Chapter 6

So that was the story. It wasn't the scandalous and passionate one that I had dreamt up, but it hadn't disappointed me, either. Instead of pitying Walter, which I had been sure I would do, I found myself pitying Faith Meredith. What a life she must have led, not knowing whether Jem was alive or not, yet maintaining a cheerful exterior until his death brought her to breaking point.

Walter showed me the letter that Jem had written to Faith, and there was love in every line. Unashamed, passionate, all-consuming, enduring love. He had addressed it to the manse, and the minister sent it to Walter's home.

I don't quite remember what it was about now, but I do remember that he wrote something like 'I'll come back to you. I don't know how long I'll take, but I will. Remember my promise down in Rainbow Valley all those years ago, before I left? I won't let you down, Faith. I told you I would return, and now I'm trying hard to. It hasn't been easy...the Germans gave me a hard time. I would have buckled and died if I hadn't been thinking and longing to come back to you. Faith, I do love you...please come to Holland to see me. I don't know if you're married yet – perhaps you are, but I just need to see your face and hear your voice after all this time…oh, Faith! I love you so much!'

One line I remember very clearly: 'We'll never walk alone as long as we have each other. Never.'

How strange that the song 'You'll never walk alone' came up after nearly thirty years.

I went down to the graveyard in the late afternoon before my train. There the tombstone was...with both their photos on it. I knew their story now.

"What were you like, I wonder?" I said to Faith in the photograph. "You must have been one great woman to make two men go out of their minds about you. Walter is out of his mind about you. He still can't forget you. I suppose that's why he doesn't notice Una in the least – and she's such a good little woman."

I sat down on the earth and gazed at the tombstone.

I'm not a man given to flights of fancy. I leave that to the Walters of the world. But just then, I can swear that I saw Faith. She was walking along a river, with her arms wrapped round her waist. And she was crying, "But I'm walking alone now. I'm walking alone now, Jem. I don't have you anymore."

I saw her collapse on the ground beside the river, whispering, "You promised me. You promised me you'd come back and we'd spend our lives together. You said you wouldn't let me down. Now I can't go on, Jem. I can't...go on. It may sound weak and foolish, but without you...without you, I simply don't have the courage to go on living...but I don't see how I can get out of it..."

She took out a knife from her bag.

The touch of steel on skin, the trembling of lips, the tightening of jaw. The sudden quick stabbing, the sharp searing pain, turning her head away from the pain, letting the blood drip through her fingers, opening her eyes to look at the vast void of the sky above. Yellow…everything was yellow.

Then she saw Jem; saw him as clearly as I was now seeing her. They lay on the ground together, holding each other's hands and looking into each other's eyes.

"You didn't die," she whispered.

He shook his head. "We'll be together, forever."

"You fulfilled your promise. I always knew you would."

"I love you, Faith," he said.

"I love you..."

"They'll always remember our love..."

Suddenly, the vision was gone. Gone, like dead leaves in autumn. I was shocked. Flabbergasted. It couldn't be true...what I had just seen couldn't have been the scenario in which Faith Meredith had met her end.

If it had been...

I got up immediately, wanting to get away from that graveyard. I'm not a man easily spooked. I don't believe in any fool thing that comes my way. But I was spooked then.

Before I went, I asked Walter where he'd found Faith's body.

"Beside a river," he answered, "She stabbed herself through the heart with a kitchen knife."

I experienced a cold chill through my heart.

Then, as I sat on the train, I reflected that it wasn't so bad after all. Coming to the Glen had earned me a love story – for now I could think of it as a love story. It was the best thing that could have happened; Faith would never have been able to settle down with Walter after seeing Jem die. Mourn as Walter might, ultimately he had to know that it was best that she had died. What would life had been like for them if she hadn't?

The train continued rushing on in the darkness as I thought of what Faith had heard Jem say.

"They'll never forget our love..."

"No," I said to myself as sleep overcame me, "We never will."