We'll meet again

Dorabella and I were not identical twins, but there was a firm bond between us. She had once called it "the gossamer cord.”

"It is strong," she had said. She believed it was unbreakable, but so fine that no one knew it was there except us. But it always had been and it always would be. I think she was right in that.

She was rather frivolous and charming; I was reckoned to be the sensible, practical one. There was about her a misleading air of fragility which had always appealed to the opposite sex. I had always been conscious of her superior attractions but never-or possibly rarely-jealous.

When I considered where her impulsive actions led her, I was fearful for her and I felt sure that the most recent one must have had a lasting effect on her. She had rashly married and then rashly abandoned Dermot Tregarland, and so set in motion consequences which had affected us all deeply. In fact, but for that marriage, I should never have met Jowan. I should not have been sitting in that place at that moment.

I glanced at her. Yes, what had happened had had a sobering effect even on her. I was afraid for her, but whatever she did, I would never stop loving her. Nothing could change that.

She took my hand and said: "Don't worry. He'll be all right. I know it in my bones. He's a survivor. I'm one myself and I recognize a kindred spirit.”

"You're certainly right about yourself," I said.

She looked at me ruefully, telling me with her eyes that she was sorry for all the anxiety she had caused us. I had forgiven her, as our parents had.

"Of course I am," she said. "The war will soon be over. He'll be back... a hero. There will be wedding bells. The gathering of the clans. That stupid feud between the Tregarlands and the Jermyns at an end forever. It was all rather ridiculous, wasn't it?”

"And you, Dorabella, what shall you do? Shall you stay at Tregarland's?”

She was thoughtful, so I knew the idea of getting away had occurred to her.

"It will be different," she said. "You'll be the Lady of Jermyn Priory.”

"That is old Mrs. Jermyn.”

"Oh, she will graciously step aside. She is so pleased that you are going to marry her bonny boy. When this miserable war is over, I think I shall be able to bear it if you are not far away. We're all living in a sort of limbo now, aren't we? Nobody can make any plans. We don't know what will happen from one minute to the next. This war... how long do you really think it will go on?”

"I don't know. We're constantly hearing that we are doing well, but the Germans seem to be very strong. It is difficult to know whether we are hearing everything or if things are being kept from us.”

"You are getting morbid, Vee.”

"I like to know the truth.”

"Ignorance is bliss, remember.”

"Less so when the truth is forced upon us, as it could be in some circumstances.”

"Snap out of it! I know Jowan's going and you are naturally worried, but we are here together. I can't tell you how pleased I am about that. The best thing for me is that you and I will be neighbors.

Think of that.”

"And you have Tristan.”

"Auntie Violetta has a proprietary interest and Nanny Crabtree believes, I am sure, that he is more hers than mine. I wonder if that child realizes how many lay claim to him. I pick him up and Nanny Crabtree thinks I am going to drop him." She was sober suddenly.

"After what happened, she probably feels I'm not to be trusted. It was she-and you-who saved him from Mad Matilda when I was not there... as I should have been.”

"It's all in the past.”

"Is it? Don't you think the things we do-the really important things-never really go away? They leave their effect behind forever after.”

"You have to stop thinking like that.”

"I do most of the time, but sometimes it comes back and haunts me. I went off with a lover. I left my husband and child... and now I'm back. My husband died, my child might have been murdered but for you and Nanny Crabtree. You see how it feels "As long as you have learned your lesson.”

Her mood changed and she burst out laughing.

"I can't help it," she said. "Always the same old Violetta. Preaching the truth, grappling heroically with the problems of the wayward twin-and never forgetting to point to the moral.”

"Someone has to do it with people like you around!”

"And you do. You always have. Don't think I forget. I don't ever.

That's why I have to have you near me and if you are not there I get a bit panicky. I shall never forget how you told the tale for me. And I know how you hate to lie. I had run away with my lover. I had staged my departure to look like a drowning... as though I had gone down to swim, leaving my wrap and slippers there on the beach... and all the time I was crossing the Channel on my way to Paris. And what did you do? You worked out a tale for me. I had gone swimming, lost consciousness, been picked up by a yacht.

Oh... it was wonderful!”