Lavender Morning (Edilean 1)

“Do you have a better idea?” she yelled back.

“Yeah, we could—”

David didn’t say anything more because the front door opened, and Mrs. Pettigrew peeped out.

“Come in,” she said. “You’re soaking.”

Edi practically pushed David aside as she went into the restaurant. “Did you see a magazine?” she blurted out.

“Oh, yes, the Time. We don’t see them much around here. It was nice to see about the Cavendishes and the—”

“Where is it?” Edi asked, her question a demand.

David stepped in front of her. “What she means is that she promised the magazine to her uncle and it was my fault it was left

behind. Do you have it?”

“Sorry, but I don’t,” Mrs. Pettigrew said, smiling. “But I have some very nice issues of Country Life. Maybe your uncle would like a couple of those.”

“No,” David said before Edi could speak. “That magazine has an article in it about her cousin and she needs that issue.”

“Oh, well, then, I think that Mr. Farquar has some old Time magazines. Maybe he has that issue.”

“We want that magazine,” Edi said, her teeth clenched. “What happened to it?”

“Aggie took it.”

“Aggie took it,” Edi said in barely a whisper.

“Aggie Trumbull. She works for me two days a week. I can’t afford to pay her much, but I let her keep bits and pieces that the guests leave behind.” She looked at Edi in reproach. “Like old magazines. Usually, people don’t mind.”

David put his arm out, as though to keep Edi from attacking the woman. “So where can we find this Aggie?”

“She goes home where she lives with her grandfather. If you come back in three days, she’ll be here and we can ask her about the magazine. I’m sure she took it for her old grandfather. He loves to read.”

“Three days,” Edi said. “Three days?”

“Maybe we could go to her grandfather and get the magazine ourselves,” David said. “Could you tell us where he lives?”

“Three villages over,” Mrs. Pettigrew said, “but in this rain you’ll never make it in a car. The bridge goes out at half this much rain, and at this time of year the river will be flooded. No, you’d better stay here for a couple of nights and wait. I could put you up. Do you want one room or two?”

Again, David stepped between Edi and the woman. “No, we won’t be needing any rooms, but maybe you could draw us a map of the way to Aggie’s grandfather’s house. And if it wouldn’t be too much trouble maybe you could pack some lunches for us.”

“It’s past time for lunch,” she said, looking as though she wasn’t going to move.

“Tea, supper, and something for breakfast,” Edi said coldly. “We’ll buy all the food you have. Now will you draw us a map?”

“I’d be happy to,” Mrs. Pettigrew said. “And it’ll just take me a minute or two to fix you a few boxed meals.” She left the room.

Edi gave David a look like she wanted to murder him.

“Don’t look at me like that. This is your fault for not telling me what was going on,” he said under his breath so he wouldn’t be heard. “If you’d told me that that blasted magazine held some kind of secret, I would have—”

“What, Sergeant Clare? Not gone snooping in my bag and stolen it, then left my private property on a chair so someone else could steal it? If the safety of our countries depended on you we’d have lost this war years ago.”

“If you weren’t such an uptight snob who thought she knew everything and no one else in the world had a brain, we wouldn’t be here now.”

“Snob? You call taking care of Top Secret information snobbery? Is that what you’re labeling it?”