The day was nearing evening, and the girls decided to go home.
Annie and Candy took Patty back to the hotel, and that was the time to say goodbye.
"I have to hurry, as Neil will be worried," Candy said.
"I think you've repeated his name twenty times in half an hour," Annie laughed. "Neil thinks that, Neil advises that, Neil doesn't like that..."
"Stop that!" Miss White blushed.
"It's so great to see you so happy and so in love," Patty continued after a pause, squeezing her friend's hands.
"This is just wonderful," Miss White said dreamily. "It is so good to be with a loved one... Fall asleep and wake up next to him..."
Miss Brighton caught a special intimate sound in those words, and looked surprised at her friend, whose glance seemed to Annie softer and more... girlish. It were not the eyes of a young girl, but the eyes of a loving woman, calmer, pensive, tender, similar to the glance of her mother when she looked at father.
"Well, that's all, I have to go," Patty hurried. "See you tomorrow at eleven, and then, we'll run for the dress." Miss O'Brien seemed to want to leave as soon as possible.
"See you!"
Two girls were waiting for the carriage, and Annie asked:
"Candy. Sorry for the question... But you said "Fall asleep and wake up next to him." What did you mean? Was that just an expression?"
Candy blushed to the roots of her hair, and looked away. She never knew how to hide her emotions.
"Yes, I said that by the way," She murmured. "That meant nothing…"
Annie took her friend by the hand.
"Candy! Why did you do that? Why did you let him?" Miss Brighton didn't even understand why she was so excited by the news. "You should behave like a lady."
Candy lowered her head.
"I know this is a sin. Miss Pony and Sister Maria would be unpleased with me. But what can we do now, and then, it was so good... and we will get married soon anyway..."
Green eyes looked at the blue ones in the hope of encouragement and warmth, but the young lady was too shocked.
"Listen, Candy, how can you say that?" She whispered. "A lady can't feel good about... that. Only fallen women enjoy it. A lady wears the touch of her legitimate husband for the sake of duty and future children, didn't you know that?"
Miss White didn't answer. Several carriages that they could call rolled past, but the girls were still standing on the porch of the hotel.
"Candy... The only thing you can do now is to be colder with him," Annie said. "I mean, do not show that you completely belong to him. Then, maybe he will marry you. But if you will be like a wife to him now, he will not respect you."
Miss White didn't answer again. She probably did many wrong things. She just had no one to consult. What is good and what is bad... How to act. If only mom was with next to her now, she would help, she would teach how to do! But people around were not close enough to discuss topics like that…
And what could she do then? After all, Neil had not changed, he was good and tender with her... But Annie said that he had already ceased to respect her. He was unpleased with her impatience somewhere in his heart, she said...
The girls sat in a carriage, and Candy felt heart heaviness. "What does it mean 'to be colder'? How?"
"I don't know how to pretend," Miss White thought. "I am who I am. I cannot pretend that I do not need him if I love him with all my heart. If he stops respecting me for this, then I... then I will behave differently..."
The carriage stopped at the Legans' Residence, where Neil was already waiting for her.
"See you!" Miss White said goodbye to her friend and got out of carriage, right to the outstretched hands of her beloved.
Candy embraced Neil impetuously, feeling how she missed him all day, inhaling with pleasure the smell of his perfume, touching the silk of his shirt. His hands wrapped her body like a warm veil.
"Neil, I love you so much! So much..." The girl whispered. Could it be that he will push her away, fall out of love with her? ...
Daniel embraced the girl even more tightly and touched her fluffy hair.
"I love you too, my kitty! What's wrong?"
"I just really missed you..."…
Patricia O'Brien lay down on the hotel bed right in her clothes. Candy is going to marry... Neil... And Annie broke up with Archie...
That sunny day in Scotland arose before the girl's eyes again. They sail in boats - in pairs - she was with Stear, and Annie was with Archie. And Candy and Terry were sitting on the steep bank of the lake...
Then it seemed to be forever.
Candy and Terry, Annie and Archie, Patty and Stear.
Stear died, and Candy and Annie broke up with their companions of youth. How unpredictable the life is!
"And I would like to return those days..." Patty thought. "To be together with Stear. Like the day we repaired the plane."
How merry, careless and happy they were!
Yes, Candy is strong. Despite all the misfortunes and partings, her heart is open to new love. She always looks only forward.
Patty rolled over on her stomach, reached for her handbag and pulled out a small photograph.
"And I still live in the past, yes, Stear?" She asked. "Oh, Stear, I already know how to cook properly, and not like that day in Scotland. You would like my dishes now. And I do not want to forget you. And don't tell me about Peter."…
… That spring day she sat in the park and read a book. A nice young man approached her and cheered her up. She laughed as lightly as it had used to be before the news about Stear. They sat on the bench and laughed merrily at Peter's joke. Peter Harris, her new acquaintance.
After that incident, the girl had been scolding herself for a long time. Yes, three years had passed, but still... Did she really forget the one she loved so much?
Everyone around said that "Stear would not like you to be so sad about him," "Stear would not like you to be left alone..."
How do they know what Stear would like, and what he would not? Would he like her to be with another man?
No, he did not want to die, he thought he would survive and return. And that they would be together, that's what he would like...
Patty kissed the picture.
"Oh, Stear, if only you were here... I so wanted to grow up with you, get married, have children that look like you... But you are slipping away, I don't remember what words you really told me, and what I just imagined... We are all getting older, and you will always be an eighteen-year-old boy... I want you to be here…"
The girl put the photo in her purse and silently sat on the bed.
"You will always hold a special place in my heart, Stear. I'm sorry. Whether you wanted it or not, you didn't consult me about it."