A Rose In Flanders Fields (44 page)

‘Get some sleep,’ Archie said instead. ‘Here, use the car again, I’ll find a blanket.’

‘But Will –’

‘Is in good hands. And needs his rest.’

‘He understands now,’ I said, tiredness turning my own words into the same mumble I’d heard in Will’s voice. ‘He knows.’

‘Of course he knows,’ Archie said gently. ‘He’s a sensible lad, aye?’

‘Aye,’ I said, and he smiled.

‘Cheeky.’ He guided me towards the car. ‘I’ll bring you a hot drink and a blanket, all right?’

I slid gratefully along the wide front seat of the staff car, and waited for Archie to come back, letting my mind envelop the knowledge that Will was safe and still loved me. As the world drifted away I found time, at last, to whisper a few words to my poor Boxy. I told her I missed her and I hoped she hadn’t felt frightened and lonely at the end, that it had come swiftly, before she had realised she wasn’t going to see her beloved Benjy again. I laid my head back and gave myself over to the memories of our meeting at the hospital in Rugby, to our first arrival in Belgium, and to all the hundreds of little moments we had shared that had cemented our already sturdy friendship.

I didn’t see Archie bringing the blanket, but when I struggled to wakefulness a little while later I realised he’d draped it over me. I saw the cup of cold tea on the dashboard and swilled my mouth out with it, then blinked up through the windscreen at the sky; the sun was quite high, not mid-day yet, but not far off.

Will! I knocked over the cup in my haste to get out of the car, but Archie would understand. Flicking cold tea off my hand I scrambled out of the door, feeling the muscles in my legs seize solid after their crouching scramble back across No Man’s Land. I grunted and clutched at the car for balance, and a moment later felt a strong hand beneath my arm.

I steadied my trembling knees and forced myself to stand very still. ‘Thank you, Archie.’

‘Try again.’

‘Uncle Jack!’ Relief swept over me, and I accepted his embrace.

‘That’s better. Now, what’s wrong with your legs?’

‘Nothing,’ I said, rather too quickly judging from the look on his face. If he found out what I’d done…well, I don’t know what he’d do, but telling mother would have been the very least of it. ‘I’ve just been sleeping, and locked up a little bit. It was a long night.’

‘I’ll say. Look, Will’s awake. And he’s doing much better from what the sister says.’

The sister was right. Will’s colour was back to some extent, he had lost that waxy-white look, and his eyes were brighter. He still lay flat and would not be sitting up for some time, but he twisted his head as if he sensed it was me coming down the ward, and the smile that spread across his face warmed me right through.

‘No making him laugh,’ Jack warned, low in my ear, but I could hear amusement in his voice.

‘He started it last time,’ I said with mock indignation, then put on a haughty tone. ‘Might we be left alone, please, Major Carlisle?’

He withdrew, and I sat down close to Will once again. This time there was no hesitancy between us, and I lifted his roughened hand to my lips and kissed it.

‘Back to Blighty soon. The minute you’re able to travel.’

‘I’ve been thinking, do you suppose there’s a chance I could go to Dark River Farm to convalesce?’

‘That sounds like a perfect idea. Lizzy would love to see you again, and I’m sure Frances would be delighted to have us. The girls will fall over themselves to take care of you, and all that fresh air will be a great help for healing.’

He grinned. ‘That all sounds wonderful. But I was thinking more of avoiding your mother.’

I turned to see if Uncle Jack was near, so I could point out who’d started the laughter.

***

Dark River Farm, May 1917

‘How long do you think it’ll be before he realises?’

I looked up from my diary, and saw Will gesturing at the window. Outside in the courtyard I could see Archie and Kitty deep in conversation.

I raised an eyebrow. ‘Realises what?’

‘That it’s really been Kitty all along, not you.’

‘You could hurt a girl’s feelings like that, Lord William,’ I said, rather archly, but Will’s grin told me he wasn’t fooled. He shifted carefully in his armchair, and I eyed him critically; it had only been a few weeks but he was already itching to get back to some kind of work. I pushed aside the niggling worry that he’d try to rejoin his unit again – even if he’d wanted to it would be a long time before he was fit for that.

