They stood that way for a moment, then she squared her shoulders and stepped into the room under her own power. ‘Thank you, sir,’ she said, and meant it.
She calmly surveyed the room again, and became herself. ‘I am sorry the bed is so small, sir, but I do have another pillow.’
The captain became the captain again, too. ‘No matter. I look forward to close quarters with my son I so seldom see.’ He turned to her. ‘Miss Fontaine, I will be forever grateful to Pru for her courage.’
‘I am, too,’ Anna said. ‘We’ll find a good place for her here.’
Finding that place was easily accomplished. They came downstairs to see the children intent upon playing jackstraws, which Mrs Moore must have dredged up from somewhere in this childless house. Anna had no doubt that Pru would be looked after by her housekeeper tonight.
What now? This was her house, but something about Captain Beattie seemed to fill the place. She knew command when she saw it, and also saw a different person from the utterly distressed man who’d knocked on her door a short time ago.
‘What now, sir?’ she asked, her voice quiet in case she was wrong.
‘The hour is late. Allan, Miss Fontaine will help you prepare for bed.’ He glanced at her. ‘Would you sit with him upstairs until I return from my house?’
‘I will, sir.’
He looked next at Mrs Moore, who, it seemed to Anna, watched the whole scenario unfold, her eyes bright with interest.
‘Mrs Moore, is it? Can you find somewhere for Pru?’
Anna knew Mrs Moore was used to command, too. ‘Pru will fit quite nicely in my room. We will look after each other, sir.’
He actually smiled at that, which allowed Anna to lower her own shoulders a notch.
‘Very well, then. Miss Fontaine, I would never ask you to keep your door unlocked until I return. Do you have another key?’
She did, and gave it to him. He kissed his son, and had the supreme fatherly instinct to press his forehead to his son’s and whisper a few words only to him. ‘I won’t be long,’ he told her, and let himself out. She locked the door behind him.
Anna didn’t think she possessed any motherly instincts at all, but she had no trouble helping Allan into a nightshirt dredged up from a trunk in the attic containing Will’s clothing. She made herself comfortable above the covers beside him.
‘What should we do now?’ she asked, as she remembered Mama’s bedtime stories.
‘Tell me something about my father,’ he said eagerly, which broke her heart into small pieces, as she understood another horrible side of war: it made children and fathers strangers.
She wasn’t about to tell this trusting child that she knew nothing about his father, beyond his name and his desperate plight. She said a small prayer, small because she doubted whether the Lord had time for her needs.
Maybe she was wrong. She knew where to begin, as surely as if some Superior Beingdidcare.
‘There isn’t a braver man in the entire Royal Navy,’ she said. ‘He and his ship…’
‘He said it’s named after a bird,’ Allan supplied, when she stopped.
‘Ah, yes, theSwallow. Your father and theSwalloware keeping us safe from enemies across the Channel.’
Should she? She did, putting her arm around him and receiving instant gratification when he snuggled close with no hesitation. In spite of all that had happened to him, she knew he was still a trusting child.
‘His duty keeps him from home and he wishes every night on…on a star that he could be here to keep you safe.’
She heard a contented sigh, then even breathing. She closed her eyes and slept, too, waking a little later to feel a hand on her shoulder, and words close to her ear.
‘Miss Fontaine, I am back and the front door is locked. You and I will be in front of Carter and Brustein at eight o’clock.’
Anna sat up, wondering for a brief moment where she was and whothiswas.
‘Oh, yes,’ she whispered. ‘In the morning. Goodnight, Captain Beattie.’ She smiled in the darkness. ‘He’s a warm little furnace. You’ll have no trouble sleeping.’
In her own room, Miss Anna Fontaine had no trouble either. She settled into her bed content, despite what a wrenching day it had been.Captain Beattie, keep me safe, too, she thought. And she closed her eyes.
