The Unexpected Return of Josephine Fox by Claire Gradidge

Author:Claire Gradidge [Gradidge, Claire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2019-08-07T23:00:00+00:00

18

20th April

SINCE THE CALL OF THE abbey bells has been silenced, Sunday mornings seem like any other. Though Nash is not a churchgoer, he misses them. In their absence, it’s the quietness of the streets which marks the day as different from the rest of the working week.

It’s early when he lets himself out of the side gate. Barely half past seven, but he’s impatient to check the information Pete and Alf gave him last night. His first impulse is to go alone, to make a find of his own. Jo’s had it all her own way with the ticket and the suitcase, even meeting Frank. But it would be at cost to the relationship between his assistant and himself, and their working partnership, the trust between them, is already stretched uncomfortably thin.

That reckless night in London’s to blame. He should have known better. He discovered long ago there’s no such thing as no strings in human relationships. There’s always a bill to pay. If it’s not cash for services rendered, then it’s emotional entanglement. And he’s chosen the road he’d rather travel. The trenches in France taught him all the lessons he ever needed to know about detachment, maimed more than his face. He can’t subscribe to the belief that love will conquer all. The truth is, it makes you vulnerable so the ripples of destruction spread wider. For every son or husband or father killed, how many more deaths in the hearts of families who’d loved them? How much more pain? He won’t risk that terrible responsibility for someone else’s happiness.

Not that he flatters himself that Jo Lester harbours any tenderness for him because of one shared night. If she had, she’d never have turned up on his doorstep demanding a job. He knows he should have turned her down. A strand, insubstantial as cobweb, had tugged at his sense that he owed her something.

The feeling remains. Strand for strand, cobweb is stronger than steel.

He should find Jo. Tell her what Pete told him. Take her with him to investigate Ruth Taylor’s reputed hideout. Weave another gossamer strand.

He should go alone.

Instead, he picks up a paper from the newsagent, drops in at the tea room for whatever they can offer by way of breakfast. He’ll do the crossword if he can, make up his mind after that.

*

I’m in the kitchen, peeling potatoes, when there’s a knock at the front door. Dot looks up from her task.

‘D’you mind answering that?’ she says.

She’s plucking pigeons, and there are feathers light as thistledown all over the sack she’s using as an apron. If she gets up, they’ll fly everywhere.

‘Of course.’

I wipe my hands, make my way into the hall. The caller must be a stranger. No one who knows Dot uses the front door. The door’s bolted top and bottom, and the bolts are stiff.

I call out, ‘Just coming, hang on,’ but there’s no response.

The bottom bolt yields suddenly, catches my thumb. Cursing, I drag the door open.

Bram Nash. I’m amazed. What’s he doing here?

He tips his hat.

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