Silver Linings Read Free Page B

sent back off.’ She said no more to her mother and Gladys, but she inwardly screamed, Back to the bloody useless war again!

    The next morning, 23 May 1915, the rosy dawn found Kate sitting on a bench in Leith Links with her arms wrapped tightly about herself. She had been there all night praying and hoping. A long sigh escaped as she looked over the lush grass that had begun to take on a ghostly appearance when a thin mist started to drift upwards from it. Sheer exhaustion was seeping away any hope she had had about Hugh and, as despondency overtook her, she wondered if the phantom haze swirling at her feet was an omen. Lifting her eyes she stared long into the distance. Her heart jumped into her mouth. ‘Who can that be?’ she gasped. The tall figure was at one moment striding quickly towards her and then it was shrouded in the mist.
    Eventually, the running upright figure was so close that the haze could no longer swathe it. All that Kate could make out was that it was a man dressed in a military uniform. She also noted that he was not wearing a regulation cap, a uniform irregularity which encouraged the filtering rays of the morning sun to light up the highlights of his gingery blond hair. ‘Hugh!’ she cried, half rising from the bench. ‘Is it really you?’
    In three quick strides he was pulling her towards him. She was so overcome that her head reeled, her knees buckled and her tears cascaded, all of which took him by surprise. Instinctively he wished to comfort his beloved so he gathered her up into a tight embrace. As the warmth of his body radiated through her, she was grateful to acknowledge that this was no dream, no ghost – it was her Hugh, in person. He had survived and he had come immediately to look for her. Finding her was easy for him because he knew that she would be nowhere else except in the part of Leith Links that was their own special place.
    Steadying herself, she rigorously patted his chest before she fell against him again. It was only at that moment that she realised just how much she had missed him – and he had only been away for a night and a day.
    ‘Come on, love,’ he whispered as he stroked her silken hair. ‘I’m not back for long so let’s not waste a minute.’
    She hesitated but only for a short time. Then lifting her eyes to meet his she blurted, ‘Oh, darling, I want you so much. Really want you. So much so that I am very sorry I said no to you last night before we parted.’
    He laughed. Rocking her back and forward he teased, ‘Are you saying I should look forward to tonight?’
    Her thoughts were now in turmoil. She tucked her head under his chin. This gesture allowed him to gently stroke her cheeks and he smiled when he felt the fire of the passion that was now soaring within her. He smiled, knowing that tonight they would make passionate, true love for the first time. Quickly his thoughts turned to where he would take her. He loved her so much that he wanted their first union to be in a lovely place. A quick roll in the long grass that surrounded the railway along the Seafield track was not good enough for his darling Kate. Behind a tombstone in Seafield Cemetery was also a definite no-no.
    Kate, on the other hand, felt fear arising within her bosom. The terror that she tried to control was not that she would be letting her mother and church down when she allowed Hugh to make forbidden love to her tonight. Oh no, she was scared this promised one night of passion would be all that she would ever have.
    * * *
    Later that evening they sought each other’s hands when they alighted from the tramcar on Princes Street. Hugh had already explained that they could not book in anywhere in Leith where they might be recognised. He went on to explain that, this being the case, in the early afternoon he had nonchalantly sauntered into the Imperial Hotel on Cockburn Street and booked them in for one night in the name of Mr and Mrs Hugh Brown.
    On reaching the Imperial Hotel’s