The Legend of Nimway Hall: 1940-Josie Read online

  ”No. You meant to call me either a traitor or a useful idiot. I am neither. Here.” She picked up the device and the scarf and dropped it into his hands. “It’s yours, Gideon, take it wherever you like.”

  “I will. Whatever its story, it cannot remain here.” The less she knew, the better for them both. He wound the scarf tightly around the device. “Just know that I am officially taking possession of the device and will deliver it to the proper authorities at first light.”

  Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Then good luck with your mission, Gideon.”

  “It’s not a matter of luck, Josie,” he said, wanting desperately to believe that she was uninvolved with the device.

  “I’m just warning you not be disappointed if you can’t find the orb come morning.”

  He’d reached the door, his hand already on the latch, when he turned back, his heart sinking with dread. “Is that a threat, Josie?”

  She sighed, herself again. “On the contrary, Gideon. A simple fact, is all. I can only warn you that the orb is part of the fabric of Nimway Hall. It won’t let you remove it from the property—”

  He laughed, certain she was taunting him now. “Won’t let me?”

  She smiled as she stood in the center of the room. “Good night, Gideon. Sleep well.”

  The woman was as mad as she was beautiful. But that was for another time. Another day.

  “Good night, Josie.”

  “What a beastly little orb! And such a misguided man.” Josie could only watch helplessly as Gideon charged out of her office, the tell-tale orb tucked under his arm as though he were disposing of a ticking time bomb.

  He was correct about one thing: The orb was powerful, all right, more powerful than any weapon of war. If what she understood about it was to be believed, it was fueled by the most powerful force in the universe. Love. Whether the two parties wanted it or not. Which she didn’t. Not now. Not this way.

  But she and Gideon seemed to be a captive audience for the pesky thing. It had performed its magic tricks with a playfulness Aunt Freddy had never mentioned. Showing off with all the shameless melodrama of a primadonna. Appearing and disappearing at will, tantalizing them, making her laugh, him growl in frustration.

  All she had ever known about the arbitrary thing was what Aunt Freddy had said with a nod and a smile, “your time will come, my sweet girl. You’ll understand then.”

  Now she understood only too well. As she switched off the light beside the bed and burrowed beneath the bedclothes, she remembered her own father’s amusement over tales of the orb. He’d never said why he thought it so amusing, only that he seemed quite proud that her mother had found him without having to resort to the “mad orb business.” Might be good to ask him about it in the morning, maybe even let him know that the dreadful thing had begun targeting her and Gideon.

  As she dropped off to sleep, Josie knew with the certainty of a psychic that she would be awakened at first light by angry knocking on her bedroom door. And the accusing glare of Gideon Fletcher when he discovered she had been right after all.

  Josie’s alarm clanked her awake at five o’clock, well before first light, with no Gideon in sight. She dressed in her dungarees and cardigan and hurried up the backstairs to help Mrs. Tramble rouse the children for their morning lessons, then herded them down the stairs to the kitchen.

  “Mr. Tramble and I were never blessed with children of our own,” the older woman was saying as she cut thick slices from a loaf of Mrs. Lamb’s bread.

  “You certainly have your fill of children at the moment,” Josie said, putting a pot of brambleberry jam on the work table, “with four more on the way.”

  “Quadruplets!” Mrs. Tramble laughed and her gray hair came loose of the paisley scarf she’d begun wearing after arriving at the Hall. She leaned toward Josie and whispered, “Don’t tell the children, but I’m rather enjoying taking care of them at night as well as during the school day. I’ve learned so much about each of them, more that I ever did when I just saw them in class.”

  As Josie helped with breakfast in the kitchen, she watched the back court window for signs of first light and the kitchen doorway for sign of a very angry Colonel Fletcher.

  He arrived on schedule, just after dawn, as the children were stuffing themselves with thick slices of bread laden with globs of farmer’s cheese and dolloped with jam.

  Mrs. Tramble tapped her plate with her knife and trilled to her brood hunkered around the table, “Say good morning to Colonel Fletcher, children.”

