Page 46 of Strangers in Time

“I don’t want to call them men because they certainly didn’t act like men, more like animals.”

Molly’s eyes began to fill with tears.

Mrs. Pride saw this and gripped her hand. “Oh, Molly, you don’t want to hear this.”

Molly composed herself as best as she could. “I’m afraid I need to hear everything, Mrs. Pride. No matter how… awful.”

“Well, when your father found her, she was disheveled, andbattered and bruised and crying. Her purse taken, her clothes… torn… her…dignitystolen.”

Molly let out a small moan.

“Your father was, of course, beyond furious. Here they had come for safety from the damn Germans and she’s attacked by herownpeople.”

“What did Father do?”

“He found a policeman is what he did. And tried to get him to take a report, to go after the men who’d done it.”

“What do you meantried?”

“Your father was sitting in the chair you’re in now when he told me this, while Mrs. Wakefield was upstairs wailing her head off. The constable tried to ask her some questions, but she was too distraught to answer, of course. Hysterical, really, and your father said the constable seemed more frustrated and bothered than concerned or helpful. When your father tried to explain that, the bobby didn’t want to hear it, did he? Had other things to do, didn’t he? A war was going on, he had the impertinence to say. How could he know that anything happened a’tall? She might have gotten lost and fallen and torn or lost some of her clothes that way, he had the gall to suggest. She might have dropped her purse. As if,” she added with a scowl.

“What did Father do?”

“Oh, he didn’t stop with that bobby. He went to a detective chief inspector, and then to the chief superintendent, and then, when he got no satisfaction there, he took it up with the assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard.”

“And?”

“And nothing seemed to matter, Molly. To them, it was a bit of odd bother during a war. Women get attacked all the time, they said. Men too. Unfortunate, yes, but many things were unfortunate during such troubling times. They didn’t have the manpower to run down every report, did they? Half their force was in the military, they told your father. They were dragging old men out of retirement,and young men who didn’t qualify to carry the sword for England were now wearing a bobby’s uniform. It’s a scandal is what it is.”

“So nothing was done?”

“No. As far as I know they never even looked for the men.”

“And Mother?”

Mrs. Pride looked pained. “Well, your mother was always an excitable, nervous person, even before that. You saw that while you were here. Fretted over you in some ways that weren’t so healthy, I guess, looking back on it. And when you left she fretted even more, certain that you were never going to return.”

“She could have come and seen me.”

“Well, she wanted to, but it wasn’t that easy to leave London at the time. And, to tell the truth, I don’t think your mum was up to traveling that far. And after what happened to her in that shelter, well, things rapidly became very bad.”

“How bad?”

“We would try to get her to take a walk, even offered to go with her, but we would get her to the front door and she would start to scream and fight us.”

“My God.”

“It was like she withdrew into a little shell. She’d walk around here like a ghost.”

“Didn’t Father try to get her help?”

“Oh, yes. But you can’t find a doctor these days to set a broken bone, deliver a baby, or take your temperature, Molly, much less the sort of doctor she needed. Where expectant mothers would be without midwives, well, I don’t know. But it’d be no place good.”

“I’m sure,” said Molly in a hollow tone.

“Shewouldwrite you letters and slip them under your bedroom door, like you were still with us, things like that. Or sew a new collar on an old dress of yours and hang it in your room for you to wear the next day. She would even have afternoon tea and talk to you as though you were there.”

“You mean my mother was going quite mad?” said Molly dully.

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