Anne Perry [William Monk 17] Acceptable Loss (epub)

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.When Hester came downstairs to the entrance hall again, she found Oliver Rathbone waiting.She was startled to see him, off guard because she had been trying not to imagine what Monk would have said to him about Ballinger.Now a glance at Rathbone’s face—sensitive, intelligent, faintly quizzical—and she knew that Monk had not spoken to him yet.She felt guilty, as if in knowing what was to come and not saying it, she were somehow deceiving him.“Good morning, Oliver,” she said with a slight smile.“If you are looking for Margaret, she is in the medicine room.”He raised his eyebrows.“Are you in a hurry?”She could have kicked herself for dismissing him so quickly.She had not only been discourteous, she had made her unease obvious.Would apologizing make it worse?“Are you all right, Hester?” he asked, taking a step toward her.“What about Scuff? How is he?”Rathbone had been with them when they had searched so frantically for Scuff.He knew exactly how she’d felt.The horror of that day had touched him as nothing else had ever done in his life of prosecuting or defending some of the worst crimes in London.She saw the memory of it in his eyes now, and the gentleness.Stupidly the tears prickled in her own, and her throat was tight with the fear of what might come for him, if Sullivan had been telling the truth.She turned away so he could not read her face.“He still has awful nightmares,” she replied a little huskily.“I’m afraid it’s going to take …” She hesitated.“Time.”“What will it take for him ever to be over it?” he asked.“I don’t know.Thinking it’s over for his friends, other boys like him.Not lies.”He smiled very slightly.“He’d never believe you anyway, Hester.You’re a terrible liar.Totally transparent.”She met his eyes with a flash of wit.“Or else I’m so good that you’ve never caught me?”For an instant his face was blank with surprise, and then he laughed.At that moment Margaret came in.Hester turned toward her and was struck with a sudden, quite unnecessary stab of guilt.She was relieved when Rathbone stepped around her, his face lighting with pleasure.“Margaret! My big case is over.Have you time to join me for luncheon?”“I’d be delighted,” she replied without looking at Hester.“Especially if you can help me think of anyone further whom I can ask for money.We have new sheets, but soon we shall need pots and pans.” She did not add that she was the only one raising funds, but it hung, unspoken, in the air.Hester felt ashamed for her own failure to raise money, but Margaret’s marriage to Rathbone gave her a position in society that Hester would never have.That fact was too obvious for either of them to need to say it.It was also unnecessary to add that Margaret’s courtesy and natural good manners yielded far more reward than Hester’s outspoken candor.People liked to feel that they were doing their Christian duty toward the less fortunate, but definitely not that they owed it in any way.And they certainly did not wish to hear the details of poverty or disease.“Thank you,” Hester said mildly, although it cost her an effort.“It would certainly be a great help.”Margaret smiled and took Rathbone’s arm.BY THE MIDDLE OF the afternoon Hester had had little more for luncheon than a cold cheese sandwich and a cup of tea.She was helping one of the women finish the scrubbing when Rupert Cardew arrived.She was on her knees on the floor, a brush in her hand, a pail of soapy water beside her.She heard the footsteps and then saw the polished boots stop about a yard in front of her.She sat back and looked up slowly.He was at least as tall as Monk, but fair where Monk was dark, and, on his recent visits to the clinic to add to their funding, so relaxed as to be casual.Monk, on the other hand, was always intensely alive, waiting to move.“Sorry,” Rupert apologized with a smile.“Didn’t mean to catch you on your knees.But if you were praying for more money, then I’m here with the answer.”Hester climbed to her feet, declining his outstretched hand to assist her.Her plain blue skirt was wet where she had kneeled; and her white blouse, unadorned with lace, was rolled up above her elbows, and also wet in places.Her hair—not always her best feature—had been pinned back and adjusted several times as it had escaped, and was now completely shapeless.“Good afternoon, Mr.Cardew.” She could not call him “sir”—and she did not think he wished it—although she was perfectly aware of his father’s title.Should she apologize for looking like a servant? Their friendship was recent, but she had liked him immediately, in spite of being aware that his beneficence toward the clinic sprang at least in part from a professional familiarity with some of its patients.His father, Lord Cardew, had sufficient wealth and position to make work unnecessary for his only surviving son.Rupert wasted his time, means, and talents with both charm and generosity, although lately he had lost some of his usual ease.“I wasn’t praying,” she added, looking ruefully at her wet, rather red hands.“Perhaps I should have had more faith.Thank you.” She took the considerable amount of money he held out.She did not count it, but there was clearly several hundred pounds in the bundle of Treasury notes he put in her hand.“Debts of pleasure,” he said with a wide smile.“Do you really have to do that yourself?” He eyed the floor and the bucket.“Actually, it’s quite satisfying,” she told him.“Especially if you’re in a temper.You can attack it, and then see the difference you have made.”“Next time I am in a temper, perhaps I’ll try it,” he promised with a smile.“You were an army nurse, weren’t you?” he observed.“They should have set you at the enemy.You’d have frightened the wits out of them.” He said it good-naturedly, as if in approval.“Would you like a cup of tea? I should have brought some cake.”“Bread and jam?” she offered.She could enjoy a few minutes’ break and the light, superficial conversation with him.He reminded her of the young cavalry officers she had known in the Crimea: charming, funny, seemingly careless on the surface, and yet underneath it trying desperately not to think of tomorrow, or yesterday, and the friends they had lost, and would yet lose.However, as far as she knew, Rupert had no war to fight, no battle worth winning or losing.“What kind of jam?” he asked, as if it mattered.“Black currant,” she replied.“Or possibly raspberry.”“Right.” To her surprise he bent and picked up the bucket, carrying it away from himself a little so it did not soil his perfect trousers or splash his boots.She was startled.She had never before seen him even acknowledge the necessity, never mind stoop to so lowly a task.She wondered what had made him think of it today.Certainly not any vulnerability in her.It had made no difference before.He put the pail down at the scullery door.Emptying it could wait for someone else.In the kitchen Hester pushed the kettle over onto the cooktop and started to cut bread.She offered to toast it, and then passed the fork over to him to hold in front of the open door of the stove.They spoke easily of the clinic and some of the cases that had come in.Rupert had a quick compassion for the street women’s pain, in spite of being one of those very willing to use their services.With tea, toast, and jam on the table, conversation moved to other subjects with which there was no tension, no glaring contrasts: social gossip, places they had visited, exhibitions of art.He was interested in everything, and he listened as graciously as he spoke.Sometimes she forgot the great kitchen around her, the pots and pans, the stove, and in the next room the copper for boiling linen, and the laundry tubs, the scullery sinks, the racks of vegetables [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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