He took my glass from me.

“You’re not afraid, Nora. It’s not like you to be afraid.”

“Of what should I be afraid?” I demanded .

“There speaks my girl Nora. You have nothing to fear ever because I shall be here to look after you. “

“That’s a comforting thought,” I said, with a touch of my old lightness.

“Then be comforted, my dearest. I believe you know what has been in my mind for some time. You have been aware of the change you have wrought in me.”

I!”

“You have brought my youth back to me. After all, I am not an old man.

Do I appear old to you? “

“To me you have always appeared to be immortal. Even before I knew you Stirling spoke of you as though you were Zeus.”

He smiled, but he did not wish to discuss Stirling.

“You are old for your years, my dear,” he said.

“You are no foolish child. Nor were you ever. You had to fend for yourself and I’m glad of it. I never thought this would happen to me. Yes indeed, you have given me back my youth, Nora.”

“How?”

“By being yourself. By coming here among us and showing me that my life lies before me … not behind me.”

“I’m glad of that. So you have dropped this stupid notion of revenge.”

He laughed again. He was laughing a good deal tonight.

“You bully me, Nora. You always did. You must go on doing so when we are married. I like it, my darling.”

“When I am married to—’ In that second I had told myself I had not heard him correctly. He meant when Stirling and I were married; but in my heart I knew that he was not thinking of Stirling.

“To me,” he said.

“You don’t think I’d let you go to anyone else?”

There was a fierceness in his eyes which both frightened and delighted me. As ever in his presence I was unsure of my feelings for him.

He gripped me by the shoulders and drew me towards him.

“Never again, my love, will you wander off into a forest fire. I have you back, and I’ll keep you with me for as long as we both shall live.”

“Lynx!” I stammered and he gripped me more tightly.

“That ridiculous name!” he said.

“But I always think of you as Lynx,” I said foolishly, as though that mattered when there was so much of importance to think and talk about.

“A predatory animal,” he said.

“It fits. Oh God, Nora, I thought I’d die when you didn’t come back. I was fit to throw myself into that raging furnace, and it was only the certain knowledge within me that you’d come back that restrained me. I need you, Nora, as I have never needed anyone. I see that now. What’s wrong, my dear? “

“Marriage,” I said.

“I hadn’t thought of marriage.”

“What else?”

“You talked of being my father.”

That was in the beginning. Bat it changed, didn’t it? I’ll be everything to you, Nora. You’ll lack nothing. “

“I’m bewildered.”

“Not you, Nora. You knew it, really. I was aware of it. You knew it and were glad.”

But . “

“There are no buts. I have planned it all.”

“Without consulting me?”

He laughed.

“A touch of the old Nora. Yes, without consulting you in so many words, but it was clear to us both, wasn’t it? When we sat there playing our chess, when I let you win the set. You didn’t think you could have done that if I hadn’t allowed you to, do you?”

I said slowly: “And Jagger?”

His eyes narrowed. His emotions frightened and yet in some strange way thrilled me. There was a violent hatred on his face.

“Jagger!” he cried.

“Yes, by God, Jagger!”

“You killed him. You killed a man.”

“My love, he had to die. I could never have looked at him again without wanting to murder him. I would have killed him with my own hands some time. At least I let him die quickly.”

“Oh, Lynx,” I said weakly, ‘you frighten me. “

“I frighten you} When I love you! And I’ve never loved anyone as I love you. Arabella! What a fantasy! It was my pride that suffered there. I wanted Whiteladies. I wanted to live in that house with my wife and children. And I’m going to, Nora.”

“You go too fast,” I said.

“My imperious Nora!” he retorted with a smile.

“Would you have me go slowly? We are going to Whiteladies, you and I; and you shall sit at the table on the dais where kings and queens have sat; and the nursery at the top of the house where poor simple Arabella learned her ABC will be for our children. “

“I have not yet said that I agree.”

“My darling, you will not be allowed to do anything else.”

“If I refuse.”

“You won’t.”

“What does … Stirling say? Have you told him?”

“He knows something of my plans.”

