Page 100 of Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure
As he took off the heavy jacket, she saw the blood. “Oh God, Nico. You’re bleeding. Come into the kitchen. Let me get a cloth.”
He followed her and sat on a stool while she put a pan of water on the stove, then grabbed a clean cloth and moistened it with water. “We need to find where it’s coming from,” she said. “Here. Let me help you off with your jumper.”
He held up his arms like a small child as she pulled it over his head. Blood was running down his front. “It’s your neck,” she said. “Oh God.” She started to wipe the blood away, dreading what she was going to find. Did one have to remove a bullet? How would she do that? Then she heaved a sigh of relief.
“You’re a lucky man,” she said. “It just grazed the side of your neck. A centimetre to the left and it would have struck your jugular vein and you’d be gone. You must lead a charmed life.”
“The devil doesn’t want me yet,” he said, giving a nervous chuckle.
The water was heating up. She dipped the cloth in it and cleaned up all traces of blood. All that was left was a long scratch along one side of his neck. “It seems the bleeding has stopped,” she said. “Let me put a bandage over it. I’ll get some Dettol to make sure it’s not infected.”
“Ow, that hurts,” he said as she dabbed at it with a cotton swab.
“Don’t be a baby. I always did this for my boys when they skinned their knees. They didn’t make a fuss.”
He grinned, then he said, “Tell me about your boys. You never mention them.”
“No, but I think about them a lot,” she said. “One was in the army before the war even started. The other was going to join the RAF. I haven’t heard any news from either of them for a long while. I don’t know if they are still alive or not. It’s hard not to worry.”
“You were close to them?”
“Not really. When they were little, we were close. They snuggled with me when I read them a bedtime story. Such darling little boys. And then my husband insisted that we send them to boarding school when they were seven, because that was what the best families did. I tried arguing, but Lionel always got his own way, so off they went. And they were never the same again. They never dared to show their emotions after that. It was as if they shut off from any affection.” She gave a little sigh. “Oh, they were always polite and nice enough to me, but there was never that spark of connection anymore.”
“Not like we have,” he said. When she looked up he smiled. “‘That spark of connection,’ you said. We have that, don’t we?”
“Yes, I think we do.”
He was looking at her steadily. “I can’t go home tonight,” he said. “They may be looking for me. They’ll want to find out who the boat belongs to. It does look rather distinctive.”
“Then leave it hidden down below for a while. Until the heat has died down,” she said.
“There are still more Jewish men coming. I have to take them. It’s my duty,” he said. “But tonight, you don’t mind if I stay here? I don’t think they can trace me, but you never know.”
“Of course you can stay,” she said. “I told you I made up a room already for you.”
He put an arm around her shoulder. “I want to be with you,” he said. “I want to remember what it feels like to be close to someone, to fall asleep in someone’s arms. It’s been so long ...”
He was looking at her steadily. “All right,” she said unsteadily.
“Just all right? You don’t want it, too? You’d just be doing me a favour?”
Ellie’s eyes held his. “Don’t be silly,” she said. “I do want it, too.”
He held her close to him as they walked up the stairs together.
Chapter 41
Ellie was just aware of Nico slipping away at the first streaks of dawn. He bent to kiss her forehead, then he was gone. She lay there, savouring the long-dormant feelings he had awoken in her, the utter joy of being loved and wanted by someone.He had a bad scare and he needed reassurance,she told herself.And I was available.And yet she was sure it was more than that. He did love her. The incident was not repeated in the following days. More Jewish men came and were picked up by the speedboat, but Nico stayed suitably far away from her, as if he didn’t want to put her in any danger. Ellie tried to keep their presence from Roland, hiding them in the kitchen, or occasionally introducing them as friends visiting up from the village.
One day Tommy had gone up the path, ready to meet the next person to be transported. Ellie was making lunch. Clive was in his studio working, and Roland was lounging on the terrace in the sun when Tommy came in. “Yoo-hoo! Hello, my darling, I’ve come home,” he called, in English. “I hope you’ve prepared something delicious for lunch because I’ve brought a visitor.”
Ellie came out, surprised by the strange and hearty greeting. It was Tommy being funny, she decided, if different from his usual understated humour. She stepped into the foyer, prepared to see another Jewish man carrying a small bag. Instead a German soldier stood behind Tommy, a gun pointed at his back.
“What’s this?” Ellie asked, not having to feign horrified surprise. “What’s happening?”
“You wish to speak English. We speak English, then.” A German officer stepped into the hallway. He was immaculately dressed in highly polished knee boots and a uniform that identified him as no ordinary soldier. “You are the wife of this man?”
“Yes, I am,” she said. “What do you want with him? We are good people. We’ve done nothing wrong.”
