Free Beyond the Storm by E.V. Thompson

to be held. When I return to the rectory I will go upstairs to meet your rescued girl – and tell you my news. That too is going to involve considerable extra work, but it will bring in extra money for us and so is good news.’
    ‘I am sorry, David, so much has been going on here that I haven’t even asked how your visit to Reverend Carter went. I’ll come with you to the church and on the way you can tell me all about it.’
    Even though he knew he was being entirely unreasonable, David was unable to entirely hide the disappointment he felt that his own news had been overshadowed by all that had been going on here during his absence.
    ‘It is quite all right, Alice, I feel you have coped incredibly well on your own during what must have been an appalling and traumatic experience and you are needed here to take care of your patient. My news will keep for a quiet moment, when I will tell you all about my meeting with Emmanuel Carter. All I will say for now is that he has asked me to stand in for him as curate of Tintagel, with a salary that, while small, will enable you to take on a housemaid and help us both enjoy a less frugal lifestyle.’ 

Chapter Eleven
    ‘I RATHER LIKE that coast guard officer of yours, Alice. He was most generous with his donation towards the funeral of the poor unfortunates from the shipwreck. Apparently he comes from a good Cornish family, too. One of the Tintagel churchwardens attending the ceremony says his family own land in South Cornwall.’
    ‘Lieutenant Kendall is not my coast guard officer,’ Alice replied indignantly. ‘He is a naval officer who felt that dead sailors are as entitled to a respectful burial as anyone living on land – and if he comes from a well-to-do family I need not feel so guilty about the money he has spent on something that was my suggestion.’
    ‘I doubt if he will be able to call on his family to pay for his philanthropic whims. Unless he has an allowance the money will come from his naval officer’s salary. It is a thoroughly Christian gesture and as such is most praiseworthy.’
    Taken by surprise by her defensive response to his remark, David thought it was probably because she really was concerned because a suggestion from her had resulted in the young naval officer spending money.
    ‘After the service, Lieutenant Kendall mentioned that he would like to speak to Eliza. He has to submit reports to the Coast Guard headquarters in London about the shipwrecks that occurred along the North Cornwall coast during the great storm. Therewere very few survivors and it would seem Eliza is the only one from the Balladeer .’
    It had been confirmed from the wreckage washed ashore that Balladeer was the vessel wrecked upon the Lye rock.
    ‘He is not likely to learn much from Eliza, she is terribly vague about everything that happened,’ Alice said. ‘It is hardly surprising , she is little more than a child and it must have been a terrifying ordeal for her.’
    ‘We must hope she regains her memory in due course, we need to notify someone of her whereabouts.’
    ‘There is no one,’ Alice replied. ‘She is a poorhouse girl and as a child was put into service with an old lady. Sadly, her employer became senile and was taken to live with a daughter, somewhere in the north of England. They had no need of Eliza and she might have been returned to the poorhouse had she not been taken into service by a lady travelling on the vessel to join her family, only hours before the Balladeer sailed. It seems this lady’s own maid changed her mind about going aboard at the very last minute. It all happened so suddenly that Eliza knew her mistress only as “Miss Jenny”. She had been told her surname, but Eliza said it was very long and foreign-sounding and there was no time to familiarise herself with it.’
    David frowned, ‘That is all very well, but what will happen to her now, she cannot stay here.’
    ‘But she can , David, don’t you see? When you returned