It was late when we got back. We kissed one long last time just inside the front vestibule. And I bade him goodnight, using the excuse that I had to see to something in the kitchen. He grinned and nodded before darting up the stairs to his room. There was just no way I was going up to the bedroom level of the house with him.
The kitchen door was ajar, and I went in to find Magdali sitting at the table, writing out a list. Youssef, grinning, crouched behind her, his large hands massaging her shoulders while he pressed a kiss on her head.
Magdali looked up and they both froze.
“Sorry to interrupt,” I said, not sorry at all. I looked first at my sister and then to Youssef, who had discreetly stood up, returned his hands to his sides and then taken a step to the side. Did they really think I hadn’t noticed? I refused to pretend I hadn’t. I opened my mouth, unsure what would come out of it only to have—
“I’ve asked Magdali to be my wife, and she has finally agreed,” Youssef said, his grin returning.
“Finally?” I whispered.
“I only had to ask five times,” he replied.
Magdali had yet to meet my eyes. At least she had set aside the pen. “Magdali?” I rushed to the other side of the table and dropped down to hug her awkwardly.
She finally looked at me; her large eyes were filled with emotion, something I hadn’t seen in them since childhood. And in that instant I realized that my eyes, my face, were probably very much like hers. We, neither of us, shared our true emotions with others. I tugged on her arm, and she stood as I pulled her into an embrace. We both began to cry.
“Oh, Magdali,” I continued when I got a grip. “Oh, I am so happy for you, and for Youssef. When did this happen? And when will you marry?”
“As soon as possible,” Youssef interrupted, with a laugh. “Before she changes her mind.”
“I will not change my mind. I never change my mind,” she retorted, standing tall. “And we will marry when it is most convenient for all. Perhaps two or three years from now.”
Youssef stopped laughing.
“Magdali, you don’t need to wait that long. You marry exactly when you want. You’re my sister and I don’t want you to wait for happiness.”
She looked between the two of us. “You’re taking his side on this. Not at all like a sister of the Himba tribe. I knew you’d take his side.”
He held up his hands. “I should check on M. du Roque and Major Soames.” He started backing out of the room and just before he disappeared, he winked at me and said, “Thank you, madame.”
“Kate. You will call me Kate if you’re to be my brother-in-law.”
“Yes, madame.”
I grasped Magdali’s arm and nodded to the kitchen door and we walked out arm in arm to stare at the night sky.
“Why did you say two or three years from now?” I asked gently.
“There’s no reason to rush.”
“You’re right.”
“There really isn’t,” she insisted.
“I agree with you.”
“Youssef wants us to marry right away.”
“I see.”
“But like I said, there’s no reason to rush.”
“If you like I can keep saying ‘you’re right’ and ‘I see’ if it will make you feel better.”
She leaned down and picked a tiny white hydrangea blossom from a massive cluster.
“Why are you scared?”
“How can I not be?” She turned to face me. “It almost always ends badly. Your grandfather had three marriages. Your father had two. You had one. Your mother had two. Even Major Soames is unhappy. And my mother was perfectly happy with no husband and so was I. I refused to marry my daughter’s father. I knew he wouldn’t be a good husband and I didn’t need him to raise Solange. There’s no reason to do this.”
“Then why did you agree to marry him?”
“Because he wouldn’t stop asking.”
“And?”
“And . . . and . . . I like him.”
“Magdali, perhaps it’s a little more than that. You love him.”
“Just because someone loves you today, it doesn’t mean they will love you tomorrow. People in the Western world place so much importance on romantic love. My mother always told me that family and village come before anything else. And I believe it. Look at you, Kate. You’re here. You must see it, feel it. Love comes from family, from your friends and neighbors. It doesn’t come from a man.”
“But it all starts with two people.”
She shook her head and sighed.
“Magdali, you’re right and I am too. I would never tell you what to do, but I will say this. Of course there are no guarantees. But, you have chosen well. There is no question that Youssef is a man of excellent character, is there?”
