Shoulder the Sky_ A Novel - Anne Perry [143]
The Peacemaker did not tell him about the mole he had placed in the Scientific Establishment in Cambridge. He would keep that secret. It was as well to give only the information you had to. Trust no one.
Joseph ate and slept and did little more than wander around Matthew’s flat for two days. Then in the evening of the third day Matthew answered the telephone, and Joseph, watching him, saw his face light up, and an intense concern fill his expression.
“How are you?” Matthew said earnestly. He waited for the answer, listening with obvious sympathy. “I can’t,” he went on. “Although I expect Joseph would move for you. He’s been through a pretty rough time. He went out to Gallipoli, and came back by sea. His ship was sunk, and . . . yes, yes, he’s all right!” He glanced at Joseph as he spoke. “He’s here, now. I wouldn’t tell you like that, for heaven’s sake! But he did spend a bit of time in an open boat, rowing the thing. Yes, of course he is! I swear!”
There was another silence.
Matthew smiled. “Of course. That sounds like a good idea. Do you want to speak to him? Right.” He held out the telephone receiver. “It’s Judith. She’s in London.”
Joseph took the receiver. “Judith?” He was terribly afraid of what he might hear—the pain in her he still had no idea how to help.
“Are you all right,” she said urgently, “Joseph?” She sounded as if she were afraid for him.
“Yes, I’m fine,” he answered. “I was only cold and wet . . . and terrified.”
She laughed a little jerkily. “Is that all?”
“Where are you?” he asked. “If you want to stay here, I can move to a hotel.”
“No . . . thank you. I wanted to stay with Mrs. Prentice, and she invited me. I’m going to a dinner at the Savoy tomorrow evening, a sort of government thing, to get some kind of organization into voluntary help. There are people all over the country doing things; knitting, driving around, packing parcels, writing letters. It needs to get some order, or we’ll be falling over each other. It’s Dermot Sandwell’s idea, I think. Anyway, I need to find a dress.”
“Who’s taking you?”
“Taking me?” She drew in her breath quickly, a little shakily.
“May I?” he asked before she had time to think.
“If . . . if you want to? Yes. Thank you.”
“Where shall I pick you up, and when?”
She gave him the address. “About six, to give us time in case the traffic is bad.”
He heard the hesitation in her voice. “What is it?” he asked.
“Nothing! At least not . . . Joseph, this is Eldon Prentice’s family, you know. And . . . and General Cullingford’s sister . . . they’ve lost . . .” She did not know how to finish.
“Are you saying you would rather meet me somewhere else?” he offered.
“No! I was saying perhaps you could come a little earlier, and say something . . . decent about Prentice at least. It . . . Joseph, it’s terrible for them. . . .”
“Of course.” He responded immediately and without wondering how he would do it, especially now that he knew what Prentice had really been intending to do. “And no one has anything to say about Cullingford except good.” He took a deep breath. “Are you all right, Judith?”
“No,” she said a little huskily. “But then is anybody?”
“No. It’s only a matter of degree. How about five, or is that too early?”
“Five would be excellent. Thank you.”
“The only thing I have to wear is a uniform. Is that all right?”
“It’ll be perfect. Good-bye.”
“Good-bye.” He passed the receiver back to Matthew. “She’s got a dinner tomorrow evening. I’ll take her.”
Matthew smiled. He did not say anything, but his pleasure was like a brightness in the room.
Joseph still looked haggard when he surveyed himself in the mirror in Matthew’s bathroom, but he was almost as presentable as any other soldier home on a brief leave.
He borrowed Matthew’s car, and by the time he pulled up outside the Prentices’ house he was decidedly nervous. He was being faced again with the duty of trying to say something of comfort to people who had lost someone they had loved long and intimately. It hardly ever made sense, in peacetime or war. The wound