A Nightingale Sang Read online

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  When I sang my album of love songs with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, I included the most romantic song I know, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.

  Interspersed in each of the love songs are my personal remembrances and poems.

  This is what I wrote for this one,

  “This song is full of very special memories for me. I did fall in love in Berkeley Square and 1 swear a nightingale sang in the trees as I was kissed.

  “I remember the scent of lilacs and syringa, the ancient houses silhouetted against the sky, the high trees overhead, the path leading towards a little Temple in the centre of the garden. He was so handsome, and we were both so in love – with love. There was the magic of the night and of youth, which can never come again except in our memories.”

  CHAPTER ONE - 1919

  In the uncurtained windows of the large house in Berkeley Square dancers were silhouetted against a golden background.

  The music of the drums and the saxophones throbbed out into the square as a man came down the steps of the house and, passing the footmen, coachmen and the chauffeurs chatting to each other, crossed the road and entered the Square garden.

  Normally the gate in the railings was locked and only the residents of one of the most exclusive Squares in London had a key.

  Now there were a few couples moving between the bushes of lilac and syringa while the stars shone through the high trees overhead.

  The man moved slowly along a small path, obviously deep in thought and taking no notice of anyone he passed.

  Finally in the centre of the Square he came to a small Temple surmounted with a Georgian urn, its entrance framed by pillars.

  There was only darkness inside and he turned to stand leaning against a pillar and looking back at the ancient houses silhouetted against the sky.

  He felt in the pocket of his tailcoat for his cigar case and, as he did so, he heard a very slight movement behind him.

  He turned his head thinking perhaps he was mistaken and then sensed rather than heard that there was somebody there.

  With a faint smile on his lips, he asked,

  “Am I intruding? In which case I will go away.”

  There was a small pause before a hesitant little voice replied,

  “N-no – of course not. I am – alone.”

  The man turned so that now he was facing the inside of the Temple. He realised that there was a stone seat and on it sat somebody who was dressed in white.

  It was impossible to see her face, but he guessed by the tone of her voice that she was very young.

  “Alone?” he asked. “What has happened to your partner?”

  “I-I did not have one. That’s why I – came here.”

  “No partner?” he questioned. “That is indeed a tragedy, but you are not likely to find one hiding here in the dark.”

  “I – know – but it was so embarrassing – standing there looking – expectant and there seemed to be no extra men.”

  That, the man knew, was more than likely.

  Any unattached men at a party such as he had just left would be either talking to each other, propping up the bar or would have found their way to the card room.

  He thought himself that it was rather a boring ball in that he knew few people there and there was a mixture of the very grand and the very young, neither of which were to his particular taste.

  “I suppose,” he said aloud, “as it is the beginning of the Season, that this is your first dance?”

  “Yes – and I was so looking – forward to it.”

  “Only to be disappointed. That happens so often in life when the reality never quite reaches our expectations.”

  “Surely that’s not – always true?”

  “Very often, I find, and then one becomes cynical and disillusioned.”

  He was joking, but the girl listening to him obviously took him seriously.

  “But you mustn’t think like that, now there is no longer a war to make us feel – frightened and – apprehensive all the time.”

  “Is that what you felt?”

  “Yes.”

  He was rather glad that she did not elaborate and remarked,

  “War has its compensations.”

  “How can you say that?”

  “I think I am entitled to my opinion, having taken part in it.”

  “You were in Flanders?”

  “For four years.”

  “Oh – !”

  There was silence and then she cried,

  “It must have been horrible – terrible! I can’t bear to think what our soldiers suffered in the – trenches.”

  “It was, I admit, extremely unpleasant,” the man agreed. “At the same time there were compensations.”

  “What were – they?”

  “The comradeship and the sense of having a common purpose in life. It was not only to beat the Germans, but to keep alive and sometimes one could see the funny side of it all.”

  “I think you must be very brave.”

  The man smiled.

  “I would like to agree with that statement, but it’s not true. I was often very afraid and extremely discontented with my lot.”

  “Then surely you must be glad – very glad, that it is all over?”

  “Yes, of course, and I am grateful to have survived such an experience. So many of my friends were killed. To come home is like starting a new life all over again.”

  “That could be – exciting!”

  “I wonder. Perhaps I shall find, rather as you are finding your first dance, that it’s disappointing.”

  “It’s not really – disappointing in that everything is very – beautiful. I have never seen such a magnificent house. The ladies in their jewellery looked so – lovely as they danced, but, I felt conspicuous because – nobody asked me.”

  “Surely you came with somebody?”

