THE PRISONER'S SISTER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22865, 21 October 1937, Page 25

THE PRISONER'S SISTER

By PEARL BELLAIRS Author of " Velvet and Steel "

CHAPTER VII. AWAY FROM WORRY It was late when Julie got home. There was no light in the upstairs window of the house, and she hurried up the stairs, that the children wero alone up there in the dark with no shilling to put in the electric meter. It was dark and silent. She switched on the light. The children wero not there. She lookqd into the bedrooms, and suddenly she saw that things were gone—Will's cherished tops —his big wooden engine. The boxes into which she had put their clothes after the furniture had been sold wero empty! Julie dashed down the stairs. Her heart was thumping with fear. "Mrs. Craddock!" she burst into the kitchen. "Where are the children?" Mrs. Craddock came from the scullery where she was ironing. "Ow, there you are!" she said. "The children aren't there!" "A man come and took 'em." "A man? What man?" Julie was trembling all over. "'Ow do I know 'oo 'o was? I never seen 'im before." "Was he from the Welfare?" " 'Ow do I know? All I know is 'e come in a car, an elderly, resptectable man, 'e was, in a black suit. And auntie's gone along with them. 'Goodbye, all!' she says. 'l'm off. I'll send for the rest of me tilings!' 'Well, we're not sorry!' I savs, sharp like. The old fool!" "Then —ho wasn't from the Welfare?" " 'E looked more like an undertaker to me!" said Mr. Craddock, putting down the evening paper in which he had been burying himself. "Mrs. Bolton left you a note upstairs, so she said. Didn't yer find it?" • Julie ran up the stairs again. She found the note lying on her bed. "Dear Miss Julie," it ran, "Mr. Rand sent for the children so I thought it was best for them to go. Mr. Rand's Mr. Ell came in a car for them to go to Hindhead, so we are off. Mr. Ell says to tell you another car will come to take you to Hindhead at six p.m., so please wait. Hope you will excuse the liberty, but there was no fire for tho children to-night.. I had them in the kitchen and Craddocks went on about it awful. So was glad when Mr. Ell come to take them. Yours truly, Ida Bolton." Julie sat on the bed feeling sick with relief. The clock in the chemist's shop round the corner had said ten minutes to six when she passed it. The car to take her to Hindhead might come at any moment. She sat staring at her shoes, too tired, too worn out with worry and walking to move. Her shoes were covered with mud. There was a hole in the back of one of her stockings. Her hands were grey with London grime. She got up slowly and went and washed her hands. The water was terribly cold; but she washed her hands and face with a scrap of soap, which was all that there was. She combed her hair, and put everything that she had into the suitcase in the corner. She was looking round the room to see if anything worth taking was left, when there was a sudden click from the electric meter and all the lights went out. That was that. "Don't bother about anything else here," the sudden darkness seemed to say. "This is the end." Julie groped for her hat and her suitcase, and dragged herself down the stairs. She went along to the kitchen to see Mrs. Craddock and say she was going and tell her she would send her the back rent which wa3 owing as soon as she could save it. Mrs. Craddock, seeing that she had her flat empty again, which was all she wanted, seemed to feel that she could aflord to be amiable, particularly when Julio said she would leave the beds for Mrs. Craddock to sell. j "I've just made some tea. You'd better have a cup," said Mrs. Craddock. "My word!" she said, as Julie was drinking it, "you have changed these last weeks! Thin! You're a scarecrow, that's all you are! Ow well, it's the same way the 'ole world over misfortune comes to all of us. Then there was a knock on the front door, and Mr. Craddock went to it. He came back. "Fer you," he said to Julie. Julie went out. There was a chauffeur at the door, who took her bag, and a long, low closed car at tho kerb. The chauffeur helped her into the back of the car, which was empty. Someone else was sitting in tho front seat beside the chauffeur. Ho glanced round at her —it was Rand. He raised his hat, merely, and went on reading some papers ho had in his hand. Not a word was said. Julie, in fact, was feeling too weak to speak had ho spoken to her. Whatever had made him alter his mind and send her to Lime Grove before Christmas was not mentioned. AVhcn the car started Julie sank back into the soft cushions. She was exhausted, but she was too tense with anxious expectation to relax. When one is very young it is difficult to have to faco a totally unexpected future. If in that zero hour of her life, Rand had spoken to her in a friendly and sympathetic munper her heart might have softened toward him, willy nillv. As it was ho had made up his mind to be firm with her, and in consequence said not a word from the time she got into the car until it arrived at Lime Grove, over an hour later. . They passed through Hindhead and followed the Portsmouth road for some miles. When they pulled un the silence of the country night seemed unwontediy deep after the roar of London. Rand got out immediately and walked into the house. The chauffeur opened the door for Julie and she could see the lights of the house before her shining dimly through diamond panes. The car that had brought the children down was pulled up just ahead.

Julie's feet were numbed with fold as she wnlked shakily to the front door, followed by the chauffeur. Inside was a big panelled hall with a door standing open on the left into a small sitting room; Julie found herself looking in on a homely scene. There was a great fire burning in the hearth; and sitting in front of it were Dolly and Will, with smiling faces, in their dressing gowns all ready for bed. Mrs. Bolton was standing by beaming and twisting her apron in an ecstasy of deference at the sight of Rand.

