Marcus frequently told us how delighted he was to be at Marchlands.

“I used to lie in my narrow hospital bed and wonder if I was ever going to get here,” he said. “The weeks went on and on and they would not let me go.”

“You have been very ill, Marcus,” I said.

“Oh, not really. It was just that stubborn doctor. The more eager I was to go, the more determined he seemed to be to keep me.”

“You are so brave,” said Annabelinda. “You make light of your wounds. And if you are glad to be here, we are twice as glad to have you in our clutches.”

“This is where I would rather be than anywhere else.”

“I am so pleased,” said Annabelinda, looking at him earnestly, “that they can’t take you away from us…not yet anyway. We shall insist on keeping you until this silly old war is over.”

“You are too good to me,” he told her.

“You will see how good I can be,” she said, her eyes full of promise.

Then one day I found him alone under the sycamore tree.

“This is wonderful,” he exclaimed. “I hardly ever see you alone.”

“You always seem quite happy.”

“I’m happier at this moment.”

“You always say the things people want to hear. Do you really mean them?”

He put his hand over mine. “Not always, but at this moment, yes.”

I laughed. “Flattery comes as easily to you as breathing.”

“Well, it pleases people…and what’s wrong with that?”

“But if you don’t mean it…”

“It serves a purpose. As I said, it pleases people. You would not want me to go around displeasing them, would you?”

“That’s very laudable, but in time, of course, people will realize you don’t mean what you say.”

“Only the wise ones…like you. Most lap it up. It’s what they want to hear, so why not give it to them? But I assure you, I will be absolutely truthful with you. You are so astute that it would be pointless to be otherwise. At this moment, I am happy to see you and to have you to myself, and to see that you are growing up into a very attractive young lady. You were so young when we first met.”

“I’m nearly two years older now.”

“About to reach the magic age. But don’t grow up too soon, will you?”

“I thought you were urging me to.”

“I want you to keep that bloom of innocence. Sweet sixteen, they say, don’t they? How right they are! Don’t learn about the wicked ways of the world too soon, will you?”

“I think I have learned quite a lot about them in the last two years.”

“But it hasn’t spoiled you. You still have that adorable innocence. You will soon be seventeen. When is your birthday?”

“In September. The first.”

“Almost three months away.”

“I wonder if you will still be here?”

“I am going to be. If necessary I shall malinger. I shall pull the wool over Dr. Egerton’s eyes and make him insist on my remaining here.”

“But surely you will have recovered by then?”

He shrugged his shoulders and touched his chest. “That bullet did something. The old leg might get back to something like normal. I believe they are not much concerned with that I don’t think it would qualify me to be here. But I have to take care of this other thing.”

“I am glad in a way that you won’t be able to go to the front.”

“You would mind very much if I did?”

“Of course. I thought a great deal about you when you were in Gallipoli.”

“I wish I’d known.”

“But you must have guessed. We were all thinking of you…you and Uncle Gerald.”

“It’s your thinking of me that interests me.”

We were silent for a few moments, then I said, “You know a great deal about me and my family. I know little about you and yours.”

“There is not a great deal to know. I have been in the army from the time I was eighteen. Destined for it, you know. It’s all tradition in my family.”

“Uncle Gerald did say something about your coming from an ancient family.”

“We all come from ancient families. Heaven knows how far our ancestors go back…to the days when they were all living in trees or caves perhaps.”

“The difference is that you know who your family was and what they were doing hundreds of years ago. You’re from one of those families who…”

“Came over with the Conqueror? That’s what you mean, is it? Oh, I daresay. There was always a lot of pride in the family…all that sort of thing.”

“Tradition,” I supplied.

“That’s it. The family has been doing certain things for centuries. We have to remember that and go on doing them. The second son always goes into the army. The first, of course, runs the estate. The third goes into politics, and if there is a fourth, the poor devil is destined for the Church. The idea in the past was to have the family represented in all the influential fields. Thus we played our part in governing the country. What was done in the sixteenth century must be done in the twentieth.”

“And do you all meekly obey?”

“There have been rebels. Last century one went into business. Unheard of! He made a fortune, bolstered up the crumbling ancestral home and set the family on its feet. But that did not stop them from thinking there was something shameful about his life.”

“Well, at least you have done your duty and haven’t become a black sheep.”

“But not an entirely white one either.”

“I should have thought they would be proud of you.”

“No. I should have become a field marshal, or at least a colonel by now. I haven’t a hope. Wars are the time for promotion. But I’m knocked out of it, as it were.”

“Won’t the family recognize that?”

“Oh, yes, but it doesn’t really count. I should at least have got a medal…preferably the Victoria Cross.”

“Poor Marcus! Perhaps it would have been better to have been born into an ordinary family like mine.”

“Yours is far from ordinary. Consider your mother. Turning her home into a hospital!”

“Do you feel restricted, having to conform to such high standards?” I asked.

“No. Because I don’t always. One gets accustomed to compromise. That is our secret motto. As long as it all looks well, that’s all that matters.”

“But you went into the army.”

“It suited me in a way. I was too reckless at eighteen to have any ambitions of my own.”

“And now…?”

“Oh, I shall be a good Merrivale to the end of my days. I shall stay in the army until I retire…then possibly settle on the estate. There’s a fine old house…not quite so imposing as the ancestral home, but it has been used by one of the younger sons through the ages. My uncle who lived there died recently and his son is living there now. I believe he has plans to move to one of the family’s smaller estates up north sometime. Then that house could be mine…when I retire from the army. I could settle down there and give my brother a hand with the estate. That life would suit me.”

“So you will do your duty to the family.”

“I shall marry and settle. I must marry before I am thirty.”

“Is that a family law?”

“It’s expected of us. Sons should have settled by the time they are thirty and begin to replenish the earth…or shall we say, the family. Time is running out for me. Do you know I am twenty-eight?”

“Is that really so?”

“Quite old, compared with you.”

“You will never be old.”

“Ah. Who is flattering now?”

“If it is the truth, it is not flattering, is it?”

“But you were saying this to please me.”

“I was merely saying what I think.”

“Oh, hello…there you are.” Annabelinda was coming toward us.

“Marcus,” she went on. “How long have you been sitting there? I’m not sure that you should. There’s quite a chill in the air.”

“Ah,” said Marcus. “The fair Annabelinda! Have you come to join us?”

“I have brought your jacket.” She put it around his shoulders. “I saw you from one of the windows and I thought you needed it.”

“How I love to be pampered!”

“I was looking for Lucinda, actually,” said Annabelinda. “Your mother was asking for you a little while ago. I thought you might be somewhere in the garden.”