“I think I should.”
“But the rest of the world is not as wise as my Susanna.”
Together we saw beautiful pictures Titian, Tintoretto and the Bellinis. He was knowledgeable about art and he revealed so much to me. I was learning not only about love but the world.
They were strange dreamlike days; they cast a spell over me and I believed then that now I was married to Aubrey, life would go on like this always.
I was young; I was innocent; and all around me was evidence of life.
One morning, when we strolled along, we saw a crowd at the side of the canal; and when we investigated we discovered that a man’s body had been brought out of the water that morning. I saw him lying there, his eyes open, staring in horror; his face was the colour of a grubby sheet and there was blood on his clothes from the knife wound in his back.
Aubrey drew me quickly away.
That incident coloured the whole morning. Aubrey said: “It happens now and then. These are a hot-blooded people.”
But I knew I could never pass the spot without thinking of that man.
That was Venice. Dark, sinister alleyways where people met their enemies and knives flashed . and then the sound of a body falling into the water; the beautiful sunlit city with its confectionery palazzos and its singing gondoliers; the Doges’ Palace and the Bridge of Sighs and the indescribable tortures which had been carried out in the prison adjoining them.
But this was my honeymoon. I would not think gloomy thoughts. This was being married to the man I loved. This was happiness.
I was fascinated by the little shops and would spend hours browsing in them. Sometimes I would leave Aubrey in the square where he might be sipping an aperitif while I lingered in the shops. He laughed at the fascination they had for me. They certainly did not appeal to him in the same way.
I loved the cleverly wrought bracelets and necklaces in semi-precious stones, the embroidered handkerchiefs and slippers, the silk scarves and fichus.
I said I must take some gifts home for my father, for Amelia and for Stephen.
“I shall leave all that to you,” said Aubrey.
“You are the shopper.”
I was going to enjoy searching for what I believed would please them.
The days were rushing past. We had only another week, I realized to my dismay.
We had taken our morning walk and come back to the square where we would sit in the sunshine and drink a cup of coffee which we had made a habit of doing in the midmorning. We were making our way to a table under a blue-striped sunshade where we could watch the passers-by and the pigeons fluttering down, waiting for people to throw crumbs to them.
While we were drinking our coffee, a man and woman came by. I thought they looked vaguely familiar and then I recognized them.
The woman had stopped.
“Why, it’s Aubrey,” she said.
“And … Miss Pleydell.”
Aubrey stood up.
“Phyllis. Willie …”
Phyllis and Willie! I had not heard their Christian names before as far as I remembered, but I knew them as Captain and Mrs. Freeling.
Mrs. Freeling talked breathlessly.
“What on earth … Well, fancy .. and here of all places … and what are you doing in Venice?”
“We’re having a honeymoon.”
“Oh Willie, isn’t that just sweet! And Miss Pleydell… Oh, I’m sorry. You’ll be Mrs. St. Clare now. What a lovely surprise.”
“You must have some coffee,” said Aubrey.
“I’d like something …”
There were two seats at the table and they sat down; Mrs. Freeling had changed; she looked much older than I remembered; her eyes were sunken and she seemed very thin. I had seen very little of her husband and could hardly remember what he had looked like before.
“What are you doing?” asked Aubrey.
“Having a holiday?”
“My dear, life is a constant holiday.”
“I suppose you are on leave. Captain Freeling,” I said.
Mrs. Freeling leaned towards me and laid a hand on my arm.
“No more leaves. No more duties. No more regiment. We’re free of all that, aren’t we, Willie?”
Captain Freeling looked a little rueful.
“I’ve resigned my commission,” he said to me.
“Oh …”
He did not offer any explanation and I sensed that it would be tactless to pursue the matter.
“We’re home now,” said Mrs. Freeling, ‘with Willie’s people until we decide how things are going. It’s so good for the children. We’re having a holiday before we settle down to life at home, aren’t we, Willie dear? “
“A very pleasant holiday, I imagine,” said Aubrey.
“How long have you been in Venice?”
“For three days.”
“Not long, which explains why we haven’t run into you before. But Venice is not really big enough to lose oneself for ” i long. “
“I’m glad of that. Wouldn’t it have been a tragedy, Willie, if we had never found each other? And now we’ve done it… just in the nick of time. We’re leaving in three days’ time.”
“We’re going at the end of the week,” said Aubrey.
“I could stay here for months,” said Mrs. Freeling. She smiled at me.
“I dare say you could, too. And how are you liking life at home? An unnecessary question. You’re revelling.”
“You must miss India,” I said.
“Not a bit of it. Glad to get away. Sometimes I used to get the shivers in the night. Those natives … They looked so. sinister sometimes. You could never be quite sure what they were thinking … or what they would do next.”
“What happened to the children’s ayah?”
“Oh … she was yours, wasn’t she? She went off to one of the other families the Laymon-Joneses, I believe. The children were fond of her. They made a fearful fuss about leaving her. “
“She was a very good ayah.”
“We’ve been to Florence and Rome, haven’t we, Willie?”
Willie said they had.
“Marvellous! Those palaces! Those pictures! That lovely, lovely bridge . what was it called, Willie? Ponte Vecchio? The shops. Fascinating! “
Captain Freeling talked to me and Aubrey was occupied with Mrs. Freeling. I heard scraps of their conversation as the Captain asked after my father and how he was liking being at the War Office after India. He said that he missed the army but he thought he would settle comfortably at home and the children had always been a worry. They would have had to be sent home to school sooner or later and that was always an anxiety and a disturbing experience for the children as I probably remembered.
While the Captain was talking I heard Mrs. Freeling say to Aubrey:
“Damien is in Venice.”
“My people live in Worcestershire,” the Captain was saying.
“We’re at the family home for the present. It’s a fine part of the country, really.”
I said I did not know it and he asked questions about the Palazzo Tonaletti and while I was describing that Mrs. Freeling looked at her watch and said they must go.
They shook hands and we parted.
As we walked back to the palazzo, Aubrey said: “It’s a small world.
Imagine meeting them. “
“I wonder why he resigned from the army.”
“Fancied some other way of life, no doubt.”
“People don’t usually.”
“There speaks the soldier’s daughter. There are some who might not find it such a glorious way of life.”
“I mean, I don’t think it is easy to resign. I’ll ask my father. I suppose we shall see them again.”
“Have to, I suppose. But they are going in a day or so.”
He sounded unenthusiastic, which pleased me.
“And so are we going very soon,” I said.
“Oh Aubrey, it has been so wonderful. Do you think anyone else ever had such a honeymoon?”