Portrait of Jonathan (10 page)

She did not send her reply immediately for she did not wish to appear
over-eager or to put Jonathan under an obligation to reply quickly to her
letter. Of course, the words she would dearly loved to have penned
remained unwritten and locked within her heart.

Lavinia was enraptured, however, to find that when she did at last send
her letter, Jonathan replied almost by return.

‘My dear Lavinia,

‘Your letter delighted me and—forgive me—surprised me. The surprise
was caused by your perceptive remark about the first ships through the
canal. How right you are and (though you must keep this to yourself) our
Company have this very fact in mind in building the steamship. We hope
that the ship will be ready some months before the canal opens and can
prove its seaworthiness and so on in good time so as to be running
smoothly before the canal opens.’

Lavinia, once more anxious not to appear over-eager, purposely delayed
her reply to Jonathan again, though during the following days the words of
her proposed letter kept running through her mind. When she did reply, she
made her letter lengthy telling him of her life at the school, of the
kindness of her teachers and of the friendliness of the girls. One girl in
particular, another English girl, Phillippa Selwyn, had become Lavinia’s
particular companion. They shared a room together and the girl, vivacious
and charming, had taken the shy Lavinia under her protective wing. Lavinia
admired her greatly. She wrote to Jonathan of her.

‘Lady Phillippa Selwyn is so gay and attractive and so
self-confident—how I admire her! She is kind too. She comes from London,
though Pm not sure what part, and her family have a country house in
Devon, I believe.’

It was a long time before Jonathan wrote again—all of six weeks and
Lavinia, though she had at first been overwhelmed by the speed with which
he had answered her first letter, now found herself deeply disappointed
that he should take such a long time to write again. She wondered whether
she could have offended him in some way and though she recalled to mind
almost every word of her letter to him, she could think of nothing to
which Jonathan could or would have taken exception.

A letter arrived from Giles and his words regarding Jonathan perplexed
Lavinia more than ever.

‘Old Jonathan has been like a grumpy bear these last weeks—goodness
knows what’s the matter with him.’

The remainder of Giles’ letter was general chatter telling her of various
balls and social functions he had attended. He had been to the music-hall,
he told her, and had enjoyed it immensely.

‘I can’t drag old Jonathan along though—he
seems to have no taste for the high life now. He just wants to bury
himself in work and his steamship.’

At last, a letter arrived from Jonathan and once more Lavinia took it to
the privacy of her bedroom before opening it. She was half-afraid to read
it, fearful that he was in some way angry with her from what Giles had
told her. But his letter gave no indication that he was in any way put out
and he only apologised briefly for not having written before, but
explained that pressure of business had kept him occupied.

Perhaps, she thought, the final paragraph held the only clue—if there was
one—as to the reason for his ill-temper of which Giles had spoken.

‘I am happy,’
Jonathan wrote,
‘to hear
you are making friends, but take care to whom you give your
friendship, my dear. Not everyone is what they seem.’

Here he started to write more, but the word was heavily scored through
and Lavinia was left wondering what he had been about to write. She sat on
the edge of her bed in the silence of the room, the only sounds being the
muted voices of the other girls from downstairs. Lavinia wrinkled her
brow. Jonathan seemed to be warning her against false friendliness shown
to her by the inmates of the school. But, as she recalled, the only person
to whom she had alluded in her letter to him had been Phillippa Selwyn.

Selwyn! Where had she heard the name before? Now she came to think about
it, when she had first learnt it was Phillippa’s family name, it had
struck a chord of recognition somewhere, but until this moment she had
thought no more of it.

Lavinia shook her head slowly. She knew now that she had definitely heard
mention of the name before, but she could not recall when or from whom.

