The changeling

“This looks inviting,” said Pedrek. “You sit down and I will go and get the food.” He returned with the salmon I had seen being delivered that morning. On each of the tables was a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket. We sat down opposite each other. “I must say your stepfather knows how to manage these affairs in style.”

“It is all part of the business of being an ambitious member of Parliament.”

“I thought that was done by distinguishing oneself in Parliament.”

“And keeping up appearances outside ... knowing the right people ... pulling the right strings and keeping in the public eye.”

“That can sometimes be disastrous.”

“I mean keeping in a favorable light.”

“That’s different. But enough of politics. I don’t ever intend to take part in them.

Does that please you?”

“Do you mean does it please me that you don’t intend to?”

“I mean exactly that.”

“I don’t think you’d make a politician, Pedrek. You’re too honest ...”

He raised his eyebrows and I went on: “I mean that you are too straightforward. Politicians always have to think of what is going to please or displease the voters. Uncle Peter was always saying that. He would have made a good politician. We were all fond of him but he was a manipulator ... not only of things but of people. Look how he made Martin Hume. I don’t think a man should have to be made. He should do it by his own efforts.”

“You are looking for perfection in a less than perfect world. But enough of politicians.

I want to talk about myself ... and you.”

“Well, go ahead.”

“We’ve always been friends,” he said slowly. “Isn’t it wonderful that we were both born in extraordinary circumstances ... both of us seeing the light of day in the Australian goldfields? Don’t you think that makes us special friends?”

“Yes, but we know that, Pedrek. What was it you wanted to tell me?”

“I shall not be able to marry for two years ... not until I finish with the college really. How do you feel about that?”

“What should I feel about your marriage?”

“The utmost interest because I want it to be yours as well.” I laughed with pleasure. “For the moment, Pedrek, I thought you were going to tell me that you had fallen victim to some alluring siren.”

“I have been in the coils of an irresistible siren ever since I was born.”

“Oh Pedrek, you are talking of me. This is so sudden.”

“Don’t joke about it, Rebecca. I am very serious. For me there is only one siren. I always knew you would be the one. To me it was a foregone conclusion that one day we should be together ... always.”

“You have never consulted me on this important matter before.”

“I didn’t think it was the time; and I thought it was something between us ... something you knew as well as I did. That it was ... inevitable.”

“I don’t think I thought of it as inevitable.”

“Well, it is.”

“So this is a proposal?”

“Of a sort.”

“What do you mean, ‘of a sort’? Is it or isn’t it?”

“I’m asking you to become engaged to me.”

I smiled at him and touched his hand across the table. “I’m so proud of myself,” I said. “It is not many girls who get a proposal the instant they are launched into society.”

“That’s not the point.”

“I haven’t finished yet. I was going to say get a proposal from Pedrek Cartwright.

That’s what makes it so wonderful ... because it’s you, Pedrek.”

“This is the happiest night of my life,” he said.

“Of mine, too. Won’t they be pleased?”

“My mother will. I am not so sure of your stepfather.” He was frowning.

“What is it, Pedrek?” I asked.

“He has planned all this for you because he wants you to make a grand marriage.”

“I am going to make a grand marriage in exactly two years from now.”

“Let’s be sensible, Rebecca. It’s not what he would call a grand marriage. A mining engineer with a mine in remote Cornwall.”

“It’s a very successful mine. In any case I wouldn’t care if it was an old scat bal, as they call a useless old mine down there, if you went with it.”

“Oh, Rebecca, it’s going to be wonderful ... the two of us ... I can’t wait. You make me want to abandon the idea of going to college. I could go into my father’s office and we’d be married right away.”

“You have to be sensible, Pedrek. This is marvelous. Two years ... they will pass and all the time we’ll be thinking of what’s to come. They would say we are too young anyway. It doesn’t matter so much for women ... eighteen is all right ... but for a man it should be older. Let’s do it the right way, Pedrek.”

“Yes. I’m afraid we’ll have to.”

“We want to do it all absolutely right. You’ll go to your college knowing I’m waiting ... longing for the day ... and that will help you to come through with flying colors. Then there will be a riotous feast at Cador. My grandparents will be pleased and I shall be rid of my stepfather forever.”

“You’ve never liked him.”

“Well, I suppose I blame him for spoiling our lives. If he had never been there my mother would be alive today. I can’t get that out of my mind.”