All in Good Time by Ormondroyd Edward

Author:Ormondroyd, Edward [Ormondroyd, Edward]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Purple House Press
Published: 2011-12-21T05:00:00+00:00

13. Mrs. Walker Weeps

It’s happened! It’s happened! We called up the elevator to leave and there was a sign on the back wall. At first we thought it was one of Mr. Bodoni’s, but when my eyes got used to the light I saw it had our names on it! It said to read it before we came down, and because I tried to, it happened at last …

“Think an eagle will be enough?” Mr. Shaw said. “We never did find out what they charge, did we?”

“No,” Susan murmured.

“Let’s see … We’ve been here two days, more or less — oh, nuts! I don’t know why I’m making a fuss about it. Let’s just leave all we’ve got.” The coins clinked as he laid them out on the little table by his bed.

He tiptoed over to the window and looked out. All the lights in the Walkers’ house — all that were visible from here — had been extinguished for nearly an hour. That should be sufficient time for them to be settled into sleep over there. The Hollisters, who had retired about an hour ago, were well settled themselves; a throbbing chorus of snorts and snores from the back of the house attested to that.

“All right, chick,” he said. “Time to go. Got everything?”

She picked up her diary and the farewell letter to Victoria and Robert, and nodded miserably. He blew out the candle, and when their eyes had become adjusted to the dark they crept down the stairs.

The stars seemed even more brilliant than night before last; the sky was luminous with them. ‘I’ll never see stars like this again,’ she thought. They blurred. She stumbled along beside her father, blind with tears.

“Front door? Back door?” he murmured.

Her only wish now was to get the pain over with as quickly as possible. “Front,” she choked.

Mr. Shaw stopped when they reached the porch steps. “Shoes!” he whispered, pantomiming the removal of his boots; he wasn’t going to take any chances in the house. They sat down on the bottom step and took off their shoes — his genuine American articles, and the button-ups she had borrowed from Victoria. ‘I’ll leave them behind,’ she thought. ‘Nothing I can do about the dress, though.’ Not so long ago she had day-dreamed about going to town with Victoria and buying a whole wardrobe … The memory wrenched her heart.

They crept up to the front door in their stocking feet. Mr. Shaw opened it with extreme caution. Silence closed around them inside, broken only by their own breathing and the muffled ticking of the grandfather clock. They felt their way step by step among the dim shapes of parlor furniture. Here was the curtained doorway through which Maggie had made her appearance this morning. “Time — time — time” the clock dirged as they passed by.

“All right, Susie,” Mr. Shaw whispered, “call it up.”

She put her farewell letter on the table, propping it against the stuffed owl’s glass bell, and placed Victoria’s shoes side by side underneath.

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