Chapter Thirty-Nine
By the silver light of the moon and the golden gleam of a lantern, the coffin of Daniel Lambert was lowered on ropes held by drunken, pipe-smoking men into the mass grave in the Old Abbey burial yard, while the Reverend Julius Fessey stood twenty yards distant from the graveside, his fear causing him to gabble and stutter and make a mockery of the majestic sonority of the burial service, and behind him in the lane another two groups of mourners waited to commit their own loved ones to that same mass grave.
For Tildy, numbed by grief and exhaustion, it seemed that she was enmeshed in a nightmarish dream, and when it was over she walked in silence back to Salters Yard, and laid herself down on the bare boards of the bed she had shared so joyously with Daniel Lambert.
For seemingly endless hours she lay sleepless, her mind filled with memories of the man she had loved so dearly, and lost so cruelly.
At intervals she wept, but in contrast to the wrenching bitterness of her earlier torments, these were gentle tears that soothed and eased her agonies.
At last sleep came, and in that sleep came dreams. Daniel was at her side once more. Daniel as she had always known him, strong and vibrant and intensely alive. Once more she felt his arms enfolding her and his mouth on hers, and the clean scent and the warm fresh taste of him filled her senses.
‘Did you really think that I would leave you, honey?’ she heard him asking. ‘Did you really think that I could ever do that?’
‘No. No. No,’ she told him over and over again. ‘No, Daniel, no my love. I know that you will never leave me.’
‘I’ve only gone a little way ahead of you, sweetheart,’ he whispered tenderly. ‘And I shall be waiting when you come.’
‘When will that be?’ she questioned urgently. ‘When, my love, when?’
‘When it is the time to do so, honey,’ he told her softly and gently kissed her.
‘There is much you have to do before then. Davy must be raised to manhood, and there will be others come into your life who will love and need you. Much will happen and many years will pass, before you and I are reunited.’
‘But we will be reunited, won’t we, honey?’ she eagerly sought assurance. ‘Tell me that one day we shall be together again, Daniel. Promise me.’
She heard his fond chuckle that she knew and loved so well, and felt the firm loving caress of his strong arms.
‘Yes, sweetheart, we will be.’ His voice seemed to be growing fainter as if he were moving further and further away. ‘Never doubt it, my only love. We shall one day be together once more and then we shall never be parted again. I know this now and that is why I feel happy. I know this now.’
Tildy came awake, and lay staring into the darkness, her heart filled with yearning love and her mind with wonderment at what had happened to her.
Doubt filled her mind, ‘He couldn’t have been here. He couldn’t have. It must only have been a dream.’
Her hands reached out and her fingers felt the bare wooden boards beside her.
There was warmth there. Warmth as if someone had been lying beside her.
She held her breath, concentrating all her senses, trying to discover some trace of Daniel’s presence.
And then, in her mind, she heard him speak as if from a far distance.
‘We’ll meet again, sweetheart. Of that be sure. We’ll meet again.’
Tildy’s eyes brimmed and tears fell, but through those tears she smiled, as certainty filled her heart …
THE END