Lightning Strikes (Hudson 2)

bowl of lettuce she was chopping. "Well, what's this now?" she asked quickly. "An invasion of Yanks?"

"This is my brother, Roy," I said. "Roy, this is Mrs. Chester."

"How do you do, ma'am," he said.

She looked at me and at him. I could see her measuring the differences in our looks.

"He's visiting from Germany," I explained. "He has a forty-eight-hour pass."

"That so?"

"I thought it would be all right for him to watch us work and maybe give him something to eat while he waits for me to finish," I continued.

"Sit yerself down over there," she said nodding at the small table and chairs in the corner. "We're 'avin' a fancy shepherd's pie."

Roy raised his eyebrows and looked at me quizzically. "It's very good, Roy. Mrs. Chester is an excellent cook."

"I do what I got to do," she muttered. "There's lots better 'n me." She glanced at Roy. "How's the food in the Yank army?" she asked him.

Roy laughed.

"We don't refer to it as food, ma'am," he said.

She stared a moment and then she laughed.

"I know what that means. Yes I do," she said, wagging her head.

I smiled at Roy and began to set the table. Roy remained in the kitchen throughout the dinner, but when I served the afters, I announced his presence.

"Your brother?" Great-aunt Leonora asked, astonished. "In our kitchen?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"You should have told us earlier. We would have had him at the table," she added.

From the look on Great-uncle Richard's face, I could see he wouldn't have approved. I brought Roy out and introduced him. Great-uncle Richard continued to look displeased and uncomfortable, but Great-aunt Leonora rattled on and on about American servicemen in London and how one of her charity groups once held a dance for them.

"That was so long ago, it doesn't pay to bring it up, Leonora," Great-uncle Richard muttered.

"Where are you staying, Roy?" Great-aunt Leonora asked him, ignoring her husband.

"I have a room in a B and B."

"Bed and breakfast. How nice," she said. "If we had known, we might have made arrangements for you to stay with us," she added.

Great-uncle Richard's eyes nearly spun in his head. He cleared his throat and turned his back on Roy. I nodded at him and he told them he was pleased to meet them and returned to the kitchen.

"What a nice looking young man," Great-aunt Leonora said. "The uniform does so much, doesn't it? It makes them all so handsome."

"Nonsense, Leonora. If a uniform did that, you'd swoon at the sight of a bobby."

"Oh a policeman is something different, dear. He's... different," she insisted.

Great-uncle Richard raised his eyebrows and glanced at me. Hooked away quickly and started to clear the table.

"Maybe we should give her the day off tomorrow, Richard," Great-aunt Leonora suggested just as I started out of the dining room.

"We're understaffed with Mary Margaret gone, and she's got school, anyway," he muttered.