She locked the precious letter from Jonathan in the drawer of her bedside
table. She smoothed her hair back from her forehead and regarded herself
in the looking-glass. Already, there were distinct changes in her
appearance since she had left England. She had lost her pallor and her
complexion was now smooth and glowing. Her figure, once so childish for
her age, was now softly blossoming into young womanhood, though her
naturally tiny waist was the envy of many of the plumper girls in the
school who laced themselves ever tighter to assimilate Lavinia’s slender
proportions. She had learnt to dress her hair into various fashionable
styles, for, although she would no doubt have her own personal maid when
she returned to ‘Avonridge’, as Madame said, ‘We do not want to be at the
mercy of a maid for the elegance of our appearance, do we?’

But still the brown eyes staring back at her were filled with a sadness
not easily understood by others. She sighed and turned away.
Superficially, she was happy enough here, but as with each passing day she
grew towards womanhood, so the love in her heart for Jonathan changed from
girlish adoration or infatuation, into a deep and lasting emotion, whether
or not it would or could ever be returned by him.

Lavinia decided to make little of her life at the school in her future
letters to Jonathan, hardly mentioning her friend, Phillippa. She pressed
him for more details of his ship, which course was wise on her part, for
no other subject could tempt such lengthy letters from the reserved
Jonathan. He referred, often, but always guardedly, to the increasing
antagonism between the Keldon Line and their rivals who, though Jonathan
avoided actually writing their names in full in his letters, Lavinia knew
to be the Line run by Lord Myron and Lord Thorwald in which her own father
was also engaged. As the building of the steamship progressed, Lavinia
heard of the strict security measures her grandfather, Lord Melmoth and
his two sons were taking to safeguard their ship. Why, wondered Lavinia,
pausing in reading a letter from Jonathan, should it be necessary to have
a guard patrolling day and night near the ship?

A week later, a letter from Giles gave her the answer, and at the same
time taught her several things, not only about the seriousness of the
rivalry between the Companies, but also about Jonathan himself.

‘Dear Vinny,’ Giles wrote.

‘Jonathan has asked me to write to you—though I was on the point of
doing so on my own account. He has had to rush off to Blackwall as we’ve
run into a spot of bother. I believe you know that rivalry between our
two Companies has grown, and their antagonism is directed towards our
new ship. Well, as a security we have been guarding her, but honestly, I
don’t think any of us thought they would stoop to this! Vinny, the new
ship has been sabotaged. Fortunately no one was hurt, but the ship is
badly damaged and it will take weeks or months probably, to repair. So
you can guess how we’re all feeling here. Jonathan has gone there and I
think he plans to stay on the spot at least until things have quietened
down.’

Lavinia paused. So Jonathan has rushed off immediately to guard his
beloved ship with no thought for his own personal safety. And it had also
meant that he was too busy to write to her and had asked Giles to do so
instead. Lavinia sighed. How many times did Jonathan—unwittingly—break her
heart?

It was eight weeks and three days after Giles’ letter
telling her of the sabotage to the steamship before Lavinia received a
hastily scribbled note from Jonathan.

‘My dear Vinny,’ She was surprised to see this
instead of Lavinia.

‘Forgive me, my dear, for not having written and for having asked
Giles to write to you in my stead. I hope you will understand the
desperate urgency of the situation in which we found ourselves at that
time. I know Giles will have acquainted you with as much detail as he
was able to put in a letter—and you will no doubt also have heard
further from your grandfather—so now, suffice to say that although the
ship was badly damaged we have been able to repair it and are now
proceeding with the normal building, though some months behind schedule.
But this is not a serious problem. The only real worry now is the
possibility of a re-occurrence of the sabotage. But all we can do is to
take every precaution and hope nothing more will happen.

‘We have another problem, Vinny, with which perhaps you can help us.
We want a name for our brand new ship. We had thought of the “Mélanie”
after your grandmother, but how do you feel about us calling her the “
Lavinia”? All the family—including your grandfather—are in full
agreement with my suggestion, and all we need now is your approval.’