  “Gooood morrrrning, Colonel Fletcher.” Their voices rose as each child tried to out shout the other.

  He didn’t notice. Clearly Gideon was seething, his gaze hot and fixed solely on Josie herself as she poured Geordie a cup of milk.

  “Can I help you, sir?”

  “I will speak with you, Miss Stirling. Now.”

  “About—” she asked as she returned the pitcher to the large refrigerator built into the wall.

  “Please, Miss Stirling.” Gideon looked very like the enormous grizzly she remembered encountering on the camping trek she’d taken with her parents through the Canadian wilderness. The beast had stalked through their campsite early one morning as they lay quietly in their tent praying they wouldn’t become breakfast.

  “The man wants you, Miss Josie,” Mrs. Tramble said, with a wry smile, her plump cheeks bunched beneath her gold-wire spectacles.

  “And I know the reason why,” Josie said under her breath, untying her apron and wiping her hands on it as she tried to think of the best place to contain the conversation that was sure to follow. “Shall we step into the east parlor, Colonel Fletcher?”

  “No, Miss Stirling, you’ll come with me.”

  Gideon led her up the backstairs, through the common area shared by his men and motioned her into his sitting room. She entered like a prisoner to the dock, about to testify against her own best interests, and stood in the center of the yellow floral rug.

  “Where is it, Josie, the power device?”

  You obviously didn’t take my warning about the orb to heart, was what she wanted to say, but it wasn’t wise to taunt the beast, though he deserved so much worse for calling her a traitor. As though she were stupid or vain or would intentionally commit treason and betray her country to anyone. What would he think if he knew that the very opposite was true? Given his low opinion of a woman’s value to the war effort, not much at all.

  She said none of this, only asked, “Where did you last see it?” As though he were a boy who’d misplaced his favorite cricket bat.

  “I think you know.” He was close enough for her to marvel over the muscle that flexed in his cheek, his skin bronze and clean-shaven this dawn to within an inch of his life, the scent of bay rum wreathing her senses.

  “Why don’t you remind me, Gideon.”

  “It was in my safe, issued to me by the SOE, requiring my private combination to unlock it. How did you manage to sneak into my room, without waking me, and open my safe?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Someone did. You or your confederate—”

  “–or a phantom enemy agent, Gideon? I have no confederate. But I can guess why the orb left your safe after you locked it in.”

  “You can guess?” He stepped to the window, dragged his fingers though his hair, then turned back to her. “Damn it, Josie, do you understand what you’re risking?”

  Most assuredly, Gideon: Embarrassment. Disbelief. Rejection. The truth would hardly set either of them free. It would surely bind them forever–whether they agreed or not.

  The man would scoff at the idea of a mystical matchmaker that glowed in the presence of true love’s potential. And that the diabolical object seemed to have identified a romantic coupling between them.

  If Gideon believed her at all about the Orb of True Love, he’d laugh and run as far from her as he could. Which would make her heart ache more than a little, but…that might be the best thing in the end.

  “W
hatever you think of me, Gideon, you’ve got the wrong end of the stick.”

  “I’ve got evidence, Josie!” He pointed at the small floor safe tucked between his desk and a file drawer as though it meant something to her. He leaned down and blocked her view of him working the combination, finally standing and throwing a glare at her as he swung the door open. “Do you see what I mean?”

  “Oh!” Admittedly she was surprised to see the orb sitting inside the safe, plain as day, glowing from beneath the same scarf as before. It seemed to have spent the night just where Fletcher put it. Was that a good omen or a bad?

  “I do see the orb, Gideon, just where you say you left it. But I don’t know what you want me to say about it.”

  He blinked at her, frowned more deeply than she’d ever seen, looked at the safe, then back at her. “Bloody hell, how did you do that? One of your father’s theatrical effects?”

  “His what?”

  He stared at the safe, checked behind it, gave the side a knock with his boot then frowned at her again. “Dammit all, Josie, the bloody device wasn’t here this morning when I went to fetch it.”

  Of course, it wasn’t. She’d warned him. “Perhaps you overlooked it.” She bent down and peered inside. “It’s rather dark back there, beyond the glow.”

