The Yellow Brick Road by Cadell Elizabeth

Author:Cadell, Elizabeth [Cadell, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: The Friendly Air Publishing
Published: 2016-09-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

They drove down to Broome, both of them silent for the greater part of the journey. Desmond drove steadily, his eyes on the road; Jody did not know what he was thinking about, but she felt a curious sense of security. There had been a bridge between them and she had hesitated, for many reasons, to cross it. Now she was over it, and she had no regrets. Nor had she, she found, any of the doubts which had once been present in her mind. To tell Estelle and Michael? At present, no. She would speak to Charles when he returned from St. Malo. She would tell him everything that had happened, without reserve, and he would advise her as to how much it would be wise to tell the others.

Happiness filled her. It was, she thought, like looking back on an illness; only now, when it was gone, could she realise how much weight of doubt and fear she had been carrying. With all doubts, all fears gone, she felt free and almost untroubled. She was no longer in this alone. Charles would support her and Desmond Huntley would encourage her, and if there were any more clues, they would unravel them together.

The car slowed, and Desmond nodded towards a quiet country hotel.

“Looks unpretentious,” he said, “but you can get a wonderful dinner there. Tables out on a paved terrace, but not in the chilly night air—it’s glassed in and warm.”

“Thank you all the same,” said Jody, “but—”

“But no?”

“But no. Estelle’s expecting me, and perhaps Charles will ring up from St. Malo, and I’m longing to talk to him.”

“You’re going to tell him?”

“When he gets back. But Estelle and Michael—not yet. If Michael thinks the school is going to be involved, he’ll panic. Charles doesn’t panic.”

“Not about the school—but when he hears that you set off alone to the Merlin Bar, he isn’t going to feel enthusiastic about the business.”

“If you were a man and—”

“Which I trust I am.”

“—and your fiancee had been lied to by fat men calling themselves Kennedy, and lured to a Bar merely in order to catch sight of the same Kennedy leading away the woman he said he didn’t know was who or where, then what would you say to her?”

“To the woman?”

“To your fianceé. Would you just say: ‘I wouldn’t take any notice, if I were you.’ Would you?”

“Well, let’s consider. I have this hypothetical fiancée, and so I love her. And so I want to protect her. And so... Well,” he mused, “I think I’d make her swear solemnly that she wouldn’t make a move without me, and then—”

“And then?”

“Well, then I’d try to get a step further in the investigations. I wouldn’t tell her everything I did, but I’d nose around Dorset Court seeing if I could catch a glimpse of Kennedy. I’d ask the waiters at the Merlin if they’d ever seen the quiet blonde in the Bar before, and if so, with whom? I’d try to get into

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