She shook her head.
“And if anything goes wrong, you won’t stay in the marriage. You are my sister and I will always be here for you. You have nothing to fear except him breaking your heart, but that could happen if you marry or not. And I will be here to carry you either way.”
And for the first time ever, it was Magdali who opened her arms and I went into her embrace. “You’re right, Kate. I will do it. I want Solange to have a brother or sister. I don’t want her to be alone like we were.”
I nodded and rested my cheek on her thin shoulder. “And like Lily is.”
“Do you want more children, Kate?”
“I don’t think I could even if I wanted too. I didn’t conceive easily.”
“I know I shouldn’t say it,” Magdali said quietly, “but I wish you would find someone like the major.”
“Don’t, Magdali.”
“All right, I won’t. How was the movie with Russ Nation?”
“Long. Three hours of surfing was even too long for me.”
She laughed and tugged my arm to take a walk around the front of the villa. We continued in silence until we stood on the cliff road. The winking lights of Hondarribia, Spain, shone far away into the night.
“He’s a good man too,” she finally said. “He supervised all his friends for two straight days to make sure the tarps were attached properly with sandbags he poured himself from the beach. And I showed him how to run the old sewing machine to make the bags. Do you know how many people have come here asking him to do the same thing for them?”
“We’re lucky he’s staying here.”
“We’re lucky he likes you,” Magdali said with a coyness I’d never heard in her voice.
“You’re better at changing the subject than my clients. So then, what kind of wedding do you want? Are you going to let me have the reception here?”
“No! There is no need. That is too much and I don’t like crowds. We’ll go to the mairie and be married.”
“Um. That would be here then.”
She laughed again. “True. But no crowds. Just a little lunch en famille after would be nice.”
This from the woman who had invited half the people of the village to come to meet my daughter when she arrived. Two could play at that game. “And will you and Youssef and Solange stay here? Or will you want to move to your own house or apartment somewhere else?” I tried very hard to sound neutral, but I had no clue if I was successful. What would I do without them?
“I just told you family and friends and village are everything important to me. I want to stay in the only home I’ve ever known, if that is okay.”
I let out my breath. “Don’t worry. I think I might have gotten down on my knees and begged you to stay if you had suggested something different.”
She caressed my cheek. “I am so glad you finally know the truth. I think I always knew you were my sister when we were growing up. You liked to play the same silly games I did and we could be in a room together for hours and not say a word to each other and be perfectly content.”
“I know,” I replied. “You were the only one with whom I could be myself as a child.”
“But when you became an adult, you put aside the masks, yes?”
I thought about it a long time as we returned our gazes to the Spanish coast in the distance. A bank of fog was rolling off the coast and the sea was almost perfectly flat, with only the wavelets reflecting the now hazy lights in the distance.
“No. The reverse was true. I built an impressive false front. Perhaps it’s what introverts like us do, Magdali.”
“I didn’t know we were introverts.”
“But, you know now, here? I’ve finally forgotten to be anything else but myself,” I realized it as I said it, unvarnished by any of my past filters. Despite all the financial issues weighing on me, I felt lighter and freer than I’d ever felt in my life.
Magdali turned away from the vista to look at me. Her beautiful smile glowed in the darkness. “That’s because you’re among people who love you without question, without condition. My mother always said that in Africa your entire village is your family, so there’s no use trying to hide anything because the truth will always come out.”
“Uh-huh,” I said. God, I wished I could afford to send them both somewhere fabulous on their much-deserved honeymoon. And I knew where. I wanted to send them to Africa so my sister could see the places she’d heard about her entire life. “Speaking of family and truth, will you go on a honeymoon right away?” I inhaled deeply.
“Absolument pas. No!”
“We shall see,” I whispered.
“Youssef and I have very simple needs, and we don’t need much to be happy. Perhaps a little weekend away will suffice when there is less work to be done.”
“There’s still time to think about it. Well then . . . shall we plan the wedding for three weeks from today?”
“Quoi?!”
What, indeed.