Page 126 of The Garden of Forgotten Wishes
‘I dunno, he was probably wounded and the effort of getting there finished him off,’ said James. ‘And he lay there peaceful enough for maybe hundreds of years. We didn’t disturb anything, just got ourselves out again. We decided to keep it quiet, so no one else would go poking around.’
‘Till Wayne,’ Ned said.
‘And I did say plainly in the book it was just another legend,’ Elf said defensively.
‘Like the other one about Nathaniel’s treasure being hidden at Old Grace Hall, that inspired you to dig up my lawn,’ Ned said grimly.
‘You can’t prove that was me!’ said Wayne quickly. ‘Nobody saw me.’
‘You’re a complete fool, Wayne,’ I told him.
‘You said it,’ agreed Ned.
Wayne hauled himself up, dripping and dishevelled. ‘I’m off home before I catch my death,’ he said belligerently, as if we were about to do a citizen’s arrest for illegal stupidity, then squelched off towards the turnstile.
‘Wet in more ways than one, poor boy,’ said Elf. ‘Well, James, I suppose I’d better get back to my ice-cream making and you to planting up the bicycle carrier.’
‘We’ll go back up to the top of the falls and remove what’s left of thatrope, so no one sees it and gets any silly ideas,’ Ned said. ‘Come on, Ellwood!’
He sounded cheerful and, really, there was no reason why the incident should dampenourday.
‘We were wrong about the end of the plagues,’ I said, following him up the steep path past the source of the falls. ‘We forgot Plague of Idiots.’
Ned unknotted what was left of the rope, already half-frayed by the rocks, and coiled it over one shoulder like a mountaineer before we started back down again.
‘I’ll burn this on Gertie’s bonfire when I get back.’
‘Well, don’t let her see you, or she’ll say you’re a spendthrift for not using it to insulate a pot, or something. You know what she’s like on the subject of waste.’
‘I did hear her telling you the other day that if you left your crusts you’d never have curly hair,’ he said, halting on the flat rock by the river’s source to ruffle my hair with one big hand. ‘Bit late, though.’
‘I’d only saved a bit for Guinevere – she’s a peahen of character,’ I said. I looked across at the gushing water and the dark, jagged slit of the cave entrance and sighed. ‘Do you think whoever died in there felt comforted by the magic of this place?’
‘I expect so. I think he must have been local to know about it.’
We watched the spray flung into the air to catch the last of the sun’s rays, before it dipped behind the high hills and the atmosphere around us seemed to change and shimmer too …
I had that feeling again that something winged fluttered just out of sight – and was that a faint, tinkling laugh, or just the sound of the water?
I turned to ask Ned if he’d heard it too – and found him looking down at me with such an expression of love that my heart seemed to stop and then start again, much faster.
‘I thought Wayne had ruined the moment I’d planned, but it seems he’d only delayed it for the right one,’ he said. ‘Marnie, will you marry me?’
There was a rushing noise that might have been the water, or wings,or even birds taking flight towards their evening roost – or just the blood pounding in my ears.
I looked up at him uncertainly. ‘Are you quitesureyou want to marry a Vane?’
‘I’m quite sure I want to marry this one,’ he said, then pulled me into his arms and kissed me.
As we slowly walked back along the river, arms entwined, he said, ‘Elf guessed – she gave me a ring that’s been in the Verdi family for generations. It’s a big flat ruby and looks a bit Borgia, so it might not be your cup of tea, but I’ll show it to you when we get back.’
‘I’d love a Verdi Borgia ring,’ I assured him. ‘I’d only wear it on special occasions, though, or I’d lose it in the garden, or in the pond, or somewhere.’
‘We’ll both have plain wedding rings we can work in and I’ll make sure yours is tight enough not to fall off,’ he said with a grin. ‘We’ll get married in St Gabriel’s – we could go up in a bit to ask the Reverend Jojo about putting up the banns.’
‘Just a little wedding, though – close friends and family,’ I said, then caught myself up. ‘NotVanefamily. The Ellwoods, though – as many of them as can leave the château.’
‘It should be soon – early June, perhaps?’ he suggested. ‘Better weather, but before the main tourist season and the school holidays.’
