Angels Alone by Kate Hatfield

Author:Kate Hatfield [Hatfield, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

When she eventually followed John into the noisy throng in the Great Hall, she was not surprised to see the Special Branch man talking earnestly to Aubrey in one corner of the room, well away from everyone else. She left them to it and did her best to banish reality to the back of her mind so that she could at least look as though she were unworried. The thought that someone in the huge room might know where Tom was being held, might have been involved in taking him, horrified her, but it also made her even more determined to show nothing of her feelings. In a relatively short time she felt confident enough of her voice and her bright smile to play her part.

She greeted old friends and acquaintances first, moving from one group to another, fielding commiserations on Tom’s absence ‘due to pressure of work, you know’. The more she talked, the easier it became. When she went to talk to one of the local farmers, whose problems with Set Aside she had discussed at one of her surgeries, he introduced her to a Colonel Trewhitt.

She thought that he must have retired from his regiment at least twenty-five years earlier, for he looked to be well into his seventies. Remembering the kinds of things her own father used to enjoy discussing, she asked him what he thought about the latest army cuts. He answered politely but perfunctorily and in turn asked her what she thought of the recent fertilization and human embryology bill on which Tom had spoken in the House just before the disastrous hunting vote. Surprised that someone who looked so conventional should want to talk of such a subject to a strange woman, Lavinia answered carefully.

Fifteen minutes later they were still hard at it and she had stopped trying to disguise her strong views. They were not all the same as the colonel’s but he seemed quite untroubled by her disagreement. Looking up at one moment to search for the precise words that would explain what she thought, she saw Philip edging towards her through the crowd.

He touched her shoulder, smiling politely at the older man. Lavinia introduced them and sketched the development of their discussion. Philip joined in at once, obviously finding the colonel as intriguing as she did. They might almost have been the same age as they talked, Lavinia thought, instead of being separated by at least thirty years, if not more.

‘I know that my wife would very much like to meet you both,’ the colonel said at last. He smiled first at Lavinia and then at Philip. ‘May I fetch her?’

‘That would be lovely,’ said Lavinia, still mentally reeling in surprise at Colonel Trewhitt’s broad-mindedness and easy familiarity with modern scientific discoveries and feminist thought.

He showed his age as he moved, having to rock backwards and forwards to get his legs working properly and, even then, showing signs of stiffness. When he had gone, she smiled up at Philip, ready to take issue with one or two of his opinions.

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