“He knows that you are asking me to marry you?”

“He knows. Adelaide knows. They have guessed at my feelings for you for some time past.”

“And Stirling … he thinks it is a good idea?”

“Of course. He realizes the strength of my feelings for you.”

“And that means that he will wish it too.”

“He has been a good son. He has always been eager for my happiness.”

“I see.”

“So it is only for my imperious Nora to say that she loves me, which I know she does.”

“You are adopting that irritating habit of speaking of me as though I’m not here as you did when you tried to demoralize me on my arrival.”

He laughed delightedly.

“Cruel of me. And foolish really because it never succeeded for a moment, did it? We’ll announce to the family that the ceremony is to take place. You know I’m not a man for wasting time.”

“I will not be hurried into anything. I like to make my own decisions.”

“So you shall, for I see that you are as eager for this ceremony to take place as I am.”

“You take too much for-granted. I was not prepared for this, I do assure you. I thought of you as my father …”

“I will make a better husband than a father, you see.”

I held him off. I said: “I want time … time. I shall say nothing until I have thought about this.”

“Tonight I am going to announce to them our imminent marriage.”

“Not yet,” I protested and then wondered why I had put it that way, as though it would come in due course. Marry Lynx! It was a bewildering and exciting project. What had y feelings for him been—something beyond that of an adopted daughter towards a father—and yet there was Stirling.

Stirling! He knew of this and accepted it. I would live ‘s an incongruous situation, but it was what Lynx had been planning.

I turned away but he was at the door before me, barring my way. His eyes were brilliant with a passion which alarmed me as I had been alarmed when I stood face to face with Jagger, and yet at the same time I had no desire to run away from him.

He took my chin in his hands and lifted my face to his.

“You are afraid,” he said, ‘afraid of what you have not yet experienced. You have discoveries to make, Nora. We’ll make them together. You have nothing to fear, my darling. “

His face was close to me, those gleaming jungle eyes alight with a passion of which I could only guess.

I held him off.

“No,” I said.

“Not yet. I must go away. I must think.

I insist. If you announce anything I should deny it. I will not be forced. “

He dropped his hands.

“You are afraid of me. Oh God, Nora, is that true?”

“Why will you harp on fear? It is not fear. I object to being told whom I shall marry and when the ceremony will take place before I have been consulted. If this marriage took place it would have to be understood that I am not a puppet to be moved this way and that, nor should I be expected to bow down and worship my husband as though he were one of the gods stepped down from Olympus.”

“Oh Nora, you delight me. So my darling wants time to think. She wants to make her own decisions. My only wish is to give her everything in the world she asks for. This is a small thing compared with the gifts I shall shower on her.”

“The first thing I ask is that you stop that ridiculous habit. It infuriates me.”

We were laughing again—back for a moment to the old relationship.

“Now,” I said, “I will leave you. I will go to my room and when I have decided I will tell you.”

He dropped the hands which had imprisoned me. As I turned he caught me and I felt his lips on my neck. I wanted both to stay and to escape; and as ever, I did not understand my feelings.

I went to my room and closed the door. I stood against it pressing my cool palms to my burning cheeks.

You knew it, I accused myself, and you refused to see it.

You had made up your mind that you would marry Stirling. tt had all seemed so right and natural. But I love Stirling, ( protested.

Yes, you love Stirling. And Lynx.

I could think of no one but Lynx. He filled my mind as he seemed to dominate every room in which he stood. He was exciting; he was magnificent; he was more than human.

I tried to be calm. Marry Lynx! Be with him day and night! I was so inexperienced of life. I had so much to learn of men and marriage; and Lynx would be my instructor. I was aghast at the thought and yet completely obsessed by it. I love Stirling, I kept telling myself. It was always Stirling, ever since we stood on the deck of the Carron Star together. Yes, but at that time I had not met Lynx.

Yet having met Lynx my feelings towards Stirling had not changed. I remembered that terrible night when we had lain in the cave together and had known that we might never come out alive; and when we had emerged and had known that after all we had a future, it had been like an unspoken declaration of love.