‘Please, Archie, I understand that you’re trying to be kind, but I know why. Now, we must head down the mountain. Can you see the clouds gathering above us? I believe a squall is coming over.’ Flora stood up, suddenly wishing the conversation had never begun. She felt inexplicably vulnerable, and her mood had altered just as swiftly as the clouds had blacked out the sun.
Fifteen minutes later, both of them were lying face down against the rough grass and sheep droppings as the heavens opened and the rising wind drove needle-sharp pricks of rain against them.
‘Here,’ said Archie, rifling in his rucksack, ‘take the edge of the blanket and we can take shelter underneath it.’
Flora reached for a corner to pull it over her head. Archie had the other end and they lay there together in the darkness. Their inadequate shield was quickly soaked through.
‘Hello,’ he whispered, and she felt his breath on her cheek.
‘Hello.’
‘Have we met somewhere before? My name’s Archie, the farm boy.’
‘And mine is Flora, the milkmaid.’ She couldn’t help but smile.
‘Smells rather of sheep excrement in here, doesn’t it?’
‘I believe it is the preferred perfume in this part of the world.’
‘Flora?’
‘Yes?’
Then his lips searched for hers, and he kissed her. Small arrows of desire shot straight down from her mouth right through her body, and though she urged her own lips to take heed and detach themselves, they refused to obey. He drew her closer, wrapping his arms and his warmth tightly around her. The kissing seemed to last for a very long time, as Flora’s intentions to grow old alone blew away as fast as one of the angry clouds above them. Finally, as the rain ceased, and with huge effort, she drew her face away from his.
‘My God, Flora,’ Archie panted, ‘what have you done to me? You are miraculous! I adore you . . .’
He reached for her again, but this time Flora pulled away, then yanked off the blanket and sat up dazed from shock and pleasure. Archie appeared too a few seconds later and they sat together in silence.
‘My sincere apologies, I’m afraid my feelings got the better of me. I’m sure that you will now add this most recent bad behaviour to my list of misdemeanours. Please, Flora, I beg you, don’t. I simply couldn’t help it. I stand by what I said, and however inappropriate, I adore you. In truth, I have thought of nothing and no one else since I laid eyes on you back in April.’
‘I—’
‘Hear me out.’ Archie took her hand in his. ‘It will be one of the last chances we have to be alone. The reason I escorted Elizabeth to the dance in London was because I was expecting to see you there with your sister. Then I remembered that your father had invited me to join his shooting party in the Highlands and it was the perfect excuse to stop in and see you on the way home. These past three days with you have been . . . sublime. If ever two people fitted like a hand in a glove, it’s you and I. Surely, you must feel it too?’
Flora made to stand, but her hand was held fast. ‘Please believe what I’m telling you,’ he entreated her. ‘And I need you to remember every word I’ve said and look at me and know it’s the truth. I have to leave tonight to begin to motor back home, as I’ve promised my mother I will be back tomorrow. But I swear that I will write to you, and we will see each other again.’ His gaze was dark but clear as he gripped her hand more tightly. ‘I want you to trust me. Whatever happens, you must trust me.’
Flora turned to him, overwhelmed by this sudden outpouring of feeling. After barely three days together, how could she trust him?
She dragged her eyes from his gaze. ‘We’d better be going or Sarah will wonder where I am.’
‘Yes, of course.’ His hand let go of hers like a rope snapping under tension, leaving her oddly bereft.
They trudged down the mountain in silence, their mood as dampened as their sodden clothes.
Finally reaching the motor car, it was all Flora could do to keep her eyes open, suffering from fatigue and emotional confusion in equal measure. As Archie drove, they sat only a few inches apart, each lost in their own thoughts. Eventually, they drew up at the gates of the Hall and Archie brought the motor car to a halt.
‘Flora, I have to go home and put right a dreadful mistake I now know I have made. But I swear I will. And I beg you, don’t dismiss what has happened between us in the last three days. However surreal it may feel to you as time passes, try to remember it was real. Will you promise me that?’
Flora stared at him, and took a deep breath. ‘Yes, I will.’
‘Goodbye then, darling Flora.’
‘Goodbye.’
Flora got out of the motor car, slammed the door and walked rather unsteadily through the gates, feeling as though the earth was not solid beneath her. Arriving in the kitchen, she found Sarah with her feet up on the range, munching on a bit of cake, and Mrs Hillbeck at the table with Panther nestled in her arms. They both glanced up, startled, before bursting into laughter.
‘Miss Flora! Where on earth have you been! And what are you wearing? You look half drowned,’ Sarah exclaimed as she recovered herself.
‘I am,’ she replied, grateful to them for providing the sense of normality she needed to regain her physical and emotional bearings. Sarah was already rubbing at Flora’s hair with a muslin cloth to dry it. ‘I’ve just been in the mountains,’ she said dreamily.
‘And it’s been right throwing it down,’ Sarah muttered. ‘Dearie me, child. You take yourself upstairs and get out of those wet clothes. I’ll bring you a tea tray up and fill the bathtub.’
‘Thank you.’ Flora walked slowly to the boot room and pulled the soaking walking boots off her sore feet. After hobbling into the hall and up the stairs to her bedroom, she was greeted by a disgruntled scuffle of hungry animals. She removed her sopping clothes and donned her robe, then hurriedly stuffed leaves and seeds through the bars. A wave of exhaustion suddenly overtook her, and she staggered to the bed and lay down.
By the time Sarah arrived upstairs with the tea tray, she saw Miss Flora had fallen fast asleep.
13
Flora spent the following week in bed with a horrible chill. As her fever rose, the entire Archie episode took on a dreamlike quality, and she began to wonder if she’d imagined the whole thing.
When she eventually felt well enough to get out of bed, she walked on legs of jelly downstairs and found a number of letters addressed to her on the silver plate left in the hall for the purpose. She recognised by the writing that two of them were from Aurelia, one was from her mother, but the fourth was written in Archie’s elegant script. Sitting on the bottom stair, her hands trembled as she opened the envelope, weak from both her recent illness and fear of what it might contain.
High Weald
Ashford, Kent
5th July 1909
My dearest Flora,