Tug of War (32 page)

He handed his smoking revolver to Joe and slumped in exhaustion as the doctor hurried forward, clucking with concern and reaching for his pulse.

‘We must try not to bore her with too many old soldiers’ stories, then,’ Didier grated out at last, and added, with a wheezing grimace, ‘as we enjoy our . . . ah . . .
what would you say to
civet de lièvre à  la bordelaise
? Or they had a
bisque de palombes aux marrons
on the menu for today, I noticed.’ He shook for a moment
with silent laughter. ‘Can’t say I studied today’s menu at length. Wasn’t expecting to eat again.’

‘The jugged hare would be perfect,’ said Joe. ‘I don’t think I could be tempted by wood pigeon, even accompanied by chestnuts.’

His wife had known it all along. He was Clovis Houdart.

And Mireille Desforges had known her man. But he was a phantom. A perhaps loving, but certainly deceitful, phantom.

‘So, let me check this,’ said Bonnefoye. ‘One last time – you are content with this, Varimont? We’re taking a considerable chance, I acknowledge that, and if there
are repercussions, I’m afraid you will be the first in the firing line of public opinion. I am a French police inspector – I can extricate myself from anything. No, don’t ask!
Sandilands will have taken French leave –
English
leave as we would say – and be well distanced from any enemy action and you, the professional in all this, and I have to say the
instigator, the prodder of wasps’ nests, will bear the brunt of it. And quite right too! It’s a bit unconventional what we propose and it could all go very wrong.’

‘I’m only too conscious of that,’ said Varimont. ‘Which is why I am insisting on the inclusion in the report of so many recommendations, so many clauses. I hope I make it
perfectly clear that, in these circumstances, for which I see no precedent, it is essential that no doors be closed. I have promised further reports and reviews at yearly intervals. Everyone likes
that. No French official will agree to anything that is likely to blow up in his face. This way he can always find someone else to blame. Most importantly: a close monitoring of the patient and the
nurse will be a condition written into the contract.’

He paused long enough to receive a nod of assent and a sigh of relief from each of his companions and took out his fountain pen. ‘Well, if we’re all agreed then,’ said
Bonnefoye, ‘we can sign this recommendation and get it off to the Minister. The wheels of government moving as they do, and some of the conditions being a little out of the ordinary, it will
be a few weeks before any action is taken as a result but I think we can say this is one soldier who’ll most likely be home for Christmas.’

Joe prayed they had come to the right decision.

Chapter Thirty-One

October 1926

‘Slope arms!

‘Volleys!’

From the graveside three fusillades were fired skywards in perfect unison to the vociferous astonishment of the neighbouring rookery. As the noise rolled away, a bugler of the Royal Fusiliers
began to sound the Last Post. Joe, standing to attention, flanked on one side by Brigadier Sir Douglas Redmayne and on the other by Colonel Thorndon, listened to the piercing strains and felt his
soul snatched up by the music and transported, solitary, to a distant place. The three men, handsome in dress uniform, saluted as one as the oak coffin began its gentle descent into the grave.
Edward’s father stepped forward and scattered a spadeful of rich Sussex earth on to the coffin, then stood back.

Edward’s mother, frail, but straight and determined, approached and threw in a prayer book and, with a swift apologetic glance at her husband, added a small brown toy dog. The firing party
marched off and the ranks of mourners broke up and began to mingle, offering each other comforting remarks. Mrs Thorndon made straight for Joe and placed a gloved hand on his sleeve.

‘Commander! I’m so pleased you could get here in time. We wanted to thank you for bringing the boy home. Douglas has told us of your heroic efforts, tracking him down to the Marne
and digging about in the battlefield to find him and restore him to us. And to think we had imagined that the War Office had given up on our case! We should have had more faith in the
Military!’

She directed a sweet, smiling apology at the Brigadier.

Sir Douglas bowed in silent acknowledgement and fixed his eyes thoughtfully on a flock of migrating swifts gathering overhead.

Mrs Thorndon looked around the quiet village graveyard, the only sounds the melancholy autumn fluting of the birds and the occasional damp plop of a falling leaf. The Sussex beeches surrounding
the graveyard were aflame in a haze of red-gold, the grass still a lively green.

‘We would have been happy enough to leave him with his fellows in a French cemetery – it would certainly have been less complicated and less time-consuming, and they care for our
boys so beautifully but . . . oh, Douglas, do you blame us? I know we’ve demanded so much of your attention . . . Do you think we are unbearably fussy to want him back here with
us?’

‘Not at all, Emily. May all the brave lost souls have the luck to find their way home! I think every soldier deserves to be laid to rest in his native churchyard,’ was the hearty
reply. Followed immediately by: ‘Where it’s possible, of course.’

