Bloody Right Page 17

  He deserved a jab in the ribs for that, but he was driving, and crashing the lorry would delay getting there.

  Married. And to Andrew. She had to tell Alice and Mary. This was going to work out so well. She’d spend Saturday night—and every night thereafter until he moved—with Andrew in his cottage, and if Mary played her cards right, she had a chance to have her wicked way with Gryffyth.

  It was going to be a satisfying weekend all around.

  “What are you chuckling over?” Andrew asked.

  Had she been? Most likely. “Life is truly wonderful,” she replied.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “What are you?” Bela asked Simon, as they sat together in the main hut in the center of Axel’s camp.

  “I’m a first lieutenant in the King’s Royal Surrey Regiment.”

  This was not going to be easy but she had to know and trusted that no one else around understood English. “I know that but you’re more. A human couldn’t have covered the ground you did yesterday at the speed we did.” She’d set the pace out of desperation and as he kept up with her, went even faster. He never lagged behind but kept even with her. He was something more than an escaped soldier.

  That earned her a sidelong glance and a pregnant silence. “I’m not doing this to pry,” she went on, “but I know. I’m a Fairy. That’s why I’m fleeing the Nazis too. They took me prisoner and used me. They use Others. You have to be extra careful. You have to hide what you are.”

  The silence continued but now it was a thoughtful silence. Just when she was about to get up and remove herself from this awkwardness, he said. “My mother was a Pixie.”

  The words hung in the air between them as he turned and looked her in the face. She let out her breath, not realizing she’d held it. She’d been right! “Then,” she replied, picking her words carefully, “I think it is very important we get away as soon as possible. We can ask them for help.” She angled her head at the partisans talking together. “I hope the escape route isn’t compromised, but we need to get far away.”

  “Why the urgency?”

  “First, if Rachel breaks, she could reveal where this camp is. Second, you’re out of uniform; they’ll treat you like a spy or one of the partisans. Third, although it’s winter, we’re stronger and faster than humans. And fourth, I will not be taken again and if they got any hint of what you are, they’d find a way to use you. Trust me, I know. They are gathering in and using anyone with Powers, every sort of Other they can find. You don’t want to be taken.”

  He didn’t argue. Wise man.

  “What happened?”

  “The Nazis told me if I worked for them, my family would be safe. They lied. My parents and my two younger brothers died in their hellhole in Flossenbürg. My sister I rescued, but she died a few days ago. She was too weakened even for the woods to heal her.”

  “What do you plan?”

  She took out the map Rolf had given her. “We’re here,” she pointed. “Your route was via safe houses to Switzerland. We can’t guess how safe they will be now, but if they give us contact to the first one, we can get clothes and papers, then make our own way to Switzerland. We’ll do best traveling at night and sleeping by day. Nights are long this time of year. For humans it would take weeks, maybe months, for us much less.”

  “And to cross the frontier without support? It’s bound to be guarded.”

  “The roads and railways will be, but they can’t watch every meter of the mountains, and who in their right mind would try to cross the Alps in winter? Once across the frontier, I have an aunt and uncle in St. Gallen.”

  He was even quieter now. She could almost hear his mind turning over her proposal. “Pity we left those skis behind.”

  She smiled. He was with her. “Rolf and Hans will need them. And your sick friend. We have good boots and we can swap some of our tinned goods for lighter stuff. We’ll need money to buy food on the way. There’s not much we can live off from the land this time of year, but cabbages and potatoes.”

  “When do we tell this lot?”

  “The sooner the better. They’ll be glad to see us gone.”

  “I hate to go ahead and leave poor old Jules behind.”

  They both knew they already had. The Frenchman’s chances of survival were slim indeed. Bela shuddered inside. So many dead and dying and the end was nowhere in sight.

  No one at the camp begged them to stay, but they did offer help. Two days later, Bela and Simon left, with directions to a farm a day’s walk away, and a password to gain the occupant’s trust.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Gran, have you heard the news?” Alice burst through the door and stopped in her tracks. Gran and Sergeant Pendragon were sitting either side of the kitchen fireplace, newspaper spread on the floor between them, sharpening stakes.

