Читать книгу The Discovery of Chocolate: A Novel онлайн | страница 36

It was a strange homecoming. My father had died and I had little in common with the friends who had remained in the city. Their lives had scarcely changed and they did not seem interested in my travels, preferring to keep the raw experiences of war, death and adventure outside the genteel confines of the court.

On approaching Isabella’s house I was filled with an overwhelming depression. I could not see the point of anything in my life, and the love that I tried to recall, however faintly or insincerely, had vanished for ever. I was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong woman.

Isabella was a pale and delicate stranger, as if she had never seen the sun or walked outdoors. She held out her hand and I stooped to kiss its tiny and fragile form, thinking that this must surely be a dream.

‘My lady …’

‘You are much changed,’ Isabella ventured.

‘I have travelled many miles.’

‘And with a beard?’

Her right eyebrow raised itself in amusement and contempt.

‘It is the sailor’s custom.’

Pedro remained in the doorway, alert, watchful, and unmoved. After two years’ absence he no longer knew Isabella. She called to him, but he simply lay down, his head between his paws. Even after she had crossed the room and held him to her, Pedro remained aloof.

‘It seems you have corrupted my dog.’

‘He has seen much violence, and learned to fear strangers,’ I replied wearily. It was as if all my emotions had vanished.

‘My poor Pedro.’

‘I thought that you had given him to me.’

‘He will always be my Pedro.’

An awkward silence followed. After all the perils of separation Isabella and I had nothing to say to each other. Even today, as I write, I cannot understand how endless those two years apart had seemed at the time, and how swift and immediate was the disillusion when we were reunited.

‘I long to hear of your endeavours,’ she said at last. ‘I did believe that you might lose your life.’

‘You sound as if you might have wanted this to be so.’

‘Only in the most romantic sense.’