Raging Sea, Searing Sky by Christopher Nicole

Author:Christopher Nicole [Nicole, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2016-01-06T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Tokyo, 1923

Lew pushed men and women aside to reach his wife.

‘She just...just slid down,’ Longbridge stammered. ‘Had no idea...my dear fellow, I am most terribly sorry.’

Lew knelt, raising May’s head. He was at the moment oblivious of the comment swirling about his head, was aware of a mixture of concern and anger. And the anger was slowly gaining control as he realised that she was certainly not hurt by her fall, and was breathing quite normally.

He adjusted her bodice, which had shifted sideways, and discovered his father stooping beside him. ‘You’d better take her home,’ Joe McGann said. ‘And call a doctor.’

‘I don’t think she needs a doctor,’ Lew said.

‘You call one anyway,’ Joe told him.

Lew nodded; clearly if everyone believed she had had some kind of seizure it would be best for them both. But he could still hear the contemptuous tone of the woman who had discerned the truth.

He got one arm round May’s shoulders, thrust the other under her knees, and straightened. People stepped back to let him through, and he walked to the doors, which were being solicitously held open for him. As he reached them the band struck up again, clearly everyone wanted the unfortunate incident forgotten as rapidly as possible.

One of the hat check girls hurried forward with May’s wrap, and he found Brenda at his elbow.

‘I picked up her handbag,’ she said.

‘Thanks. Can you put it in my pocket.’

She hesitated. ‘Would you like me to come with you?’ She met his gaze, and flushed. ‘I just thought you could do with a hand.’

‘Maybe I could,’ he said, because the anger was growing all the time. He had never been really angry with May before; whatever her excesses, she had never let him down before. She had been saving it all for the biggest occasion of their lives, with the admirals of five navies present, and half of Washington’s top people; there had even been an expectation that President Harding had been going to be there, but he had had to cancel at the last minute.

But why involve Brenda? Only as someone to vent his anger on. And he was afraid to think of that.

He went down the stairs and carried May into the car park. Brenda opened the door for him, and between them they laid her on the back seat. She stirred, and sighed, and gave a little smile.

‘Is she...’ Brenda asked.

‘You heard that woman.’

‘Oh, my God!’ She sat beside him as he started the engine.

They drove over the bridge in silence. Then she said, ‘I hope you don’t think I’m butting in.’

‘You are butting in. But I presume you want to.’

‘Do you hate me that much?’

‘Right now I hate the world,’ he said.

‘It could have happened to anyone,’ she pointed out.

‘Sure. But it didn’t.’

He drove into the garage beneath the apartment, dragged May out of the back. ‘Oh, Lewis,’ she said, without opening her eyes. ‘Oh, Lewis.’

He carried her into the elevator, Brenda at his side. They looked at each

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