A Fall from Grace - Maggie Ford (have you read this book TXT) 📗

room. As she looked back she saw his gaze was following her and she knew her own had responded with a lingering look.

In the hall, as Mabel’s maid held her coat for her to ease into, her mind still pondered his last look.

Quickly she donned her hat, staring at her reflection in the hall mirror. It looked strained. Suddenly she drew in a sharp breath. ‘My handbag, I forgot it! I left it by the chair where I was sitting.’

Without waiting for the maid to offer to get it for her, she hurried back leaving Mabel and the maid standing in the hall.

‘I forgot my handbag,’ she said to Anthony who looked startled at her sudden return.

He watched her as she retrieved the bag, then said softly. ‘Come here a minute, Maddie.’

Not knowing why, she went over to him. She felt him take her arm; pull her gently down towards him. She let herself slip on to her knees without effort, his arms closing around her, lips closing on hers. Savouring the touch of those warm lips she was lost to the world, but only momentarily as sudden fear gripped her at the thought of his mother coming into the room wondering why she was taking so long and catching the two of them. What if she told James? She pulled away sharply.

‘I have to go!’ she heard herself gasp.

As she came upright, her face burning, her hand still gripping her handbag in a most ridiculous manner, she expected to see an amused look in his eyes. Instead, there was such a depth to his gaze that she drew in a sharp breath, instantly interpreting its message.

‘No, Anthony! We mustn’t! I’m married,’ she gasped.

‘Maddie.’ It was all he said, his tone imploring.

She was about to enforce those last words of hers when his mother’s voice sounded from the hall, growing louder as she approached.

‘Are you all right, Madeleine? Haven’t you been able to find your handbag?’

Madeleine sprang away from him as if shot from a cannon. ‘I’m… Yes… it’s all right. I’ve found it.’

Leaping across to where her handbag had previously been found by an armchair, she was just in time to seem to grab it up as Mabel came into the room.

‘I was looking in the wrong place,’ she said quickly, knowing that she was breathing fast, her face flushed.

She glanced hastily towards Anthony. He was reclining in his chair as if completely at ease, his eyes closed as though wearied by her visit, but she knew instinctively that every muscle was taut.

‘I did wonder if you were having trouble finding it,’ Mabel was saying in an easy tone as she led her from the room.

‘It wasn’t by the place where I was sitting,’ Madeleine managed to reply by way of explanation as she followed Mabel to the front door which the maid was now holding open for her.

Having kissed Mabel goodbye, she was glad to be outside, her nerves still all a-jangle by what had happened, grateful for a chance to calm herself during the short walk to the end of the road where she could hail a taxicab.

Anthony loved her. He’d not said as much but she knew from the tension she had seen in him as he lay back in his chair. He was in love with her. And she with him, but being in love was now coupled with a craven fear of being so, not daring to look into the future with its lies and hurt and misery. And there was nothing she could do and that in itself was fear enough.

Fourteen

The war was over. Most chose to ignore that it hadn’t been so much won as hostilities brought to an end by a signed armistice. It was good enough to know that the fighting and the dying were finally over.

‘God knows why celebrations were delayed until today,’ Madeleine said as she and James made their way through the prancing crowds to his sister-in-law’s house. Though Big Ben had struck one o’clock to announce the official start to the celebrations, flags of all the Allied nations had been flying from every building and crowds thronging the streets all morning.

‘They’re naming it Victory Day even though the armistice was signed on the eleventh, five days ago on Monday.’

‘I suppose they had to be sure, make it official,’ James said, his eyes taking in the antics of the crowds beyond the motor car window.

They drove along at a snail’s pace to safely negotiate the groups of revellers too happy to pay heed to pavement, kerb or road as they danced and hugged and sang, waving flags and kissing everyone whether they were friends or strangers.

‘After all,’ he went on, still watching the crowds, ‘I suppose it does seem an odd way to end after four years of slaughtering each other, neither side having won outright – just a piece of paper signed by a civilian and a couple of minor army officers with a white flag. It could be that’s why it’s taken five days to really be sure. Maybe the stock market will start to pick up now,’ he finished hopefully. ‘It’s been a difficult four years.’

She wasn’t interested in stock markets. ‘I wonder how Anthony is, knowing it’s over and that he won’t be sent back?’ she said, only half her mind on what James had been saying.

‘Damned relieved I shouldn’t wonder,’ James said, continuing to gaze through the window, ‘like those out there.’

Madeleine leaned back in her seat. She wasn’t interested in those out there. She was thinking more of that last meeting with Anthony eight days ago. She’d not had the courage to go near his home since then. Even now she could still feel his lips on hers.

How she’d got through this week, she didn’t know, her mind removed from all else as she relived that previous Friday over and over again. Even on Monday as people began to pour on to the streets at the news of the armistice