Page 34 of The Stranger in Room Six
There were papers all over the table. ‘Don’t touch them!’ she roared at Mabel. ‘Just leave.’
On her way out, something glinted on the floor. Picking it up, Mabel saw it was a small red-and-black badge with a square design of interlocking lines.
‘Do you want –’
‘I said, get out,’ yelled her aunt. Mabel ran back to her room. She would, she told herself, put the badge somewhere safe and give it to her aunt when she calmed down.
If only she’d handed it over immediately, life might have been very different.
22
At sunrise, when she couldn’t sleep, Mabel tiptoed down the stairs and found Aunt Clarissa sitting in the drawing room overlooking the gravel drive.
‘Has the Colonel come back yet?’ asked Mabel.
Her aunt jumped. ‘Goodness me, child. You scared me out of my wits. Go back to bed. I need some peace.’
‘But has the Colonel …’
‘I said, go back to bed. Didn’t you hear me?’
Please may he be all right. Although he could be brusque when he wanted to, the Colonel was generally very kind to her. More so than her aunt, at least.
Mabel headed for the library to find a new book. Stories always helped her fall back to sleep, especially when she had nightmares of the Blitz. Suddenly, she heard the front door opening and voices in the hall. One was the Colonel’s. Her heart lifted with relief.
‘Jonty!’ sounded her aunt’s voice. ‘Thank God you’re back. What happened? What did they ask you?’
‘Shhh, not here.’
‘In the drawing room, then.’ A door slammed and it fell quiet.
Later, when it was time for lunch, Mabel found her aunt looking much brighter. The Colonel, however, gave her a hard glare.
‘If you wish to know something,’ her father had advised, ‘ask someone in a courteous manner.’
So she did.
‘Why did the policeman take you away, Colonel?’
He continued chewing slowly, staring at her with cold grey eyes, before visibly swallowing. Then he leaned forward across the table so his gaze was locked with hers. ‘It was just a misunderstanding,’ he said coolly.
‘Was it a misunderstanding about your friend too?’
‘It was, actually, although he’s rather upset about losing a small badge he was wearing. Have you seen it?’
Mabel was about to say ‘yes’ but then froze. What if they thought she’d stolen it? Would they believe her if she explained she’d wanted to hand it over but Clarissa had told her to leave?
‘No,’ she said instead, trembling inside.
The Colonel was giving her a hard stare. ‘I didn’t think so. Otherwise, I am sure you would have told us, wouldn’t you?’
‘Yes,’ she managed to say. Then she ran up to her bedroom to find a safe hiding place for the badge. Somewhere no one would find it.
After lunch, when Mabel went out into the garden to gather flowers for her nature school notebook, she became aware of the Colonel behind her.
‘Thank you for comforting your aunt when I was called away,’ he said, his tone friendlier than before.
‘I tried,’ stuttered Mabel, turning to face him, ‘but she wanted to be on her own.’
