Read Online My Heart Has Wings by Elizabeth Hoy - Free Book Online Page A

he has fallen back on a sort of down-at-hell journalism which scavenges for news so desperately that ... even picking his daughter’s brains on the Scott-Manly prototypes wouldn’t come amiss. At least that’s how it looks. Jan may not have realized she was giving the firm—and Air Ministry secrets—away by talking to him. Though I don’t see how she could have failed to realize it ... or how this memo, almost intact. Could have got into her father’s hands in error . It’s pretty grim, Mike, and one of the most difficult aspects of it is that S.M. doesn’t want Jan to know for the moment she is suspect, or that there has been any leakage. But you are warned to be careful what you say to her ... and I’m to keep the more confidential stuff out of her hands Pleasant little set-up, isn’t it?”
    “ I t’ s damnable,” Mike said. His blue-grey eyes had sparks of crimson light in them and with one part of his seething brain he wondered at the resentment that swept over him. Hart Ferraby stooped and gentle and a little lost, with his head in the poetic clouds; Jan with her golden, truthful eyes; how could it be that they were involved in this thing?
    “D id they strike you as ... well ... on their uppers?” Daker asked.
    In a flash Mike saw the gracious, shabby old house and with cruel, unbidden illumination guessed suddenly at the stringencies behind its brave facade. That really dreadful sherry, the Burgundy dredged up from some cellar where it had been hoarded so long that it had grown sour and corked. The birthday dinner—and even the clever stuffing hadn’t quite disguised Mrs. Costello’s old hen—Jan had had to cook after office hours with no servant to help her. The remark about Carole’s painting came back to him—a long expensive training she would not be allowed to complete. “They didn’t,” he conceded unwillingly, “seem any too prosperous. It’s difficult to assess that kind of thing in a single casual visit ... and anyhow, dash it all, Daker,” the sparks in his eyes flamed angrily, “I wasn’t there as a spy but as a trusted guest.”
    “I know, I know, old man. Keep your shirt on. But it’s just a little odd, this sudden desire on the part of the Ferrabys for your company. In the light of this Ariel stuff you must surely admit that. They’ll probably ask you to go again.. .”
    “They have.”
    Daker groaned. “Look, Mike, I like young Jan. I’m as anxious as you are to believe she is in the clear in this business. But somebody sent that memo of mine straight from this office, to a grubby little international rag, and, all personal considerations aside, we’ve got to find out who it is. This contact of yours with the Ferraby household is going to be useful. Keep it up. Cultivate Hart, cultivate Jan, string ’em along and get them off their guard, and I don’t mind betting you that if they’re not on the level they’ll be pumping you for more information. Ariel will be following up this prototype scoop, that’s a certainty, and they’ll be paying for it generously. That’s the usual bait. And the obvious one for a chap in Hart Ferraby’s straits. So watch out for any sudden signs of prosperity, watch out for every single pointer, and let me have your findings. It’s a dreary thing to ask you to do, old man, but we’ve got to get this thing cleared up as quickly as we can, and if we can do it quietly, without calling in Security, so much the better for all of us ... including, of course, young Jan.” Mike listened to this peroration with a stony expression, and when Daker had finished, he said, “So you think it’s fine for Jan having all this going on behind her back, without being given a chance to defend herself?”
    “No, I don’t think it’s fine,” Daker snapped, “but what can I do about it?”
    “Discover the truth. There are dozens of people who could have walked into your darned office and lifted that memo.”
    “Then go and find them for me!”