Part 9 (1/2)
She did not know why.
While she had remained unmoved by William and Lionel's compliments and those which had been accorded to her on the Continent, there was something in Vulcan's gaze which was different.
It made her feel young and not exactly embarra.s.sed but shy, as a woman is with a man who is very masculine and to whom she responds not only with her mind but with her body.
It was something, she thought, that had never happened to her before and she lifted the hot tea to her lips to sip it, aware of its subtle fragrance even while she was vividly conscious of Vulcan watching her.
”You are lovely, unbelievably lovely!” he said. ”How could I have guessed that here in England in the village in which I was born I would find exactly what I required for the very last picture in my book?''
”Will you show me the others?
”Perhaps But not to-day. I want you to think when you leave me that you are still portraying Persephone. I want to put your thoughts and feelings into my conception of what you are.”
Astara smiled.
”Are you really suggesting I should think of nothing else until I come to you again?”
”What else can be of any importance?” he enquired. ”In completing my picture you are part of history, the history of the past and the history of the future.”
”For the Societe de Geographes?”
”Exactly!” he said, ”and here in England, if it will interest you, the book will be published by the a.s.sociation for Promoting the Discoveries of the Interior Parts of Africa. ”
Astara prevented herself from giving an exclamation, for her father had read papers at meetings of the a.s.sociation on several occasions when they had persuaded him to speak of his travels in the African Continent.
”Where have you been in Africa?” she asked.
”To many places,” Vulcan replied, ”but you are to concentrate on Persephone and especially on Olympus which of course you know well.”
”I have always had the feeling,” Astara said, ”that the reason why the G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses interfered so often with mortals is that they found that their gold tables on Olympus and celestial nectar and ambrosia palled after a time.”
”I dare say you are right,” he agreed, ”and I am glad that my namesake had more active things to do.”
”Of course you could always throw a thunderbolt,” Astara smiled.
As she spoke she rose to her feet. ”Now I have to go.”
”May I come with you? ”
”No!”
”You promise to return?”
”I have given you my promise. I will not break it. ”
”Then, thank ”you,” he said. ”Thank you, Aphrodite, but when you have gone, I shall find it very hard to believe that you are real.”
”Shall I say that I am as real as your picture?” Astara replied. ”As real as the mysteries of Eleusis?”
”Then you are real, and you will come back to me,” he said positively.
She walked across the room to pick up her bonnet.
She liked the manner in which he made no effort to join her as she walked towards the door.
He merely stood watching her. She turned to smile at him, but he did not respond and did not speak.
There was no sign of Chang but the front door was open. Outside the Mill Astara felt the sun on her face and knew it was still warm but not as hot as it had been earlier in the day.
Then as she reached the turn in the road she started to run towards the wood.
She was not certain as she went whether she was running back to Worfield House or away from Vulcan.
CHAPTER FOUR.
”You have not answered my question.”
Astara started as William spoke, realising that she had been far away in her thoughts and had not heard what he said.
”I am sorry,” she said. ”I was day-dreaming.”
”I hoped that you would be dreaming of me, but not when I am present.”
There was a note of reproof in his tone and she knew that he was piqued because she had been absent-minded when he was talking to her and they were alone together.
They had finished dinner and Sir Roderick and Lionel had disappeared.
There was something in the way William spoke and the manner in which he, was looking at her which told Astara uncomfortably he intended to propose to her.
She knew the signs only too well from the numbers of young men who, as Sir Roderick had said, had laid their hearts at her feet in Italy and in Paris.
”I wonder where Uncle Roderick is?” she asked. ”I thought he was about to join us.”
”I have no wish to have either my uncle or Lionel here at this moment,” William replied. ”I want to talk to you.”
He reached out as he spoke and took her hands in his.
”I think, Astara,” he began, ”you know what I am going to say.”
”No ... please,” she murmured.
He thought she was shy and went on before she could say any more: ”I know we have not known each other for long, but we are both sensible enough to realise what my uncle wants. I a.s.sure you, Astara, that I want, more than I can possibly put into words, that you should become my wife.”
Astaras fingers stiffened in his and she looked away from him towards the open window where the sun was just sinking in a golden glow and the stars were coming out over-head.