  “I didn’t miss it. It wasn’t there when I opened the safe. I don’t know why. I don’t know how you managed to snatch it from inside this SOE-issued combination safe. But I don’t have time to investigate.” He grabbed the orb out of the safe, shut the door and spun the lock.

  “Where are you taking it?” she asked as he wrapped the orb more securely in the scarf, then settled it into a metal utility box and latched the lid down tightly.

  “I’ve already been in contact with the new air station at Yeovilton. Didn’t mention the device, of course; something as critical as this is to the war effort shouldn’t be spoken of over an unsecured telephone line. But the commander there is a colleague of mine and is expecting me this morning. Whether you approve or not.”

  He stared at her, seemed to be waiting for her response. “I have no opinion in the matter. You do as you please. And so will the orb. But remember, I’ve warned you, Gideon.”

  Another frown and a sharp exhale that sounded of misery. “Bloody hell, Josie, it pains me to the quick to think of the trouble you may have brought upon yourself and Nimway Hall.”

  “Don’t worry about me, Gideon. Just be safe in your journey. And hurry back in time for our meeting.”

  “Yes, well, thank you.” He straightened his shoulders, tucked the box under one arm and his hat under the other. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m already late for my appointment.”

  Josie followed Gideon out of his sitting room and watched him hurry down the main stairs into the great hall with a firm step that bore no hint of a limp. He carried no cane, was too busy with his hat and the box. Indeed, Gideon seemed fit and able-bodied, quite the finest specimen of a man she’d seen lately. Ever, really.

  Yet, as stubborn and obtuse as they came. Quite certain the orb wouldn’t allow him to take it off the grounds, Josie followed him down the stairs, through the marble entry and out onto the porch. She watched him drive away in the Austin, caught his scowl as he turned down the drive, wondering when ‘it’ would happen. When Auntie’s Orb of True Love would decide it was time to return to Nimway Hall.

  She was just as certain that when he discovered it missing, he wouldn’t be pleased. But maybe then he’d finally be ready to hear the truth.

  Question was: Would she be ready for him—this very bewitching man—to hear it?

  Chapter 8

  “Morning Colonel. Will you be away long?” Sapper Mullins peered into the Austin, curiosity and an indelible memory among the young man’s most valuable assets.

  “I’m not sure, Sapper.” Gideon glanced down at the metal box in the seat beside him, suspicion making him finger the latch to confirm that it was fastened tightly. “I should be back by supper. I’ll send word if I’m staying overnight. Carry on, Mullins.”

  Gideon returned the young man’s eager salute and sped off down the drive, wondering how the devil he would explain to Todd how and where he acquired the device. And possibly from whom, if the worst happened.

  He could hear his old school chum now: “You’re mad, Gideon.”

  Because this old school chum was Colonel Todd Nichols, the SOE liaison officer at the Royal Naval Air Station at Yeovilton, recipient of an OBE at the ripe old age of thirty-one for his essential contribution to the Royal Signals, brilliant engineer, holder of a dozen top-secret military patents, a man who had never spent a moment in combat, but who’d risen in the ranks because of his legendary intellect.

  Remember, I’ve warned you, Gideon.

  Josie’s confounding warning circled around inside Gideon’s head like a tune he couldn’t shake. A tune that stopped him at the bottom of the drive, just before entering the lane that would send him toward Yeovilton.

  Just in case,” he heard himself say as he unlatched and opened the lid of the box, satisfied to see the shape of the device still wrapped inside the scarf. Just to be sure, he cupped his hand around the object, felt the now-familiar warmth, the sensual roundness that fit his palm as he had imagined Josie’s breast would fit. Perfectly, though this ‘orb’ was firm and unyielding and she would surely be soft and pliable and sweet—

  “Oh, bloody hell!” He slammed and latched the lid, shoved the Austin into gear and swung into the lane, then onto Balesborough’s High Street.