Lavinia could for the moment read no further for tears of joy blinded
her. Jonathan did think enough of her to wish to name his new ship—for she
had always thought of it as his—after her. It was strange, she reflected
later when her emotions had calmed somewhat, that such little actions by
Jonathan could either cast her into the depths of despair or elevate her
to the clouds. Such was the penalty of loving!

Naturally, she replied immediately to him this time, but because she was
so overwhelmed by his gesture, her letter was perhaps a little stilted in
her acceptance. She could not put into words all that it meant to her, and
of course, it was necessary to hide from him just exactly how much his
action did mean to her.

The year of her stay in France was fast nearing
conclusion and only two months remained before she would be sailing home.
Her grandfather wrote—as he had done each week since their parting—and
spoke of her homecoming.

‘We are planning to give you a grand
“coming-out” ball, my dear, and Lady Melmoth will present you at Court
and attend to all the engagements which you will have in your first
Season. Now, about your journey from France—will you mind if I don’t
make the journey to fetch you, my dear? The injury to my leg—I told
you I had a fall whilst riding—is still rather painful though nothing
serious I assure you, but the long journey would not help. Giles has
expressed a great willingness to come over and escort you back to
England, for I would not dream of having you travel alone. He really
is a most likeable young man—impetuous perhaps, but completely
trustworthy. I know he will take good care of you.’

Lavinia frowned. Was her grandfather’s injury more serious than he had
hitherto led her to believe? He had made light of the mishap when it had
occurred—but now she began to worry about him. She could not, despite her
anxiety, help smiling at his words regarding Giles. She remembered their
conversation on the boat when she had left England when her grandfather
had seen her unhappiness at leaving the Eldon brothers. She wondered now
whether he thought that Giles was the object of her affection.

As far as Lord Rowan’s injury was concerned, she did not know what to do;
she could not write and ask him for he would dismiss it entirely, and
though she would see him for herself in less than two months that was
still a long time to be worrying.

Lavinia decided to write to Lady Melmoth for she better than the menfolk
of the family would understand the disquiet in Lavinia’s mind. But her
fears were quelled by the reply which assured her that Lady Melmoth was
convinced that Lord Rowan’s injury was not in the least serious—but that
he was taking the wise precaution of nursing it.

‘I am sure,’
Lady Melmoth wrote in
conclusion,
‘that the injury has certainly caused him a deal of pain,
but by his appearance I can tell that it is improving steadily now,
though perhaps at the time it happened he did minimise the accident to
you!’

So Lavinia began to look forward to her home-going with uninterrupted
pleasure. She had acquired a large—she still wondered at times if it were
not too large—wardrobe of fashionably elegant clothes. Her whole
appearance was altered beyond even her own hopes. She had acquired too the
elegance and self-confidence she had once so envied in Lady Melmoth and
indeed also in Lady Anthea Thorwald.

Always foremost in her mind was the question—what would Jonathan think of
her now?

One month: three weeks: two: one—and then the day was here! There was a
mixture of happiness and sadness for all the girls were excited at the
prospect of returning home and yet having lived together for almost a
year, it was natural that friendships had been formed and parting brought
the inevitable ‘sweet sorrow’.

Madame Givelle was high in the girls’ affections and Lavinia in
particular felt a deep gratitude to the kindly woman for, of all the
girls, Lavinia knew she had learned the most and gained the most benefit
under Madame’s guidance. In her wildest dreams she had never really
anticipated that she could emerge the self-assured, elegant woman she now
was.

Lavinia dressed with care on the morning of her departure. Her travelling
habit was new, the skirt following the latest trend in fashion, being less
of the full-skirted crinoline, but flatter in the front and falling to a
train. Over this she wore a tight-fitting short coat for it was July and
very warm. The coat was royal blue velvet and she wore a matching hat
trimmed with white silk ribbons, feathers and artificial flowers. Her hair
was drawn back from her face in waves into a cascade of ringlets at the
back of her head.