Girl to Come Home To (21 page)

And then there came a call from the Graemes, proposing a tennis match for the morning, dinner in town, and a meeting in the evening at which a wonderful Bible teacher was to speak, and the conversation ended with joy on their faces. Still there was something about it that could not be forgotten, and its essence returned to Diana’s newly awakened conscience again and again.

T
he next two days were quiet ones, little excursions planned on the spur of the moment. It was taken for granted that all the group would go everywhere together. No more apologies for keeping up this constant friendly fellowship. It was as if they were a lot of children, brought up together, glad that they belonged together. Yet behind it all was the constant realization that this could not last forever. It would soon be over when the boys were sent somewhere. There would be lonely days after this delightful companionship.

They were taking every day as if it were something precious, dealt out to them hour by hour, knowing that when it was gone there might be no return of the joy they were spending so lavishly. Not that they thought it out in these phrases. They would none of them perhaps have reached the place where they would be willing to admit how much it all meant to them, but at night, when each was by himself, they would think the day over almost breathlessly and plan that the next day should be savored even more happily.

They were doing all their planning toward their trip to Washington for the broadcast, as if it were a kind of climax of their happiness. When they returned, well, there would doubtless be something soon to separate them, at least for a time. For one thing, Diana was likely to be called home by an irate and demanding mother, and she had hinted more than once that there would be problems for her to solve, problems that would not only affect her new Christian life but might even make trouble for her at home. Rodney had thought a great deal about the few words she had dropped along these lines and had been praying for her, not only that her anticipated trials might not be as great as she feared, but that she might be able to bear them, even if they were worse than feared.

She had noticed that a great gentleness had come upon him of late, and when they walked together his words would be low and quiet, and now and again his strong comforting hand would be laid over hers as it rested on his arm. And once, when they were walking so, quietly, on the shady side of a moonlit street, it suddenly came to her to wonder what it would be if this were Bates walking so with her, and she knew that she would shrink from such contact with his hand. Bates’ immaculately cared-for hands! And yet their touch would not be welcome to her, would not be so comforting, would be almost revolting to her. Then suddenly she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that she did not love Bates Hibberd.

Oh, she had been saying so for several days, to her mother over the telephone, to Beryl, tentatively to herself, reassuring herself, just to be sure she hadn’t made the mistake that her mother and Bates would keep telling her she had made. For she had been dreading the time when she would have to go home, very soon, and meet all this again.
How
she had been dreading it! But now, she was not afraid anymore, for something new had come to take the place in her heart that had been so uncertain. What was this something new? Was it just that she had a new friend who had taught her to love the Lord? Was that a little thing? It seemed so great, so wonderful. And it was something apart from the friendly relations of earth. Something that almost seemed like a holy relationship, one that had nothing to do with world-ideas or jealousies. A relationship that had its center in Jesus Christ, that did not base its being on good looks, although there was plenty of that if one were counting it, or on wealth or even on possession. It was something bigger than worldly relationships.

Of course it would be a wonderful thing if a man like this one loved her and wanted to marry her. She would not have to wait and ponder over a question like that. She would feel that just to walk with a young man like Rodney through her life on earth would be the greatest blessing heaven could bestow. But she had not a thing like that to consider. He had not asked her, and it was not a thing that was likely to come to her. She was not good enough for him. And she had not been thinking of love with reference to him. But she could see that God had sent him her way that she might know and understand what a man whose life was hid with Christ in God could be, and how she must on no account link her life with a man who did not know Christ. And while this was no time for her to be considering any new idea of marriage, it certainly was a time to decide whom she should
not
marry.

And suddenly with that thought, a great burden rolled away from her. She did not have to consider marriage anymore. Not unless God sometime sent her a companion of His own choosing. She might be just happy now and have a good time, learning to know God and to follow her new Guide.

But while Diana was thinking these thoughts, Jessica was on her way to a consultation with the husband she had married so hastily, called to him by an insistent telegram, peremptorily ordering her attendance at once.

Jessica was very much annoyed about it because Louella had particularly promised to have some more news for her this very morning, news that would have reference to the immediate movements of the Graeme brothers, and she had not had time to get Louella on the telephone before she took the train designated in her husband’s orders. She had already learned by the hardest way that it did not do to disobey orders. No one else in the world but Carver De Groot had ever been able to make Jessica do anything unless she wanted to do it, and she certainly did not want to drop her present pursuit of her former beau and go traveling away off out in what she called “the sticks” after a mere husband, from whom the glamour had long since worn off. But Carver De Groot had ways of his own, severe ways that did not waste time in coaxing. He gave the word of command and expected it to be obeyed, and one disobedience needed but the one penalty to bring about a future obedience. Jessica had learned her lesson the hard way, but she had learned. And perhaps her almost penniless condition made her the more easily adaptable.

For Carver De Groot had a deep purse, though he held the purse strings exceedingly tight. Still, there was a great wealth behind those purse strings. When they were loosened to an obedient one, there was a generous sum and sometimes a jewel now and again. So it behooved Jessica to go when he called and to cast about her a cloak of unaccustomed humility.

