Wayward Winds (55 page)

 111 
Arrows of Clarity

Jocelyn awoke suddenly in the middle of the night. All about her was black and still. Not even a moon lit the sky outside. Charles slept soundly beside her.

Something had prompted her to wake.

Immediately her thoughts gathered themselves about Amanda. She knew she had been roused to pray.

“Lord, send a piercing arrow of light into Amanda's
heart,”
she whispered before she had a chance even to think what to pray.

An urgency lay upon the mother's heart. Amanda was in need of light and truth at this moment. Jocelyn sensed it more than ever before.

“Oh, God,”
she prayed,
“bring dear Amanda awake
. Open her heart. Send a moment of shining clarity into
her consciousness. Make that moment of enlightenment explode and awaken
decision, Lord. I have been praying for moments of clarity
all along . . . now, Lord, illuminate something deep within her. Wake
her will, Lord . . . wake her will!”

 112 
Terrifying Discovery

Amanda's eyes shot open.

The house on Ebendorfer Strasse was silent. What could possibly have awakened her?

Some sharp, stinging light had penetrated her brain from unknown regions beyond consciousness. For a few brief moments the mental stupor vanished. She was thinking more clearly than she had in years.

Ramsay was not in bed beside her. An inner compulsion told her to get out of bed.

She shook her head as if trying to clear her brain. Why did she suddenly feel so clear of thought?

Her mother's face came to her—smiling but urgent, as if trying to speak. Then in her mind's eye rose the face of her father.

No anger accompanied the vision. For the first time in recollection, with the reminder of his face came the fond memory that she had once loved him . . . loved him with all the affection of a daughter's heart.

How could she have forgotten? For an instant she was a little girl again, and he was her father.

Father
. The word brought with it feelings of warmth and contentment, security and safety . . . and love.

All these thoughts and emotions passed through Amanda's brain in less than ten seconds. Then just as suddenly as they had intruded from some unknown place as she lay awake came the reminder of her present situation.

Now she remembered. Ramsay wasn't home when she went to bed.

Amanda shivered. The night was warm, but she felt suddenly very cold and strange.

What time could it be?

She rose for a glass of water. As she approached her sideboard, through the crack of her bedroom door, faint voices filtered into her hearing.

An impulse told her to listen.

Carefully she opened the door a crack. The voices came from the sitting room below. Its door must be open. She could just barely make out the words.

She crept along the carpeted floor, making not a sound, careful not to betray herself. Gradually the voices grew louder.

It was Ramsay and his mother. They were talking with Hartwell Barclay and, from what she could make out, another man whose voice she did not recognize.

Amanda strained to listen. Did she hear her name? Were they talking about her!

Now she heard the name of Princip's friend.

“ . . . Mehmedbasic said he knew about the lighthouse operation,” Barclay was saying.

“Impossible,” replied Mrs. Halifax, “ . . . no way to know.”

“ . . . might also know about the signals . . . have to change the code.”

“ . . . use only Morse,” said the third man. “ . . . U-boats have nothing sophisticated . . .”

“Don't worry, Generaloberst von Bülow,” rejoined Barclay. “If we must, our people will find him . . . kill him before he can pass the information off . . . time the assassin got a dose of his own medicine.”

Kill him!
thought Amanda. Who were they talking about . . . Mehmedbasic?

“ . . . if we decide to land an invasion . . . lighthouse . . . cannot be compromised . . .”

Amanda heard a door open below. Then footsteps. Another voice. It was Gertrut Oswald, the lady who always sat at the side door at night. She spoke at the entry to the sitting room. Amanda could hear her every word clearly.

“Mr. Halifax,” she said, “there is a young lady at the door. She said you are expecting her—a Miss Grünsfeld.”

“By all means, Gertrut, show her in!” said Ramsay, with obvious emotion, now hurrying out of the room. The new arrival, however, had not waited, but had followed Oswald. The two met in the corridor just below where Amanda stood.

“Ramsay!” said a female voice.

“Adriane darling!” said Ramsay.

In the brief silence which followed, in horror Amanda realized the two were in each other's arms!

“You made it without incident?” said Ramsay, leading the newcomer into the sitting room where the others waited. Oswald returned to her post at the side entrance.

“Yes, of course—hello, Mrs. Halifax,” replied the young woman in a voice oddly familiar. “It is wonderful to see you again.”

“And you, my dear,” replied Mrs. Halifax. “We are glad to have you safe and sound at last.”

