Legacy of Greyladies (21 page)

‘Perhaps I shouldn’t leave you yet,’ Olivia said.

‘Perhaps I should stay as well, just for a day or two,’ Alex offered. ‘I do carry an overnight bag with me and I have my gun.’

Ethel produced a gun from her skirt pocket underneath the apron, making Cook jump and bless herself. ‘I’m carrying this with me all the time till he’s stopped.’ She looked at Alex approvingly. ‘Mrs Latimer won’t carry it, and anyway, I’m a better shooter than she is. I think you should stay, sir. You
and
your gun.’

He looked at Phoebe, who threw up her hands. ‘You’re more than welcome to stay, but we do have soldiers on guard at night and other men next door as well who will come running if we shout for help.’

‘One soldier patrolling the grounds and the other sitting in the kitchen
protecting the house
,’ Ethel said scornfully. ‘Excuse me if I’m going beyond what I’m supposed to do, ma’am, but your husband asked me to look after you and I’ll do it, whatever it takes. The same way
you
looked after me when I first came here.’ She took out her handkerchief and blew her nose loudly.

‘It seems I’m surrounded by protectors,’ Phoebe said. ‘Thank you, Ethel. I really appreciate you caring about my welfare. Now it’s all decided, could we have our luncheon, please, Cook? I’m sure Mr Seaton is hungry after driving down from London. And afterwards, could you please prepare a room for him, Ethel?’

‘I’ll put him within screaming distance of you and Mrs Harbury.’

When the maid had gone, they exchanged smiles.

‘Screaming distance! How loudly can you scream?’

‘I don’t know and I’m not intending to practise.’

Alex chuckled. ‘I wouldn’t like to face Ethel if she was protecting you. She’s an amazing woman.’

In a big old house near London, Corin felt uneasy all day. He didn’t know why, he just … kept worrying about Phoebe.

In the end, his commanding officer asked him bluntly, ‘What’s wrong, Latimer? And don’t pretend there’s nothing. I wasn’t born yesterday.’

‘I’m not sure, sir, but I’m worried about my wife. There’s a man in the village who’s been trying to harm her, and harm the internees living in our house. Others are keeping an eye on the situation but … I keep feeling I should go to her. She’s … that is,
we
are expecting a child.’

‘Congratulations.’ He leant back in his chair. ‘Well, you’re not a fool and we’ve almost finished this stage of the planning. How about you take one of the staff cars and a driver, and go down to Wiltshire the day after tomorrow. You can stay overnight, check for yourself that she’s all right, then come straight back. Two days maximum, mind.’

‘Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. But I can drive myself down.’

‘No, take a driver and an official car. That way you’ll have his help if you need it. Also, you’ll be able to sleep on the way back, if necessary.’

‘I’d rather drive down late tomorrow.’

‘Arrange it as you please, but now it’s me who has a feeling you shouldn’t go alone. Humour me in this.’

‘Very well, sir. And thank you.’

‘You’re contributing a lot. You come up with some interesting ideas, as if you’re looking at a situation from a different angle. We need that, which is why you haven’t been sent back to the front. What this boils down to is, you’ll work better if your mind is at rest. Stands to reason.’

It was the best he could hope for, Corin knew. But he wished he could go immediately.

As darkness fell, the occupants of the rear house started to feel uneasy. In the kitchen Cook muttered over the stock she was preparing from a chicken carcass for the following day’s soup, while Ethel patted the gun in her pocket several times, to make sure it was there, ready. She felt comforted by its presence.

Things were no better in the long hall. All the curtains had been drawn as soon as it began to get dark, but even several lamps and a cheerful wood fire didn’t seem to dispel the darkness that hugged the corners of the rooms and alcoves this night.

At times conversation flagged and one of them would look uneasily in the direction of the rear stable yard.

Alex suddenly jerked upright. ‘I’ve been worrying that my car will be all right and I’ve just had a thought. I might go and set a little trap. I have a gadget that will make a noise if anyone messes around with the car.’

