Free A Family's Duty by Maggie Bennett

unexpected admirer.
    ‘Yes, but it’s for adults too, and all in this new technicolour, with amazing special effects, or so I’ve heard.’ He was close to her, and she could breathe in the clean, soapy smell of his skin, and she blushed. This young man was expecting to be conscripted into the army, navy or air force, and here he was, practically begging her to go out with him. His manners were impeccable, and there seemed no reason to refuse; but …
    ‘But if you’d rather not see the film, we could perhaps gofor a walk, or for lunch somewhere,’ he added with respectful persistence.
    ‘Thank you, I’d like to see the film,’ she told him, and his eyes brightened.
    ‘Thank
you
, Rebecca, that makes me very happy,’ he said, eagerly taking hold of her free hand. ‘Let me know when you’d like to go – one evening next week? Have you any idea where we could meet?’
    ‘You could call for me at Hassett Manor,’ she replied, letting him hold her hand, though she was taken aback when he raised it to his lips and kissed the fingers.
    John Richardson could hardly believe his luck: to call at Hassett Manor would mean meeting Sir Cedric and Lady Isabel Neville, and here was his chance to make an impression on them, for surely she could have no other fellow in mind if she had accepted his invitation so readily. He watched as she remounted Sunbeam, and greatly daring, blew her a kiss as she rode away.
    As for Rebecca, her thoughts were in a whirl, but she was not sorry she had accepted his unconventional invitation. And he was certainly good-looking.

    At the Rectory there was both consternation and bewilderment. Roland Allingham had become even more hostile to his curate whose gloomy predictions had proved to be all too true. Joan Kennard was indignant on her husband’s behalf.
    ‘The way he speaks about you is downright insulting, Alan,’ she said after a Sunday morning service when the congregation were leaving and commenting on the war. Mrs Pearson was worried because her daily newspaper wasforecasting food rationing because of German submarines attacking merchant ships bringing vital food from overseas.
    ‘Scaremongering, Mrs Pearson,’ the Reverend Mr Allingham had told her, ‘and to spread such alarming rumours is unpatriotic and will only play into the enemy’s hands. Don’t be disheartened by this kind of talk.’
    ‘But Mr Kennard said at Evensong last week that—’
    ‘I’m afraid Mr Kennard says a great deal of things that would be better left unsaid, Mrs Pearson, and I shall have to speak to him about it again. In the meantime let us all show our native British spirit, trust in God, be filled with hope and confidence – and don’t be misled by the likes of Mr Kennard!’
    ‘How
dare
he!’ Joan muttered as she took a roast leg of lamb out of the oven. ‘It’s blinkered fools like
him
who should be disregarded, not realists like you!’
    ‘Hush, Joan my love. Remember the Allinghams have two sons of an age to be called up for military service. Allingham probably dares not think about what might happen. We have no such sword hanging over our heads.’
    Joan was not to be so easily calmed. ‘Howard’s supposed to be going to Bible college, and the younger one’s a trouble-maker. The Seabrooks have forbidden their daughter to go out with him, or so I’ve heard.
Their
son Robin might have to go, so they’ve got worry enough, without Barbara giving them more.’
    ‘If that’s true, there’s no surer way of encouraging them to meet secretly,’ Alan replied mildly, sharpening the carving knife.
    ‘You’re too kind to the Allinghams,’ Joan said, lifting Josie into her high chair and tying on her bib.
    Alan looked fondly on his two ‘girlies’, as he called them, his pretty young wife and fourteen-month-old daughter. As a clergyman he was not required to fight for his country, but he could volunteer as a chaplain to the Forces if he wished.
    But that was something he did not share