In stunned shock and repugnance, Amanda could not believe her ears. She and Ramsay had been married less than two weeks!

They had . . . and now . . .

This must be a dream! A horrible nightmare . . . he would not . . . how could he do such a thing to her!

But they were talking again. In nauseating torment Amanda knew she must listen.

“ . . . sorry, darling,” Ramsay was saying, “but you will have to sleep alone—for a while, that is.”

“A problem you have not told me about, Ramsay?” said the young lady.

“Only a minor one. But it will be taken care of before long.”

Hot tears of shame, defilement, and mortification rose in Amanda's eyes. She had been duped . . . she had married a—

She didn't even know what to call him!

Suddenly she realized she knew the voice of the new woman!

Annie McPool deserves better than the likes of them!
rang the words in Amanda's ears.
I was born for the opera
.

It was the actress Sadie Greenfield she and Ramsay had seen at the theater! But her real name was Adriane Grünsfeld—the name from the article!

The charges in the newspaper were true all along!

Ramsay had lied. He
did
have a German mistress in Morocco!

It was all too horrible! How could she have gotten mixed up in something so sordid and awful? And been convinced to write that horrible pamphlet.

She was going to be sick. She felt unclean, filthy, as if she had been defiled. Her own husband, the man she thought loved her, kissing another woman and calling her
darling
!

Words from her father's letter came back to her.

. . . listen to
my cautions . . . dangers involved . . . these people are not what they
seem
.

Why hadn't she listened!

Tears burned her eyes, but not so bitterly as the disgrace and humiliation that burned deep in her heart.

Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted.

She heard her own name again!

“ . . . use her for barter . . . now that she is securely ours . . .” It was Ramsay's mother speaking—her own mother-in-law!

“ . . . English will pay handsomely for the return of Sir Charles Rutherford's daughter.”

“ . . . knows too much . . .” said Ramsay.

“She knows nothing,” rejoined his mother.

She couldn't listen to any more! Involuntarily Amanda clasped her hands to her ears, but not before Barclay's reply reached her.

“ . . . don't think I would actually turn her over . . . once they pay . . . find some means to eliminate her.”

Barclay stopped abruptly.

“What was that?” he said. “I think I heard a sound.”

Amanda heard his footsteps approach the door, then walk out into the corridor.

Terrified, she shrank back into the shadows. She could feel his presence below her looking up the stairway onto the landing above, probing the dark corners of the house.

He took one or two steps up the stairs, paused again listening, then seemed to think better of it, and returned to the others in the sitting room. This time he closed the door behind him.

Amanda now crept noiselessly back to her bedroom.

She climbed into bed. Sleep was impossible. She could do nothing but lie in trembling disbelief.

About an hour later the door opened. Ramsay entered, undressed, and climbed into bed beside her.

His body pressed close to hers. Heart pounding in terror, Amanda pretended to be asleep. She shuddered at his touch, fearing every moment that he would speak. He
must
know she was lying awake beside him!

Slowly the seconds passed, then a minute, then three. Gradually Ramsay began to breathe deeply. She felt his muscles relax. At last she knew he was asleep.

 113 
Ancient Mystery

It was the same night. Wakefulness had visited a third house. Arrows of sudden clarity were being launched earthward in many directions. Years of prayer at length were culminating in the release of heaven's answering rains.

In Heathersleigh Cottage, all at once Maggie McFee started out of a deep slumber. She had no idea that as she lay alert and questioning of the Lord, both Jocelyn and Amanda were likewise awake at the same hour.

Bobby's words filled Maggie's brain.

A hidden legacy . . . different than folks think
 . . . ye must find it
.

With new revelation suddenly she knew what they must mean.

Maggie rose, turned on the light that Master Charles had installed in the cottage, and sought her great-grandmother's Bible.

Twenty minutes later she still sat, smiling to herself.

It had been here all along—all these years!

No one had ever realized what the simple message pointed to. How wonderful of the Lord to make use of her own husband's words to reveal the truth!

Again, as she had so many times before, Maggie prayed for Amanda. Indeed, on this night of Amanda's great need, she was bathed in the loving prayers of the two women who loved her more than any other in the whole world.

This will certainly change her
history
, thought Maggie to herself.
The day will surely arrive when the legacy will come to light, and when the Lord will make this revelation known. But what to
do about it must be the Lord's to decide.
I must do what he shows me to do, but I mustn't interfere with the Lord's plan for anyone else. That will be up to him . . . and to
them
.