The Beloved Land Read Free

I recall reading it all those many years back.” He looked at Catherine. “So shocking then I almost burned the thing. Can’t understand what it was that made me keep this book. A small token of the old man, I suppose.” He turned away then and spoke as though to himself. “Of course, it was God’s hand all along. I see that now. Yes. Here it is before me once again.”
    Catherine reached over and placed a hand upon her father’s arm. “Father, speak to me.”
    He looked at her again. “My father was married twice.”
    “What—?”
    “Never knew it, of course. He had never spoken to anyone about his early days. What a shock it was to see the words written here in his diary. You can’t imagine.”
    “I don’t understand—”
    “No, of course not.” John Price took a long breath. “My father fought against the French in one of our many wars. He was captured and imprisoned. He shared his cell with an elderly Frenchman, who had been incarcerated over some minor matter. His granddaughter came to visit him daily, bringing him what she could in the way of food and clothing. Over time Edwin came to know and … and admire her.”
    “Your father fell in love with a Frenchwoman?” Years of antagonism between two great nations were captured in her question.
    “Hard to imagine even now, I agree. You can see what a blow that would have been, reading it those many years back. What with me carrying such a load of hatred over the wars and my wounds. But there it was. The old Frenchie who was my father’s cellmate died, but still the young lady kept coming. They talked of marriage and a future together, though it all seemed so bleak in that wartorn time. But young love was not to be denied.”
    He turned the page, all without taking his eyes from his daughter’s face. “One of the young French guards was infatuated with her, and she led him on a bit until she had won his confidence. One night she served him full of wine and used his key to release Edwin.
    “They married in secret and hid themselves in a remote fishing village. They began making plans to escape to England. Then word came through one of the fishermen that the police were scouting the region, looking for an escaped English officer.”
    “A Frenchwoman.” Catherine shook her head in wonderment, recalling her father’s previous hatred for the French and all the pain it had caused them both.
    “She had become ill and was too sick to travel. She insisted Edwin flee for his life, promising she would follow as soon as he sent word. Celeste’s brother, a fisherman, risked his life to take Edwin across the Channel. He could see, as did the entire village, that Edwin and the Frenchwoman were bound by a love more vast than any nation or war. Those were the words my father used in his diary.”
    John Price stopped then. But Catherine could see from the expression on his face that there was more. “Tell me the rest, Father.”
    John Price studied her face for a long moment.
    The realization struck her very hard indeed. “She was pregnant?”
    “Indeed so.” His eyes dropped to the page. “What hit me even harder than the news that I had a half sister was that my father eventually learned his first wife had died in childbirth.”
    “You didn’t know?”
    “All my life I thought I was my father’s only heir. Here in these pages, just after you were born, I learned how he had spent years searching. But our two countries remained at war— at least as near as breath to that state. And there was no concern for a young orphan lass.”
    “A daughter,” Catherine murmured. “A half sister. My aunt.”
    John Price suddenly raised his head. “I have thought of something.” He reached a trembling hand to grasp Catherine’s.
    “I wonder if Andrew’s brother, Charles—” “Oh yes, I will write to him,” Catherine said, her thoughts leaping ahead in the conversation. “I’m sure he would want to take up the search for some news, maybe even to be able