He looked at the two ladies with a wry smile. ‘It’s another little item I carry round with me when I’m travelling. I don’t know why I didn’t think of fitting it before.’

‘But it’s dark outside.’

‘I’ll get a lantern from the kitchen. They’re bound to have one. I’ll only be out there a minute or two.’ He left the room as quietly as ever.

‘I like your Alex,’ Phoebe murmured.

But Olivia wasn’t listening. She was feeling even more uneasy and wondering whether to go after Alex.

In the kitchen Ethel frowned at his request for a candle lantern. ‘One small light won’t do much good out there, sir. It’s a cloudy night and I shouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t rain tomorrow. Someone could easily be lurking outside. Plenty of shadows to hide in.’

‘I only need the lantern to see where my gadget is and then it won’t take me more than a minute to set my little trap, which makes a noise if anyone touches the car.’

‘You wouldn’t hear it from the bedrooms.’

‘I’ve been considering sleeping downstairs. I have a feeling something’s brewing.’

She sighed. ‘I have the same feeling, sir.’

He went out, setting the lantern on the ground. He unlocked his car boot and took out his little apparatus. As he bent to pick up the lantern again to set it on the running board and illuminate his task, he thought he heard something and tensed, turning his head slightly.

The blow intended to smash his skull missed hitting him full on, but it did knock him senseless.

The attacker bent over to check him, then stepped back and raised his arm again.

Joe had been out in the village
patrolling
, as he liked to think of it, checking that everything was quiet. He did this a couple
of times a night, with a big scarf his mother had knitted for him wrapped round his neck, the ends crossed over his chest to keep him warm.

Mostly he saw no one. People in Challerton had better things to do than linger outside on nights like this.

He shivered. It felt very cold tonight. He even wondered about popping into his friend’s house for a warm drink. His friend’s mother wouldn’t mind, he was sure.

But then he saw something moving and slipped sideways into concealment as one of the shadows a short distance ahead of him moved into the open and turned into a man. The person had a knitted balaclava on his head that showed only his eyes, so Joe couldn’t make out who it was.

Excitement ran through him and he forgot about feeling cold as he followed the man carefully through the village.

Who was it? Where had he come from?

When another shadow slipped out of the darkness and began to walk along beside the first one, Joe could hardly breathe for excitement.

The two men went towards Greyladies, stopping every now and then, seeming to be listening, checking they weren’t being followed.

But Joe had been practising moving quietly ever since he was a lad playing soldiers with his pals. He smirked as he stopped and waited for them to move on. He was much better at moving quietly than they were.

They must have known about the sentry patrolling round the big house. Great clumping fellow, he was, making so much noise you could hear him coming a mile off.

When the sentry had passed, the two figures set off again, making their way towards the rear of the house. Joe had good
eyesight and had no trouble seeing where they were going.

Neither of them limped, so Hatterson couldn’t be one of them. Pity! Joe would have liked to get Mr Nasty in trouble for trespassing. Hatterson had caught him practising keeping watch one evening and now mocked him loudly about it every time they passed one another in the village. One day Joe was going to shut his mouth for him.

At the rear of the house, the men vanished into the shadows and Joe couldn’t be certain where they were or if they’d moved on. He wasn’t going round the narrower part of the drive at the corner of the house until he was sure they wouldn’t see him coming. The trouble was, if he made a detour, he might lose them.

So he waited. You had to wait patiently sometimes. But it was hard when you were itching to act.

Then the kitchen door of the old house opened and a man came out carrying a small candle lantern. Those old-fashioned things weren’t much use. Joe was saving up for a modern electric torch, but it’d take him a while and his mother kept saying he would be a fool to waste good money on a toy like that.

Perhaps Major Latimer could speak to her about it and assure her some of the newer gadgets were very helpful.
He
had an electric torch, Joe knew, because the major had let him try it.

