‘But it’s so fine, so dignified. You’re not afraid of breaking down?’
‘There is that. But you know, I’m not sure I want to go so far in that direction. As it were. Those “great spaces washed with sun” I wrote about, they feel too exposed. I thought I’d stay here with you and the children.’
‘You are a mystery,’ she exclaimed, almost provoked. ‘But you’ve made me happy.’
* * *
Only a matter of weeks after Rud and Carrie’s return from Africa, Home Leave brought Jack Fleming to London and with him Trix.
Rud and Trix were reunited in Tisbury.
‘I can’t tell you what it means, Trix – that you’re back to your old self once more –’ Rud broke off, laughing shakily. ‘Tell me again how the poetry got started.’
They were sitting, together with their mother, in the little breakfast room of their