  Just in time, she bit back the suggestion that they were both far too old to go Vampire hunting. Gran would slay her with a look, and the sergeant, well, he could incinerate with one.

  “What news, my love?” Gran asked, looking up and smiling.

  She closed the door behind her, still a little unnerved at the sight in front of her. “Andrew and Gloria. Andrew’s getting posted somewhere up north so they’re getting married this Saturday.”

  “Holy smoke!” Gran said. “How wonderful. That they’re finally getting married, I mean. Shame about him getting moved.”

  “That’s the war for you, Helen,” the sergeant said. “We’ll miss him. Good lad, he is.”

  Gran stood, brushing the wood shavings from her apron onto the newspaper. “Don’t get up, Howell,” she said, but he ignored her and stood with her. “We need to see what she needs. Perhaps we could have everyone up here afterwards. We’ve more space than either of their cottages.”

  “Hang on a minute, Gran.” She was about to plan the wedding and their next ten years. “It’s all taken care of. Andrew told Peter who told me. They’re getting married at ten-thirty, at the registry office in Epsom. After, we’re all invited to lunch at the Spread Eagle. It’s going to be really small, just the few of us. They asked Peter and me to be witnesses and Mary’s to be bridesmaid.” She glanced at her watch. “She might not know that yet but she will once she gets out of school.”

  Gran smiled and looked at Sergeant Pendragon.

  “How about it, Helen?” he asked. “Want to make it a double wedding?”

  “Certainly not! You know we’ve talked about this. I’m not poaching on Gloria’s day and besides, we’re waiting until Mary and Gryffyth are all set. You’re not pipping him to the post again.”

  “He’d best get a move on then. They might have forever to make up their minds but we don’t, at our age.”

  No one did. But Alice wasn’t saying aloud what every one of them already knew. Life was too darn uncertain these days to count on anything.

  “What can we do for her, my love?” Gran asked. “And would you like a quick cup? It’s fresh in the pot.”

  “Can’t stop, Gran. I have to go into Dorking and pick up some supplies. But there is one thing. Do you think Sir James Gregory would be persuaded to part with a few more camellias? They’d make a lovely bouquet for Gloria.”

  “Perfect!” Pendragon replied. “Just what we need: a good reason to go up to Wharton Lacey.”

  “Yes,” Gran said, nodding at the pile of sharpened stakes.

  “Hold on a tick!” Maybe she did need that cup of tea. “What exactly have you two concocted?” Damn. She knew, but had to hear it to be sure.

  “It’s simple. Howell and I want to have a good look at that new gardener. The one who tried his nasty tricks on Mary. Howell sensed something Other about him but we waited until we were sure he was up to no good. After all, he could have been like that nice Mr. Clarendon, quite benign.”

  Nice Mr. Clarendon was a Vampire, doing to the Germans what these Vamps were trying to do to them. Alice hoped he wasn’t about to be set upon by a pair of French sexagenarians—alright, a Pixie and a fire-
breathing Dragon. “What are you going to do? Attack?”

  “I think we have to, Alice,” the sergeant said. “As long as he sat up there and did no harm, it was live and let live, or rather let live until we learned otherwise, but this attack on Mary last night…” He shook his head. “We can’t have that.”

  “And the one who went for Whorleigh,” Alice added. “What about that one? Going after him too?”

  “We’re not sure where he’s lurking, so one at a time.”

  “So you need a reason to hie up to Wharton Lacey and do the deed?” She went cold. “For heaven’s sake, be careful. It’s not like open country, or even like our drive, hidden by the hedge. What if someone sees you?” Dear heaven! Dispatching Vampires had become so commonplace it was being observed by a passerby that worried her!

  “We’ll be careful,” Howell Pendragon said.