  “With my Godmother, who I am staying with in London. She is very attractive and all the – men who talked to us wanted to dance with her.”

  The man smiled again a little cynically.

  He could understand so well what had happened. He had been told that the days of chaperones were over and any mothers, aunts or as in this case, a Godmother, who accompanied debutantes were invited as dancers.

  He could imagine the girl being left a forlorn little wallflower of no particular interest to anyone.

  He walked further into the Temple and guided more by instinct than sight, sat down on the stone seat beside its occupant.

  He knew that she gave a little quiver as he did so and he thought that she must be very young, very inexperienced and found it rather pathetic.

  “You’re not alone now,” he said, “and as I, like you, knew very few people here, we can console each other.”

  “Perhaps it is – wrong.”

  “Wrong?” he questioned.

  “We have not been – introduced.”

  He laughed.

  “That makes it all the easier. We’ll just pretend that you are the Goddess of the Temple, and I am an explorer who has discovered you.”

  “You make it – sound very – intriguing.”

  “Perhaps it will be. Tell me what you feel now that you are grown up and have presumably left school?”

  “I did not go to school. I was educated by a Governess.”

  “Was she a good one?”

  “She was not particularly clever, but I like reading and thought that I knew a little bit about the world – only to find I am very ignorant about – dances and how one should behave.”

  “What you need is a nice young man to look after you. I understand the war has swept away all the old conventions and girls can go out dancing alone with a young man.”

/>   “Only if they are – invited to do so.”

  He laughed again.

  “I stand corrected. Of course, only if they are invited to do so. And, as you have only just come to London, you don’t know anyone to ask you.”

  “That is right.”

  “Shall I promise you that every day, every week, things will get better? I am quite certain that you will soon find many young men eager to invite you to dance with them.”

  “How can you say – that when you have not – seen me?”

  “I am a judge of voices and, as I think your voice is very attractive, I am quite certain its owner is attractive too.”

  It was a rather banal comment, the man thought as he said it, but he knew she stiffened nervously, rather like a foal, he thought, who is not certain if it can trust the hand put out to pat it.

  “I hope you are – right,” she said after a moment, “but you see, now I have come to London, it seems so – big and in some ways – frightening. I know I will make a great many – mistakes.”

  “We all make mistakes when we do anything new,” the man said. “I remember when I joined my Regiment I was terrified that I would do something contrary to tradition that would make me the laughing stock of the other Subalterns.”

  “And – did you?”

  “Nothing terribly ludicrous, but I know exactly what you are feeling and in time that will pass.”

  “You are very comforting.”

  “I want to be. You see, you are starting a new life with everything fresh about it. I have to pick up the threads of an old one and in a way that is more difficult.”

  “How can it be?”

  “I suppose it is because there is so much I have missed, for which I have a certain amount of regret.”

  The girl gave a little sigh.

  “Just at this – moment I wish I was – five years older.”

  The man laughed and it was a genuine sound of amusement.

  “In five years you will not be saying that! You will begin to worry in case you are getting old and in ten years’ time you will be taking five years off your age!”

  “Is that what women do? Yes, I believe you are right! I am sure that my Godmother is older than she says she is.”

  “Well, that’s one thing you need not worry about at least not yet.”

  “I hope by the time I get older I shall not have to – worry about such – trivial things.”

  “Women don’t think them trivial. To them they are very important.”

  “And to men?”

  “Men have much more serious worries, especially at this moment.”

  “I suppose, by saying that, you are looking for a job?”

  “That is perceptive of you. How did you know?”

  “Everybody is saying how difficult it is for men coming out of the Services to find anything to do. Men, who managed to wangle themselves into reserved occupations and stayed at home, have taken over all the best jobs and – now the soldiers are demobbed they are looking for employment, which, my father says, does not exist.”

  “Your father is quite right. That is what I have discovered.”

  “I am so – sorry for you. What do you – want to do?”

  “To tell the truth I have no real idea, but I have to make some money.”

  “I think that is going to be – difficult.”

  “That is what I have already found.”

  There was a pause and then he said,

  “Now let’s talk about you. I can predict your future quite easily.”

  “How?”

  “Well, you will find your feet, you will find a charming young man and you will get married.”

  She sighed.

  “I know that is what everybody will – expect me to do – but I am afraid.”

  “Afraid?”

  “I don’t want to marry – anybody unless I am – really in love.”

  “And how do you think you will know if you are in love?”

  “I have thought – about it and I know that it will be something very wonderful and very – different from what I have ever felt before. It will not be just – wanting to dance with someone or even to be with them. It will be much more than that.”

  “In what way?”

