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stretch of lawn might be put to better use in the coming New Age, but it was
becoming difficult. This whole place had been designed to overwhelm.
`And I'm still waiting for you to tell me,' Anna opened the gate which led
back down into the chine, `what's wrong with being happy ...'
`Nothing. If that's what you really are.'
We descended the winding paths back through the chine. The air down on the
shore was midday hot. My feet dragged. My headache was returning.
`Have you met Grandmaster and Grandmistress Bowdly-Smart?'
Anna shook her head. `Who are they?'
`They're here as guests. I thought they might well, that doesn't matter ..
We were drawing closer to the bathers again. They were still splashing,
floating, playing.
Look! Is that Anna!
Yes, yes!
All the usual excited cries.
`Everyone here seems to think the world of you,' I said aimlessly.
Momentarily, Anna's footsteps slowed and she nodded, seemingly pleased. If she
has a weakness, I thought, it's that she likes being liked.
That's why she puts up with me that's why she puts up with everything. Wet
and ridiculous in their skimpy clothing, the bathers were rushing our way. I
hung back and watched as they clustered around Anna, curious to see the exact
nature of the trick she was performing. But in this different world she'd
created, which was suddenly as real as the noontime heat, Anna radiated
nothing more than happiness, and the guileless mystery of being what she was,
which is something few of us can manage.
I sat down on the sand. The game the bathers had long been trying to play took
shape now that Anna was here to urge them on, quietly directing from the edge
of the waves, although, like me, she didn't swim. Her friends suddenly looked
graceful as mermaids as they swam and dived and chased each other. Finally,
the morning had to end and, wrapped in towels, dropping soggy bits of swimsuit
which the stooping servants collected for them, they performed the
extraordinary dance of getting changed. Sadie, ruffled and damp in an
expensive daydress, sat down beside me.
`Makes a difference, our Anna, doesn't she? Always has.'
Anna was talking to Highermaster George now. She'd taken off her sandals,
although she'd managed to walk with me beside the waves without getting them
wet, and dangled them by their straps. When she bent down to put them back on,
I saw George's hand trace the line of her back. My heart dropped, and then
started pounding, as I watched him and Anna head up the steps towards the
house.
`Hey, you all!' A plummy-voiced shout. A young guildsman one of last night's
gathering around the piano was standing over a rockpool, water trickling
from his hands. He was holding something tiny and alive.
`Look what I've just found!' He gave a barking laugh. `It's another of
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Sadie's discoveries!'
Throughout the rest of the day, Walcote House continued awakening. There was
an archery competition. Folk dances were performed on the lawns by charmingly
dressed children of the local
guilds. There were raffles and treasure hunts. In a brass and leather library
there were crisply ironed copies of today's
Guild Times, which was filled with more strikes and lockouts, although the
Times called them insurrections and necessary precautions.
But from here, with the smell of sunlight on old hide, none of it, not even
London itself, seemed real.
Back in my room, I lay on my four-poster bed and stroked the fine wood and
rubbed at the dragging pain in my temples. Framed on the wall was a list of
the charities this shiftend was supposed to benefit.
The
Distressed Guildswoman's Fund, The Society for the Restitution of
Chimneysweeps, The Manx Home for Old Horses, Emily's Waifs and
Strays
even
St Blate's Hospice and Asylum;
it covered every imaginable kind of misfortune. And out on the lawns, guests
were buying raffle tickets, attempting impossible tasks for a wager or
slipping rolled ten pound notes into silver boxes. After their efforts, it was
hard to believe that anyone could ever suffer from poverty, disease .. .
I prowled the corridors. Lunch had passed without any clear signal for food,
and the breakfast rooms were empty. There were wandering groups of guests on
the lawns, playful or quiet or conspiratory.
OneofSadiesdiscoveries.
But I had no idea where Sadie was
or Highermaster George and Annalise, although it was hard for me now not to
picture the two of them together. There were lakes beyond the lawns, glades,
walks enough for a thousand lovers. And there was nothing in Westminster Great
Park to compare to these trees. Fire aspen and perilinden. Sallow and
cedarstone. Their leaves chimed and rustled above me, their shadows made
tapestries, their scents and colours carried on a hectic breeze. But I was
sick of wonders, and I felt nauseous and hungry. Eventually, I found some
cakes to eat at a charity stall, although the woman who served me gave a
disappointed chirp when I only paid the sixpence she asked for.
Evening came. The lawns quietened. It was the time for the guests to change.
After my performance last night, the prospect of an even bigger occasion
sounded ominous. I decided to ignore the trays of drinks. But what was I going
as? I'd heard that question several times today, but I had no idea what it
meant. Still nursing my headache as
Walcote House grew louder and brighter, I headed towards the long shadows of
the hedges.
`All you ever do is bloody nag ...'
`You said I looked marvellous ten minutes ago.'
The voices came from beyond the hedge. Imagining they were alone in these
gardens, Grandmaster and Grandmistress Bowdly-Smart had dropped all southern
pretence from their vowels. I kept pace with them on the far side of the
hedge. Like all long-married couples, the
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