The man who’d come out of the house set the lantern down and bent over the boot of the car, unlocking it. He took something out of the boot and slung it over his arm. As he bent to pick up the lantern one of the intruders stepped out of the shadows and hit him over the head, sending him tumbling to the ground. He swiped him really hard and if
the man from the house hadn’t moved at the last minute, he might have been killed.

The attacker bent to check him, then stood up and raised his hand to strike again. Joe wasn’t having that. He yelled ‘Stop!’ at the top of his voice. The man paused, but his hand didn’t drop and Joe wasn’t close enough to get there in time to stop him hitting out again.

Joe was shocked. Was he about to watch a
murder
?

The kitchen door had just opened and a woman yelled, ‘Halt or I fire!’ She had a gun and was holding it as if she knew what to do with it.

The intruder let his arm drop and darted off into the shadows, keeping the car between himself and the woman.

Joe rushed forward to see how the man on the ground was. Surely he wasn’t dead?

Ethel moved further out of the kitchen at the same time, lifting the gun to aim it.

‘Don’t shoot! It’s me, Joe,’ he called.

‘What on earth are you doing here?’

‘Following two men. I think they’ve gone now, but you keep that gun handy in case they come back. I’ll get this man inside out of harm’s way.’

‘Hurry up, then!’

Joe found that the injured man was quite light, so was able to pick him up. The poor fellow was groaning now but he wasn’t fully conscious. As the lad hefted him to get comfortable, he stared down at the row of bells on wires strung over the man’s arm and shoulder. What was that thing for?

‘Will you hurry up!’ Ethel yelled.

So Joe carried both man and string of bells inside, hearing them jingling loudly as he walked.

As they went inside, the house door at the other side of the kitchen burst open and a lady came running across to help him.

‘What happened to Alex?’

It was Mrs Harbury, a friend of Mrs Latimer. Joe always kept note of visitors to the village.

The man was groaning and trying to move, so Joe sat him down on a chair, squatting to hold him in place.

Behind him, Ethel locked the back door and leant against it, letting out her breath in loud relief.

‘I was watching and saw this man jump out from nowhere and attack Mr Seaton, so I went outside with my gun, ma’am. I yelled that I’d shoot him and he ran away. If he’d hit Mr Seaton again, he might have killed him. What a coward, to attack an unconscious man!’

‘I think he meant to kill your friend, Mrs Latimer,’ Joe said. ‘He tried to hit him really hard the first time. Luckily your friend moved his head. But then the attacker raised his hand again. It’s a good thing you came out with the gun, Mrs Kiddall.’

‘That’s what it’s for,’ Ethel said grimly. ‘I
knew
I’d need it, I just knew.’

Joe stepped back a little as Mrs Harbury knelt down beside the injured man.

‘Do you have some warm, boiled water to bathe his head, Cook?’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘I’m all right, Olivia.’

But the gentleman’s voice was thick and he didn’t sound all right, Joe thought, watching the two of them with interest. This woman loved him, he could tell. His friend’s sister got that sort of soppy look on her face when she was with the
man she was going to marry. But she was only nineteen. Fancy old people like these two falling in love, though! Still, stranger things happened in wartime.

‘Should we fetch Captain Turner?’ Phoebe wondered aloud.

‘What can
he
do?’ Ethel muttered. ‘His men can’t even keep away intruders.’

‘We’ll be awake all night if you tell the commandant now,’ Cook said. ‘Pardon me for saying it, ma’am, but he does like to make a fuss.’

Olivia looked down at Alex. ‘Why did you insist on going outside on your own after dark?’ she scolded softly.

‘I wanted to set a booby trap on the car to keep it safe. I thought I’d be safe enough, because it wouldn’t take a minute to fix it on and I’d see anyone coming. He must have already been behind the car.’

‘Tell me how it works, mister, and I’ll set it for you now,’ Joe offered.

Alex blinked at him and turned his head slightly, wincing.

