Authors: Alison Stuart
He pushed that particular recollection to one side and caught her looking at him. She gave him a small self-conscious smile that indicated her thoughts had been travelling in the same direction.
The inspector and his sergeant waited on the front steps of the hospital, stamping their feet in the crisp, early autumn air. They entered the hospital together and were greeted by a well-dressed woman who rose from a chair in the foyer.
“What are you doing here, Lady Hartfield?” Paul asked in a tone that dripped ice.
His men would have understood and ducked for cover. Lady Hartfield just stuck out her chin and said, “I came to see if it was true. As for you...” She turned to Helen. “I told Evelyn you were nothing more than a colonial gold digger...I warned her...”
Helen tucked her hand into Paul’s arm. He felt her fingers dig in as she controlled her anger.
“Lady Hartfield,” she said, “you may believe what you want, but if I were truly what you accuse me of, why would I throw over the chance to become the next Lady Hartfield for a penniless archaeologist?”
Lady Hartfield’s lips tightened as she drew herself to her full height, her nostrils flaring with indignation.
The inspector cleared his throat. “Shall we get on?”
As they headed for the stairs, Lady Hartfield made a move to join them.
Paul turned to her. “Not you. This is no concern of yours. Go home, Lady Hartfield. You have caused enough trouble.”
He looked down at Helen who tightened her grip on his arm. She gave him a small, nervous smile as the Viscountess huffed, turned on her heel and strode out of the hospital in a flurry of foxtail.
Despite the protests from the ward sister, the party filed into Evelyn’s room. Paul disengaged Helen’s hand and crossed to his aunt. He picked up her hand, feeling the fragility of the fine bones beneath the papery skin. Her eyes flickered opened and fixed on his face.
“Paul,” she said, in a faint voice. “How nice to see you, dear.”
Paul cast a sideways glance at the policemen. Evelyn’s greeting was hardly what they would expect from someone about to accuse her nephew of attempted murder.
“Evelyn, these gentlemen want to ask you some questions about your accident,” Paul said.
For the first time, Evelyn’s eyes moved around the room, settling on the Inspector who moved to the other side of the bed.
Before he could speak, Evelyn said in a clear voice. “I was pushed,” she said firmly. “I felt a hand in my back. I am certain of it.”
The Inspector looked taken aback by this confirmation of Lady Hartfield’s allegation. “Can you tell me who pushed you?”
Evelyn looked up at Paul. Her eyes held his, questioning, searching for answers he could not give her.
“It was a woman,” she said, turning back to the Inspector.
“A woman? Are you certain?”
“Absolutely certain. I heard her laugh.”
The inspector looked across at Paul and Paul looked down at his aunt. “The Inspector thinks it was me who pushed you, Evelyn.”
“You? Don’t be ridiculous, Paul. Of course it wasn’t you. It was a woman. Why would you want to push me down the stairs?”
The policeman’s eyes turned to Helen. Paul straightened and fixed the policeman with a cold stare.
“Don’t even think it,” Paul said. “As we told you last night, Helen’s whereabouts can be verified by no less a person than my accuser, Lady Hartfield.”
“What’s Maude said?” Evelyn interrupted. “She can be such a silly woman sometimes. It certainly wasn’t Helen.”
Paul bent and kissed his aunt’s forehead. “Evelyn, we will just see these gentlemen out and will come straight back in.”
“Really.” The ward sister who had appeared in the door bristled. “It’s not even visiting hours.”
Paul took the woman by the arm and steered her out into the corridor. “Thank you, sister. I appreciate your rules but we are getting married this morning and I don’t have time for petty regulations. Inspector?” He turned to the two policemen. “I trust you are satisfied.”
“Up to a point,” the man said. “It still begs the question as to who pushed her.”
“An intruder?” the Sergeant suggested.
“I suggest that is what you put in your report,” Paul said. “Good morning, gentlemen.”
He waited until they stomped off down the corridor, and opened the door readmitting then both into Evelyn’s room.
Evelyn turned worried eyes on him. “Did I do the right thing?”
“You gave him the perfect answer, Evelyn.”
“But who did push me? I know I was pushed.”
Paul hesitated. “I believe you. As we told the police, it must have been an intruder. We were fortunate that you were not killed. Evelyn, I can’t stay. I have a wedding to go to.”
“Whose?”
“Mine,” he said, glancing up at Helen. “Helen and I are getting married this morning.”
Evelyn’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Helen?”
Helen crossed to the other side of the bed and Evelyn looked at her. “You’re marrying Tony.”
Helen shook her head. “No. That would have been a terrible mistake.”
Evelyn frowned, studying her face. “I think I was wrong about you. I can’t remember what I said but it upset you.”
“It’s forgiven, Evelyn,” Helen said.
“I’m sure you and Charlie loved each other.”
“We did.”
“And do you love, Paul?”
Helen looked up and Paul felt the breath leave him for a moment as he read the love in her eyes.
