She Came Back

CHAPTER 36

The time went very slowly by. Lyndall found, as i

She got up once and went to the telephone, but after standing for a long half-minute with her finger on the first number she would have to dial, she turned away and went back to the chair from which she had risen. She couldn’t do it. Perhaps tomorrow when her mind didn’t feel so sore and stiff and she could think again. Not tonight-not now. Once you have said a thing you can never take it back.

When about five minutes later the telephone bell rang she went to answer it with shuddering reluctance. Philip’s voice said her name.

“Lyn-is that you?”

“Yes-” The word wouldn’t sound the first time. She had to try it again.

“Are you alone? I want to see you-very badly. I’ll come straight round.”

He hung up on that, but she stayed where she was until it came to her that Philip would be arriving and she must be ready to let him in. As she passed through the hall she stopped at the half-open kitchen door to say, “My cousin is coming round to see me-Sir Philip Jocelyn.”

It was hardly said before the door bell rang. She opened it with a finger on her lips and a gesture in the direction of that half-open door.

Philip looked surprised. He took off his coat and hung it up. Then when they were in the living-room he asked,

“What was all that for? Who’s here?”

“A policeman in the kitchen.”

“Why?”

“Because I overheard something, and they don’t know if she-if A

He said, interrupting her, “She wasn’t A

“Her diary?”

“Yes. Of course I knew she kept one-I suppose you did too. What I didn’t know until a couple of days ago was that she put down everything-” He broke off. “Lyn, it’s quite incredible! I didn’t want to read it-I don’t intend to read it. What I’ve had to do is to see whether the things she told me-the things which convinced me against every instinct I’ve got-whether they were there. And they are. What I said when I asked her to marry me-things that happened on our honeymoon-things it seemed impossible that anybody else should know-she had written them all down. And A

Lyndall looked at him in a bewildered rush of feeling. The stranger who had stood between them had gone and she had never been A

Philip was telling her about finding the diary.

“I made sure she would have it with her. However carefully she had learned it all up she would be bound to keep it handy. Well, I found it-two volumes sewn into the mattress on her bed-good long stitches so that it wouldn’t have taken a minute to rip them out if she wanted it. That’s what caught my eye-when I’d looked everywhere else. That settled the matter as far as I was concerned. She never convinced anything except my brain, and the diary lets that out. A

She wanted to with all her heart. But she couldn’t find words. She didn’t even know that she could find thoughts to answer him. Her mind swung back on the fixed point to which it had been held. She heard him say,

“Lyn, that’s what I meant when I came here this morning. A

“Philip!”

“They were spoof papers, and an old code-book. We’d been doing a bit of pla

She said his name again.

“Philip!” And then, with a rush, “They don’t-they can’t!”

He put an arm round her.

“Wake up, Lyn! They do, and they can. Wake up and face it! I’m in a mess. Codrington says I’d better keep away from you. I will after this. But I had to see you first-I couldn’t risk your thinking it was worse than it is. They think it looks bad, my coming straight here from the War Office and saying A

“Of course I believe you.”

She began to tell him about seeing A

His ma

“You heard that? You’re sure?”

“Yes-I told Miss Silver.”

“Who is she?”

She explained Miss Silver.

“And then Sergeant Abbott came, and I told him, and I think he’s gone to arrest the people at the shop.”

“Well, that’s something.” Then, “I suppose you know how important this is?”

“Yes. Philip, I told A

He stared.

“You didn’t!”

“Yes, I did. I felt as if I had to. I told her the day before yesterday.”

“Lyn-you little fool! Suppose she told him-this man!”

Lyndall nodded.

“That’s what Miss Silver said. So they sent me home with a policeman. He’s in the kitchen doing a cross-word.”

He had just begun to say in a tone of relief, “Well, somebody’s got some sense,” when the front door buzzer went again. Lyndall felt the sound of it go tingling through her. Perhaps it was what she had been waiting for.

Philip’s arm dropped from her shoulders. He wore a look of frowning pallor.

“I ought not to be seen here. Who is it likely to be? Get rid of them if you can!”

She nodded without speaking. The buzzer went again as she crossed the room, but she took her time-time to open Lilla’s panelled chest and let Philip’s coat down on the spare blankets, time to pull the kitchen door to so as not to show the lighted room beyond.

Then she opened the outer door and saw Pelham Trent. He came in at once, easy and friendly as he had always been.

“Are you alone, Lyn? I wanted to see you. Lilla isn’t home yet?”