As she drifted away Joe addressed a comment sideways to Sir Douglas. ‘I’ll be presenting my bill for services rendered then, sir?’

‘Bill? What bill?’

Joe was pleased to have startled him. ‘It’s a new thing. French entrepreneurial spirit. You have to admire them! They charge by the kilometre for retrieving a body from the
battlefield and returning it. At the going rate you owe me . . . er . . . with conversion from kilometres and francs . . . fifty pounds.’

Redmayne grinned. ‘Take that in champagne, will you, Sandilands? Eliminates the paperwork.’

He carried the tray over to Aline who was sitting in a state of excited agitation by the window of the morning room from where she had a clear view down the drive. The beech trees were still
glowing pale gold in the early October sunshine and scarcely a leaf had fallen to mar the neatness of the gravel.

‘Thank you, darling. Oh, and I see you’ve brought the last of the roses,’ she said, gently stroking the rusting petal of one of the few remaining blooms to be found in the
garden. ‘How clever of you to remember! These are his favourites! Stay and have some tea with me, will you, while I watch. Oh, and Georges – call on one of the men to open the gate.
They’ve left it closed and I don’t want the unwelcoming sight of a closed gate to be the first thing to greet him when he arrives.’

‘Yes, of course, Maman.’

Wearily Georges rang the bell.

‘Tell me – did Charles-Auguste remember to bring up a couple of bottles of the ’13 vintage?’

‘He did, Maman.’

Her eyes had been drawn back to the gate and the road to Reims beyond. ‘And what are we to have for supper tonight, do you know? . . . Calves’ liver? Are you sure of that? No! No!
That will not do! He simply detests liver! You must go and speak to Cook and ask what on earth she thinks she’s about.’

‘Are you quite certain he doesn’t like liver, Maman? I thought he did?’

‘He hates it. But he adores game. It’s the hunting season. Surely a fine shot like you, Georges, can keep the kitchen supplied? You must hurry off and see what you can find. A rabbit
will do if you can get nothing else.’

‘Maman,’ said Georges tentatively, ‘you can’t go on sitting here, waiting and watching. You’re making yourself ill. You’re making
us
ill! Uncle Charles
is worried witless.’

‘Of course I shall wait! What else can I do? He’s on his way! He’s coming!’

‘I’m not quite certain, Maman . . .’ Georges spoke hesitantly, anxious to avoid bringing down one of her increasingly frequent screaming tirades on his head, ‘who exactly
you are expecting to come up the drive?’

He hastily moved the hot teapot out of her reach and drew back. She did not scream and stamp at the mild challenge and hurl a cup at him as he’d come to expect over the weeks but turned to
him, eyes wide with astonishment at the question, and smiled one of her old, loving smiles.

‘But – Edward, of course! Georges, darling, you haven’t forgotten Edward?’

Holding his tail stiffly to indicate an extreme degree of pique, he stalked down the corridor and went into the parlour, heading for his chair.

He caught sight and smell of the interloper from the doorway and went to stand, fur on end, directly in front of the man lolling at ease in the armchair which had been empty for nine years.

He waited for a very long moment, assessing the situation, and then decided on his action. He leapt up on to the man’s knee, eyes narrowed, demanding and holding his gaze, hissing with
rage, and one paw lashed out, claws exposed, to tear at the man’s flesh. The sudden pain and the trickle of blood down the back of his hand drew a startled cry. The cat paused briefly, then,
judging the reaction he’d provoked adequate, he turned around several times, kneading the man’s thighs with unsheathed claws, and finally settled down on his lap. He began a rasping and
unpractised purring.

‘There! That’ll teach you to stay away for years on end! What you’ve just undergone is the traditional feline punishment for going absent without leave. And well deserved too!
I do believe Louis has missed you more than I have . . . Oh . . .!’

The light voice from the doorway, determinedly cheerful, even matronly, was cut short, stopped by emotion. A tray of tea things slid to the floor.

His hand had gone out to ruffle the cat’s fur in a familiar gesture. The other reached out to the table at his side to pick up his pipe. Thibaud looked up, focused on the anxious face in
the doorway and smiled a smile worth waiting for.

Author’s note

If, having finished this book, which is – let me make it plain – a work of fiction, any reader would like to find out more about the Great War as it was fought in
the hills of Champagne, there are many excellent books available. The following short list contains those I have found most inspirational as I trailed after Joe Sandilands from London to Reims.

Understated, crisp account of the war fought by the Northumberland Fusiliers. Excellent maps.

The fascinating – and true – story of a genuine unknown soldier, an amnesiac, late-release prisoner of war. A compelling and thought-provoking story which reads like
a thriller.