‘I’m good with mechanical things,’ Joe assured him. ‘Ethel can come outside with her gun and make sure they don’t attack me. And I could stay here overnight to keep an eye on the car, if you like. Major Latimer is paying me to keep watch on what’s going on in the village and the big house, so he’d approve of it, I know he would, especially now you’ve had intruders here.’

‘That’s the best idea anyone has had so far,’ Cook said. ‘As long as young Joe doesn’t fall asleep.’

‘I won’t. I’m training to keep watch, ready for when I’m called up. You can’t fall asleep when you’re on night duty.’

His young voice sounded grim and determined. In spite of his throbbing head, Alex smiled at the eager lad. ‘I think it’d be an excellent idea for you to stay here in the kitchen and keep an eye on the back yard. As long as you promise us you won’t go outside on your own.’

‘I promise I won’t, sir. I saw what happened to you.’

‘
Touché
.’ That’d also keep the lad safe if the attackers returned, Alex thought, but didn’t say that. He explained how to fix the simple alarm on the car and Ethel took out her gun again to keep an eye on him.

‘It’s fixed,’ Joe said when they returned five minutes later. ‘It’s clever, that is. I’ve never seen one before.’

‘I met a lad trying to sell them, so I bought one.’

By that time Cook had brought across a bowl of tepid water and some clean rags. ‘Do you want me to do this, Mrs Harbury? I’ve bathed the heads of my nephews many a time. If they’ve no one else to fight with, that lot fight one another.’

‘That’s all right, thank you. I’ve some experience in this area as well.’

Alex watched her study his wound, then she murmured, ‘I’ll try to be gentle, but I’m afraid this will hurt.’

It was almost worth being bashed to have her caring for him, standing so close, even though they were not exactly alone, with three other women and a lad watching her every move. How gentle her hands were. He was sure it’d have hurt much more if anyone else had done it.

When she’d finished cleaning the wound, Olivia frowned. ‘I don’t know whether I should bandage it or leave it to dry.’

‘Leave it to dry, Mrs Harbury,’ Cook said. ‘But I don’t think he should be left on his own. When my oldest
nephew knocked himself out and took a while to come to himself again, like Mr Seaton did, the doctor said we had to keep an eye on him all night.’

‘There’s no need for Mrs Harbury to lose her sleep,’ Alex protested at once.

‘I think I’d rather be careful, Alex. I’d not sleep for worrying about you, anyway. Why don’t you lie down on the sofa in the sitting area and I’ll sit on an armchair nearby?’

‘I’ve got an alarm clock you can borrow, Mrs Harbury. You can set it for every hour in case you drop off,’ Ethel said. ‘Or I could keep watch on Mr Seaton for you.’

To Alex’s relief, Olivia said, ‘No, thank you. I prefer to do it myself.’

He’d prefer to have her with him, too. He decided to distract the maid. ‘Ethel, perhaps you could go round the house before you retire to your bedroom and double-check that every door and window is locked, and they haven’t tried to force their way in anywhere?’

‘Good idea, sir. Joe, you can come round with me,’ Ethel said. ‘Then you’ll know your way round the inside in future.’

‘Yes, Mrs Kiddall.’

At last they all left and Alex was alone with Olivia. Unfortunately, not in romantic circumstances, but he valued every second spent with her.

He let her make him comfortable, then suggested she pull the smaller armchair closer.

She did that and settled down in it.

Without thinking he reached out for her hand.

Without protesting, she let him take it.

A few minutes later, she said. ‘What a strange day!’

‘Yes. It seems a long time since I left London … you have
a beautiful ghost here, by the way. I do hope her prophecy comes true.’

It was such a long time before Olivia replied that he began to feel anxious. Perhaps she didn’t share that hope. But she hadn’t taken her hand away, so perhaps there was hope.

Then she said it. ‘So do I.’

His heart felt as if it would burst for joy.

As their eyes met, he raised her hand to his lips. He couldn’t think of anything to say, but from the way she was smiling back at him, words weren’t necessary. Happiness filled him, making him forget his aching head, making him forget everything but her.