  He slowed long enough as he passed St. Æthelgar’s church to notice that Arcturus had left another chalked signal mark on the lych gate. Their drop system was working perfectly. But no time to retrieve it now, tonight would be soon and safe enough, after his top-secret errand. By then, he’d know better what he must do about Josie and her suspicious involvement with the device, a fear for her that flipped his stomach and made him question his own loyalty to King and Country.

  He bounced along the rugged lanes toward the main roadway, slowing down to pass three horse-drawn wagons and wait for a tractor to sputter across the road into a field. The traffic along the A37 was far more busy as the sky began to lighten, with delivery vans in both directions and military and construction vehicles restricting his progress as he approached the security gate into the air station.

  Even with his name noted on the list, one of the guards called ahead to confirm his appointment while the other stared across him to the box on the seat beside him. Had Gideon not been sporting the pips of a Lt. Colonel on his shoulder tabs, the sergeant would undoubtedly have insisted that he open it.

  “You’re through then, sir.” The guard cradled the receiver and stepped toward the Austin, handing him a slip of paper with a time, a date and a location. “Colonel Nichols is expecting you. Building C is just beyond—“

  “Thank you, gentlemen.” Gideon returned their salutes then drove past a long row of administration bungalows that looked brand new, as did every structure he passed.

  A year ago the air station had been a series of badly-drained fields. Now it was a hive of activity. A single working runway, with more under construction, a half-dozen hangars, support buildings, as many civilian workers as uniformed military personnel.

  He found Todd waiting for him on the steps of Bungalow C, a round-topped corrugated metal Nissen hut sitting on a wooden platform.

  “Welcome, Gideon!” He hurried down the steps and met Gideon as he emerged from the Austin, offered a forearm handshake, then pulled him into a backslapping embrace before setting him at arm’s length. “Been too long!”

  “Nearly two years, Todd. That bachelor’s party for Carson at the In and Out Club.” Gideon grinned at the memory. Old friends. Then remembered: two gone now, sacrificed to the war.

  “I had a headache for a week.”

  “Lots of water under the bridge since then.”

  “Is that why you look like hell, old man? Not sleeping? A woman’s to
blame, I’ll wager.”

  “Not quite. But I’ll let you be the judge after you see what I’ve brought you.” Gideon reached into the car and retrieved the metal box from the passenger seat, relieved and not a little surprised that it was as hefty now, as it had been when he’d set it beside him “.”

  “Well, now there’s a mystery! You sounded like a spy on the phone last night. Bring it inside, we’ll take a look.”

  Todd hurried up the stairs and Gideon followed too quickly, took a wrong step in the gravel and twisted his knee hard enough to sting his nose. Damn it all! In his rush to leave Nimway Hall he’d forgotten his cane. But he carried on after Todd, more slowly, favoring his leg, limping slightly.

  “Bad luck, that leg, Gid,” Todd said as he held the door open. “Still, it’s not the end of the world. You’re a crack engineer, best in my experience. SOE’s got you right where they want you, safely behind enemy lines where you can do the most good.”

  Gideon flushed beneath his collar and hid his embarrassment behind a laugh as he entered. “You know me, Todd, I much prefer muddy ditches and bullets flying over my head than being stuck behind a desk, or, God-help me, training old men in the art of trade craft.”

  The last of his words stuck suddenly, firmly in his throat. Bunged up by long forgotten knowledge that Colonel Todd Nichols had never been on a battlefield, not out of choice, but because he wasn’t able to hold a gun properly. A childhood accident that had broken his arm and partially paralyzed the thumb and index finger of his right hand. And yet the man out ranked him. Out honored him, ten-fold.

  “You’ll be back in the hedgerows dodging bullets and catching Nazi spies with your bare hands in no time, Gid. For now, we’re both rowing the same boat, doing our duty behind the front lines. Come, show me what you’ve got there. I’m all agog!”

  Todd led him toward the rear of the large hut, to a windowless room across the back, flicked on the harsh overhead lamps, then rapped on the metal wall with a knuckle. “Welcome to my office and workshop. Hotter than Hades in the summer and I’m thinking I’ll be freezing my balls off come winter. Frankly, not much different from my quarters in the officers’ barracks. Where are you billeted?”