Read No Time For Love (Bantam Series No. 40) for Free Online Page B

”
    “What box was that?”
    Prudence looked at Wynstan.
    “You remember it, Mr. Wynstan.”
    “Yes, I gave it to him,” Wynstan said. “He must have been fifteen at the time. I remember saying that every man should have a place where he could lock away papers he did not want everyone else to read.”
    Wynstan paused and smiled as he added:
    “That was after I found Mama reading letters I had received from a girl-friend of whom she did not approve.”
    “She must have been kept busy if she read all your love - letters!” Gary teased.
    “Go on, Prudence.” Wynstan said quietly.
    “I fetched the box to his bed and he took out some poems he had been writing from time to time. Sometimes he would read them to me and sometimes he would not. He looked at them and said:
    “ ‘Burn these, Prudence!’ ”
    “ ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘They’re beautiful, Mr. Elvin! Let’s keep them. Someone might publish them one day.’ ”
    “ ‘That is what I am afraid of and it would not be because they wanted to understand what I was trying to say,’ he answered. ‘Burn them, Prudence!’ ”
    Prudence made a little gesture with her hands.
    “So I burnt them.”
    “And what else?” Wynstan asked.
    “The letters he had kept over the years, one or two from you, Mr. Wynstan, some from his mother, and those he had received from the young lady.”
    “How do you know they were from her?” Wynstan asked.
    “They were the only letters he received after he returned home,” Prudence answered, “and he seemed happy to have them. He also said to me: ‘Don’t you think Larina is a pretty name, Prudence? I think it is lovely!’ ”
    Harvey’s eyes met his brother Gary’s.
    “What was her surname, Prudence?” he asked.
    “I don’t know, Mr. Harvey!”
    “But you must have some idea.”
    “No, Mr. Elvin never told me anything about her.” There was silence, then as if she knew the brothers were perturbed. Prudence said:
    “But Mr. Renour will know it.”
    “Renour? Why should he know it?” Harvey asked in surprise.
    “Because Mr. Elvin wrote to her and it would be entered in the post-book.”
    “Of course!” Wynstan exclaimed. “I had forgotten that we kept a post-book in the house! He will also have her address.”
    “Of course,” Prudence agreed.
    “Then would you be kind enough to ask him to bring the post-book here to us?” Wynstan said. “And thank you, Prudence, for your help.”
    “I hope I have been able to assist you,” Prudence said looking from one to the other.
    She waited for a second then she said:
    “Thank you, Mr. Harvey, for the beautiful things you said at the Service. I’m sure Mr. Elvin would have been pleased.”
    Tears came into her eyes as she spoke and she turned quickly and went from the room.
    “Beautiful things!” Harvey said scornfully. “I wonder what Prudence would say if she knew the truth.”
    “You certainly made Elvin a cross between the Archangel Gabriel and St. Sebastian,” Wynstan remarked.
    “All the more reason why he should not get knocked off his pedestal!” Harvey snapped.
    “Now stop agitating yourself!” Gary pleaded. “Wynstan said he will help and he is pretty efficient when he makes up his mind to do something.”
    “Thank you!” Wynstan said with an amused smile.
    The door opened and Hudson came in.
    “Prudence said you wanted the post-book, Mr. Harvey,” he said, “but Mr. Renour is not yet back from the funeral so I have brought it myself.”
    “Thank you very much, Hudson.”
    Harvey took it from him and turned the pages quickly.
    “I had no idea we sent out so many letters from this house!” he remarked. “With what we contribute the Post Office should pay a dividend!”
    Neither of his brothers answered and he knew they were waiting impatiently to see what he would find.
    “Here it is!” he said at length. “Miss Larina Milton, 68 Eaton Terrace, London, England.”
    “Well, at least we know where she is!” Gary said.
    “I suppose