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The whip cracked, and the coach rolled off down the street.
My aunt was already in the house, as could be deduced from the sound of crashing china from somewhere on the first floor. Lisbeth and Gertrude were on their way to follow; Edmund had excused himself. Only Ella, Maria, Anne and I were still standing outside, looking after the coach.
‘Well,’ Maria sneered, giving Ella a superior look. ‘It seems you are one suitor short, little sister.’
‘Yes!’ Ella sighed, a happy smile suffusing her features. ‘Will you excuse me? I have, um… things to do.’
Pirouetting around like an overexcited ballerina, she hurried off around the house, into the back garden. I thought I had an inkling what ‘things’ she had to do, and with whom.
‘Is it only me,’ Maria asked, confused, looking at Anne and me in turn, ‘or did she seem not the least bit disappointed about losing one of the most eligible bachelors in London as a potential husband?’
‘Of course she was disappointed,’ I said. ‘Couldn’t you tell by the way her left little finger twitched? That always gives people away. Now, if you will excuse me, I think I have the sudden urge to take a late night stroll in the garden…’
*~*~**~*~*
‘Oh, Ella, my love!’
‘Oh, Edmund, my love!’
As sweet nothings fluttered through the holes in the fence, I settled myself comfortably down behind the bushes. Seeing as this might be a longer episode of the romantic Drama of the Back Garden, I had brought a copy of The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe with me. For now, though, it remained closed, and I peeked through the foliage towards the place where Ella was clinging to the fence and, through the fence, to Edmund. It had to be quite uncomfortable embracing somebody around several metal bars, but neither of them seemed to mind.
My eyes strayed to the ladder leaning against the garden shed. Still, neither of them seemed to have noticed it, or thought of using it.
‘Oh, Ella, my love,’ Edmund whispered. ‘How can this be? How can I be so fortunate to be holding you in my arms tonight, when I thought that by now I would have lost you forever?’
‘We must have a guardian angel watching over us from heaven,’ she whispered, pressing her face into his chest as best she could.
From heaven? From behind the bushes, rather.
But otherwise, she had hit the nail pretty much on the head.
‘Tell me this is true,’ Edmund sighed. ‘Tell me I am truly holding you right now, and it is not some phantasm I have dreamed up in my desperation of losing you to another.’
‘It is true, Edmund, my darling. I am here. I will always be here. I love you!’
‘I love you, too!’
‘I love you more!’
‘No, I do!’
I tuned out their conversation and immersed myself in The Further Adventures. I only resurfaced from my adventures in Madagascar when, out the blue, I heard my name.
‘…Lilly!’
‘Yes, my darling Ella. Your sister…’ Edmund murmured.
I was up on my feet and listening intensely in an instant! They were talking about me? What the heck did they have to talk about me?
Edmund was smiling. ‘So I finally met her.’
‘What did you think of her?’ Ella asked anxiously.
I leaned forward, pricking up my ears.
Yes? Yes? What did you think of me? And be careful what you say, you little piano-tuning bastard! I have a sharp parasol!
‘What do I think of her?’ Edmund laughed. ‘Ella, if not for her, I wouldn’t even have been at that ball. I would never have held you in my arms. Right now, after you, she ranks as the person I respect most in the world, more than the Queen, or, yes, even Ignaz Bösendorfer.’
