While Still We Live (73 page)

He looked slightly startled at the idea. “Come now,” he said, “apart from a natural resentment at being kicked upstairs into the great-uncle class, I’m delighted.” He was keeping his voice especially mild, to prove to himself the exaggeration of her description.

Sheila rose and came round to where he sat, and laid a hand on his shoulder. She wondered what he would say if she planted a kiss on his cheek. He’d probably like it, although he’d never admit it. She tried it. She was right.

“Picking up Polish customs, I see,” he said as she left him to cross over to the window.

“If we put out the lights,” she called over her shoulder, “we could draw back the curtains and I could see my first London blackout.”

“What’s so wonderful about that?” he grumbled; but he extinguished the candles one by one.

The frost gleamed on the sloping slate roofs. The grey stone was whitened by the moon. The soot marks became black shadows. The stars seemed brighter over the darkened city, like the stars over the sea, or the stars above silent mountains. The same moon and the same stars would be fading now as the dawn began in the Carpathians.

Unexpectedly he had come over to stand beside her at the window. Together they looked at the bright stars.

“It may be a long time,” he said gently. “You know that,
Sheila? The war hasn’t really begun for us over here. Not yet.”

“I know.” Her voice was even. “It will be long,” she was saying. She turned abruptly away from the window. “Never too long,” she added quietly; so quietly that he wondered if he had really caught the whole phrase. He puzzled over that for a moment; never too long to wait, if...? If what you waited for was really worth-while? That, he decided, must be the implication. He felt a sudden relief. At least she wasn’t going to lament or complain, she wasn’t going to dramatise. Tonight she had talked about Korytów and Madame Alexander, of Barbara and Uncle Edward and Olszak, of Reymont, and Jan, of Casimir and his dog Volterscot, of Kati and Zygmunt, of Andrew and Stefan and little Teresa, of Madame Olszak, of the men in the forest and Adam Wisniewski. He knew, now that once their story had been told she wasn’t going to keep on talking about them. She had her own thoughts about the past. She had her own beliefs about the future. She wanted no one to invade them.

She faced him again, and she was smiling as she looked up at the night sky.

He had a strange feeling that, for the moment, he didn’t exist.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Helen MacInnes, whom the
Sunday Express
called ‘the Queen of spy writers’, was the author of many distinguished suspense novels.

Born in Scotland, she studied at the University of Glasgow and University College, London, then went to Oxford after her marriage to Gilbert Highet, the eminent critic and educator. In 1937 the Highets went to New York, and except during her husband’s war service, Helen MacInnes lived there ever since.

Since her first novel
Above Suspicion
was published in 1941 to immediate success, all her novels have been bestsellers;
The Salzburg Connection
was also a major film.

Helen MacInnes died in September 1985.

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS

A series of slick espionage thrillers from the
New York Times
bestselling “Queen of Spy Writers.”

Pray for a Brave Heart

Above Suspicion

Assignment in Brittany

North From Rome

Decision at Delphi

The Venetian Affair

The Salzburg Connection

Message From Málaga

The Double Image

Neither Five Nor Three

Horizon

Snare of the Hunter

Agent in Place

PRAISE FOR HELEN MacINNES

“The queen of spy writers.”
Sunday Express

“Definitely in the top class.”
Daily Mail

“The hallmarks of a MacInnes novel of suspense are as individual and as clearly stamped as a Hitchcock thriller.”
The New York Times

“A sophisticated thriller. The story builds up to an exciting climax.”
Times Literary Supplement

“Absorbing, vivid, often genuinely terrifying.”
Observer

“She can hang her cloak and dagger right up there with Eric Ambler and Graham Greene.”
Newsweek

“An atmosphere that is ready to explode with tension... a wonderfully readable book.”
The New Yorker

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS

BY DONALD HAMILTON

The long awaited return of the United States’ toughest special agent.

Death of a Citizen
(February 2013)

The Wrecking Crew
(February 2013)

The Removers
(April 2013)

The Silencers
(June 2013)

Murderers’ Row
(August 2013)

The Ambushers
(October 2013)

The Shadowers
(December 2013)

The Ravagers
(February 2014)

PRAISE FOR DONALD HAMILTON

“Donald Hamilton has brought to the spy novel the authentic hard realism of Dashiell Hammett; and his stories are as compelling, and probably as close to the sordid truth of espionage, as any now being told.”

Anthony Boucher,
The New York Times

“This series by Donald Hamilton is the top-ranking American secret agent fare, with its intelligent protagonist and an author who consistently writes in high style. Good writing, slick plotting and stimulating characters, all tartly flavored with wit.”
Book Week

“Matt Helm is as credible a man of violence as has ever figured in the fiction of intrigue.”

The New York Sunday Times

“Fast, tightly written, brutal, and very good...”

Milwaukee Journal

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS

BY DANIEL STASHOWER

The Dime Museum Murders

The Floating Lady Murder

The Houdini Specter

In turn-of-the-century New York, the Great Houdini’s confidence in his own abilities is matched only by the indifference of the paying public. Now the young performer has the opportunity to make a name for himself by attempting the most amazing feats of his fledgling career—solving what seem to be impenetrable crimes. With the reluctant help of his brother Dash, Houdini must unravel murders, debunk frauds and escape from danger that is no illusion...

PRAISE FOR DANIEL STASHOWER

“A romp that cleverly combines history and legend, taking a few liberties with each. Mr. Stashower has done his homework... This is charming... it might have amused Conan Doyle.”
The New York Times

“In his first mystery, Stashower paired Harry Houdini and Sherlock Holmes to marvelous effect.”

Chicago Tribune

“Stashower’s clever adaptation of the Conan Doyle conventions—Holmes’s uncanny powers of observation and of disguise, the scenes and customs of Victorian life—makes it fun to read. Descriptions and explanations of some of Houdini’s astonishing magic routines add an extra dimension to this pleasant adventure.”

Publishers Weekly