Heart of War Read Free Page A

fortnight ago, in readiness for her marriage. So what did she think she was going to do all day, with the husband at the Aircraft Company till all hours? She’d have done well to stay in theV.A.D. A woman needed something to keep her hands, and mind, busy these times … until she had a baby, of course.
    I, Stella take thee, John, to my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse …
    Laurence Cate, home for the weekend from Charterhouse on special exeat for the wedding of his sister, wondered why his Aunt Alice was called Dormouse by her brothers, his Uncles Richard, John, Quentin, and Tom … by her sister, his mother, too. Perhaps she – Aunt Alice – had been very quiet and shy when she was a little girl. She wasn’t now. She’d been asking him whether he’d seen any rare birds since Christmas … she was nice to talk to … always seemed to be interested in what you were doing, or wanted to do … Mummy wasn’t, often. He thought she loved him, but wasn’t sure. She loved Ireland more; or Ireland mattered more, or something. He imagined his mother hiding in a bog – Ireland was full of bogs – listening to strange Irish birds singing … and the war went on, and on, and on, and now here they were, all round the church, rifles popping off blanks, and an aeroplane snarling round and round above, and he’d turned seventeen last November. He shivered and closed his eyes and tried to close his ears, but could not.
    â€¦ for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us do part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth
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    Fiona Rowland, the bride’s aunt by marriage, hardly heard the long-familiar words, or the warlike sounds of the soldiers outside. Did Archie Campbell, her lover, secretly fear her so much, then, that he could vanish without a word, knowing that she was at last leaving her husband and children and coming to him … leaving her to find out from the landlady that he had gone, the studio locked up? It had been like a blow in the face – first the fact of the locked door, then the shame of the humble inquiries, the disdainful old harridan – ‘No, Mr Campbell left no address’; but of course the woman knew, really, for she must be forwarding letters, receiving the rent. In one sense Fiona knew where Archie had gone: he had joined up – she was certain of that. But inwhat regiment, or corps? Why no word, and six weeks passed? The slow appreciation of what stood behind his actions was even worse than what the immediate impact had been: that he would rather face death in the trenches than accept her love, and have her live with him, with or without marriage … She had been on the point of demanding from Quentin that he divorce her; she had told her son and daughter, Guy and Virginia, what she was going to do; and then … she had come back from London, her heart a cold stone …
till death us do part
… She had prayed for death to cut the bonds that held her to Quentin; but Fate had laughed in her face. Quentin was somewhere in France, still alive; and he had been at the front since August 1914 – nearly a year and a half!
    She thought, this is ridiculous: here is young Stella embarking on a new life while all I can seem to do is mope and moan. The first thing to do was find Archie. As he was a Campbell, he would have wanted to join the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders: Campbells were often not welcome in other regiments, whose clan sympathies had decidedly been with the Macdonalds in the affair at Glencoe. The Argylls’ depot was in Stirling Castle. She’d ring the adjutant this very night, and find out. And if he jibbed at giving her what she wanted to know, she’d remind him that she was a McLeod of Skye … but what if Archie had enlisted under an assumed name? She groaned