  “You can’t really walk in there, say thank you for the flowers and then stake the gardener.” Alice shook her head. This was supposed to have been a five-minute pop-in. Supplies were going to have to wait. “Gran, I think I’ll have that cup of tea, after all.” She went over to the table. “You want another? Sergeant, how about you?”

  They both said yes. So Alice topped up their cups, poured one for herself and thought fast as she refilled the milk jug. “How about,” she said, as she handed Gran a cup, “I give Sir James a call? If he can spare more camellias, I’ll drive up there after dark. Easier to hide stakes in the car.” Although what she was going to do about the mess afterwards, Lord alone knew.

  “You are not going up there alone, Alice! Both times it took two to best the nasty things. Solo won’t work.”

  Gran was right. Alice handed Howell Pendragon his cup. “If it’s not going to seem too much like an expedition, I was thinking the three of us.” That way Peter would be safely out of it. He’d helped last time but this wasn’t work for humans. Others needed to be the ones who coped with Vampires.

  They both took to that idea with relish.

  “Would be better, my love,” Gran said, sipping her tea. “We’ll arrive fresh and ready instead of worn out and legs aching from the pull up Newcome Hill.”

  “I’ll give him a call.” She stood. “Won’t be a jiffy.”

  Alice’s hand shook as she picked up the receiver. She was about to call the local gentry, or at least the closest Brytewood had to gentry—Sir James Gregory, Colonel of the Home Guard and entertainer of politicians—and arrange to stake his new gardener. Assuming he did turn out to be the missing Vampire, that is.

  “Number, please,” came the voice on the line.

  “Brytewood three-nine-five.”

  “Calling Wharton Lacey, Doctor? It’s Mildred.”

  The perennial gossip. “Hello, Mildred, everything well? How are your mother’s chilblains?”

  “Not too bad, Doctor, but the bad weather hasn’t really started yet, has it?”

  Alice agreed it hadn’t, and she, too, hoped it wouldn’t be as bad as last winter. “Can you connect me?”

  “Yes, you’re in luck. Line’s been busy today, but here you are.” There was a click and then the familiar ring on the other end.

  Miss Aubin, the cook, answered and a minute or so later Sir James came on the line. Alice grasped the receiver with a sweaty hand.

  “Of course,” he said, as she explained her request. “But no need for you to drive up here. Save your petrol for your patients. I’ll send Proudfoot or one of the farm hands down with half a dozen, all fresh cut Friday evening. How about I have him take them straight to Nurse Prewitt? Will be a nice surprise for her.”

  She could hardly refuse and insist on driving up there, on the off chance his new gardener needed staking.

  “Give the happy couple our best wishes,” Sir James continued. “You know what camellias stand for? Admiration. Perfection.”

  She hadn’t. “How lovely. Perfect for a bride. Thank you, Sir James.”

  She hung up and went back to the kitchen to break the news to Gran and Howell Pendragon.

  “Drat,” Gran said. “We had it all worked out.”

  “Never mind, Helen, gives us more time to prepare. Maybe this weekend, after the wedding, we’ll have a chance.”

  “Why not sharpen a few more stakes while you’re at it?” Alice said. It would keep them both safely at The Gallop.

  After she heard Sir James hang up the phone, Edith Aubin took a deep breath. She was going to do what was right and face the consequences. She took off her apron and crossed the hall to the study. Opening the door before she lost her nerve, she walked in. “Excuse me, Sir James, but I need to speak to you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Sir James paid her the courtesy of listening without interruption. When Edith finished, he sat silent a good two minutes, no doubt trying to decide whether to call in the army or the police.

  “And this chap arrived when?”

  “Last week, sir.”

  “And it took you this long to decide someone needed to know about him?”

  She deserved that. “No, sir. I knew all along I should report it to someone but they threatened my family. I was terrified for them.”

  “And what made you change your mind?”

  “I spoke to Mary LaPrioux. The young teacher evacuated from Guernsey,” she added as she doubted he had any idea who Mary was. “She’s had news from home, and all seems well. Then I heard from my married niece in Devon. They preyed on my fears for my family.”

