Free The Day Before Tomorrow by Nicola Rhodes Page A

face. 
    ‘Are you all right?  You were miles away.’
    ‘I’m okay.’  Had any of that really happened?  It was one of her favourite memories.  ‘What if I lose it, if the world goes back?  What if I forget?’
    She pulled herself together.  ‘I think I’ve seen enough’ she said, ‘Let’s go,’ and she suited the action to the word in the most dramatic manner.  She vanished. 
    * * *
    Denny was having a similar experience at the old house.  As he drove up the approach, the house suddenly seemed to change before his very eyes then change back.  He blinked.  He had been having some strange feelings of déjà vu lately but nothing quite as concrete as this.  For the house that had briefly appeared to him, had seemed far more, familiar than the one that now loomed over him in the grey light of a December morning.  And yet it was as unreal a looking place as you were ever likely to see, it had had turrets for God’s sake.  They were gone now, but he had seen them as clearly as he could now see the anxious looking soldier heading towards him.  It had not been as if he had had an hallucination, it was more like he had been wearing a blindfold that had slipped for a moment to give him a glimpse of something he was not supposed to see and had then been replaced.  Brought back to reality (or unreality as the case may be) he slowed the jeep and wondered what he was going to say about his presence here.  Too late, he realised that he had forgotten all about his cover story. 
    The soldier with the bright blond hair walked up to the jeep and saluted Denny.  Denny saluted back, while trying to think quickly. 
    ‘Second Lieutenant Jamie Adams,’ said the soldier.  ‘We were beginning to think you were never coming.’ 
    Ah, here was an opening, if he could only find out who he was supposed to be. 
    He climbed out of the jeep slowly and extended his hand.  ‘Second Lieutenant Chip Bentley,’ he said, remembering to use an American accent. 
    The soldier nodded.  ‘The prisoners are in the cellar,’ he said.  ‘And I must say, I’ll be glad to have them off my hands, I don’t like the responsibility and that’s a fact.’  He walked as he talked.  ‘It’s hard enough to keep the lads in order without women about.  You know what I mean?’ 
    Denny’s heart soared.  Not only did it appear that Tamar and her friend were here, safe and alive.  But better than that, he had been taken for the prisoner of war transport officer.  Not only would he not be prevented from taking them, he was actually expected to take them away.  It really could not be better. 
    ‘Nobody’s been near them, you have my word on that, except the lad who takes them food and he’s only about ten years old.  He never says a word, scared to death I guess, poor thing. It’s been rough on him.’ 
    Denny found himself liking this man, and he would always be grateful to him for protecting Tamar as best he could under difficult circumstances.  He did not know who “the lad” might be, but he guessed that he was probably one of the myriad servants that Tristan had always kept about the place.  Well, he would take him away too, and if the soldiers did not like it, they could stuff it.  He did not wonder why the soldier did not mention Tristan; he knew what was likely to have happened to him – poor Ophelia. 
    ‘Do you want to see the CO?’ asked the soldier. 
    ‘I don’t see why?’ drawled Denny, keeping his voice as casual as possible, though his heart was beating like a piston hammer.  ‘I’m already late enough, without a lot of red tape holding me up even more.  You know what these Colonels are like.’ Denny was taking a chance with this line.  But surely, Colonels were alike in every army, and their subordinates likely to react to them in the same way. 
    ‘I sure do,’ the soldier laughed. 
    And Denny breathed a sigh of relief. 
    ‘It’s probably just as well,’ the soldier told Denny.