by Max Hennessy
A movement at the end of the ward caught his attention and he turned his head, somehow half-expecting to see Latimer or Boyle. But Boyle had never appeared and Latimer’s bed had gone, wheeled away in a hurry after he’d died.
It was the nurse and she was frowning and looked ready to do battle. He forestalled her by smiling and apologising to the best of his endeavour. She looked startled.
‘There’s somebody to see you,’ she said.
‘My wife?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, wheel her in!’
‘I don’t know that you deserve it.’
‘I’ll go down on my knees if it’ll help.’
She smoothed his pillow and smiled. ‘Just be quiet and calm down. After all, bed’s not a bad place to be.’
‘It’d be better with you in it.’
She laughed and turned away and when he saw Charley coming slowly down the ward his heart did a flop into his stomach because, somehow, she looked just as she had when she’d visited him in Rosyth after Jutland. She was wearing blue as she had then and, in the same way as then, it made her hair seem darker. She had a paper bag in her hand.
‘Grapes again?’ Kelly asked.
‘Yes.’ She sat beside the bed, her eyes on his face. ‘I don’t think you’re the type for flowers.’
She gave a small hiccuping sob and bent to kiss him. ‘Oh, Kelly,’ she said. ‘I thought at first you were dead.’
‘Well, I’m not. Not by a long way. What kept you?’
‘They sent me to Burn.’
‘Typical bloody staff work! Those buggers get enlarged backsides shining the seats of their chairs! You’d think they’d have managed to get a thing like this right!’
She managed a smile. ‘It doesn’t matter. They apologised. They said there were so many hurt, they had to rope in anybody they could, to do the telephoning.’ She paused. ‘Kelly, I’m so sorry about William and Seamus Boyle.’
He grunted. He’d managed to shove them to the back of his mind to be thought about later when he felt he could bear it.
‘What do they say about you?’
‘Broken collar bone, a gash on my thigh and burns. I did the collarbone diving out of the plane. I must have done the leg inside. The burns aren’t much.’ He frowned because a lump persisted in coming to his throat every time he thought about it and he had to force himself to be brusque and hearty to keep it back. He held up his bandaged hands. ‘This is a damn silly thing to have happen to me, Charley. I can’t make grabs at you.’
She gave him a small sad smile. ‘You’ll not be going to the Pacific now.’
‘No.’ He managed to smile back at her. ‘Verschoyle says they’re going to fix me up with a job at the Admiralty. I shall be home a lot. I hope you can stand it.’
She said nothing, her eyes huge and suddenly swimming with tears.
‘It’s the sort of job that’ll get on my nerves,’ he went on. ‘All those bloody silly office wallahs. I expect I shall be a bastard. Somebody else’ll get the task force job and then the war’ll end, so I reckon this is the end of seagoing for me. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll apply for the Chiltern Hundreds and resign.’
‘Are you sorry, Kelly?’
He thought about it and found he wasn’t. He’d often felt that the old story about the pull of the sea was overdone. He’d probably move to the coast where he could smell the brine in the wind, but he found it didn’t worry him really. His mind had dwelt on it a lot in the last few hours. Britain was no longer the super power she had been and in a flash of insight he suspected that the Empire wouldn’t survive the fact.
He’d probably had the best of the Navy. He’d known it in its greatest days, when it had kept the peace around the world. It had had a prestige then that it perhaps hadn’t deserved, but in future it might well be smaller and somehow he couldn’t see himself serving in a truncated version run by penny-pinching politicians.
He looked up to find Charley’s eyes on him, gentle, compassionate, understanding – and loving.
‘Petty Officer Rumbelo says he’s making a corner of the garden where you’ll be able to sit in the sun until you’re all right again,’ she said.
‘Good old Albert. I’m glad he wasn’t with us. He’d never have got out. He’d have been too fat.’ He grinned at her. ‘I expect I shall fall asleep on you soon,’ he went on. ‘They gave me something to send me off. They did last time, if you remember.’ He paused. ‘Christ, that’s a long time ago, Charley! Thirty years, damn’ near. Do you mind?’
‘Mind what? The thirty years?’
He looked up quickly, suddenly afraid he’d said the wrong thing, but she was still smiling.
‘No,’ he said. ‘Going to sleep on you again.’
The sleeping pill was beginning to effect him at last. His vision was growing blurred and Charley’s face seemed to be the only clear thing in the room.
‘You know,’ he said slowly, ‘I think you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. And certainly the most wonderful thing that ever happened in my life. I don’t deserve it – I never did, I suppose – but I’m glad it did happen.’ His eyes blurred again and the pale face in front of him wavered. ‘And, now, if you don’t mind,’ he ended, ‘I think I shall just have to close my eyes.’
