‘I pray he will never have to live through what we have lived through,’ he said, putting his arm about Laura’s shoulders and drawing her to him. ‘It must never happen again.’
‘Amen to that,’ she said. ‘We must see that it doesn’t.’
‘What will you do?’ Helen asked. It was a question that had been bothering her for some time. Would they leave her? Would she be left as she was after the Great War to struggle alone with the upkeep of the Hall? For the moment, it was still needed as a convalescent home and would be for many months, but after the airmen had all gone and the Air Ministry handed it back to her, what then? Its role as a private residence was long gone.
Laura, who knew perfectly well what was in Helen’s mind, hastened to reassure her they would stay at the Hall until Helen, herself, decided what she wanted to do.
‘And I would like to go on flying,’ Steve said. ‘Civilian pilots will be needed in peacetime. I have a feeling aeroplanes will be the transport of the future.’
‘We thought that about the motor car after the last war,’ Helen said with a laugh. ‘But what about you, Laura? Will you mind that?’
‘No. At least he won’t risk being shot out of the sky, will he? And I want him to do what makes him happy.’ She smiled and put her hand over Steve’s as it cradled their son. Robby, seeing that, ran over and pushed his way up between them, so that all four were closely entwined. Helen ran and fetched her camera. ‘This must be recorded for posterity,’ she said. ‘The day the war ended and the family is all together again.’
‘Then put the delay on it and join us,’ Steve said.
And so it was that in pride of place in the family album was a snapshot of Helen with her daughter and son-in-law and two grandchildren – something she had not even dared to dream of on that long ago day when her daughter had been taken from her. The future might be fraught with difficulties – a country did not get over a gruelling war without problems – but while she had her family, she would never cease to give thanks.
About the Author
Born in Singapore of a Dutch-South African father and an English mother, MARY NICHOLS came to England when she was three and has spent most of her life in different parts of East Anglia. She has been a radiographer, school secretary, editor for one of the John Lewis Partnership house magazines and an information services manager for an open learning company, as well as a writer. From short stories and articles for a variety of newspapers and magazines, she turned to writing novels. Mary writes historical romance for Mills & Boon as well as family sagas. She is also the author of The Mother of Necton, a biography of her grandmother, who was a midwife and nurse in a Norfolk village between the wars.
www.marynichols.co.uk
By Mary Nichols
The Summer House
The Fountain
The Kirilov Star
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
13 Charlotte Mews
London W1T 4EJ
www.allisonandbusby.com
Copyright © 2009 by MARY NICHOLS
First published in hardback by Allison & Busby Ltd in 2009.
Published in paperback in 2009.
This ebook edition first published in 2011.
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–0–7490–0978–6
Summer House Page 42
