A Deadly Game of Malice

Chapter 2: Quiet on the Home Front-2

While waiting for Leslie to return from the kitchen, Caroline thought about Cyril, off on another mission. Damn you. And to have the nerve to leave me behind! Nothing ever happens in an English village and lately that goes double for wartime. Caroline wasn’t in the least thrilled Cyril spoke to the Director about her condition. She didn’t need a home front assignment. How much watching and observing could she do in this little hamlet without going round the bend in the process?

A few minutes later, Leslie brought in a tea tray and placed it in her now ample lap. “There. Shall I play mother?”

“I don’t think so. One mother in this family is quite enough.” She fixed her tea, black and strong, just the way she liked it, and then asked him to move the tray and set it down on the small table near the front window.

“You seemed pensive when I came in. What were you thinking?” Leslie poured his tea then sat down across from her on the sofa, waiting for her to respond. When she didn’t he arched his eyebrows.

“I was thinking of that stinker of a husband of mine. Running off and leaving me—”

“Alone with boring little me,” he supplied.

“You know that isn’t what I meant. He’s out there having all the fun and I’m having…something else.”

Leslie laughed. “Your really are a silly goose. You want this child—and you know it—yet you also want to go on dangerous assignments with the boys as if this baby hadn’t happened. You can’t do both. Not right now, love.”

“Why not? I’m perfectly capable of doing anything a man can do, maybe more so.” She burped loudly and put a hand up to her mouth. “Oh, that acid is ugly.”

“Right and that’s exactly why Cyril got you a home assignment. You can be just as effective here on the lookout for nefarious doings and suspicious characters. Everyone must do his or her bit.”

“Yes, all right. You’ve made your point.”

“Anyway given your condition, you never know quite how you’re going to feel, especially now since the baby’s so near.” She started to speak, but he cut her off. “Truth be known, you sent your husband literally flying out the front door.”

“Did not.” She flashed him an indignant look.

“Did, too.”

“I did no such thing. You know he had an assignment, mind you a simple one this time, but still a mission.”

“A voluntary one as I recall,” Leslie said.

“And Edward gladly went with him. Maybe it was you who drove them both away.”

“And me the angel as you just said. You have to admit, Caro, you’ve been in some rather beastly moods lately.”

She shrugged her shoulders and took a long sip of her tea. “Let’s talk about something else.”

“Good. I wanted to get your opinion on something.”

She nodded.

“Something I read in the Clarion. About the government raising the conscription age to all able bodied men up to 51.”

“You’d make a terrible soldier,” she said. “I mean that kindly. Do you even know how to fire a gun? Or handle yourself in combat?”

He thought a moment. “I can learn. They’ll teach me.” Then, “Won’t they?”

“Sweetheart, in London you had a day job and a night one as warden. You were responsible for hundreds of lives.”

“I don’t really have a day job now.”

“No, but you have an important position right here in our little hamlet. Mind you, I had to pull quite a few strings to get you on as night warden.”

“And keep me out of harm’s way. No, don’t bother to comment. Edward said as much. He thinks I’m more suited to village life. I wonder—”

“What?”

“While we’re on the subject of handguns, is it wise to keep yours loaded and lying about?”

She laughed. “It isn’t lying about. I’ve got it tucked away nicely in a drawer in that sweet little hall table.”

“Uh-huh. Right by the front door where anyone can get to it.”

“Where I can get to it, if need be. Besides, no one else knows it’s there.”

“Only you, me, Edward, and Cyril. I’d say that’s quite a lot, wouldn’t you?” His hand began to shake, and he slipped it into his trouser pocket.

Caroline sipped her tea, glanced at him over the rim of her cup, and then let out a sigh. “Darling Les, you’re still suffering from the Blitz and the feeling of responsibility you had for your neighborhood flock. All those folks who lost their homes and their lives. The whole ordeal left a mark.”

“All right. You made your point.”

“Good. We’ll hear no more of this going off to war business. Where would I be without you? We’re good for each other, Les. Especially now with our men on assignment and—” She paused and batted her eyes mischievously. “Especially now in my delicate condition. I wouldn’t know how to manage. I simply fiddle-dee-dee wouldn’t.”

“Thank you, Scarlett O’Hara. What happened to the ‘I can do anything better than any man’ attitude I heard a moment ago?”

“Will Winnie be stopping by to collect you on her way to the warden’s post this evening?”

“Nice subject change. And I’m not being collected. Yes, I suppose she’ll stop by but that’s not for hours yet. I think I’ll pop over to the library before—”

“I think Winnie likes you.”

“We’re work mates. We talk quite a bit on our nightly rounds, anything to keep awake on these endless, six-hour shifts. Nothing much happens in an English village like ours. Of course there are a few scares now and then. Planes flying low overhead, and someone refusing to pull down a black out, or douse a light, and we have to give them a gentle reminder, but still nothing much happens—”

“Strange.”

“What?”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking. Nothing much happens here. Why, you’d hardly know there’s a war on. Well, of course you would, but you know what I mean. It would be so lovely though to have a problem to solve, something juicy. Still, we did have that incident with Evangeline Blake some time back.”

“Caroline, that was indeed different and a personal matter not related to wartime.”

“No, but it had its effects on all of us as I recall.”

Leslie finished his tea. “You’ll be all right for a while?”

“Yes. You run off. Say hello to Elspeth…oh, would you take this back as well?” She reached down behind her chair and held out a book.

He glanced at the title. “Steinbeck.”

“It’s probably quite good. Elspeth raved about it. An advance copy, too. Don’t know how she manages it.”

“In wartime.”

“Right. But she’s a regular wizard when I request something I’m interested in reading.”

“The Moon is Down. Quite an intriguing title,” he said.

“Yes, but far too close to home, at least for now. Full of Nazis and spies—”

“Spies, my goodness,” he said. “Amazing what they come up with nowadays.”

She stuck her tongue out. “Not funny. If you want to read it, be my guest, but it’s due back and there may be a rather long waiting list.”

“Given the topic I should think so.” He went into the hall, slipped on his heavy coat, and wrapped a woolen scarf around his neck. Samson and Delilah sat patiently by the door, wagging their tails in anticipation. “I’ll take the kids with me.” He snapped on their leashes and had his hand on the doorknob when she called out to him. “Pardon?”

“Oh, nothing really. Not worth repeating. Just some gossip I heard about Elspeth. I don’t think the poor soul’s ever had a decent life to speak of.”

He came back into the living room. “Now what is it exactly you keep telling me about village gossip?”

“Ninety-nine percent lies and one percent truth?”

“No. Something about gossip being the lifeblood of a village. What keeps it chugging right along.”

“Maybe,” she said. “But you know me, darling. I never pay much attention to it.”