While Still We Live Read Free Page B

gave the reins over to Felix. But the dark young man in uniform still sat on his horse. He was looking up at Sheila with sufficient interest to freeze the smile on her lips into self-consciousness. She drew back half a pace. Then, with a smart salute to the tip of his smart cap, the officer vaulted lightly off his horse, threw the reins over Felix’s waiting arm, and followed the older man into the house.
    Sheila placed the diary on top of a suitcase. Before the mirror, she combed her fair hair, added more powder to an already perfect skin. Her brown eyes looked back at her reprimandingly. “You had no need,” they said severely, “to keep staring at him.”
    Barbara, white-faced, sad-mouthed, interrupted her thoughts.“Sheila, aren’t you ready? We are waiting. And we have other guests, too, now. Adam Wisniewski and his father have ridden over from their house. Adam’s regiment is moving north, and it is stationed tonight near Lowicz. It is requisitioning more horses. Adam got leave to see his father, and they have come over here to say goodbye. He’s Andrew’s greatest friend. Did you meet him when Andrew was in London last year? Adam passed through there on his way to the Dublin Horse Show. He rides, you know.”
    “So I saw.”
    “Mother would like me to marry Adam. Can you see any reason why I don’t fall in love with him?” Barbara was half-smiling.
    “None.” Sheila paused. “Except that you fell in love with Jan Reska.”
    Barbara must have been thinking of Reska too. Her voice wasn’t very steady now. “It’s funny...” She took Sheila’s arm, and together they walked slowly towards the staircase.
    “What is?” Sheila asked gently.
    “Falling in love. How you do it, with whom...” Barbara managed to control her voice better. “Mother wants to see all her children married to people she likes. Of course you knew that was why she asked you to visit us this summer? She was so eager to see you, after Andrew came home from London and talked about you most of the time.”
    “Oh.” Sheila had wondered about that. After all, that was one of the reasons which had made her decide to accept Madame Aleksander’s invitation: she had wanted to find out, too, if she were really in love with Andrew.
    “You would have been just my choice for a sister-in-law,”Barbara was saying. She watched Sheila’s face as if hoping for a denial that Sheila wouldn’t be her sister-in-law. She saw, instead, a look of embarrassment and unhappiness well mixed. In some things, Barbara thought, the British girl seemed so much older than she did—in other things, such as falling in love and recognising it, Sheila was so much younger. It was incredible that people should be afraid of their emotions, instead of enjoying them.
    “Don’t worry, Sheila.” Barbara’s sun-tanned arm went round Sheila’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. Mother has other things to think about now. She is talking downstairs about leaving for Warsaw to do hospital work if war comes. She nursed in the last one, you know.”
    In the hall, there was the sound of many voices, even laughter.
    “Is the news better?” Sheila asked, as a heavily laden Maria, followed by a twittering Zofia, bustled past the girls.
    Barbara shook her head slowly. All pretence of lightheartedness was gone. Then Maria’s broad back had pushed the dining-room door wide open, and Madame Aleksander had seen them, was coming forward to welcome Sheila.
    “You aren’t shy?” she asked gently, looking at the girl’s wide eyes. And Sheila immediately lost the composure she had been mustering. The faces around her were so many, so vague. Then suddenly, they focused sharply. She found herself looking into the brown eyes of the tall cavalry officer. She would have to pick on him, she thought angrily, and looked quickly away. She had the feeling that it wasn’t quickly enough. He was smiling.
    Andrew was beside her now, looking very strange and serious in his uniform. There were the