The Japanese Lantern (18 page)

The marriage was announced to both their ancestors in loud ringing tones and then Yoshiko was introduced formally to Kagami-san’s family and he to hers.

“What happens now?” Jonquil asked of Jason.

“We all escort her to her new home,” he whispered back, and sure enough the procession began to re-form and they began the short walk to Kagami-san’s house.

Jonquil walked with Jason. Nobuko collected Alexander and took him home to put him to bed. He was so sleepy that for once he had no objection to make, and Jonquil hardly noticed his going. It was wonderful, strolling through the autumn night with Jason beside her.

“It was a very pretty wedding, wasn’t it?” she said dreamily.

“Very pretty,” he agreed.

There didn’t seem to be very much more to say. She wanted nothing more, only to walk on for ever in this strange procession with her hand, in Jason’s.

But everything comes to an end, and Yoshiko s new home was not very far away. The Japanese girl had taken her place beside her husband and together they received all the congratulations, Yoshiko’s green eyes sparkling with pleasure, even while she waited for Kagami-san to make the replies, only nodding her head in agreement with everything
he said.

“Now we can go,” Jason said to Jonquil
.

She searched in her mind for any excuse to put off the moment, but none was forthcoming, and as he had taken her firmly by the arm she had very little option but to accompany him.

“Don’t you
think
—
” she began in agitated
tones.

“No, I don’t!” he said firmly. “You
’
re coming
with me now!”

She went meekly, missing Yoshiko s smile of pleasure as she saw them go. She had never been in such a dither. She wanted to run as fast as she could as far as she could go from Jason. She wanted to stay close beside him. She — she no longer knew what she wanted.

It was very dark outside, away from the bright lights and the gaiety of the wedding guests, and there was a cold nip in the air. Jonquil shivered and quickened her step to keep pace with Jason.

“Cold?” he asked her.

“A little,” she admitted. “It’s the sudden change from the warmth inside.”

He took off his jacket and wrapped it round her
shoulders.

“I’m not surprised you’re cold,
”
he said,
“
in
that thing. You’re half naked!”

She made a little movement of protest and he
laughed.

“
You look very nice,” he told her. “I thought you’d done me proud.”

The warmth from his coat was pleasing on her shoulders and she snuggled into it. In some way it seemed like part of Jason himself.

“I didn’t dress to please you, I wanted Yoshiko to feel that I’d made a special effort for her,” she said provocatively, but he only grinned.

“I didn’t expect to see you,” she added, not daring to look at him.

He came to a stop beside her, his white shirtsleeves gleaming in the darkness.

“I heard from Janet today,” he said in a tight voice that she scarcely recognized. “She won’t be back for another month at least.”

She looked up at him, her eyes wide and undismayed.

“I don’t suppose she will be,” she said, a little surprised. “She should be away even longer than that.”

“I asked her to come home as soon as she could,” he told her, and started walking again. “I thought it would be better for Alexander.”

Her heart went zooming down to her boots.

“I think you’re perfectly
horrid
!”
she told him violently. “The only harm Alexander has come to was to fall into the goldfish pond, and that wasn’t my fault! You made me leave him and go out with Mitchi Boko! You know you did!”

She began running away from him, but it was difficult in her high-heeled shoes and she stumbled over the cobbles. He caught up with her easily and caught her by the arm.

“Go
away
!” she cried out.

“For heaven’s sake be quiet!” he exclaimed impatiently. “You’ll have the whole neighbourhood out on us!”

“I hope I do!” she told him bitterly, rubbing her arm where he had grasped it
.

“Have I hurt you?” he asked her anxiously.

She looked up at him resentfully.

“No,” she admitted, “but you might have done!”

He laughed at that, doubling up with disconcerting amusement, until she began to think it was funny too and began to laugh also.

“I’ll get the car,” he said, “and we’ll go for a
short drive.”

He left her there, standing on the corner of the street, and came back a minute later with the car. He reached over the passenger seat and opened the door for her.

“Hop in,” he said.

She got in quickly, pulling the door shut behind her, still giggling at intervals beside him.

“I haven’t laughed like that for ages,
”
she
sighed.

H
e gave her a comical look and smiled at her. “It was the best thing that could have happened to you. I’d have been reduced to beating you if you’d gone on misunderstanding everything I said to you!”

That stopped her laughter.

“D-didn’t you mean that I was bad for Alexander?” she asked timidly.

He shook his head.

“No, I did not,” he said.

She waited for him to elaborate, to tell her what he had meant, but he evidently had no intention of doing any
t
hing of the sort, for the silence stretched on and on until she felt that time had got mixed up with eternity.

“Wh-what did you mean, then?” she asked at
last.

“I meant that you would have other things to
do,” he said simply.

She crept further into his coat, wondering what he could have meant by that. He reached over to lock her door and she realized that she was sitting as far away from him as was humanly possible, but she didn’t move. Instead she gazed out of the window into the darkness, hardly daring to breathe.

She didn’t know how long they went on driving, but they were well out in the country when he stopped the car.

“Okay,” he said. “Shoot.”