She bent over and kissed his cheek. ‘Go to sleep, Kelly,’ she whispered.
He gave her another grin. ‘Yes, Mum,’ he said, and the last thing he remembered was her smiling at him.
‘Kelly Maguire’ Titles
(in order of first publication)
These titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels
1. The Lion at Sea 1977
2. The Dangerous Years 1978
3. Back to Battle 1979
‘Goff Family’ Titles
(in order of first publication)
These titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels
1. Soldier of the Queen 1980
2. Blunted Lance 1981
3. The Iron Stallions 1982
RAF Trilogy
(in order of first publication)
These titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels
1. The Bright Blue Sky 1982
2. The Challenging Heights 1983
3. Once More the Hawks 1984
Synopses of Hennessy Titles
Published by House of Stratus
Back to Battle
The third title in the exciting naval trilogy featuring the courageous Kelly Maguire. Commander Kelly Maguire, leader of men in the British Navy, finds himself plunged into blistering attacks at the battle of Dunkirk. From bitter fighting in the Mediterranean, to the landings at Normandy, this action-packed saga takes Maguire through trial to triumph. Against a background of personal tragedy, this is a compelling story of love and adventure.
The Blunted Lance
The second novel in the Goff family trilogy. The Goffs, a family devoted to The Regiment - the Nineteenth Lancers - find themselves charting a history of the world from the Sudan to South Africa, Flanders to Palestine. Charging and retreating on the wide plains of a failing British Empire, Coby Goff rises to the rank of Field Marshal and Dabney is honoured as a hero. But they witness the decline of the beloved cavalry, defeated in the face of pounding artillery, the tank and machine gun.
The Bright Blue Sky
The first in Hennessy’s breathtaking RAF trilogy. The reckless days of early aviation are brought to life in a tale of daring, dashing young pilots waging war, and of the raging struggle between the hearts of two brave men for the heart of a beautiful woman. This is the first story in the trilogy involving Corporal Quinney, an air ace in the RAF; a hero blazing through the skies to dogfight high above the Italian front, confronting deadly foes and challenging a treacherous rival in love and war.
The Challenging Heights
The second in Hennessy’s breathtaking RAF trilogy. Dicken Quinney, a brilliant, heroic character, comes to life i
n this turbulent action novel. Quinney finds himself flying in the Baltic in a fight against the Bolsheviks. But tragedy mixes with adventure as Quinney loses his lover, Zoe.
The Dangerous Years
The second title in the exciting naval trilogy featuring the courageous Kelly Maguire. There is talk of peace across Europe as the First World War draws to its bloody conclusion and the German naval fleet limps into Scapa Flow for a humiliating surrender. But for Lieutenant Kelly Maguire, new conflicts arise in Russia, the Mediterranean and the Far East. Maguire faces brutal choices and violent action. Rising through the ranks of the Royal Navy he is sent on a mission to the killing-ground of China. For Maguire, dangerous years are ahead.
The Iron Stallions
The third novel in the Goff family trilogy. The Goff family have lived and died for the Nineteenth Lancers for generations but when Josh Goff runs away from school to enlist in the ranks of the cavalry under a false name, he winds up on the beaches of France. It is D-Day and heavy artillery pummels the landscape around him. As he fights, Goff learns that the cavalry is still expected to save the day, or die bravely in the attempt.
The Lion at Sea
The first title in the exciting naval trilogy featuring the courageous Kelly Maguire. Midshipman Kelly Maguire has always had a love affair with the sea. And when war clouds gather over Europe, Maguire is put to the test along with the marine might of the Royal Navy. From the Hellish battles of Gallipoli to the barbarous action at Antwerp, Maguire begins to learn the lessons a sailor must face. Glory and danger abound in this sizzling saga of adventure, blood and guts.
Once More the Hawks
Last in the RAF trilogy, this story charts the exploits of world-class fighter pilot Dicken Quinney. It is the summer of 1939 and when war breaks out, Quinney finds himself flying through the skies of France, shot down over a cemetery and forced to make a breath-taking escape across Nazi Europe, into the hands of his nemesis, General Lee Tse Liu.
Soldier of the Queen
The first novel in the Goff family trilogy. Charting the heroism of a young and talented cavalry officer, Colby Goff, this story takes the reader from Balaclava to the Zulu War. Colby progresses from a raw, wilful soldier to a laudable officer, fighting from continent to continent, engaging in the Franco-Prussian and American civil war and proving himself to be a man of passion and of steel.
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