Текст книги "The Red Pavillion"

Автор книги: Jean Chapman

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Текущая страница: 23 (всего у книги 23 страниц)

They waved energetically back to Alan and Liz, who had obviously spotted them some time ago.

‘Goodbye, my love,’ Blanche called. ‘Goodbye! Give my love to Pearling. Let me know what’s happening there. All the news.’

‘They can’t hear.’ George shook his head at her efforts.

‘I know, I know!’ Blanche said, waving hectically.

The hawsers were slipped from the bollards, splashing down into the dock, and a tug moved in to nudge and nurse the troop ship out into the channel.

From the rail, pressed close by Alan’s side, Liz waved and waved, feeling unutterably separated from her mother as clear water appeared between boat and land.

Adrift. She felt she ought to try to explain to someone that life had somehow mixed up their journeys. She was the one who was supposed to stay and her mother to return.

Alan took her hand and held it very hard. It felt as if he brought her hovering heart finally aboard for the journey, anchored not to a place but to a person.

“What needest with thy tribe’s black tents, who hast the red pavilion of my heart?”

Liz was never sure whether it was she who whispered the words.