So it was with haste and a meek spirit that she walked into the old De Groot homestead, set away back from the highway amid shrubbery well hidden from curious eyes, and maintaining a shabby outward show, to further camouflage its inner glories. This quality of staid ancient shabbiness was by no means an asset to Jessica, and she had wasted many precious tears and angry words to try to change this feature but found she could not change a jot or tittle of the place. At last she began dimly to understand that behind it all there was some fixed and unchangeable reason, something that had to do with the war mysteriously, and because it frightened her to think of it, she calmly put it out of her mind. It wasn’t her problem. And when she protested that he had promised her good times—how could she have good times so far away from everything and everybody at all interesting? She was told that she need not stay there for her good times. There would be plenty of opportunities to go out and away, and she would be hindered in nothing she wanted to do except at certain times when he would demand her attendance and help, often in matters of great importance to his business. But she need not ask about that business. When the time came he would tell her all she needed to know to help him, and nothing more, so she would be in no danger of giving out forbidden information. He had impressed it upon her that he was working for the government—what one?—and she certainly knew there were many matters that for the time of war must be kept secret. So there would be no use of her asking questions just to satisfy her curiosity. In fact, she had considered this matter before marrying and decided that she would be a girl most discreet, able to keep her mouth shut and do as she was told.

So she walked hastily up the steps of the old shabby house, down the luxuriously furnished hall, to the door of her husband’s office, otherwise designated as the library.

She tapped lightly with the tip of her well-cared-for fingers a kind of a code that she had been carefully taught.

There were sounds of voices inside the door, which ceased with her knock, and a cold voice bade her come in.

Chin up, she walked arrogantly into the room and faced the hard, cold eyes of her elderly husband. The man with the cruel mouth and the sharp, sharp eyes that always saw too much and searched back into any past in which he cared to interest himself.

The cold eyes were searching her face now, and the cold voice said, “Well, so you decided to come back at last!”

“I came as soon as I got your message,” drawled the girl indifferently. “I understood you ordered me to stay there until I heard from you.”

“Hm! I didn’t notice that it was a very great trial to you to go to the town your former fiancé was soon to come to.”

“I understood that was the reason you sent me there,” said Jessica. “You distinctly asked me to look him up at once when he arrived and get in touch with him.”

“Did you do it?”

“I certainly did my best.”

“Just what did you do? I haven’t had any report yet.”

“There wasn’t anything to report,” said Jessica in a calm tone. “I wasn’t able yet to get in touch with him.”

“Just what did you do? Why couldn’t you get in touch with him? He arrived at his home, didn’t he?”

“Yes, he arrived, and I went at once to the house and entered just as I used to, going right out to the dining room where they were all sitting down at the table, but by the time I got there Rod wasn’t there, and nobody seemed to know where he was.”

“Well? What then?”

“He didn’t come back. And nobody would tell just where he was. If it had been in the old days, of course I would have gone through the house hunting for him, but they didn’t give me any chance to do that.”

“I thought you were a clever girl.”

“Yes, I thought so, too.”

“Why didn’t you go to some of his family?”

“I did. I did everything I knew how, but apparently they are all in league with him. I chased him everywhere I heard of his being, but there was always somebody with him. I even went to an old religious meeting to try and see him, and he just walked out on me before I could get near him. I got close to a stupid old gossip of a cousin of his and she tried to work things for me, and she’s getting news about his movements for me now, but so far I haven’t got any definite news. If you hadn’t sent such an imperative order for me to come back, I should have stayed, for today was going to be a critical time. The stupid cousin seemed to think she was right on the verge of a discovery. She thinks it’s going to be Naval Intelligence. Does that mean anything to you?”

“It certainly does,” said the man with a glint of fire in his stony eyes. “It’s most important. I had begun to think you were a flat tire, but if you can manage to get into an office where that matter is carried on, especially if you can manage an intimate meeting where you would have opportunity to ask a lot of questions, perhaps overlook some papers with important writing, get familiar with the office, arrange to meet him at his place of work. Of course it will likely be well guarded, but you would have to plan a way to get in there. You would probably know how best to get around your man, having known him for years. Then when you get that far there will be a way to get hold of some important papers we want, and you will have to keep your eyes open. I’ll write a list of words and phrases you are to look for. And there is a paper we very much need for evidence that must be destroyed.”

“Destroyed? How could I destroy anything?” asked Jessica with a startled look. “You promised me there would be no danger connected with what I had to do.”

“No, no danger. There are ways, you know. Little time bombs that can be left around near a safe or close to a file of records or wherever you discover they are keeping the kind of papers we need. That, of course, is the most important part of your mission. And the danger will be scarcely appreciable. Of course when you have arranged your blast—it is just a little thing like a pencil, scarcely noticeable—you will have to arrange to get out quickly and get downstairs out of danger, but I’m sure by that time you will be familiar enough with the place to have that all fixed up beforehand.”

“But there must be danger connected with a thing like that!”

“Look here, Jessica. Did you ever see a stone like this?”

Jessica turned frightened eyes toward the velvet case the stern husband was holding out to her. It was white velvet, and in the center shone a great blue diamond, its wonderful lights stabbing her in the face, stirring her heart with envy and longing.

“Oh, that’s wonderful!” said Jessica. “It’s a blue diamond, isn’t it? Yes, I saw one once in New York in an exhibit of stones, but I never saw such a lovely one. Oh, Carver, where did you get it? Is it yours?”

The sinister eyes were gloating over the look in the girl’s eager face. Then he pronounced the words for which he had demanded her presence. “It is yours, if you carry out my orders!”

“Oh, Carver! I’d do
any
thing to own that!”

“Even if there were danger connected with its possession?”

The frightened look came back and peered out through the eager light, but it was as if with an impulsive movement of her hands she brushed the fear aside and made her quick decision.

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, no matter what the danger. I should worry. I want that stone at all costs.”

“Very well!” said the cold voice, now full of calm satisfaction. “Just do your part and the stone will be yours! Now, you better get back to the job and don’t let any opportunities pass you by. Get intimate with that old-time boyfriend, and I don’t mean maybe.”