Free The Japanese Lantern by Isobel Chace

said.
    “Jason is on to a big thing,” Mrs. Tate whispered mysteriously. “We all know that. And if we know it, so will all his rival firms, and they will want to get it out of him.”
    “But I don’t see how they could,” Jonquil objected. “He doesn’t carry the information around on him, surely? His firm must take all the usual precautions?”
    Mrs. Tate looked a little disappointed.
    “I suppose they do,” she admitted reluctantly. ‘But I never feel that Jason is adequately protected. Look at the people they allow him to mix with. My dear, I can trust you, can’t I?”
    She looked so old and bewildered and, indeed, genuinely worried that Jonquil was quick to reassure her.
    “Of course you can, Mrs. Tate,” she said almost eagerly. “I’ll do anything I can to help.”
    “That’s what I hoped you’d say,” the old lady admitted. “I like you, even though you are so young. And there’s no need to look so a b ashed, I’m not asking you to spy on the man, only to keep an eye on these people. I’d do it myself if only I weren’t tied to this bed and that chair!”
    She was becoming so agitated that Jonquil hastily assured her all over again that she would do anything that was asked of her. It was rather a relief when the telephone bell went again and she had to go off to answer it.
    A rather impatient voice at the other end asked if he could speak to Miss Jonquil Kennedy, and she had some difficulty in persuading him that it was indeed she who had answered the call.
    “Jonquil? Good. I’ve been ringing up all day, but I couldn’t get any reply. I’m sorry not to have recognized you; you sounded quite harassed, not at all like yourself. Nothing wrong, I hope?”
    With some relief, Jonquil realized that it was Edward Keeving.
    “Oh, Edward!” she exclaimed. “You always seem to ring up at just the right moment!”
    There was a slight pause.
    “What’s the matter?” he asked at length.
    N-nothing’s the matter. I was just rather glad to be interrupted. How very nice of you to ring up again so soon!”
    He laughed, a low, meaning laugh that brought the colour flying into her cheeks.
    “Did you think that I wasn’t going to ring you up very soon?” he asked, and then when she didn’t answer that: “You should have known me better, my dear.”
    “I did think you’d telephone,” she protested, “but not quite so soon.”
    “I couldn’t wait any longer,” he admitted. “Besides, the thing I want to take you to is tomorrow evening. Are you interested in seeing a slice of Japanese life?”
    “Oh, yes!” she agreed. “But I’d better ask someone if it will be convenient. What are you taking me to, Edward?”
    “That will be a surprise,” he teased her. “I’ll give you a clue. Tomorrow is the twelfth of October.”
    “You know that doesn’t mean a thing to me!” she complained. “Tell me more.”
    "Certainly not! Go and ask your dragon if you can come.”
    Jonquil hesitated. She wasn’t sure just who exactly was her dragon. She didn’t think Jason would be interested in whom she went out with and she wasn’t going to ask Mrs. Tate if she could help it. She was sure the old lady would be only too enthusiastic that she should get to know Edward Keeving, and that wasn’t the way that she wanted it. She didn’t want to go out with Edward in a suspicious frame of mind.
    “Look, Edward,” she compromised, “I’ll say I’ll come and I’ll ring you if I can’t. Will that be all right?”
    “Fine. Do you want my number?”
    He gave her the numbers in English and then told her how to pronounce them in Japanese. After one or two rehearsals she thought she would be able to manage to get through to him and he rang off.
    “Who was it on the telephone?” Mrs. Tate called out to her.
    “It was for me,” Jonquil called back, and from the depths of her room she could hear the old lady chuckling.
    The hours went so quickly that Jonquil felt that she had only just managed to