Winds of Eden Read Free

falling?’
    â€˜Duck. If they’re close, there’s no point in running. If they’re not, chances are you’ll end up in their path.’
    Exasperated, Georgiana reached for her cigarettes. ‘Like Harry you have an answer for everything.’
    â€˜I don’t, but I do know we’re both worried sick about him. I need to be with him, Georgie, so I can see how he’s bearing up.’
    â€˜Mesopotamia’s vast. What are the odds of you being sent anywhere near Harry?’
    â€˜That’s the beauty of being a war correspondent. I won’t be “sent” anywhere. I can go where I like, even into the thick of the action.’
    â€˜Great, knowing Harry, that’s exactly where he’ll be. It will be comforting to know you were killed together.’
    â€˜Neither of us will be killed, Georgie. Once I’m there, I’ll check his whereabouts with HQ and travel to wherever he’s stationed. I’ll write to you as soon as I see him. Then you can stop worrying.’
    â€˜You know what Harry and I are like. I’m not just his sister. I’m his twin. Whatever affects him affects me. I know he’s unhappy, desperately so, but I don’t think it’s the war. It could be something to do with his wife. He didn’t mention Furja in his last few letters.’
    Michael smiled. ‘Only Harry could marry a Bedouin. He sounded so happy when he first wrote to us about her, but if he’s been on active service he might not have seen her for a while.’
    â€˜It’s possible, I suppose.’
    â€˜I’ve often wondered if Harry married his Arab and you married Gwilym just to annoy our parents.’
    Georgiana rarely mentioned her brief marriage to a Welsh coalminer. A pacifist, he’d volunteered for Red Cross duties in France. His death within a week of arrival at the Western Front was still raw.
    â€˜When I fell in love with Gwilym, I thought only of myself – and Gwilym. Children should live their lives the way they want without paying heed to their parents, especially when the said parents are antiquated remnants of another age.’
    â€˜Don’t let Father catch you saying that.’
    â€˜He’s so hidebound he’s positively Neanderthal. He’d keep me at the back of the cave cooking, cleaning, and skinning his kills if he could.’
    Michael laughed at Georgiana’s depiction of their immaculately turned-out, meticulous, and correct army officer father as a primitive hunter. ‘Let’s forget the parents and Harry for now. Enjoy a damned good lunch – on me – and spend the afternoon doing whatever you want before we have to change to dine with Tom, Clarissa and Helen.’
    â€˜What time’s your train out?’
    â€˜Midnight. Until then I forbid you to think further than five minutes ahead.’ He read the menu and summoned the waitress. ‘I’ll order for both of us. How does stuffed herring rolls, followed by roast sirloin, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, and Brussels sprouts, finished off with blackberry and apple pie with cream sound?’
    â€˜Leaden.’ She turned to the waitress, ‘I’ll have the herring rolls to start, the cold beef, pickles and tomato salad …’
    â€˜You must have blackberry and apple pie and cream,’ Michael broke in. ‘I don’t want to be the only stuffed piggy.’
    â€˜And the pie,’ Georgiana capitulated.
    Michael summoned the wine waiter. He ordered vintage claret to go with the food and cherry brandy to be served with Viennese coffees after dessert.
    â€˜You and your sweet tooth,’ Georgiana teased. ‘I remember the cook’s screams whenever she caught you and Harry in the pantry, spoons in hands dipping into her pots of preserves. It’s a wonder any survived for the breakfast table.’
    â€˜It was always Harry’s idea, but then most of the fun things we did were.