The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear (the best electronic book reader TXT) 📗

a moment, which isn’t very often, mark you, I come down here to have a silent word, you know, to thank the pilot.” He pointed across the river to bombed-out buildings. “Look at that mess, the blighters taking down whole streets. Night after night, and they just keep on.”

Maisie nodded. “We’re doing the same to them.”

“But they started it, didn’t they? What with Hitler wanting to rule the world. And here we are, holding on with no help fromanyone. I wonder how much longer we can do it.”

“We will—I believe we will.”

“From your lips to God’s ears, Miss Dobbs.” Caldwell replaced his hat. “Oh, by the way—I believe you owe me a report on thatHackett case.”

“Give me a few days, if you don’t mind.”

“Just a few.”

 

At Maisie’s request, Alice Langley agreed to continue seeing Freddie Hackett once each week, simply to listen to the boy,encouraging him to talk about the traumas he’d witnessed. The plan had two functions, the first being to help Freddie recoverfrom years of abuse at the hands of his stepfather, and then the terror of witnessing a murder. However, as Langley pointedout, young Freddie had seen enough horror while running with messages as bombs fell, and the images that festered in his psychewould take time to work their way out, splinters of memory that would rise to the surface for years. Now Maisie wanted tosee Freddie at home, along with his mother and Iris.

“Miss Dobbs—Maisie—I cannot begin to explain how everything seems to have fallen into place. First of all, Iris is more settled, and your caretaker’s wife has found out about a new school that she can attend, especially for children like Iris. She knows all about it on account of her niece’s little girl.”

“That’s excellent news, Grace. Is it close?”

“Well, that’s the thing—it’s not. It’s in Surrey, but I’ve got a new job too, and it’s in the same place. I couldn’t believeit—one thing led to another. It turns out that because the children live in, they need what they call a house mother, helpingput the children down at night and looking after them.”

“And what about Freddie?”

“All very good, because most of the boys and girls from his old school were evacuated to a village not far away, and he’sgoing to join them. It’s as if someone waved a magic wand to help us out. We have somewhere to live too. It’s a flat at theschool, so Iris can stay with us unless she wants to be with the other kiddies—and that might be better for her, in the longrun. But it’s even more exciting, because Freddie’s PE teacher, the one who went with the evacuees to the village, is lookingforward to having him there. He says that with some decent training, Freddie’s got it in him to do well with his running.”She looked down at her work-worn hands. “It was Mrs. Langley who put the final touches on the whole idea, because she’d workedwith one of the doctors at this new school, so she asked about the job on my behalf.” She paused, catching her breath. “It’sfunny how things work out, isn’t it? I mean, it’s like dominoes—you touch one and then the others start to go, and sometimesthey fall in the right direction and one person knows another and it all opens up like a flower.”

“I could not be happier for you, Grace.”

“I might need your flat for a bit longer, six weeks perhaps, because they don’t require me to start until the new year.”

“Not to worry—take your time.” Maisie stood up to leave.

“And I hear congratulations are in order—you’re getting married!”

“How did you find out?” asked Maisie.

“Oh, a Mr. MacFarlane came round to see how Freddie was doing, and gave him five bob. Five shillings! For a boy! Such a generousperson. Anyway, he told me.” She stopped speaking and looked at Maisie, holding her gaze. “He said your fiancé was a goodman. You deserve a good ’un, Maisie. Nothing but the best.”

Maisie nodded. “Yes, he’s a good man. An American, actually.”

Grace Hackett laughed. “Oh, very nice, I’m sure.”

 

MacFarlane waved to Maisie to enter as she arrived at the open door of his Baker Street office.

“Come in, lass, come in. Take a pew. Close the door behind you. I won’t be a minute.” He rifled through a pile of papers andstacked them to one side. “Just getting everything sorted for us to discuss a few new recruits. Now then, some news for you.”

“Pascale?”

“Just arrived at Southampton airport, came in via Lisbon and Shannon. Debriefing at an undisclosed location in Hampshire.Sorry, can’t tell you where.”

Maisie felt the tension release through her body as she exhaled. “Oh, thank god.”

“It’s been a stinking ride, this one.”

“I was just terrified,” said Maisie, placing her hand on her forehead. “I’ve had to go on pretending—pretending to Priscilla,to Mark, to my dear Anna, to everyone I love, that I am having the best time of my life and that everything is tip-top, butI have been feeling sick with fear every single day in case Pascale failed to reach safety.”

MacFarlane shook his head. “I’ll tell you now that it was touch-and-go at times, and that girl is a terror for not following orders. I thought you said she wasn’t like her aunt.”

“She’s not—well, not entirely. If she didn’t follow orders, there must have been a very good reason. If Priscilla decidednot to follow orders, it would have been because she didn’t feel like it.”

MacFarlane folded his arms. “The lass isn’t going out again. Not for us, anyway. That wound might not heal as well as we thought,and the Welsh girl’s fate has left a bigger scar on Miss Evernden than we had hoped. But that’s an early impression. We’llsee.”

“Please, Robbie—don’t even consider sending her, even if she seems as if she’s recovered. Find something else for her—trainingrecruits, my job, anything but a resistance line.”

“So you’re saying you don’t want to do your job anymore?”

“I don’t know if I can, Robbie. I don’t know if I can willfully commit another