  “It’s difficult to put into words, but I think it will be something beautiful – like the mist over the lake – or the first evening star when the sky still has the glow of the sun in it.”

  There was a little quiver in the girl’s voice.

  Then she said,

  “When I was walking – here alone tonight to – hide in this Temple, I could see the stars overhead – and I thought, although I might have been mistaken, that I heard nightingales – singing in the trees.”

  “And you think that will be part of your love?”

  “I think what I shall feel will be something like that, only more – rapturous, more perfect – but then real love must come from – God.”

  “You believe in God?”

  “Yes, of course. Don’t you?”

  “Shall I say I want to believe in Him? But I found it hard in the mud and stench of the trenches to believe that He cared a damn what was happening to us all.”

  “But He did! I am sure He did. After all – we won the war!”

  “At a terrible cost.”

  He felt her make a little movement and he sensed that she clenched her fingers together.

  Then she said,

  “But you – are alive.”

  “Yes, I am alive.”

  “And so somehow you and – others who have survived have to make – something of the peace.”

  “I think that the politicians have already made a mess of it.”

  “You must not let them. You must make certain after so much suffering that those who – died did not do so in vain.”

  “Who has talked to you about such things?”

  “No one – but I read the newspapers.”

  “That’s unusual. I thought young women only thought of clothes and, of course, love.”

  “I have had very few clothes to think about and I only know of – love from what I have – read.”

  There was a pause and then she asked,

  “Are you – laughing at what I said – just now?”

  “No, no! Of course not! You are absolutely right. That is the love you should seek and what I would want you to look for. I only hope that the man, when you find him and fall in love, will not fail you.”

  “Perhaps I shall – fail him.”

  “I think that unlikely.”

  “Why?”

  “Because most young women, at least the ones I have met, are not so idealistic as you are.”

  “I am – grateful to you for not saying – romantic.”

  “Why?”

  “I think romance is a horrid word, sentimental and rather sloppy, and I am sure the love I – want is very – different.”

  “It will be.”

  “How can you be – sure?”

  “I am very sure. And I predict that you will find your ideal man and be very happy with him.”

  “Suppose I don’t find him.”

  “Then I imagine, like most people, you will have to settle for second best.”

  “I should hate that! I think it would be a betrayal of – everything I believe in!”

  There was almost a passionate intensity in the young voice and the man said,

  “If you set your sights too high, if you try to touch the stars, then you are bound to be disappointed and I should hate that to happen to you.”

  “Are you really advising me to accept – second best? I would somehow not expect – you to say that.”

  “Why not?”

  “When we were talking of the war, I thought you sounded rather like one of the Knights of the days of Chivalry who fought because they were fighting for Christianity or perhaps seeking the – Holy Grail.”

  “Many years ago perhaps I felt like that, but now I have forgotten the dreams I drea
mt and the crusades I wanted to join.”

  “They will come back to you. We never really forget them because they are – part of – ourselves.”

  The man thought for a moment and then he said,

  “When I came here and first talked to you, I thought you were very very young, but now I am beginning to think that you are old and wise in many things that other people have either not known or forgotten.”

  “Now you are laughing at – me!”

  “No, I promise you I am not. I think perhaps you are not real and I am sitting here alone talking to my conscience or my heart, whichever you would like to be.”

  “I would like to be both. It’s a lovely idea.”

  “You have certainly made me think.”

  “You have made me think too and I am not as frightened as I was of this – new world.”

  “That’s right. Don’t be frightened of it. Just tell yourself you will conquer it. At the same time you must not let it spoil you.”

  “Why should it spoil me?”

  “Because it may make you think that what you value at the moment is worthless and that the glittering tinsel you will find all around you is more important, more real. But it’s not!”

  “How will I be able to tell the – real from the – false?”

  “Your instinct will tell you that, so follow your instinct. That’s the best advice I can give you for I am convinced that you know your way better than I know mine.”

  “You know that’s not true.”

  “In a strange way it is.”

  There was silence.

  Then the girl said,

  “I suppose I – ought to go back. My Godmother may – wonder what has happened to me.”

  “She should look after you better and she should certainly introduce you to some partners.”

  “She tried, but as soon as she had done so, they – slipped away. I think perhaps I don’t – look quite right.”

  “That is something which is easily remedied. What is right is your thinking, so hold on to that.”

  “I will – try.”

  She made a little movement to rise to her feet.

  The man put out his hand and touched her arm.

  “No, don’t go,” he said. “I want to go first because I think it would spoil things for both of us if we saw each other. We have talked and you have opened up new horizons for me.”

  “And you for – me.”