The Letter Read Online Free

hearth. She was ready for the succour of a hot water bottled bed and the smooth black rosary beads ever present under the pillow.
     

 
    SCOTLAND 1931-1935
     

Chapter 4  
     
    Scotland 1931
     
    Ghosts from the past crowded Margaret’s dreams transporting her to their former world where youth was reborn. University life was hectic and she was already making a reputation with the fashionable Edinburgh literary set. Every topic was up for debate and a dozen people ready to discuss it, often well into to the night. She was glad to be able to dash home to the backwater of Gorebridge for the occasional weekend. There she could sleep late and didn’t have to argue the finer points of anything. She left it to the last minute to leave, for there was Mass to go to, dinner to eat and the company of her brothers and youngest sister Mary.
    One Sunday evening the Edinburgh train was already standing in the station when Margaret reached the booking hall. Ticket in hand, she ran along the platform peering into crowded compartments. She had reached the last before finding the possibility of a seat. Pulling open the tightly closed door, she clambered over the occupants, apologising in all directions, ignoring the shuffling of newspapers and squeezed in amidst irritated tutting.
    The young man sitting opposite smiled as if the scene he had witnessed was a huge joke. Margaret automatically smiled back. For a while they silently shared their amusement grinning at each other. His thick ebony hair fell onto his forehead and his black-brown eyes danced invitingly. She was making eyes at a foreigner, in a carriage filled with pale Scots and she couldn’t stop. He spoke formally, introducing himself, “My name is Vidyaaranya Atrey. I am a medical student at the university.”
    He epitomised sophistication, handsome in a tweed jacket and stylish plus fours. Margaret felt shy and awkward beside him. He didn’t notice, shutting out the disapproving fellow travellers with a cavalier smile. She was bedazzled and talking too much. All too soon the train pulled into Edinburgh and they went their separate ways but not before arranging to meet later the same week.
    Jean, who was a scholarship girl at school in Edinburgh and boarding in the city, was waiting by the ticket barrier. In a whirl, before her sister had chance to speak, Margaret gabbled, “You’ll never guess… I’ve met a medical student on the train. He’s in his final year…”
    “Trust you to get into a conversation with a complete stranger! “For all you know he might not even be at the university.”
    “You worry too much. Besides he’s the most handsome man in the world.”
    “Maggie you are the limit!”
    “I know, but Jean, he spoke to me… to me!”
    “Sometimes I think you’re positively mad.”
    “I’ve arranged to meet him on Wednesday.”
    “You can’t possibly go!”
    “I am. Anyway he probably won’t turn up,”
    “Don’t you want to hear my news?” asked her long suffering sister.
    Margaret replied contritely that she did.
    “I’ve won a bursary to study mathematics at Edinburgh next autumn. That’s if I pass my Highers  . . .”
    “Of course you will! I’ll help you. Let’s celebrate with iced buns,” Margaret said extravagantly. Jean took no persuading and the girls went in search of the nearest café.
     
    *  *  *  *  *
     
    Wednesday was cold, with drizzle in the air. A wicked wind whipped round the corner of the post office building on Princes Street where Margaret stood waiting. She had almost given him up when there he was picking his way across the tram-railed road in her direction. She tried to look blasé but the wind caught her full blast, blowing her red curls into a tangle around her face, taking her breath away. He pulled the collar of his overcoat higher and, by way of greeting, tucked her arm in his. The weather kept them on the move so they made for the shelter of the Princes Street gardens; two of her strides