The pool of St Branok

Visions of them, facing each other across the card table, came to me ... Gervaise, departed from his usual nonchalance, blazing with anger; Justin crouching before him: Gervaise seizing Justin and shaking him as though he were a dog.

"Greater love hath no man than he who layeth down his life for his friend," said the parson.

I saw that many of those present were openly weeping.

And so they laid Gervaise to rest not far from the remains of David Skelling.

I thought: He will never go home now. He will never find that fortune which he was so sure would be his.

Poor Gervaise. He had always lost.

Morwenna had left Golden Hall, much to Lizzie's sorrow. She visited us frequently and was constantly bringing gifts for the baby. She was worried about me, too.

"Angelet," she said, "you must go and stay at the Hall. Your baby must be born there."

"Oh no," I said. "Thank you, but that is not possible. You are so good to us all and it is so kind ..."

"But I want you to come," she insisted, her eyes filling with tears. "I love little babies."

"We have to be in our own homes, Lizzie," I said. "We just cannot go into other people's."

"Ben wants you to come." She smiled triumphantly. "He says he is going to insist."

"I couldn't, Lizzie."

She thrust that aside. I could see she thought Ben's wish must be law.

I had long talks with Justin and Morwenna.

"We're going home," said Morwenna with delight. "We have decided that, haven't we, Justin? I have written to Pa and Mother. They'll be so very pleased. They've hated our being so far away. We are going to take you with us, Angelet."

I looked down at my spreading figure.

"We're going to wait," said Morwenna. "We've worked it all out. We won't go before the baby is born. You couldn't travel yet and then you wouldn't want to until the baby is, say ... six months old."

"That will be nearly nine months. You wouldn't want to wait all that time. You'd better go now. I'll make my own way home."

"Of course we wouldn't do that, would we, Justin? You see, if you know that you are going, it is not so bad. You count the days ... You tick them off as they pass and you know it's getting nearer. What is so dreadful is not knowing when it is going to end. We want to wait for nine months, don't we, Justin?"

Justin answered: "Yes, we do and we shall. We're not going to leave you here, Angelet. We shall all go back together. After all, even if we weren't going to wait for you we couldn't just walk out. In the meantime I shall get someone to help me work the mine."

"Oh Justin, you can't go down there again ... after what happened."

"I think I know where it went wrong. There was so much damp down there that the wood rotted. You get to learn these things, you know. You don't make the same mistakes twice."

"I know you are longing to get away after all you went through ... particularly Justin. Please don't worry about me. I'll manage."

But they would not hear of it.

Later I talked to Justin alone.

He said: "I feel so ashamed. Only you in this place can know how ashamed I feel."

"It's all over," I said. "Gervaise is dead. Only the three of us knew what happened on that night. You can't go on thinking of it forever."

"We had not spoken in friendship ... since it happened," he went on. "He despised me, I know he did. I saw it in his eyes ..."

"Yes," I said. "Cheating at cards. It was the ultimate sin. Gervaise was obsessed by gambling ..."

"So many of us are."

"Are you going to give it up?"

He looked helplessly into space.

I said: "You could go home. There would be a place for you with Morwenna's father ..."

"I know. I'm going to try. I feel I can never forget this. It was so noble of him."

"There was a lot of nobility in Gervaise."

"Oh yes. He hated me. He despised me. There was no need for him to come down like that. If he had not, he would be here today. I should be lying where he is. Why did he do it? He knew what a risk he was taking."

"He liked to take risks. He was a gambler right to the end. He thought he could win ... always. He was betting then against the biggest odds ever. But this time he was betting for a different reason. Not for gain ... but for another man's life."

"And he lost," said Justin.

"No, he won. He saved your life, Justin. That was his aim."

I turned away to hide my emotion.

"Oh, Angelet, I'm sorry. I should have been the one. I'm the unworthy one."

I said: "You have made Morwenna happy. That is wonderful. You have your son. You will love him and care for him. Justin, we have to forget what we have done in the past. We have to grow better for our experiences ... we have to learn from them."

He looked at me very seriously and said: "I shall do all I can for you, Angelet. I shall try to repay Gervaise through you."

The weeks passed. Everyone in the township wanted to show their appreciation to the widow of a hero.

Morwenna was my constant companion. She was very happy at the prospect of going home. She talked of it most of the time. "Eight more months ... the time will soon be gone."