lifeless as the other. I look at the creature in front of us and know it has not subjected itself to its fate, see in its restless prowling a hunger for what it doesn’t have. I say something of what I’m thinking but William doesn’t reply and he stands perfectly still in seeming absorption of everything. He goes a little closer again despite my caution and the creature turns its head slowly towards him as if deigning to look at him for the first time. And I am frightened as he stares at its amber-coloured eyes where seems to smoulder something which I have no words to name.
Then the spell is broken as a group of young men approach the cage, their oath-filled voices blending with the croaks from the sooty ravens nesting above. They crowd in around the bars and jeer at the beast and in the throng William is pushed to the side as one of them tries to draw his friends’ laughter by going closer and speaking to it as if it were some house cat. And when they cheer him on he grows bolder until he finds a little stick and pokes it through the bars while making a shrill whistle. It’s then that the tiger springs and roars such a sound as I think once more of the comet’s thunder and the youth jumps back so fast and shocked that he falls on his friends with such force that they scatter like skittles before they retreat. Then there is only William standing as close as he was before and just the bars separate him from the creature that stares at him with fire-filled eyes for a few seconds before it turns away and walks to the shadows at the back of the cage where it rests on the floor with its head turned to the wall and will no longer deign to look at us.
As we walk away one of the youths who are still dusting themselves off but who have assumed a new attempt at bravery shouts out after us, calling William a Daniel.
‘It shouldn’t be in a cage,’ he says in a quiet voice that I have to strain to hear and when I tell him that I’m glad that confinement separates it from us he replies, ‘More than anything I’ve ever seen it shouldn’t be in a cage.’ And when I tell him that only the cage prevented it from devouring us he says, ‘It is the way it is and nothing more.’
When he stops walking and glances back for a moment I think he’s considering returning and doing whatever must be done to set the creature free and I’m frightened by the intensity of his expression when what I crave is gentleness and calm. I tell him that I feel faint and in so doing make him turn his attention to me and we stop at a tavern and he goes inside and brings us something to drink and we sit and watch the ceaseless life of the river.
After a while he asks me if I would like to see the sea and when I tell him that I have often dreamed of it he says that I can have the chance if it’s what I wish because he has important news to share with me.
Perhaps I was slumbering here by the fire and so didn’t notice his arrival. When I look up he’s smiling at me and his face is calmer and more at peace than I have ever seen. His clothes still wear the sheen of light and I want to go to him but am frightened that my arms will embrace only what dreams and memories exist inside my head. So instead I ask him as I always do, ‘How much longer, William?’ and he answers, ‘Soon, Kate, very soon,’ and his words make me content. Then we sit in silence for a short while and although nothing is said it is as if all the days of our life pass again between us.
So now he’s giving me again his important news that he’s been offered work and patronage by William Hayley who is a great admirer of his art. We are to leave London that has become as a desert for us and full of anger and discord and rent a small cottage in Hayley’s home village of Felpham in Sussex and be under his generous auspices. William shrugs off his despondency and enters excitedly into the necessary preparations and I am glad to be leaving the city and hope that in our new
Then the spell is broken as a group of young men approach the cage, their oath-filled voices blending with the croaks from the sooty ravens nesting above. They crowd in around the bars and jeer at the beast and in the throng William is pushed to the side as one of them tries to draw his friends’ laughter by going closer and speaking to it as if it were some house cat. And when they cheer him on he grows bolder until he finds a little stick and pokes it through the bars while making a shrill whistle. It’s then that the tiger springs and roars such a sound as I think once more of the comet’s thunder and the youth jumps back so fast and shocked that he falls on his friends with such force that they scatter like skittles before they retreat. Then there is only William standing as close as he was before and just the bars separate him from the creature that stares at him with fire-filled eyes for a few seconds before it turns away and walks to the shadows at the back of the cage where it rests on the floor with its head turned to the wall and will no longer deign to look at us.
As we walk away one of the youths who are still dusting themselves off but who have assumed a new attempt at bravery shouts out after us, calling William a Daniel.
‘It shouldn’t be in a cage,’ he says in a quiet voice that I have to strain to hear and when I tell him that I’m glad that confinement separates it from us he replies, ‘More than anything I’ve ever seen it shouldn’t be in a cage.’ And when I tell him that only the cage prevented it from devouring us he says, ‘It is the way it is and nothing more.’
When he stops walking and glances back for a moment I think he’s considering returning and doing whatever must be done to set the creature free and I’m frightened by the intensity of his expression when what I crave is gentleness and calm. I tell him that I feel faint and in so doing make him turn his attention to me and we stop at a tavern and he goes inside and brings us something to drink and we sit and watch the ceaseless life of the river.
After a while he asks me if I would like to see the sea and when I tell him that I have often dreamed of it he says that I can have the chance if it’s what I wish because he has important news to share with me.
Perhaps I was slumbering here by the fire and so didn’t notice his arrival. When I look up he’s smiling at me and his face is calmer and more at peace than I have ever seen. His clothes still wear the sheen of light and I want to go to him but am frightened that my arms will embrace only what dreams and memories exist inside my head. So instead I ask him as I always do, ‘How much longer, William?’ and he answers, ‘Soon, Kate, very soon,’ and his words make me content. Then we sit in silence for a short while and although nothing is said it is as if all the days of our life pass again between us.
So now he’s giving me again his important news that he’s been offered work and patronage by William Hayley who is a great admirer of his art. We are to leave London that has become as a desert for us and full of anger and discord and rent a small cottage in Hayley’s home village of Felpham in Sussex and be under his generous auspices. William shrugs off his despondency and enters excitedly into the necessary preparations and I am glad to be leaving the city and hope that in our new
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