  “Did this Smith give any indication what he was doing here?”

  She shook her head. “No, sir, but I assumed it was to report on visitors. Given as we have so many important ones.”

  “It’s a good thing the house party this weekend has been postponed.” He gave her a searching look.

  “Indeed, sir.”

  “We just heard this morning. Postponed, not canceled, but it gives us time to think. What can you tell me about this chap? According to Baines he’s a fast worker but likes to work on his own. Doesn’t care for company.”

  “He keeps to himself. Not used to this sort of work, I’d say, sir.”

  “Why?”

  “He’s not got much idea how a house like this runs. He comes in and eats at odd hours, cadges sandwiches and eats back in his rooms. He seldom exchanges two words with anyone and those he does are curt and offhand.”

  “And he lives over the stable, all on his own?”

  “Yes, sir. I put him there, seemed best. And it’s where the single lads slept, before the war.”

  “I’ll have a word with him. Have a closer look, then make the calls I need to, and Miss Aubin…”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Not a word to anyone.”

  “Of course not, sir.”

  Back in her kitchen, waves of doubt hit her from all directions. What was Sir James going to do? Was she in trouble? Of course she was! She’d helped harbor an enemy agent. And just because a letter this morning told her her family members were safe a week ago, didn’t mean they were now, or would be tomorrow.

  Was anybody?

  It was war. She’d done what was right at last, she’d have to pay the price. Whatever it was. She hoped her family didn’t as well.

  With no house party to prepare for, she was at a bit of a loose end. No point in cooking quantities if there was only the household to eat it. In the end, she burned up some of her anxiety by going through the linen cupboards and looking for sheets to turn sides to middle.

  It was halfway through the afternoon, lunch long over, and she and Molly were enjoying a cup of tea, when the summons came.

  Molly answered the front door, and came back saying Sir James wanted Miss Aubin in the drawing room.

  Edith took off her apron, smoothed her hair and went out to face whatever awaited the other side of the drawing room door.

  “Ah, Miss Aubin, this is Inspector Wallis, he’d like a few words with you.” There were two other men, plainclothes policemen by the look of them. They were not
introduced.

  “Of course.”

  “If you would come with me, Miss Aubin?” Inspector Wallis said.

  Dear heaven! They were arresting her. “Let me get my coat and hat.” Would they let her pack her toothbrush? Spare reading glasses? “Should I get anything else?”

  “No need, Miss Aubin, we’ll just drive around a bit and talk. Shouldn’t take us too long.”

  She took his word for it. Not that she had much alternative.

  Once settled in the back of the car, Edith turned to the inspector sitting beside her. “What do you want to know?”

  “Everything, Miss Aubin.” He tapped on the glass panel separating them from the driver. “Up to Box Hill and back, I think, Jarvis. If we need longer, I’ll let you know.”

  “So.” The inspector gave his attention back to her. “Tell me all you know about this young man, how you met him and why you introduced him into the household.”

  Throat dry and her hands sweaty inside her gloves, she told him all she knew. He was a good listener, no doubt trained to take confessions every day. He asked few questions, just let her talk herself out.

  “I see,” he said after a long silence. “How did they contact you?”

  “I was in Guildford, looking for enamel saucepans, since we donated many of the aluminum ones for the metal drive. It was back in September. I could look up the exact date, as I have the bills from the hardware shop.”

  “That would be helpful. Could you find it easily when we get back?”

  So, they were taking her back. That was a relief. “Of course.”

  He nodded for her to go on.

  “This man came up to me. Tall, dark, rather swarthy. He knew my name, knew where I worked, and said he could give me news of my family back home. Have to be honest, I hadn’t heard anything since the invasion and I was worried. He offered to buy me a cup of tea. So we went into that tearoom in the High Street, and he presented an ultimatum. He would keep my family safe and sound, if I agreed to sponsor a young man as gardener and claim him as my nephew.” Her voice faded with shame. She’d known all along what was involved. She’d lied to herself.