[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.The people from the cottage arrived just then.Wladyslaw helped them to carry the supplies down the leeward side of a hedgerow where the snow wasn’t too thick.It was the third time the family had been cut off in six weeks, and now their water pump had frozen, forcing them to draw water direct from the well.Before Wladyslaw left, they offered him some brandy called applejack and laughed when he drank it like vodka, in a single gulp.By the time he got back to Stella she had reversed the tractor out into the lane, and they set off immediately.A sharp wind met them on the ridge road and Wladyslaw shouted and mimed to Stella to pull her scarf up over her nose.Then he hunched low in the trailer, but not so low that he couldn’t watch her with proprietorial pride, the way she drove like a veteran, swaying her body in counter-movement to the more violent lurches of the tractor, gripping the juddering wheel, tolerating no opposition from the gear stick.If the effect was slightly marred by her need to extend her leg beyond its natural reach to operate the clutch, it in no way detracted from the overall impression.He loved her determination and her panache, the way she refused to be deterred.She had taken a couple of driving lessons when the blizzards closed the school, and had been rattling around on her uncle’s tractor ever since.All around, the snow fell swiftly in swirling blurs of fine flakes that blotted out everything but the occasional tree and the hedgerows reeling past on either side, their branches caked with huge unwieldy clots of snow.At one point their way seemed blocked by a drift that had formed opposite a gate, filling the road and completely submerging the leeward hedgerow, but by creeping close to the gate and keeping momentum Stella managed to push through.Coming into the village, approaching a fork in the road, Stella swivelled round and catching Wladyslaw’s eye jabbed a finger left.He nodded vigorously and she turned down the hill towards Athelney.As they bumped over the level crossing Wladyslaw found himself looking to left and right as if for trains, but there had been no trains for more than two weeks and the track was buried under parallel bulges of snow.They passed through the next string of cottages and turned onto a low road that rose to cross the Tone just above its junction with the Parrett.Stella halted on the bridge.The scene was of unrelieved whiteness.Snow drooped on the trees and billowed in frothy waves over the riverbanks, while all around the flakes kept falling and falling.The two rivers were locked in ice that was for the most part snow-covered, but in places scratched and scathed by the wind and the myriad criss-crossings of bird tracks.Stella peered upriver and down, searching for two young Bewick’s swans that had failed to escape to open water when the freeze set in.She had been feeding them regularly at this spot, but the previous day the one she called Merlin had disappeared, and now there was no sign of Lancelot.‘I can’t see them,’ she called.‘Maybe they both have flown together,’ Wladyslaw suggested.Her fretful glance declared she thought this unlikely.On the far side of the bridge she turned the tractor round and drove back along the road below the Parrett, scanning the high banks, diverting up any track and wider pathway that offered the smallest view of the meandering river.At a place named Oath she turned through a gate and parked below the high mechanism of a sluice gate.Without waiting for Wladyslaw she jumped off the tractor and scrambled up the bank.Reaching the top she made an exclamation, whether of relief or disappointment he couldn’t tell until she called out, ‘I think it’s Merlin!’Joining her, Wladyslaw saw the swan floating in the pool of ice-free water just below the sluice.‘I’m pretty sure it’s him,’ she said.‘What do you think?’‘Definitely.’She had brought bread and vegetables and threw the scraps down piece by piece.‘Look! Look!’ She laughed.‘Greedy thing!’‘He’s hungry all right.’‘You really think it’s him?’‘Yes, I do believe.Or I would not say this.’She looked at him and said, ‘It’s true.You wouldn’t.’‘He is like me.A simple creature.’She laughed.‘I’m not so sure about that.’When the food was gone, they stared wordlessly into the pool.Around them the flakes fell swiftly in a veil, the deep snow-filled silence was mute and unresonant; they might have been lost in a secret world.He went and stood behind her shoulder, almost touching it.Slowly she inclined her head towards his in a gesture that sent a whisper of joy into his heart.He looped an arm around her waist and drew her gently against him.Standing there in the unearthly silence, with her body resting against his, he felt he was caught in a fantastic dream.Only the icy encrustations of her hat against his cheek seemed to have an edge of reality.She moved, and the dream broke.All his senses were alert to the need to speak.The moment had been of such significance that he felt it must be acknowledged, revered, affirmed.He decided to say some of the things he had intended to say that evening.‘Stella?’She turned to face him.Close up, her nose was very white, the cartilage like carved ivory; her cheeks under the freckles were dappled with delicate patches of colour, her eyes damp and bright from the bitter air.‘I wish to tell you this – that I have decided to stay in England.Definitely.To make my life here.’‘Oh, Wladek.I’m so pleased.’ She put a gloved hand to his upper arm.‘So pleased.I hope you never have reason to regret it.’He smiled down at her.‘I think this is impossible.I also tell you that I have received yesterday papers to apply to London University.’‘Oh.’ Then, as it sank in, she exclaimed, ‘Oh, that’s wonderful, Wladek!’‘It is not ideal, because London is long way from here.But they have quota for Poles and, who knows, maybe they take old fellows like me.’‘Old,’ she rebuked him.‘But what will you study?’‘This is where I require your advice, dear Stella.This is one thing I ask of you tonight, if I may.’‘I’ll be glad to help all I can, of course I will.Though I’m not sure I’ll be too much use if it comes to choosing between history and philosophy.’‘I thought also of law.’‘Oh.’ She tried to hide her bewilderment, and failed.‘Why law?’He wished he’d never mentioned it now, because it had detracted from his main purpose, it had spoilt the mood.‘More practical, I think.’‘But if your heart’s not in it.’‘Ah, my heart, Stella.’ Suddenly the mood was restored, and he determined not to let the enchantment slip away again.Moving a little closer to her, he removed his glove and touched the back of his hand softly to her cheek.‘Yes, my heart must be my guide.This is why I must say to you, there are two reasons I go to study.One, to build a good life.Second, so that I can hope to be near to you, Stella.Because without you, this life will be nothing for me.’She stared at him.‘Oh.’ She sighed again.‘Oh [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]