The Americanism was so unexpected that she found herself going off at a tangent.

“I don’t think I could have understood properly,” she found herself saying. “I thought you wanted to marry Yoshiko.”

He put his hand in the pocket of his jacket and
pulled
out his cigarette case. The movement pulled it off her shoulder and he tucked it back round her.

“Cigarette?” he asked her.

She shook her head.

“No, thank you. I had it all worked out, from that story you told me,” she went on. “Yoshiko was the mochi, you were the bull-frog, Matsui-san was the monkey, and Kagami-san the hare.”

Jason lit his cigarette deliberately and for a moment she could see his face in the light from the match.

“It fits,” he agreed. “I hadn’t thought of it that way. In my story
you
were the mochi and Edward was the hare. I hadn’t thought about the monkey. It was the only way I could think of to tell you that I meant to get you in the end.”

“Oh!” She was oddly disconcerted by that.

“Didn’t you guess?” he asked her gently.

“No,” she said.
“
Never
!”

He drew at his cigarette and she wondered what was coming next. When it did come, she was almost as astonished as he was.

“What made you think that I had taken Yoshiko to Osaka that evening?” he asked.

“But,” she exclaimed, “I recognized her shoes! The
sho
es you had bought her in Tokyo. Don’t you remember?”

“So that was how you knew she was there,” he said. “And I suppose you leapt to the conclusion that the shoes next to hers were mine?”

“Yes,” she said.

“You were right,” he told her. “Mine were next to hers, but I wasn’t with her. I saw the top of your head through the glass in the door and decided to follow you
.”

“I'm glad you did,” she confessed. “I was scared of Edward that night.”

He looked suddenly sober. She could see, for at that moment he took a puff at his cigarette and his face showed up clearly in the glow.

“You led me a fine dance over him,” he said savagely. He threw the cigarette out of the window and turned to her.

“Did you mean it when you said you hated me?” he asked her.

She could feel his hand on the nape of her neck and her heart began to thud.

“It was Kagami-san who had taken Yoshiko to that restaurant,” he told her.

“Was it?” she asked weakly.

His hand slipped down to her waist and pulled her across the seat towards him.

“
Well?” he said. “Did you mean it?”

“You know I didn’t,” she protested. It was comfortable with his arms around her and she buried her face in his neck. “I never did! But even when we first arrived in Japan, I thought it was Yoshiko you wanted. It nearly broke my heart,” she added in sudden indignation.

“Only nearly?” he demanded. “What do you think you did to mine?”

“To yours?” she repeated.

“Of course to mine! Didn’t you think that
I
might have had some feelings in the matter?”

“But
—
”

“I was so sure when you rang me up in Tokyo that it was because you were missing me. And
before that, snubbing me over the sake, saying that as you were my nephew’s governess it would be more fitting for me to remember your place!”

She blushed at that.

“I was so hurt,” she explained. “I thought in Manila
—
”

“Manila was the only time we both behaved sensibly,” he told her crushingly. “You’ve been blowing hot and cold ever since.”

She would have liked to explain further, but the opportunity was taken from her, for his lips found hers in the darkness and he kissed her so thoroughly that she was breathless and shaken at the other end.

“I didn’t know you felt like that!” she stammered out.

“Well, I do, you see,” he said warm
i
ngly. “And I have every intention of kissing you all over again.”

“Oh, I liked it!” she assured him anxiously.

He chuckled, drawing her closer against him.

“Where do you want to get married?” he asked her, almost casually.

She found herself blushing again and pushed him away from her with an agitated movement.

“I hadn’t thought
—
” she began confusedly.

“Not even in Manila?”

“Oh, no!” she exclaimed, a little shocked. “I didn’t dare let myself think as far ahead as
that
!”

He appeared to find that amusing also, for he kissed her again, more gently than the time before, and said:

“Well, how about
thinking of it now?”

“I am,” she admitted with a shy smile. “But I’d far rather leave it to you. I’d like my parents to be there, of course.” She paused. “You haven’t even asked me properly yet!” she said.

“My poor pet!” he commiserated with her. “I shan’t do you out of a proposal, I just wanted to
be absolutely sure that I was going to be accepted
first!”

It was her turn to laugh at that, and then she flung her arms round him, immediately repentant.

“Oh, Jason, I love you so much!” she exclaimed. “Yoshiko was teasing me earlier by telling me that I needed that headdress of hers more than she did, and I think she was quite right!”

He pretended to feel her head to see if he could find the horns, but she wouldn’t let him, refusing to bend her neck. It had just occurred to her that Jason might well have wanted his sister to come home so that he could marry herself all the sooner, and this thought gave her such a warm feeling that she melted into his arms.

“Do you think we could get married soon?
”
she asked in altered tones.

His mood changed with hers and he pulled her back into his arms, kissing her passionately.

“I
think
we probably could,” he said. “We could get
ma
rried and then go and see your parents when Janet gets back.”

Jonquil would have liked to agree quickly before he could change his mind, but she couldn’t, for his mouth came down on hers again and she was too busy showing him exactly how much she really did love him.

THE END