Whispering by Jane Aiken Hodge

the servant who was pouring wine. ‘Put these in a vase for me, Sancho, would you? Now, sit down, Mr Ware and tell me everything that has happened here in Porto. I feel as strange as if I were just returned from the moon.’
    â€˜I know,’ he said warmly. ‘I felt just the same when I got back, but I promise you it soon wears off. My mother sends her love and asks you to name a day for her to give a little party for you at our house, to meet all your old friends.’
    â€˜How very kind of Mrs Ware.’ But this was going altogether too fast for her. ‘Tell her I would like it above all things, but not quite at once. I need to find my feet a little, and Harriet and Ineed to do some shopping. I caught some glances as we came up from the quay yesterday that made me think we are not quite in the Portuguese mode.’
    â€˜But then you never were much of a one for conforming, were you?’ He was beginning to think none of this was going to be so bad as he had feared. ‘I remember you as always the rebel. We were a fine lot of tearaways.’ He turned to include Harriet in the conversation. ‘And Miss Gomez always in the wicked lead.’
    â€˜I had no mother to make me mind my ways,’ said Caterina. ‘But they were good days just the same. I have hardly dared wonder what happened to the rest of us, Mr Ware.’
    â€˜No,’ he said sadly. ‘I was so sorry to hear about your dear Maria, Miss Gomez. I remember her well, how good she was to us all, and how patient.’
    â€˜Thank you.’ She was surprisingly moved by the tribute. ‘Was anyone else killed in the French invasion, any of our friends?’ And when she saw him hesitate. ‘Please, I have to know, and I would so much rather hear it from you.’
    â€˜I know just how you feel,’ he said warmly. ‘When I got back, there seemed to be almost a conspiracy of silence, as if it was too bad to be talked about. Well, it was. By a miracle, our house was spared, and all our servants survived, but other people in the Rua Nova dos Inglesas were less fortunate. There were the most shocking stories, which I will spare you, but in fact, of our little group of friends no one was hurt in the actual attack. Well, most of the English were safe away, of course, and the ones who were on board the ships that were caught in harbour were not molested. The worst was over by the time they were taken. It was only in the savagery of the first attack that people were hurt, like your poor Maria. The French claim that they discovered such evidence of atrocities by the mob before they took the town that there was no holding their men. Well, a sack is a terrible business. I am glad Wellington has managed to save Lisbon from that. What was the talk in England about what he is going to do next, Miss Gomez? You can imagine how anxious we are here lest he should choose this route to push on into Spain.’
    â€˜Goodness, don’t ask me,’ she said. ‘I was shut up in a convent; no news of the war there, or of much else. But, tell me, our Portuguese friends, what of them?’
    â€˜Portuguese?’ He thought for a moment. ‘Did we have Portuguese friends? I hardly recollect – Forgive me.’ He had remembered about her father. ‘But you know how it has always been, here in Oporto.’
    â€˜I do indeed,’ she told him. The subject was closed, and she changed it. ‘Do you know an American brother and sister, the Emersons? My cousin is here in the hopes of a cure from Miss Emerson. He is seeing her now. Which reminds me, he is anxious to find somewhere to live nearer to the centre of town where they are. Can you think of anything, Mr Ware?’
    â€˜Your cousin?’ He was thinking fast. ‘As for the Emersons, I am sorry to tell you that my mother has had some treatment from Miss Emerson and does not feel it has done her much good. But then her health is so precarious