Читать книгу Windflower Wedding - Elizabeth Elgin - Страница 17

A war that brought Gaston Martin into her life, into her garden, could not be all bad, thought Madame Piccard.

Her woodshed was full in readiness for the cold weather; her paths had been weeded and wayward shrubs and bushes cut back. Each day when Bernadette came to share the good news the BBC was sending to France, she commended Gaston’s hard work, wishing sniffily that her Denys was as good with a spade. But Bernadette’s husband sometimes disappeared for days on end and she had more sense than to ask where he had been.

‘The Boche is finished in Egypt,’ she announced on her last visit. ‘I thought you would like to know.’

‘You’ll get us all into trouble, listening to that wireless,’ Tante Clara grumbled, though she suspected it was not only news broadcasts Bernadette and her man listened in to. ‘What else did it say?’

‘That Italians and Germans are surrendering in their thousands and that Spitfires and food have got through to Malta, at last. But I must go, make a meal for Denys.’

‘He’s back, then? Beats me where that husband of yours gets to. Has he got a mistress?’

‘Tante Clara,’ Natasha scolded when their neighbour had left, nose in air, ‘that wasn’t kind. Perhaps Denys can’t tell anyone where he goes. For all we know, he may be –’

‘Child! How many times must I tell you that we don’t know