David was the first to recover. “That’s it? But we already knew that. We told you that.”
“Spies have a rather frequent habit of disappearing, so they find that paper is better.”
“But that paper ended up on the bottom of a river.”
“Ah, but even then it was protected. My guess is that Austin knew it would be so precious to you that you’d take care of it.”
“Yes,” David said, looking at Eddie and smiling. “Very precious.”
“Well now that that’s done, I suggest we all get a good night’s sleep and start off to London tomorrow. Do you require one room or two?”
“One!” Eddie said quickly, and held up her left hand to show the ring she wore on her trip around the country. “We’re married.”
“So you are,” Dr. Jellie said, smiling.
He said that the next morning the beautiful Boadicea rode off in the carriage to return it to Hamish and an hour later came running down the hill. He said he’d never in his life seen a more beautiful sight than that tall girl running down the hill toward her lover. Dr. Jellie said he always wondered how different his life would have been if there had been a woman who looked at him like that, but, alas, there never was.
He told how the three of them took the train back to London and he said that he’d never seen any two people more in love than they were. They had eyes only for each other, only wanted to be with one another. There was someone waiting for Dr. Jellie when they got to London, and the beautiful Eddie and her love, David, were swept away. He never saw or heard about them ever again.
26
JOCE WAS SITTING quietly in Dr. Dave’s study and she was thinking about Miss Edi and her beloved David. She knew what happened next. He was killed and she was burned.
“That’s only the beginning of the story,” Luke said softly.
“The beginning? That was the end of it.”
“No,” Dr. Dave said. “Right after you told me about General Austin I wanted to go to New Hampshire and see if I could get the letters.”
Joce looked at Luke. “That’s what you two were talking about that night at dinner.”
“Yes,” he said, “and that’s why I didn’t want you to go with me, but you nagged until I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I let you go, then you got your feelings hurt because—”
“You two already sound like an old married couple,” Dr. Dave said. “Save it for later. Show her the letters.”
Luke pulled a single piece of paper out of his grandfather’s briefcase and handed it to her. She dreaded reading the letters, as she was sure they’d be full of the accident and what Miss Edi had gone through in the two years it took her to recover.
6 October 1944
Remember Harcourt, the best secretary I ever had? I sent her on assignment with my driver,
and it looks like they did more than I asked of them. She’s four months pregnant. I got so mad I would have made them get married, but he was sent to another unit and even I can’t find him. Harcourt wanted to transfer out but I won’t let her.
18 December 1944
Remember Harcourt? That guy she married got killed. Her kid’s due in the spring, so I’ll have to send her away after Christmas. Thank God she hasn’t grown a big belly yet so nobody knows. Without her my office will fall apart.
21 April 1945
Remember Harcourt? I just heard she was in a horrible accident where she was badly burned. She’s not expected to live. The nurse I talked to said the kid was stillborn. I don’t think any loss in this war has hurt me as much as this one. I had her transferred stateside so she can die at home.
Jocelyn read the excerpts three times before she looked up at Luke and Dr. Dave. “Baby?” she whispered, and tears came to her eyes. “That poor, poor woman. She lost more than even I thought she did.”
“No,” Dr. Dave said as he took Jocelyn’s hands in his own. “You have my grandson to thank for all of this, as he was the one who was suspicious.”
“Suspicious of what?” she asked as Luke handed her a tissue.
“That nothing rang true,” Luke said. “If you’d known Uncle Alex you would have understood. He said he owed Edilean Harcourt his entire life, and he wanted to pay her back. Giving her a job, letting her live for free in a house, that meant nothing to him. He’d done that for several people who’d worked for him all their lives.”