‘It’s pretty obvious,’ he said, ‘even you know, don’t you?’

‘Of course.’

Lizzy looked up from a letter she was writing. ‘Really? How?’

I put my pen down and thought about it. ‘I’ve had a suspicion since…what happened. With Drewe. Archie would tense up every time I mentioned her name, and when he found out what had happened I thought he was going to go right over and tear Potter limb from limb.’

‘Good job he didn’t,’ Will pointed out. ‘Poor bloke wouldn’t have known what was going on.’

‘How did
you
know, then?’ I asked Will, curious.

Will levered himself out of the chair and came over to stand behind me at the kitchen table. ‘Same reason as I know you and I are forever,’ he said, putting his hands over my shoulders to clasp mine. I almost leaned back against him, but felt him withdraw slightly and just stopped myself before my head bumped his midriff.

‘And how’s that?’

‘He gave up on you too quickly,’ Will said. I twisted in my chair and looked up into his face. He smiled down at me. ‘I’m serious. He swore his devotion to you and I’m sure he meant it, but as soon as you said “no”, he accepted it.’ He jerked his head at the window. ‘Not so with Kitty. He’s been writing and talking to her for weeks now, but she’s having none of it.’

‘She loves him though,’ Lizzy put in, sounding as exasperated as I felt. ‘I wish we could convince her she’s worthy of him.’

‘He’s an idiot,’ I said shortly. ‘They’re as bad as one another. He’s known her nearly all her life, and only just realised she’s anything other than Oli’s little sister.’

We jumped as the front door banged and Archie came back inside, nodded to Will, and put the kettle on the stove to boil.

‘How’s Oli?’ I asked, to try and banish the glower from his face.

‘As you’d expect. Doing time in a civilian prison isn’t the most fun in the world.’ I glanced at Lizzy, and Archie realised what he’d said, and groaned. ‘I’m sorry, sweetheart. Didnae think, as usual.’

Lizzy waved the apology away. ‘At least he escaped with his life,’ she said, gently taking Archie’s hand off the metal handle of the kettle before he could burn himself.

‘Aye. Cashiering’s the best we could have hoped for, but not the worst we expected. He’s lucky to have had Uncle Jack on his side, right enough.’

This time Lizzy’s face clouded over, and Archie glanced at me with an apologetic grimace, and went upstairs before he could say anything else out of place. I touched Lizzy’s hand but said nothing; Uncle Jack had gone back to Germany a few days ago and we all felt his absence but none, of course, as deeply as Lizzy. I made our excuses, drawing Will outside into the yard to give her some time alone.

Kitty saw us, and gave us a tiny smile before hurrying back into the house. I sighed and looked after her. The poor girl had lost a great deal in such a short space of time: her family wanted nothing to do with her; her brother was serving a sentence he’d be lucky to see the end of for at least two years; her work in Belgium was over – she was terrified to go anywhere alone – and now she had convinced herself she wasn’t good enough for the one man who could bring her back to her former, glowing life. The one positive thing to have come from it all was that Frances Adams had brought her into her own little family, and was more of a mother to her than her own had ever been.

Will was looking out towards the woods. ‘Go for a walk with me tomorrow?’

‘If you like.’ I followed his gaze, and instinct made me look down at his hands. Fine, strong hands, artist’s hands. Sure enough, the long fingers were flexing in readiness. ‘What will you make first?’

‘A box, I think. Just about big enough to hold a single paper rose. Make sure you don’t lose it.’

He reached out and cupped the back of my head, pulling me towards him for a kiss. Through the brief touching of lips and teeth, I felt him smiling, and smiled back, and then the smiles fell away as we melted deeper into one another, our hearts remembering what the war had tried so hard to make us forget. Yes, we had changed, Will and I, but deep down we were the same two people who had fallen in love in 1912, who had been little more than children at the start; playing tricks, defying my mother, running away to Blackpool and then to Gretna Green…and who had finally grown up apart, on different ends of the allied front lines.

And now our war was over.

The End

CARINA™

ISBN: 978 1 472 09647 0

A Rose in Flanders Fields

Copyright © 2014 Terri Nixon

Published in Great Britain (2014)

by Carina, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR

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