(no subject)
All the long railroad journey home from Italy, Archibald has been thinking about Mary and Colin. Months ago, he left Mary alone with a few servants and some books, and with permission to make a little garden somewhere. She was a small, sallow, delicate child, and surely she needed someone to watch over her. Fancy a child like that finding her way to Milliways, where things could happen to her better not to be thought of. It was time, and more than time, for the girl to have a real guardian.
And Colin! Archibald abandoned Colin long before Mary. He remembers the boy as a weak, wretched infant with his mother's great grey eyes staring indifferently from his face. The boy seemed far too much like Lilias Craven, and yet not nearly enough. Archibald sent him velvet robes and leather-bound books, gave him a nurse to watch over his health and the best doctors that could be found, and stayed far away from the child.
"Perhaps I have been all wrong for ten years," he says to himself. "Ten years is a long time. It may be too late to do anything for either of them --quite too late. What have I been thinking of!"
Gabriel Tam said, back at Milliways, It's never too late. For the love of God, man, go to your children.
***
At last Archibald's carriage reaches the moor, all blooming with purple heather in the sunlight. The great manor looms against the edge of the sky. It is the first time in ten years, Archibald realizes, that he is glad to be home.
In the garden! Lilias cries in Archibald's mind, as the carriage is pulls past the gardens' outer gate. "Stop the carriage," Archibald orders the driver. "Pitcher, tell Medlock I've arrived and prepare my rooms. I will be coming inside shortly."
The valet and the driver, long accustomed to their eccentric master, acknowledge their orders with a "Yes, sir" and a bob of the head each. Pitcher opens the door and helps Archibald out.
When the servants have driven off, Archibald walks through the trellised gate. The paths inside are hung with golden ivy. Archibald turns once, twice, without thinking about it, and then he is on the Long Walk. The door will be coming up on the left, although it is locked and the key is --
Archibald stops in his tracks, just before the doorway, because on the other side of the wall, people are laughing.
And Colin! Archibald abandoned Colin long before Mary. He remembers the boy as a weak, wretched infant with his mother's great grey eyes staring indifferently from his face. The boy seemed far too much like Lilias Craven, and yet not nearly enough. Archibald sent him velvet robes and leather-bound books, gave him a nurse to watch over his health and the best doctors that could be found, and stayed far away from the child.
"Perhaps I have been all wrong for ten years," he says to himself. "Ten years is a long time. It may be too late to do anything for either of them --quite too late. What have I been thinking of!"
Gabriel Tam said, back at Milliways, It's never too late. For the love of God, man, go to your children.
***
At last Archibald's carriage reaches the moor, all blooming with purple heather in the sunlight. The great manor looms against the edge of the sky. It is the first time in ten years, Archibald realizes, that he is glad to be home.
In the garden! Lilias cries in Archibald's mind, as the carriage is pulls past the gardens' outer gate. "Stop the carriage," Archibald orders the driver. "Pitcher, tell Medlock I've arrived and prepare my rooms. I will be coming inside shortly."
The valet and the driver, long accustomed to their eccentric master, acknowledge their orders with a "Yes, sir" and a bob of the head each. Pitcher opens the door and helps Archibald out.
When the servants have driven off, Archibald walks through the trellised gate. The paths inside are hung with golden ivy. Archibald turns once, twice, without thinking about it, and then he is on the Long Walk. The door will be coming up on the left, although it is locked and the key is --
Archibald stops in his tracks, just before the doorway, because on the other side of the wall, people are laughing.