For King and Country (43 page)

He smiled down at her. ‘They’re not half as beautiful as you.’

The captain looked intrigued. ‘Why do you call him Will,’ he asked, ‘when his name’s Christopher?’

‘She does it to annoy her mother-in-law,’ Arthur chipped in.

‘A gipsy once told me I’d marry a Will,’ Sally said, with a bright glance at her husband, ‘and I thought it might be bad luck to contradict her, so I had to re-christen
him. It’s just a silly pet name.’

‘Not as silly as some I’ve heard,’ the captain said, ‘and you’ll see some more christenings this afternoon, when we cross the equator. All the first-timers in the
crew get a ducking when King Neptune comes on board, so we shall have some fun with that, and he might decide he wants to shave some of the youngsters as well. What with the concert and the dancing
this evening, we shall have had quite an eventful day before we close our eyes tonight.’

‘That’s if they close theirs at all,’ Arthur sniggered.

Frank grinned, and the captain barely acknowledged them. ‘Ah, here comes the cook with the cake, and the waiters with the wine and glasses,’ he smiled. ‘I’ll drink your
health, and then I must away. Duty calls.’

‘I’d never have believed,’ Sally said, ‘that people would go to so much trouble, just for us.’

‘I can’t get over how many people have befriended us,’ said Will.

‘You can always get friends, if you’ll
be
a friend,’ one of the Miss Donoghues turned from the rail to tell him.

‘Come on, then,’ Arthur urged the bridal pair, ‘if we stand you with your backs to the rail, we might get some of these funny fish in the photos. It’s the only way our
Kath’ll ever believe there are such things.’

He must be missing her, Sally thought. ‘Thanks for letting us have your cabin,’ she said.

‘We hadn’t much option, two single blokes among the married people. Somebody was going to give the game away sooner or later, and he would have shifted us anyway,’ he said,
nodding in the captain’s direction. ‘We’ve given it a good scouring, though.’

‘Good,’ the captain nodded. ‘It behoves us all to be very particular about hygiene while in the tropics, or we shall have ship’s fever. I’ve seen people die of it
like rotten cattle.’

Will, Arthur and Frank fell silent, along with some of the other men. Doubtless they’d seen rather too much of people dying like rotten cattle, and not very long ago at that, Sally
thought. ‘Away then, Arthur,’ she said, quick to dispel the gloom, ‘let’s get our photos taken, before we lose the fish.’

But by the time the newlyweds had manoeuvred themselves into position, and Arthur was ready to take the photograph, the flying fish were gone, and a score of porpoises were sporting in the
waves, like leaping hares.

The sun hung in the west like a great orb of fire, staining both sky and sea. ‘Have you ever seen anything so beautiful in your life?’ Will said.

The sunset was mirrored in his eye, making it glow like a ruby. ‘No, I never have,’ Sally said. A warm breeze caressed her face and arms, wafting the light, white summer dress she
wore, and the air was filled with the scent of the sea. She inhaled deeply. ‘You’re different, Will.’

‘I feel different. I began to feel it as soon as we boarded this ship, and a couple of weeks at sea have convinced me. We’re out of it, Sally. Out of the night. Out of the
nightmare.’

She didn’t point out that it was very nearly dark and night was swiftly falling, but looked at the reflection of the sun in the water, and understood. ‘Leave it all behind, Will,
what happened in France.’

‘Funny thing is,’ he said, ‘it wasn’t all bad. Everything you felt, you felt tenfold, or more, at times. Everything was larger than life: boredom, excitement, terror,
love, bloodlust, hatred even. But you’d never felt more alive . . .’ he paused, and Sally waited for him to go on.

‘Really, though,’ he said, ‘it was murder. Sheer bloody murder.’

‘It was what you were forced to do, and it’s finished now. Leave it behind, Will.’

‘You know, a sight like that makes me feel as if I have to see it for my brothers, see it and love it and feel the wonder of it for every one of them as much as for me. See it and feel it
and love it fourfold,’ he said, and that glow in his eye seemed to deepen.

She watched him, listening to the sighing and lapping of the ocean while absorbing his words. ‘Fivefold,’ she said at last. ‘You should see it for Christopher Maxfield, as
well.’

‘Aye,’ he agreed. And after some thought added, ‘But I am Maxfield, now, in a sense. It was his money that paid for the wedding ring, even.’

‘Yes, but you’ll always be Will to your wife.’

He clasped her hand. ‘Let’s go to bed,’ he said.

‘Zero hour,’ he whispered, throwing the covers on the floor and lying down beside her. ‘Are you scared?’

‘A bit,’ she whispered. ‘My stomach’s a knot of nerves, but there’s a sort of calmness at the same time, with my heart going boom, boom, boom, but quite
steady.’

‘And mine,’ he said, putting his hand gently on her breast, and her hand on his. ‘I’m the same. Can you feel it?’

‘Scared?’ she said. ‘I didn’t think men were scared . . .’

‘Scared, and excited. Everything alive. I’ve never felt so alive. And scared, because there’s not one virgin here, Sally, there’s two. I never told you that, did I? And
scared because I don’t want to hurt you.’

She giggled, from sheer nerves. ‘After all the lasses Will Burdett went out with? I can hardly believe it.’

‘It’s true, though. There’s not one of them . . . So here we are, a virgin woman and a virgin man, both with a lot to learn.’

‘Better make a start, then,’ she laughed, furling her fingers round his neck, and drawing his face down to hers.

‘It’s true, what they say. The best times between husbands and wives are in the dark,’ Sally said, during the wondrous depths of that night. ‘And in the
dark it doesn’t matter if the husband’s face is wounded or if the wife’s got a big nose.’

He laughed. ‘You soft ha’porth! In the dark, looks matter about as much as they do to a blind man, I suppose.’

‘Don’t laugh at me. Looks shouldn’t matter all that much. Love
should
be blind. But what I mean is, in the dark, looks don’t distract you from knowing the man
underneath, knowing him heart and soul. In the dark, there’s only the
real
you.’

‘And the real you.’

‘Yes,’ she breathed.