The Day Before Tomorrow by Nicola Rhodes Read Free Book Online Page A

memories of the world as it was.  I can see both the new world, in my memory, and the old.’
    Hecaté sighed and looked wistfully at Tamar.  ‘And I know it is within you also.’ she said.  You are a far more powerful being than I.’ 
    Then her manner changed suddenly. She looked at Tamar with pity and love as she said:  ‘He is not dead.  There was a mistake.  He knows of it, and he is on his way back to you.’
    Tamar’s head spun.  But it never occurred to her to doubt that it was the truth.  As soon as the words were spoken, she knew, realised that in some deep part of her soul she had always known.  If he had really died, would she not also be dead by now?
    Then another thought struck her.  ‘What do you mean, I’m far more powerful than you?’
    She glared into the mirror.  At her own reflection.  Hecaté had gone 
    ‘Who was she talking about?’ asked Cindy.
    * * *
    News from home was so hard to get now that the Americans were in occupation, but Denny had ascertained that many of the country’s large estates had been taken over.  So there was at least a chance that the Buffington-Smythe home was now in the hands of the enemy.  This was worrying.  In any case, that was where he intended to head for, but, under these circumstances, it might be prudent to change his identity again.  His American accent needed very little improvement, the American culture being such a large part of the British one these days.  Denny had seen every single episode of “Friends”.  And, after all that he had already been through to get this far, stealing an American uniform should not be too difficult.
    He was currently in France, having blagged a ride on a troop transport from Italy.  He had reached Italy in much the same way, only by plane.  Troops were being moved about all over the place at the moment.  It made Denny very aware of the scale of this war. 
    But getting to England from here would not be easy.  There were no troops headed for England except American ones.  Well, he intended to become an American sooner or later anyway – why not make it sooner?
     

~Chapter Eleven ~
    S econd Lieutenant Jamie Adams was not a happy man.  This was not the army he had joined.  He had been shocked at the callous way his commanding officer had shot those three English guys.  And, like most of the participants, he did not understand this war.  What had the English ever done to America?  He liked the English; he had nothing against them.  But he hated the English weather being a Californian by birth, with the typical Californian looks, tanned and fair-haired, with blue eyes.  Although his tan was fading, in the endless rain of European weather, and he was beginning to look washed out 
    And he wandered through the house (and it was the house) feeling like a trespasser.  So, he had many reasons for wishing in his secret heart that he was not here.
    He was also concerned about the women in the cellar. Some of these guys had had enough booze as was good for them; most of them were good lads, but you always got a few bad apples, and the women’s good looks had not escaped attention.  He went down to the cellar and made sure that it was locked. It was, so he never thought to check that the women were still there.  Then he pocketed the key. They would be safe for the night now, he thought.  Tomorrow they would be moved to a prisoner camp, and their fate would no longer be his concern.  But as long as it was, he intended to see that nothing happened to them.  Not on his watch.
      As he made his way back up the stone steps, a silvery gleam just above his head caught his eye.  He stepped back to get a better look.  There was a small alcove set into the stone wall at an inconvenient level.  Had it not contained something shiny, no one would ever have noticed it.  That, he thought, was probably the idea.  A hiding place.  Intrigued, he reached up, although he was a tall man, his hand only just brushed