A DRAMATIC STORY OF JUSTICE AND MERCY

(COPYRIGHT)

"Well?" Rand was inquiring of the children. "And how do you like your new home?" "o\v, they're that excited, sir! They think it's all just lovely, sir!" said Mrs. Bolton. Julie stood gazing at the scene with eyes to which it all seemed poignantly unreal. The blazing fire, the old-fash-ioned comfortable room —security and refuge for the children! Ell came from the door into th<j kitchen 011 the other side of the room. "1 think as everything is in satisfactory order - , sir! All the provisions, sir, as you ordered, sir, is in hero, and the—h'm —other things, sir! Would you kindly come and see ?" Rand walked out into the kitchen after him. The children saw Julie in the doorway, and bounded up. "Oh, Julie —Julie, isn't it lovely? Have you seen ? Oh, isn't it all gorgeous?" Julie stepped forward to meet them, and stood with her arms round them, while the tears in her eyes blurred the light of the leaping fire. Carol singers ■wore singing outside in the country night. "Oh, darlings, ves, it's lovely!" Sho drew them both to her, and burst into tears. They clung to her, looking up at her in shocked silence. Rand came in and found her like that, standing bowed over their curly heads, her own face hidden by her hair, while the tears fell from her eyes. Mrs. Bolton, with a distressed face, was standing by, saying: "There, now! There now! You've 'ad too much troublo, that's what it is—!" Julie lifted her head, tossing the hair back out of her eyes, got control of herself, knowing how wrong it was to upset the children, and smiled through her tears. "There, Dolly—l'm not crying, really! I'm just tired. I think it's wonderful to be here!" She stopped abruptly as she saw Rand standing there, watching her with a frown between dark brows. She turned away, feeling for a handkecliief, suddenly*trembling all over and feeling desperately ill again. Mrs. Bolton drew a chair toward the fire, saying: "Come, Miss Julie, sit down! You're quito wore out!" . Julie sat down with her back to Rand. He stood in silence for a moment, drawing on his fur-backed gloves. When lie spoke his voice was very flat and matter-of-fact. "Well, I shall come down again in a day or two and go over the place and see what alterations must be made. That will give you a day or two to settle down and make yourselves at home. I'll take Ell with me now. He tells me that everything is in order, so I suppose you'll bo able to manage by yourselves^" "Oh, ves sir! Certainly, sir!" "Good-night!" "Good-niglit, sir!" said Mrs. Bolton. He went, followed by Ell, who wasn't so sure now that it would have been so bad, after all, to stay over Christmas. Homely, was what he called it and it was a change to be with children and women-folk. As soon as Rand had gone, Julie sank back in her chair with a-feeling of utter •felief. The warmth of the fire was a glorious luxury; she relaxed and closed her eyes, and in a moment or two, Mrs. Bolton was there with a glass of hot milk; and Dolly with a plate of chicken sandwiches. It was comfort beyond relief. While Julie ate, the children ran to and fro, between the pantry and the sitting room reporting what they found there, among the things that had came from London with them in the car. "Turkey, Julie! Plum puddings!' "There's a whole ham, Julie!" "There's a kind of thing with brown shiny stuff all over it, and patterns made on top!" "Biscuits, Julie!" "Jellies, Julie!" "Crystallised pineapple!" "Julie, there are boxes and boxes and boxes of crackers!" Very soon Mrs. Bolton insisted that they were getting cold running to and fro in their dressing gowns. "Off to bed with you!" "I'll come —!" began Julie, rising to go and superintend the business. "No, you won't Miss Julie! You sit there anil rest! I can put them to bed," said Mrs. Bolton, and added, "Everything's lovely! You should just seo the blankets! That Ell and I aired the mattresses by the fire before you got here:" So Julie sank back in her chair, and left it all to Mrs. Bolton. It was wonderful, tired as she was, to just let go and accept all this now it had come. After all it was what Tom had wanted. It was something she couldn't possibly refuse for tho children. She thought of Tom. Poor Tom! As she lay there in the blissful glow of the fire, she made a quiet vow that however easy life might become, she would always think of him. He was allowed to write and receive one letter a month. To-morrow she would bo able to write to him and let him know how things had been settled. CHAPTER VIII. AT LIIIE GKOVE Christinas bells! The white mantle of the frost lay over tho countryside as the sun rose'on Christmas morning. As Julie sat up in bed and looked out of her window, she could smell tho cold sweetness of the country oir; the distant throb of the bells was musical in the country quiet. What a difference between this and fogs of - J£ew —her present calm state of mind and her anxiety yesterday! She lay down again and cuddled under the blankets. They were rose coloured, and so was the eiderdown. The new linen sheets were beautifully smooth against her cheek. The rest of the room was worn and shabby, and she was rather glad that it was. She heard the voices of the children on the stairs, and was just thinking of getting up when in came Airs. Bolton with a glass of hot milk, and told her she was going to spend the morning in bed. "But I'm not! We'll have to get this house cleaned up!" "I'm cleaning up the house," said Mrs. Bolton. "And you're going to get up. to Christmas dinner when it's ready for you and not before 1 You'll bo getting the noomoniay if you don't set yourself up a little alter all the worry you've had. That's milk, that is, to put .a bit of flesh on your bones!" So Julio lay resting in bed. The children had found the parcels, inscribed in Ell's meticulous hand, "Not to be opened until Christinas mprning." When they had exhausted the excitement of looking at the things in thein, they examined the house from the attics to the outhouses, reporting to Julie from time to time oil what they discovered. Then came a feast at mid-day 111 the large, stone-floored, old-iashioued kitchen. They pulled crackers, and Julie and Mrs. 'Bolton had a glass bf ginger wine, which was Ell's idea of a suitable Christmas drink for women and children.

"No, Will, you can't have any more matrons glaco!" said Julio, whoso faco tvas flushed with colour for the first time for days. "We mustn't eat everything ,up at once! We must try to make it all last." (To be continued daily)