The Girl in Lifeboat Six by Eliza Graham

Author:Eliza Graham [Graham, Eliza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Storm Publishing

* * *

She must have dozed for part of the journey. When she woke, the window to her left blazed with the setting sun. Romilly looked at her watch, before remembering it no longer worked. It was in her coat pocket, but goodness knows what she’d do with it. It would be impossible or expensive to repair. Now she felt a pang. Her mother had given it to her for her sixteenth birthday.

They couldn’t be far from the city, though. Already the countryside was taking on a more preoccupied slant: more cars on roads, telegraph poles. Passengers had filled the carriage while she slept. The men wore suits and hats and carried folded mackintoshes. The women were dressed for entertaining, carrying small evening bags. Their eyes fell curiously on Romilly and Freddie in their put-together outfits. Smoky whined on her lap. He couldn’t have been off the train for hours and hours.

‘It’s all right,’ Freddie said, seeming to understand what was on her mind. ‘You were asleep when we stopped. I took him onto the platform. He needed to make a big puddle. And the guard gave him a bowl of water and a sandwich.’

‘A sandwich?’

‘The guard said his wife always packs too much food for him. Smoky doesn’t need to be hidden now and he won’t do anything bad.’

Suppose the train had pulled away, leaving her asleep on it and Freddie alone on the platform with the dog? ‘I’m sorry I didn’t wake up, Freddie.’

He shrugged. ‘You look after me and I look after Smoky.’ He coughed, covering his mouth. Romilly remembered what the doctor had said about keeping an eye on Freddie’s chest. Could he perhaps be coming down with something after all? But he seemed bright and alert.

A man was approaching them. No hat. Romilly sat up and rubbed her eyes. Mr Franklin.

‘We changed carriage at Albany.’ He pulled a face. ‘Some obviously German Americans boarded the carriage and started talking about the war. I thought I might resort to violence . . . Anyway, how are you two?’ His face wore the bashful expression he’d worn ever since he’d offered Freddie his fried eggs on the cutter.

‘We’re fine, thank you.’ She couldn’t feel anything against the man now.

‘Where’ll you go when we reach Grand Central, Romilly?’

The use of her Christian name seemed to mark the mellowing of their relationship. ‘I’m hoping Mrs Dekker’s niece will be there to meet us. Otherwise, we’ll make our own way to her apartment.’

‘You have the wherewithal to do that?’ Mr Franklin reached inside his jacket for his wallet.

‘There’s no need,’ she told him. All resentment towards him had gone now, but she couldn’t take his money.

‘It seems the least we can do,’ he said. ‘A friend wired me money to Halifax. There was just time to withdraw it from the bank before we left.’

She kicked herself for not doing the same thing. Surely Ruth Belman would have wired them funds? She was so bad at knowing what to do. But the dollars in Mrs Dekker’s wallet would be enough for a cab.

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.