Shadow of a Lady by Jane Aiken Hodge

Author:Jane Aiken Hodge [Hodge, Jane Aiken]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: PFD Books
Published: 2013-09-23T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

TWO days dragged by, and still there was no sign of Angelina. Increasingly anxious as her time grew near, Helen was exhausted with the effort of pretending to Charlotte that there was nothing the matter. But at least there was one excuse for admitted anxiety. The man who had gone shopping in Naples that morning had returned with the news that the third escaper had indeed been Trenche. The hunt was up, both for Trenche and Michele Giordano. His unlucky brother, Annibale, was back in prison awaiting his long-delayed trial, his prospects infinitely worsened by his attempted escape, but the other two had apparently got clean away.

Charlotte and Helen were sitting down to their frugal supper that evening when they heard what sounded like a considerable body of men riding up to the main entrance on the other side of the house. “What in the world?” Helen broke off at the sound of violent knocking at the door.

“I don’t know.” Charlotte looked as frightened as Helen felt. Visions of brigands, banditti, or armed refugees from Torre del Greco hovered in both their minds. For the first time. Helen found herself actually wishing for her husband’s presence.

“Signora.” Carlos, the man who had been to Naples, appeared at the door. “It’s the military police!” He too was visibly frightened. “They want to search the house. For those two men.”

“Oh!” Helen rose ungracefully to her feet. After all, now she thought about it, it was logical enough—all too logical, in fact, that they should look for Trenche here. What a mercy that she had not for a moment considered trying to hide him in the villa. “Very well,” she said. “Send in the officer in charge. We will naturally do everything we can to help him.”

The officer seemed courteous enough, and was apologetic when he saw Helen’s condition. “You will understand, signora, that we are searching everywhere that those two might be.”

“Of course. The house is small. It is impossible that they should be hiding here without our knowledge, but search for yourselves. We will feel safer so. They must be desperate men!” It was all too easy to sound frightened.

The search was prolonged, alarmingly thorough, and ended in the kitchen, where, Helen suspected, the servants were plying their unwelcome guests with placatory wine. She did not like the idea of this, and was wondering whether it would be cowardly, or wise, to retire upstairs with Charlotte and put a chair against the bedroom door, when the officer returned, less civil than before, and all too evidently the worse for drink. “One of your servants is missing,” he said, without preamble or much pretence at politeness. “Why?”

“Not a servant,” said Helen. “A guest. An old lady I brought with me from Torre del Greco. She helped nurse me in my illness after the eruption. Now she has gone back to visit her son and daughter-in-law, who are rebuilding their house there. Her daughter-in-law needed her.” Too late she saw the danger of this.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.