Despite the Angels - By Madeline A Stringer Page 0,90
you saw them last? What did the doctor say?” For several minutes Lewis listened intently as Rose described their visit and all the now irrelevant, but so interesting details of the doctor’s opinion.
“So there was nothing wrong. They need not have gone. And they would be here now.”
“No.... They could have stayed longer with me. They nearly did, you know.” Rose explained how Dawn had cried and they had considered taking her home.
“So Dawn knew.”
“Yes!!”
“No. How could she? She was just upset by the noise.”
“Poor little mite. She did not want to be there, one way or other.”
Footsteps thudded up the stairs, the door burst open and Neil came in, his cheeks red and his eyes shining from the cold and exertion. He looked quickly around the room, leaning over to see into the tiny bedroom beyond and then his eyes settled on Rose and the stuffing went out of him.
“Mrs. Milne? What…” He broke off.
“They were on the train, Neil. Mrs Milne saw them leave, saw the train leave with my girls in it.”
“Oh.” Neil was silent and stood turning his cap through his hands.
“Go on, say something sympathetic. ‘Oh’ is a bit feeble.”
“I ah, uh, I, I mean, oh dear.” Neil’s cap was now a small twist of cloth in his white knuckled hands.
“Brilliant! What happened your ‘way with words’? Easy to see you were never an orator,” Roki was grinning.
“Come in properly, Neil, stay awhile,” Rose was indicating the stool under the table. Neil pulled it over to the fire and sat down. His eyes flitted uneasily between Lewis and Mrs Milne.
“Keep quiet. Listen. Maybe you will be useful just by being here.”
They sat in silence for a long while, watching the fire, the slow steady burn of the coal and the spit and hiss of the wood Lewis had thrown on. Lewis looked up at the noise and gazed sadly at the half finished carving on the table.
“She will never play with it. It was for her birthday. She will not have a birthday, not even one. The best Noah’s Ark in Dundee, it was going to be. Wasted.”
“It will not be wasted, Lewis. You can keep going and in time you will meet another woman and have another daughter. I will like to meet them,” Rose’s voice began to shake, “to fill the gap.” She fell silent, her hands busily dealing with her nose and eyes.
“No. That was my family. My only family. Gone. How could I replace them?” There was a long pause.
“They must have been so frightened, to be suddenly falling into the sea. And the sea so cold, and dark. Trapped in the carriage, maybe, struggling to escape. The water rising.” His voice rose to a tremulous shriek and he started to shiver violently. Neil put out a doubtful hand and patted Lewis’s shoulder. Trynor and Roki were talking together, discussing the best way to handle this unexpected disaster.
“I’m worried, Roki. He might get through this, but he has to get through his life now. We have no plan for it. What will I do?”
“What can you do? Just stay with him. I’ll encourage Neil to be his friend, if I can. Pity Neil’s not a woman this time, it could have been their chance to marry.”
“Just as well he’s not. That would have been an extra complication. A friend will be enough, but can you stop him trying to be funny? That is too exhausting.”
“I can try. But that is his nature. Listen!”
“Come on, Lewis. You will feel better soon. After all, did I not hear you complain that the baby cried all night and you wished she would stop? You can sleep well now!”
“I will never sleep again.”
“No, you will. Once the funeral is over, you will feel better.”
“There can be no funeral. There is no body.”
“Oh.”
“We have to wait until they are found. Oh, I hope they will be found.”
They sat in silence until the clock whirred again. Neil jumped to his feet.
“Oh my goodness, I will have to run, I said I would meet someone.” He was gone, banging the door behind him with his usual exuberance. Lewis and Rose could hear his feet running away and the endless ticking of the clock.
Chapter 32
Meeting number 70
Dorothy found herself on a hillside, looking down over a beautiful valley. It looked like home, but when she looked again, she realised it was not quite the same. There were houses, but they were bigger and in the wrong places. She felt