A Time for Silence by Philippa Carr

Author:Philippa Carr
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781480403833
Publisher: Open Road
Published: 2013-01-15T17:25:00+00:00

A Revelation

I WAS STAYING FOR a few days in London, as I did now and then. On this occasion I had come to town to make some arrangements about patients who would shortly be sent to Marchlands from one of the big hospitals. I also had some purchases to make.

It was pleasant to be with my father, who would return with me to Marchlands at the weekend. He was very preoccupied at this time. I knew that he had a great deal on his mind, and I think he enjoyed dining quietly with me alone. In some respects he was more hopeful about the war. He told me that the first contingent of Americans was expected in June.

“This will have a demoralizing effect on the enemy,” he said. “And we can do with their help, of course.”

“Do you think the end is in sight?”

“Well, perhaps not exactly in sight. Round the corner maybe. There’s one thing that makes me uneasy.”

He sat biting his lips while I waited for him to go on.

Then he looked at me steadily and said, “There’s something wrong somewhere. Secrets…top secrets…are being betrayed.”

“How?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “There are bound to be spies around. Even in peacetime they are here, and in wartime…although it is more difficult for them to operate, their efforts are intensified. But lately…You remember the affair at Milton Priory?”

“You never found out how that came about?”

He shook his head. “Unfortunately, I was deeply involved in that. I felt responsible. I am sure someone had been at my papers. It’s unsettling. Well, we can only be watchful. But some of these people are devilishly clever.”

“Perhaps it will all be over soon. Won’t that be wonderful?”

He agreed that it would.

It was the next day when Tom Green, one of the men from the stables at Marchlands, arrived at the house.

I was astonished to see him and thought for a moment that something must be very wrong.

I must have betrayed my anxiety for he said quickly, “All’s well at Marchlands, Miss Lucinda. It’s just that a woman came. She seemed to be most upset-like…and wanted to give a letter to you….And, as I had to come up to London on an errand for Mrs. Greenham…to the hospital here…I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone, as the saying goes.”

“A woman?”

“Yes, miss. Really upset she was…in quite a state. She asked for you. She didn’t want to see anyone else. She was real distressed when I told her you were away.”

“Did she give her name?”

“No, miss. All she said was she wanted to see Miss Lucinda Greenham, and when I said I wasn’t sure when you’d be back, she said she would write a note to you. So I settled her down with pen and paper and she wrote and I gave her an envelope and she said to put this with a letter she’d brought and she said would I give it to you the moment you came back. I said I would. I was right-down sorry for her.

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