Heart of War Read Free Page B

involuntarily, but it was loud enough to make her daughter Virginia, lumpy with puppy fat in her Woman’s Legion uniform, look round at her – accusingly?
    With this Ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost
.
    â€˜Amen,’ Probyn Gorse said loudly. Now ‘twas done, and Miss Stella wed. About time, too. Next, squire ought to think of himself. A man needed a woman, for one thing and another, all his life. His Mrs was as good as dead. Probyn didn’t know what the law said about it, but as far as a man was concerned, who wanted and needed a woman, as squire did in that big Manor House, she was dead. Perhaps she really was. A good thing, too, as long as it was done in theopen, and they found the body, and could say, ‘This was Margaret Cate’; then squire could marry another woman.
    He jumped, and swore under his breath. Good God A’mighty, they were firing off those danged guns right outside the churchyard, cracking the tombstones, jerking the dead out of their coffins. Miss Stella was looking round, her face alive, staring back, fidgeting …
bang!
…
bang!
…
bang!
– the 18-pounders barked.
    Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder.
    Rose Rowland felt the tears fill her eyes. Stella was the first of her grandchildren to be married, as she had always expected. Girls married younger than boys, in their class, and though Naomi was older, Rose had never thought she would marry before Stella. Naomi wasn’t pretty and round-figured, like Stella. Naomi was tall and proud and brave; her heart and her future lay where few women had gone before … and few had wanted to, till these insane, sad days. She cried soundlessly, because she knew she would not see any great-grandchild. Her husband’s hand was on hers, patting in comfort; but Harry could not assuage her grief, though she loved him and he her.
    Forasmuch as John de Lisle Merritt and Stella Cate have consented together in holy wedlock, and have witnessed the same before God and this company, and thereto have given and pledged their troth either to other, and have declared the same by giving and receiving of a Ring, and by joining of hands; I pronounce that they be Man and Wife together, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost
.
    And ‘Amen,’ the congregation intoned, heaving a long collective sigh, that could be felt in the bowels as well as heard in the ear.
    They waited then, while the bridal party followed the rector to the vestry for the signing of the marriage register. Up in the organ loft Miss Morton sonorously embarked on her favourite composition, Bach’s
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
. The guns banged, the west window, which was of stained glass, shook and shivered, men shouted, horses’ hooves clattered, motor lorry engines roared, the aeroplanebuzzed and whined. At last they came out of the vestry, Miss Morton slipped from Bach to Mendelssohn, and they started slowly down the aisle, the big bouquet of lilies in the crook of Stella’s left arm, her right in her husband’s. She’s walking fast, Probyn thought, she’s almost dragging him along … faster, faster … she doesn’t want to miss what’s going on outside. They passed and Probyn waited till a dozen or so of the gentry had gone by, following, then slipped in among them and out of the church.
    The green was full of hundreds of soldiers with rifles and full packs, some leaning against house walls, some sitting in the gutter or on the grass. Eight guns were lined up in the field beyond the churchyard, clouds of whitish smoke jetting from the muzzles as they fired the blank ammunition. Five lorries ground up the street, and a car was coming fast from the opposite direction. Them dratted soldiers’ll have drunk all the beer in the Arms and the Goat &