“Is this supposed to make me feel better? Where have you been?! And don’t you dare call me ‘Mom.’”
“New Hampshire, then London. I left Gramps in New Hampshire, then I flew to London. I just got back an hour ago.”
“London?” she asked softly. “You did something about Miss Edi, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Oh! And I stopped in New York too. Gramps has some friends there. Does that answer all your questions?”
“Yeah, and now I’m completely content. When are you coming over here to explain what you and your sly grandfather have been up to?”
“He is sly, isn’t he? Good observation.”
“Why don’t I meet you at your house? That would make a nice change. I’d like to see how you’ve decorated it. Do you grow orchids in the shower?”
“Only if I haven’t had a bath in a couple of weeks. Then I get them in my left ear. I don’t know why it’s always the left and not the right one. And my belly button—”
“Stop it! Leave the bad jokes to me. I want to know what you and your grandfather have been up to these past weeks.”
“Snooping and spying in a big way.”
“Luke,” she said, and her voice was half warning, half pleading.
“Gramps went to New Hampshire to meet General Austin’s widow and sweet-talk her out of the letters.”
Jocelyn drew in her breath. “Did he get them?”
“Yes,” Luke said, but he was hesitant. “Listen, Joce, we found out some things that…”
“That what?”
“That I think might upset you a bit.”
“Oh, Lord, what now?”
“It’s nothing bad,” he said. “It’s just…I swore to Gramps that I wouldn’t tell you, so I have to keep my mouth shut. If it were up to me I’d be over there right now with a stack of papers that—”
“What kind of papers?”
“History,” Luke said quickly. “Gramps has to rest today. He can’t take all this traveling, so how about if I pick you up at four and we go to his house?”
“And he’s going to be there when I see all these papers?”
“That was part of the deal with him. Besides, he’s a doctor.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing,” Luke said quickly. “Forget that I said it. Is four all right with you or are you going to be one of the slaves Sara’s boyfriend uses on the new shop?”
“Ramsey and I have an appointment to get a marriage license at one, so I guess we can make it.”
“Joce?” Luke said. “I’m curious if you’ve ever made one of those marrying-Ramsey jokes around Tess.”
“Let me see…My head is still on my shoulders, I have both arms, and even my feet are still on. No, I don’t think I have.”
“Finally, at last, you see it.”
“You could have told me.”
“Then have you tell Ramsey and Tess? No, let them find out all by themselves.”
“You could come over here before four, you know. I think that garden of yours looks pretty bad and it needs some work.”
“Don’t try to entice me. If I spent ten minutes with you, you’d get everything out of me, and Gramps said that if I told you when he wasn’t there, he’d make me play golf with him every day for a month. He even threatened to use that ol’ I-won’t-be-here-much-longer bit that always gets me.”
“I hope you didn’t inherit his cruelty.”
“I probably did, since I haven’t let you see the inside of my house.”
That threw Joce for a moment. She’d teased him about not seeing inside his house, but she hadn’t thought there was actually anything bad in there. Or maybe not bad but strange. “What’s, uh…what’s in your house?”
“Pictures of other girls,” Luke said. “I have to go. I need a couple of hours of sleep, then I have some things to do. I’ll pick you up at four. By the way, Nana is copping out of this, so it’ll just be the three of us.”
After they said good-bye, Jocelyn held the phone a while and thought about what Luke had told her. The letters from General Austin, then Luke went to London to…to do what? Was there something in the letters that made him go to London?
Joce called Tess. “I want to get my hair…I don’t know…looking great. Where do I go?”
“So Luke’s back,” Tess said. “Let me make a call and I’ll call you back.”
Ten minutes later, Joce was in her car and heading into Williamsburg for what Tess called an “emergency appointment.” “I’m not that bad,” Joce had mumbled, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to look good for this evening.
When Luke came to pick her up, he was in his car, a dark blue BMW sedan. He got out and came around to open the door for her. “Wow! This is great,” she said as she slid onto the leather seat. “You said you wanted your grandfather there because he’s a doctor. Are you being nice because you’re planning to tell me that I have only six months to live?”
When he didn’t answer, she looked at him sharply. “Luke?”
“People’s lives change,” he said solemnly. “Sometimes for good, sometimes for bad.”
“Now you’re scaring me.”
He reached out and took her hand in his. “Sorry for all the mystery, but it’s what I promised Gramps. Right now I think he’s the happiest person on earth. We talked on the plane, and he told me how much he truly loved Miss Edi. He can never say that around Nana, of course, but he did love her. Gramps said he and Edi spent their entire childhoods together and it’s because of her that he became a doctor. After he saw her legs, he went back to school on the GI bill, and…” Luke squeezed Joce’s hand harder. “You look different.”
“Tess sent me to a salon where I got plucked and dyed and buffed. It took hours and I was so nervous I could hardly sit in the chair.”
“No, it’s not that, although I do like that pink polish. I’ve seen peonies just that color.”
He dropped her hand and put his back on the steering wheel. “There’s something else different.”
“I, uh, decided that I like you better than Ramsey.”
