The White Lady

Here’s what he told us one day: ‘Just remember that as the doctor, you are really only there to distract the patient while time and nature do the work of healing.’ So, Captain Elinor, allow time and nature to heal you.

She locked the cupboard, took her place in the driver’s seat and slipped the pistol into her shoulder bag—if she carried a bag, it would always have enough room to conceal a weapon.

arm and helped her to her feet. Elinor chose

That was always when women were needed most; when men went to war.

if she carried a bag, it would always have enough room to conceal a weapon.

A person with a grace-and-favor home can live in the house until their life’s end, because they served the crown.

No one who wants a peaceful, safe life needs a weapon. Only soldiers at war need guns, and we are not at war.

Just remember that as the doctor, you are really only there to distract the patient while time and nature do the work of healing.’ So, Captain Elinor, allow time and nature to heal you. Give yourself another stab at life—oh dear, sorry about the pun.

The young man alongside him nodded, adjusted his headphones and tuned in to the BBC wireless service. He waited a moment or two, then smiled and removed his headphones, turning up the volume so everyone could hear the signal when it came. Da-da-da-daaah. Da-da-da-daah. It was the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony; the composer’s notes mirroring the series of dots and dashes that formed the

by war, but this waterway drew her in. It was hard for her to imagine that it began as springs arising from an aquifer at Thames Head in the Cotswolds, and it was only when the German George I—the first Hanoverian monarch in Britain—acceded to the throne and could not pronounce “th” that the name of the river might as well have been spelled “Tems.

Elinor knew that if a man hit a woman, then a level of societal restraint had broken down, and in time—even a short time—brutality against a child might not be far behind.

Linni, you have as many answers as you need or are likely to get. Don't ask for more. I learned in the Great War that there are many battles to be fought, and one of the biggest is with the veils that come down around us---with all due respect to that American author, you know, Mr. Steinbeck, I call them the 'drapes of wrath.

And then there's that double-barreled name a lot of them toffs have, like they have to drag their ancestors up from the grave so we all know who they're related to.

Give me strong young womenfolk with sharp elbows, Charlotte, my dear, and they will make a good account of themselves in this world.

. . . it was known German soldiers would go door-to-door to take males of working age, or boys on the cusp of manhood. They always took the men, leaving only the women, children and elderly. Women were considered easy to control. They would do as they were told and not fight back.

Elinor felt a strange silence descend upon the room. Though she was aware of the everyday sounds—a tractor in the field beyond, a wood saw in the distance, and even a motor car passing on the road outside—she felt as if she were either ascending into heaven or descending into hell, and she wasn’t sure which. Kemp’s racking sobs returned her to the moment.

This clever piece of equipment transforms you from prey to predator, though the very best predators are those who understand how the hunted are likely to act. Predators who have felt the fear of prey are those with the best chance of survival.

How long were they in the ditch? Was it five minutes? Ten minutes? Elinor thought about the elasticity of time, that a watched clock never moves, that fear transforms every second into an hour, and that seconds and minutes blend with sound in way that could lead to confusion, to poor judgment. She was afraid of having poor judgment, afraid that she might be the one to make a bad decision.

Home is where everyone deserves to be safe.

She said as much to Mrs. Wicks, who frowned and tutted, then counseled that it was never a good idea to get too familiar with your betters. They might seem gracious enough, but they were all the same, those sort of people—nice to your face, but the bonds of fellowship were limited to their equals.

one who wants a peaceful, safe life needs a weapon. Only soldiers at war need guns, and we are not at war.

She enjoyed this benign memory; there were other strands of reflection reaching back over the years that were akin to electric cables, able to shock if touched. Those hot wires of remembrance were all around her.

it began as springs arising from an aquifer at Thames Head in the Cotswolds, and it was only when the German George I—the first Hanoverian monarch in Britain—acceded to the throne and could not pronounce “th” that the name of the river might as well have been spelled “Tems.

Every war is a war against the child. —Eglantyne Jebb, 1876–1928 Founder of Save the Children, 1919, Jebb drafted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, 1924

Experience had taught him how to keep breathing and retain a steady hand while executing the precise movements required to remove the detonator from one of those great big UXBs—unexploded bombs. He explained to Rose that the Germans deliberately made a lot of bombs so they didn’t explode when they landed, because they knew the strain of having a UXB in the street, its menacing tail fins sticking out of the tarmac, would cause the British people to get nervy. It was all to undermine morale.