Phoenix and Ashes

his pint.

'You are the damndest fellow I ever did see,' he said, coming up out of the glass at last.

Reggie looked around, at the scarred faces, the missing limbs, the haunted looks. 'I think we're all damned, Ross,' he said quietly. 'I think this is hell's own waiting-room. And I think we might as well make good company for each other while we're still here.'

With Alison and the girls out of the house for a little, Eleanor hastily painted the glyph on the hearthstone with her sprig of rosemary (which worked better than the wand, actually), cracked it in half, and slipped out the back door and the back gate.

What she wanted, was a newspaper and gossip, in that order.

It never failed to amaze her, every time that she slipped out, how no one ever recognized her, not even the people she knew well. Their eyes just slipped past her, almost as if they actually could not see her. If something happened, such as physically bumping into someone, the person in question would look down at her in puzzlement or irritation, as if they could not imagine where she had sprung from, and depending on their natures, pass on with a vague smile or an annoyed frown without saying a word.

Then again, as a scullery maid, she didn't warrant a second glance, much less an apology.

I swear, if this is ever over, I will hunt down Ross Ashley and become a socialist. . . .

The newspaper could be found on the top of Morgan Kirby's dustbin, neatly folded. An old one, of course, but old was better than none. The gossip could be heard by creeping under the window of Nancy Barber's hairdressing establishment and listening there. Her husband had been the eponymous barber of the village, but he was gone, and Nancy had children to feed, so the barber-shop became a ladies' hairdressing salon where esoteric creations like marcel waves were produced, the very daring (or very young) had their hair bobbed, and the gossip flowed. . . .

Eleanor crept into place beneath the window just in time to catch the tail end of a sentence.

'—oh definitely back! Colonel Davies, the stationmaster, saw him when he got off the train, and his people sent a car down for him from Longacre.'

Longacre! Well either they were talking about a guest or Reggie Fenyx was back from the war.

'Well, how did he look?' someone asked.

'The Colonel said none too healthy,' replied the first speaker, sounding uncertain. 'Though what he meant by that, I can't say.'

'It could be anything,' a third woman said, with resignation. 'Men have no notion.'

'Well, he was wounded. I should think he has every right to look unhealthy,' said the first. 'What's more interesting to me is that his mother, Lady Devlin, is having tea right this minute with Alison Robinson and her two girls.'

'No!' 'What?' 'Really?' The replies came quickly, too quickly for the speaker to answer.

And now I understand why she was in such a pother over going to tea. It's not just that it's Lady Devlin and nobby society. It's Reggie. Unmarried Reggie.

'And her with two pretty daughters too. Hmm,' said the owner of the third voice thoughtfully. 'Well, we know where the wind blows there.'

'Social climber,' said the second with contempt. 'So Broom society isn't good enough for milady Robinson —'

'Be fair! She never said anything about being gentry]' said the first. 'Some nob relative of hers sent Lady Devlin a letter about her.'

'At least now she'll stop her girls angling for every lad with a bit in his pocket here,' said the second. 'Not that they're so many on the ground anymore, but still.'

'With your Tamara about?' giggled the third. 'Those chits didn't have a chance. Oh, I wish you'd seen them at the Christmas party, swanning about in their fashionable London frocks, and in comes Tamara in her two-year-old velvet from Glennis White, and there go all the officers! Oh, their faces were a sight!'

'Fine feathers aren't everything,' the mother of the village beauty, Tamara Budd, said complacently. 'Nor,