“When I next met her, I’d recovered enough to ask her out to dinner. Not long after that I realized I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.” The old man knew when to remain silent. “But when she found out that I didn’t intend to honor my promise to you, she left me, and returned to America.” He paused. “I haven’t seen her since.”

“Then I would beg you not to make the same mistake I did when I was your age.”

“You made the same mistake?”

“Worse in a way. When I was a young man just down from university, I was offered a job teaching English at a grammar school in Worcestershire. I’d never been happier, until I fell in love with the headmaster’s eldest daughter, but didn’t have the courage to let her know.”

“Why not?”

“I’ve always been shy, especially around women, and in any case I was afraid the headmaster wouldn’t approve. It must sound silly now, but it was a different world in those days. I moved to another school and later learned that she had never married. I might have been able to live with that if just last year, when I attended her funeral, her younger sister hadn’t told me that I was her first and only love, but her father had told her she must do nothing unless I made my feelings known. What a fool I was. A moment wasted, to be followed by a lifetime of regret. Young man, be sure not to make the same mistake. Faint heart ne’er won a lady fair.”

“Robert Burns?” said Seb.

“There’s hope for you yet,” said Swann. With the help of his walking stick, the old man rose to his feet and took Seb by the arm. “Thank you for your generosity. I look forward to the honor of meeting Miss Sullivan.” He turned to face Seb. “Would you be kind enough to ask her, Mr. Clifton, if she would be willing to open the Samantha Sullivan Theatre?”

Chapter 25

25

“HI, REVERED PARENT, I’m thinking of going to America on business, and I wondered if—”

“You could sail on the Buckingham? Yes, of course, but don’t forget Bob Bingham’s rule about family members having to pay for their passage. If you can go next week, you could join your father. He’s off to New York to see his publisher.”

Sebastian flicked over a page of his diary. “I’ll have to rearrange a couple of meetings, but yes, that looks fine.”

“And what takes you to the States?”

“A business opportunity that Mr. Kaufman wants me to look into.”

The moment Seb put down the phone he felt guilty about not telling his mother the real reason for his trip, as he feared he could well be making a complete fool of himself—once again.