“Did you?” Luke said, sounding as though that meant nothing, but she could see the tip of his eyebrow begin to twitch. So it wasn’t just lying that caused that, but also great emotion.
“I like you better than Ramsey too,” he said softly.
“Let’s ask him to be our ring bearer.”
Luke laughed. “That’s a deal. But only if he wears a powder blue velvet jacket.”
Jocelyn’s heart was pounding in her throat so hard that she could hardly breathe. She wasn’t sure, but she may have just been proposed to. Or proposed to him. Whatever it was, she didn’t think she’d ever felt happier.
When they arrived at Dr. Dave’s house, every light seemed to be on, but the brightest thing was his face. He looked as though he’d found the Secret to Life.
“I really wish you two would tell me what’s going on.”
“I thought we’d have some tea first,” Dr. Dave said.
“You have got to be kidding,” Luke and Joce said in unison, then broke into laughter.
“I’d be embarrassed to know where you two have been all afternoon.”
“In a hair salon,” Joce said.
“Taking a nap,” Luke said.
Dr. Dave looked from one to the other. “Well, something has happened.” He put up his hand. “Don’t tell me. My old brain can’t take any more information.”
He turned to Jocelyn. “My grandson and I know most of what we’re about to tell you, but some of it we can’t do until you know what we do. If you don’t want to wait until after tea, then I suggest that we have tea while my grandson reads us the last part of Miss Edi’s story. Are you ready, Jocelyn?”
“Is the tea hot?”
“Steaming.”
“Then I’m ready.”
24
ENGLAND
1944
I AM FEELING A bit peckish,” Hamish said at breakfast, and both Edi and David had to hide smiles. “Peck
ish” was English slang for hungry, and if there was anything the man could do, it was eat. At first he’d made some comments on David being a traitor because it was Italian food and Italy was on the German side.
“If you don’t want to eat it…,” David said as he started to take the plate away, but Hamish reached for it.
“I guess it won’t hurt the world to eat one plate of spaghetti.”
“That’s—” David began, but stopped. Why bother to tell the man the difference between pizza and spaghetti and pasta in general? He was glad when the old man disappeared into his room right after breakfast.
That morning Edi had found a broken-down old greenhouse at the back of the barn. It had been nearly covered with dead vines, and when she’d hacked through them, she’d found the glass house, and inside were tomatoes that had reseeded themselves. The vines had kept the soil warm through the winter, and their lack of leaves in the spring had let the sunlight in.
“I could kiss you for these,” David said, picking up one of the precious globes from the little basket Edi held out to him. “In fact, I could kiss you for anything at all.”
She backed away so the table was between them, but she was smiling. “Don’t you know that I’m the Untouchable One?”
“I heard that,” David said in a husky voice as he moved toward her, but this time Edi didn’t move away.
But David’s stiff leg caught on the corner of a chair and he went into a spin that almost made him fall. He caught himself on the edge of the table, then sat down heavily. “I hope Austin rots in hell,” he muttered as he rubbed at his sore leg. “How can a man do any courting with this thing on?”
When Edi said nothing, he turned to look at her, and she had a strange look in her eye.
“What’s going on in that little mind of yours?”
She scratched at her head. Today she hadn’t bothered with trying to style it. She’d just let it hang loose about her shoulders, and when it got in her way she shoved a couple of Aggie’s barrettes at the sides. Between her too-big shirt and her too big trousers that were belted at her waist, and her dark hair about her shoulders, David thought she looked magnificent. If it weren’t for his leg he would have made a move toward her before now.
“I need a bath,” Edi said. “I think I got something from the chickens in my hair.”
“I saw some kerosene in the barn. Should we use that?”
“No,” Edi said, smiling. “I’m going to take a bath in the river.”
“That’s not a good idea. It’s still swollen, and the current is—”
He didn’t say any more because he heard the door close behind Edi. When he went to look out the window, he saw that she was running. Obviously, she was on a mission, but he wondered what it was. When she came out of the barn a few minutes later and she was carrying two coils of rope, he knew exactly what she was thinking of doing.
“No,” he said when she came into the kitchen. “No, no, double no. If you try that I’ll hike out of here and find a telephone and tell Austin what you’re planning to do.”
“Can you tie good knots?”
“No,” David said firmly as he sat down on a chair.
“Okay, then we’ll have to make do with my knots.” She put the end of one of the ropes around her waist and tied it. “There. Nice and strong, isn’t it?”
David reached up, grabbed one end of the knot, and pulled. It came loose easily.
“Maybe I should tie it in three loops.”
“Please don’t do this,” David said, his voice almost tears. “It’s not worth it. We have one more day, then Aggie will be back, we’ll get the magazine, then—”
“What about this knot?”
David pulled both ends, and they were tight.
“Perfect,” she said. “We’ll use that one.”
“And what if you get caught down there and want to get out?” he asked, his voice low. “Do you take a knife with you and saw at the rope?”
“Then you fix it,” she said, “and I don’t want any lectures about why I shouldn’t do this. I’m a great swimmer.”
“Edi,” he began, refusing to get up from the chair. “This is very noble of you, but I don’t want you to do this.”
