.

.

The knock was too soft to be heard and Barbara also almost had fallen asleep next to Tommy's bed when the door opened. Because she had expected the nurse coming to shoo her out of here and home she only let go of Tommy's hand when she saw that it was Lady Asherton standing right next to her son's bed. Feeling caught she jumped up from the chair. Embarrassment and guilt was on her face when she stuttered her excuse.

"Oh, umm, Lady Asherton! Hello. Well, good evening, I, err..."

"Sit down, Barbara." Daze mumbled. She smiled concerned but tender. Her eyes looked so much like her son's. "The nurse already has told me Tommy's wife was here. I wondered who that could be but I should have known it was you. Oh, my, how is he?"

She squeezed his fingers for a while but then pulled Barbara's hand back to her son's. With a mother's knowing smile Daze patted the linked hands. The simple gesture looked so much like an approval and Lady Asherton's understanding made Barbara cry again. When she had regained some calm she gave a brief report of the bank robbery, whereof Daze already had seen some news flashes, and quick information about Tommy's state.

"The shot had missed his heart and lung for a good distance but dilacerated an artery and shattered his shoulder bone. They say it will take its time but it will heal and he will be able to use his arm again."

An unspoken acceptance of the strangely familiar closeness was between mother and friend so Barbara felt good to share the events of the past day and it relaxed her to just listen to somebody speaking. They quietly talked about Dorothy's trip from Cornwall to London, the incident inside the bank and eventually Daze told her why Tommy had that weapon with him.

It was the revolver his great-great-grandfather had bought a long time ago along with six bullets. It had been bought as a protective security for the estate and his newborn daughter but there never had been the need to use it. It even had accompanied one of the Lords throughout WWI but since he had been medical orderly and luckily never brought to the front lines he never had to use it either. So in the end it had never ever been fired at all. Since nowadays Howenstow was secured by modern technology there still was no need of it so Tommy's father already had stored it in a bank safe in London. At the end of this year the little village museum in Nanrunnel would be showing a special exhibition about war and peace in the area and about its sons and daughters who had been in service throughout the centuries so this revolver had been planned to be shown as a piece of peace.

This morning Tommy had picked it up from the bank where it had been stored safely for decades and Daze had wanted to meet him later to bring it to Cornwall on her own. She already had been on the road when Sir Hillier had called. That was why she was already here.

"I guess you won't see the weapon so soon again, I'm sorry." DS Havers lectured. She did not recognise it but to slip into her role as a police woman soothed her. "They... well, we, the police, will have to keep it for a while as a piece of evidence."

Hearing her suddenly speak so professional Daze had to smile. Barbara was a police officer through and through. So much like her son. "Of course, I do understand that. Anyway, we'll have to change the explaining texts for it because now it is used, although it is used for a quite honourable act, I think."

After a while she added a half laughed question if they probably will give the bullets back to the Ashertons. At least they stopped a bank-robber. Before Barbara was able to answer the door opened and another nurse popped her head in. They had changed shifts.

"And who are you?" she asked not too impolite. Barbara let go of Tommy's hand and got up but before she could introduce herself to the new nurse Lady Asherton already shook that woman's hand.

"Hello, Ms... " A quick glance at the name tag told her the name. "...Cooke. I'm Lady Asherton, his mother. Do you need to see my ID? Wait, I have it here..." Almost without any pause she literally overrun the poor woman in blue scrubs. She introduced the little picture of misery as her son's partner and her same choice of words made Barbara inwardly chuckle despite the strange situation. After a while the nurse left the room again. Daze had made it quite clear that Barbara definitely was allowed to be in Tommy's room. Her vehement support made her cry again. Today her nerves obviously were very raw.

Her mental state was not really getting better when Nkata came back a bit later to see if she was doing well. He brought a small, slightly ruffled bouquet of wet flowers and told her that one of the uniformed colleagues had brought them to the office. The flowers had been found inside the bank lying on the desk Lynley had hidden behind and they obviously were for her. He explained that they had been even more ruffled when he got them and that he also had to wash the smoke bomb dust from them, that was why they were still slightly wet, but unfortunately he had not achieved to clean the card completely.

There still was a blood stain on it but more cleaning would have wiped the text that was written with ink. In Tommy's handwriting it said

Barbara,
I wish you a happier day!
Tommy

A wave of sobs shook Barbara's body.

.

...