“I do,” she said. “Very much.”
“Then you are fortunate to have the chance to love two men in your life, Helen,” Evelyn said. “For me there was only Gerald.” Her faded blue eyes filled with tears and she made a feeble gesture with her hand. “Go away, both of you. I’m tired. Make each other happy.”
“Evelyn,” Helen said, the tone of her voice had become urgent. “This is goodbye. I am leaving for Australia tonight. My father is ill and I must get home–if I’m not already too late.”
Evelyn’s lip trembled. “But Alice? Will I see Alice again?”
“She’s outside with Sarah. I’ll bring her up,” Helen said.
Chapter 32
Helen leaned back against the cool leather of the car seat.
“It’s over,” she said.
Paul slid his right arm around her shoulder drawing her in to him. He leaned his head on her hat and she felt him sigh.
“It feels as if life is just beginning,” he whispered.
As they neared Holdston Paul leaned forward pulling down the window.
“Good lord,” he said. “I can’t believe what I’m seeing!”
As the car drew up outside the church, a mighty cheer went up. Every villager and tenant from the estate thronged the churchyard. Helen felt tears fill her eyes as she looked from face to face. Her hand reached for Paul’s and she saw the emotion in his face that words couldn’t express. The still, silent man she had first met had vanished and she saw light and life in his face.
Sam, grinning like a Cheshire cat, held the car door open for them as Paul alighted first, holding out his hand for Helen. Lily ran forward with a posy made up of bright summer flowers. She had two smaller ones for herself and Alice.
“You knew about this.” Helen turned on the smiling Sarah Pollard.
“And did you think we’d let an occasion like this go by without properly marking it?” Sarah said. “It’ll be the last Morrow wedding in this Church so we needed to make it one to remember.”
Helen tucked her arm into Paul’s and they walked slowly through the gathered crowd acknowledging the good wishes and smiles. As they neared the porch, a figure stepped out of the shadows.
Helen felt Paul stiffen and they both said in unison, “Tony!”
Tony Scarvell smiled. “Just in case you change your mind, Helen... No? I thought not. In which case, I am at your service–best man or shall I give the bride away?”
“I would like you by my side,” Paul said.
“Besides,” Helen said with a smile. “Alice is walking me down the aisle.”
Tony looked down at the child. “Are you, sprite? Well, I think that is quite right too. I’m yours, Morrow. Do you have the ring? I think the vicar is waiting for us. Ladies and gentlemen,” he addressed the throng. “I think it is time to take your seats.”
Inside, the church had been filled with flowers and greenery and candles burned in every sconce, illuminating the faces of the congregation. Helen, holding Alice’s hand and clutching her little bouquet tightly, looked down into her daughter’s face. Alice smiled and squeezed Helen’s hand.
“She’ll be right, Mummy,” she said, lapsing into her uncles’ Australian idiom.
Helen laughed and bent and kissed her daughter.
She cast a quick glance at the brass war memorial and her lips moved in silent prayer for her beloved Charlie but it was not Charlie who stood at the altar or turned to watch her as she walked down the aisle of the old church. Paul Morrow, tall and straight, a lock of his dark hair falling across his forehead, waited for her, his gaze never leaving her face as she came to stand beside him.
She handed the little posy to Alice and slipped her gloved hand into his. His fingers tightened around hers and his shoulders straightened as he drew himself up. The familiar words of the wedding service blurred and the Reverend Bryant declared them man and wife. As Paul bent to kiss her, a cheer went up from the congregation. Paul hesitated, smiling down at his new wife.
They had been through so much and now they faced long, uncertain months of separation, but they had this moment in time and a future which would be theirs to build together. They had something that they had both thought lost to them forever, hope and a promise of happiness.
“I love you, Paul Morrow,” she whispered as his arms circled her, drawing her into an embrace.
“And I you, Lady Morrow,” he replied before his lips met hers in a kiss that defied the normal propriety of a wedding service.
About Alison Stuart
The daughter of a career British army officer, Alison was brought up in Kenya in the dying days of the British Empire. The family moved to Australia and in her final year at University, where she was studying History and Law, Alison did the unthinkable (at least to those who knew her), she joined the Army Reserve. During a navigation exercise in officer training, a handsome young man offered to share his pencil with her, their eyes locked...and the rest is history. A long and interesting career in a peace time army ensued and Alison rose to the rank of Major in the legal services. A move to Singapore in 2000 brought both of their military careers to an end. However the shared interest in the military and military history in particular has continued. In Singapore they retraced the events leading to the fall of Singapore in 1942 and have gone on to explore battlefields in America and England. In 2005 they finally made it to Belgium and Northern France, a trip that coincided with Anzac day on the Somme (Anzac Day has special, almost spiritual, significance to Australians). Walking the still visible trenches and craters of the Western Front had an enormous impact on both of them and sowed the seeds of Gather the Bones.