Bending, she put her lips to his and kissed him. “We have very little time left,” she said, “and how can you make love to me with that thing on your leg? I’m going to do this no matter what you say, but I’d very much appreciate your help with it all.”
David was so stunned by what she’d said that it took him a moment to react. When she started to walk away, he caught her wrist and pulled her to him so she landed on his lap.
He kissed her. Gently, then with increasing passion, his kiss deepening. “I fell in love with you the moment I first saw you,” he whispered. “It was like I knew you from somewhere. Heaven, maybe. I knew you were mine and always will be.”
She ran her hand along his cheek. “I detested you.”
David chuckled. “You sure know how to make love to a man.”
“Sorry, but I know nothing in that department, but I’ve been told that I’m a fast learner.”
He kissed her some more, his hands in her hair.
Then the spell was broken when Edi moved away to claw at her scalp. “There’s something crawling in my hair, so I’m going to jump in the river to wash it, and I might as well get that Allen wrench. Are you ready?”
When he frowned and looked as though he was about to again ask her not to go, she put a fingertip over his lips. “Think on the bright side. I might not find it. It could be in the Thames by now and you’ll be in that brace for the rest of the war.”
David put his hand on the kitchen table and heaved himself up. “Lead the way.” He was trying to sound jovial, but she could hear the fear in his voice.
“Come on,” she said, teasing, “I have the buggy already hitched.”
“Buggy,” he said, smiling as he followed her out the door. Maybe ol’ Hamish had a car buried under that mess in the barn and Edi’d found it. Maybe—
All good thoughts stopped when he saw Edi drive out of the barn in a contraption that looked like it was made in the 1890s. It was a horse carriage with two big wheels in back and two smaller ones in the front. There was a frayed and worn padded seat in the front and what looked to be a standing area in the back. Hamish’s old horse was tied to it with lots of leather straps, and Hamish himself was standing to the side, looking so pleased he was almost smiling.
“You know how to use it, do you?” he asked Edi, who looked as though she’d been born sitting on a buggy.
She had a long whip in her hand and she gave it a snap over the horse’s head, then a few clicks, and the animal moved quickly in a perfect circle.
“Oh, aye,” Hamish said, “you know how to drive.”
“I have about a hundred ribbons and trophies at home,” she said. “Oh, but look at him, how he loves it.”
She was referring to the horse—certainly not David, who was already backing toward the house.
“That he does,” Hamish said as he lovingly stroked the horse’s nose. “He won many a race in his time, and he remembers them. The war people said he was too old to be of any use to them, but he’s got a lot in him yet.”
“We won’t be long,” Edi said. “David’s going to tie me to the bridge and I’m going back into the car to get some things. Maybe we can get that horrible contraption off his leg.”
“Don’t need it, do he?” Hamish said.
Edi smiled at the top of the man’s head. He may be old, but he saw a lot. “Come on,” she called to David. “Hamish will help you get up on the back. You’ll need to hold on when we go downhill, but I think you’ll be all right.”
“Think we should tie him on?” Hamish asked.
“No, I do not need to be tied on,” David said, making Edi and Hamish smile at each other. It was easy to see that David thought the buggy might as well have been a mastodon. To his eyes, it was old and dangerous.
Since th
e old horse was dancing about, remembering the days when he was young and fast, it took Hamish’s help to get David up on the buggy. The back of it was flat and open, so it couldn’t be used for carrying things. There were a couple of handles, but it was difficult for David to sit, his leg out straight, and hold on to them. “What good is this thing? You can’t carry anything with it.”
“What good is a race car?” Edi asked, and Hamish nodded.
“All right, girl, take her down. But be careful. He pulls to the right.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t let him,” she said, then clicked to the horse, who took off as though someone had fired a starting pistol.
In the back, David hung on with both arms and the jarring made the steel cut into his skin, and his teeth were rattling together. “Do you have to go this fast?” he yelled up at Edi, but all he heard was her laughter.
To David, it seemed about three hours before they reached the river, but it was only a few minutes. They could have walked through the woods, but with David’s leg that would have been torture.
He could see that the water had receded enough that it no longer went over the bridge, and to one side he could see the bottom of the tires of the car. If the water kept going down, within a day or two half of the wheels would be visible.
By the time he got down from the buggy, Edi was already tying a rope about her waist. He brushed her hands away and redid it. “Listen to me,” he said softly. “If anything goes wrong and you want me to pull you up, jerk on the rope twice. If the rope tangles and you need to get it off of you, pull this end. See?” He gave it a firm jerk and the rope fell away. “I’m going to count, and if you stay longer than fifty-eight seconds, I’m going in after you. Do you understand?”
“Perfectly,” she said as she kicked off the big old boots she’d been wearing for two days. Then she pulled on the cord and let the rope fall to the bridge. The water had receded and the wood was dry, but it still didn’t look safe.
“What are you doing?” David asked.
“I can’t swim in all these clothes. Do you mind if I strip down?”
“I don’t even know how to answer that,” he said in a whisper, then stepped back to watch her unbutton her shirt, then slip out of it. She was wearing the peach-colored teddy that she’d had on when he undressed her the first night—and he’d never seen anything more beautiful than she.