Page 112 of Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure
However ... that is not what I want. I have shut myself away from the world for long enough. I began to see, when I lay in the hospital bed, that I had been called to the priesthood not to make liqueurs and minister to pious young men but to make the world a better place. So at the end of the month I am leaving the order and volunteering as a priest at a refugee camp in Germany. It’s in a former concentration camp. Other volunteers are already planting flowers and trees, painting the buildings, to make it a welcoming place for those who have nowhere to go.
I hope you might visit us sometime. I will continue to pray for you both.
Your friend,
Gerard
Ellie held the letter to her and fought back tears.
“You cared about him, didn’t you?” Nico asked.
“Very much. I always thought he was the sort of man I’d like to have married. Gentle, studious, good sense of humour ...”
“Instead you married a loud fisherman.” Nico laughed.
“And I have no regrets,” she said.
Mr Tommy was finally honoured in a ceremony in Marseille along with Nico and other freedom fighters and posthumously given a Croix de Guerre by the French government. The ceremony was held on a brisk and breezy day in March on the waterfront. A bell was rung as each name was called and flowers were placed on the memorial. Clive went up to lay flowers for Tommy, a proud, defiant look on his face. He told Ellie he had started painting again—big, dark, swirling canvases thatwere getting a lot of attention. One of his canvases was chosen to be hung in the newly renovated cathedral. After the ceremony, at which he received Tommy’s medals, he moved away to join an artist’s colony down the coast. “I’ll miss you,” he said as he hugged Ellie. “You’ve been a sister to me. But I have to be brave enough to start a new life.”
Ellie hugged him, promising to come and visit soon.
Madame Barbou had gone down to the village to visit friends, and Ellie was alone in the house one day when she was alerted by a motor horn. She went outside to see the gate being opened and a taxi there. The driver poked his head out of the window.
“Visitor for Villa Gloriosa,” he said. “This is it?”
“It is.” Ellie waited. A man got out of the taxi. He was bald, with sagging cheeks, and walked with a stooping gait.
“Lionel?” Ellie called as she recognized him. “What a surprise. What are you doing here? You hate abroad, remember?”
“I came to see how you were, if you were all right,” he said. He looked around him. “I was concerned about you, Ellie.”
“I’m doing very well, thank you,” Ellie replied, watching him walk towards her.
He looked around. “Colin said you lived in an impressive house, and you certainly do.”
“Come inside,” she said. “Are you planning to stay nearby or just passing through?”
“I’m not sure yet,” he said. “I took the train to Marseille. Horrible place. Dirty. Full of foreigners.”
Ellie tried not to smile. They reached the villa, and she opened the door for him to enter the foyer.
“I must say you’re looking awfully well, Ellie,” he said. “Obviously, you had it much better than we did in England. Bombed night and day.”
“I hardly think the Germans would have wasted their bombs on Surrey,” Ellie said.
“Well, not as bad as London, obviously, but the occasional one fell not too far away. And rationing, of course. We’re still rationed, youknow. Tiny portion of meat for a week. Haven’t seen a banana in years. Can’t get my decent Scotch. It’s been hell. But I suppose you were nicely out of it down here.”
“We had our share,” she said.
She installed him in the sitting room and went to make him a glass of fresh lemonade. When she came back, she found him out on the terrace, looking out across the bay.
“This view is magnificent. How can you afford to rent something like this? Your monthly allowance wasn’t that big.”
“No, it wasn’t,” she said. “Luckily I don’t need to pay rent any more because I own it.”
“How can that be?” he asked. “Did you sell the London flat?”
“I didn’t need to,” she said. “I just heard from my solicitor in England, and the rent has been accumulating nicely during the war years. I’m going to use it to buy a couple of properties here. There will be more need for tourism now.”
