She Came Back Read Online Free PDF Page A

date,” she said.
    There was a moment of silence. Nobody moved. Lyndall felt as if her heart would break. The three people she loved most in the world were there in that silence together. It wasn’t just a silence. It was cold, it was suspicion, it was distrust— and that icy anger of Philip’s which cut to the bone. She wanted to run away and hide. But you can’t hide from a thing which is in your own mind. It goes with you. You can’t hide from it. She stayed where she was, and heard Philip say,
    “Anne took off her wedding-ring when she went to France. We quarrelled about her going, and she took it off.”
    Anne stepped back.
    “I put it on again.”
    “I’ve no doubt you did—when you made up your mind to this impersonation. Now perhaps you will give us your story. You’ve had mine. I suppose you’ve got one ready. You had better let us have it.”
    “Philip—” Her voice broke a little on the word. She slipped the ring back on her finger and stood up straight. “I’m very glad to tell you my story. Aunt Milly and Lyn have heard it already. Pierre helped me to get away from the beach. There was a cave—we hid there until the shooting was over. I had sprained my ankle very badly. The Germans came down and searched, but they didn’t find us. When they had gone away we went back to the château. I was very wet and cold, and I was beginning to be ill. By the time the Germans came to search I was in a high fever. Pierre told them that I was Annie Joyce, and that I had been living there for ten years with my old cousin who had just died. He said there had been another English lady there, but she had gone away when she heard that the soldiers were coming. They sent a doctor to look at me, and he said I had double pneumonia and couldn’t be moved. I was ill for a long time. They left me alone. When I was all right they sent me to a concentration camp, but I got ill again and they let me go back. That’s all. I just lived there with Pierre and his wife. Fortunately Cousin Theresa always kept a great deal of money in the house. We kept finding it in all sorts of places—lavender-bags, pin-cushions, between the pages of books, rolled up in the toes of her slippers. When it seemed to be coming to an end I began to feel desperate.”
    “Why did you never write?”
    “I was afraid. They were leaving me alone, and I didn’t want to do anything that might stir them up. But I did write— twice—when Pierre said there was a chance of getting a letter smuggled across.”
    “Are you very surprised that these—letters—never arrived?”
    She met his look with an open one.
    “Oh, no—I knew it was only a chance. Then a week ago I was offered a chance of getting over, myself. I had to put up all the rest of Cousin Theresa’s money, but I thought it was worth the risk. I landed with nothing in my purse except a five-pound note which I had taken over with me. There isn’t a great deal of change left out of it now, so if you’re thinking of turning me out, I’m afraid you will have to provide me with funds until Mr. Codrington has handed my own money over to me again.”
    Philip considered this in a cold fury. He couldn’t turn her out penniless, and she knew it. But every hour she spent under his roof was going to help her claim. If he turned out himself… He was damned if he would turn out of Jocelyn’s Holt for Annie Joyce.
    There was hardly any pause before he said, “Anne’s money.” And none at all between that and her reply, “My money, Philip.”
    CHAPTER 6
    A most extraordinary situation,” said Mr. Codrington. “Awkward—very awkward. You know, it would have been better if you had left the house.”
    Philip Jocelyn smiled.
    “Leave Miss Annie Joyce in possession? I’m afraid that doesn’t appeal to me.”
    Mr. Codrington frowned. His father and he between them had known four generations of Jocelyns. They were an intractable family. He had attended Philip’s christening and known him ever