since it had last been
skated upon. And in a few places there were thicker finger drifts. It took several of the men ten minutes
to sweep it clean again while everyone else cheered them on and kept as warm as it was possible to
keep at almosttwo o'clockon a winter's night.
Edgar had flatly refused to allowHelenato wield one of the brooms. He had even threatened, in the
hearing of his father and everyone else present, to sling her over his shoulder and carry her back to the
house if she cared to continue arguing with him. She had smiled sweetly and called him a tyrant  in the
hearing of his father and everyone else.
And then, as if that were not bad enough, he had taken her arm firmly through his when they took to the
ice, and skated with her about the perimeter of the cleared ice just as if they were a sedate middle-aged
couple. That they were precisely that made no difference at all to her accusation of tyranny.
"I suppose," he said when she protested, "that you wish to execute some dizzying twirls and
death-defying leaps for our edification."
"Well, I did wish toskate , Edgar," she told him.
"You may do so next year," he told her, "when the babe is warm in his cot at home and safe from his
mother's recklessness."
"Or hers," she said.
"Or hers."
"Edgar," she asked him, "is it horridly vulgar to be increasing at my age?"
"Horridly," he said.
"I am going to be embarrassingly large within the next few months," she said. "I have already misplaced
my waist somewhere."
"I had noticed," he said.
"And doubtless think I look like a pudding," she said.
"Actually," he said, "I think you look rather beautiful and will look more so the larger you grow."
"I do not normally look beautiful, then?" she asked.
"Helena." He drew her to a stop, and four couples immediately zoomed past them. "If you are trying to
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quarrel with me again, desist. One of these days I shall oblige you. I promise. It is inevitable that we have [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]