The Forgotten Affairs of Youth (23 page)

The other witness was a man who had been killing time before a journey and had wandered down from Waverley Station. He looked about the church as the ink dried on the page of the register.

“You know something?” he said to Jamie. “I’ve never believed in God, but I do believe in his love.”

Isabel heard this and glanced at the man, who smiled at her briefly and then turned away, looking vaguely sheepish.

Afterwards, while Grace and Charlie travelled back to the house by taxi, Isabel and Jamie walked home, making a long detour to follow the path that skirted the Salisbury Crags. They held hands on the walk, buffeted by the strong breeze that had sprung up while they were in the church. Isabel’s hair blew into her face, her eyes.

Jamie said to her, “I used to come here as a boy. I could run up Arthur’s Seat the easy way—round the back. I ran all the way.”

She pictured him in his kilt, a boy with bright eyes. And now here he was, a married man, a father.

They did not go out that night. Charlie sensed that something special had happened, but was tired and dropped off even before Jamie finished reading him his story. The tigers had not yet turned to butter, but the book was closed and the small lock of hair smoothed back across the forehead so gently by his father’s hand, his loving hand.

Isabel made dinner and they ate it together, in virtual silence. What was there to say? It seemed to them both that conversation could spoil the moment, as it sometimes does when everything has been said, even if few words have been used. After dinner, Jamie played the piano for a while, and Isabel sat and listened. Then, on impulse, they put on music and danced.

“It’s odd, dancing by ourselves,” muttered Jamie. “Odd, but very nice.”

“Yes,” said Isabel.

“Let’s stay up until half past nine,” said Jamie.

“Yes,” said Isabel. “Let’s.”

She held him to her as they danced. Over his shoulder she watched the minute hand of the clock creep slowly round the dial to the half hour. So slowly.

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, and the 44 Scotland Street series. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh and has served on many national and international bodies concerned with bioethics. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and taught law at the University of Botswana. He lives in Scotland.

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