by Lily Baxter
‘I see.’ He turned to Meg. ‘In that case I suppose you’d better ask Marie to make up one of the spare rooms for Bertie and Maud.’
‘Too kind, Charles,’ Maud said with an arch smile. ‘You were always the perfect gentleman. We’ll try not to get in your way.’
He mumbled something unintelligible as he picked up the post and strode off towards his study.
Meg had a sudden vision of her mother’s shocked expression when she discovered that her home had been invaded by the in-laws she so heartily disliked. ‘Leave your cases, Uncle Bertie. I’ll get Eric to take them upstairs.’
‘I should lock the family silver away if I were you.’ Maud jerked her head towards the dining room where the sideboard was clearly visible through the open door. ‘Unless you want to see it all shipped straight back to Berlin.’
‘Yes, I believe the German soldiers steal everything in their path,’ Bertrand said, mopping his brow with a red paisley handkerchief. ‘We’ve buried our valuables in the back garden.’
‘And Muriel’s collection of porcelain figures will be the first to go,’ Maud said earnestly. ‘They’re German, you know, Meissen and Dresden. They’ll have those as mementoes before you can blink an eye. You should pack them up and hide them in the attics or down the old well, Meg.’
‘I’ll see to it directly,’ Meg said, edging away towards the kitchen. ‘If you’d like to wait in the drawing room, I’ll go and find Eric and Marie.’
‘You’d best ask her to make up three rooms, dear,’ Maud said, coughing delicately. ‘Jane will be bringing Pip along later. I told her you wouldn’t want them to stay alone in that tiny cottage near the harbour.’
Meg opened her mouth and closed it again. She had always disliked Maud’s daughter Jane and her dreadful son. The ‘unspeakable Pip’, as David called him, was too awful for words. Meg raced off to pass the bad news on to Marie, who took it in her usual unflappable way. With a sigh of relief, Meg left everything in her capable hands and she slipped out of the back door, making her escape to the stables.
Conker whinnied and pawed the ground as she approached his stall. ‘Hold on, old boy. I’m coming.’ She picked up a yard broom. ‘I’ll start with you today and when you’ve got a nice clean stable we’ll go for a canter—’
She broke off with a cry of fright as a man leapt from the shadows and grabbed her wrist.
‘Meg, it’s me, Gerald.’
She stopped struggling but her heart was thudding noisily against her ribcage and the blood was pounding in her ears like the surf on the Grand Rocques. ‘You stupid fool. You scared me half to death.’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I just didn’t want anyone else to know I’m here.’
‘Why are you here? I thought you were in the army.’
He sank down on a bale of hay and fumbled in his pocket, producing a packet of Woodbines. ‘I am. We were stationed on the south coast and we had orders to ship out somewhere, we didn’t know where, but I just couldn’t go into active service without seeing you and making things right between us.’
She stared at him aghast. ‘Gerald, you fool. You haven’t gone absent without leave, have you?’
‘No, of course not. I made up a tale about needing urgent compassionate leave. I’ve got to get back to the barracks tomorrow. I’ll get one of the first boats out in the morning.’
‘You’re crazy. They’ve just started evacuating women and children.’
He lit a cigarette and tossed the spent match out onto the cobbled yard. ‘I couldn’t stop thinking about you, Meg. And the stupid row we had at your sister’s engagement party has played on my mind ever since. I had to see you again, if only to say I’m sorry.’
She was silent for a moment, not knowing what to say, but as Gerald sat with his head bowed and the cigarette burning away to ash between his fingers, she felt a sudden rush of pity. She could hardly believe that he had risked everything just to see her again. ‘I’m sorry too. I was hateful to you that night.’
‘Really?’ Gerald’s dark eyes shone with hope. ‘Do you mean it?’
She smiled, holding out her hand. ‘I do. I put you in an impossible situation because I didn’t stop to think things through. If I gave you the wrong impression, I’m really sorry.’
Flicking the butt of his cigarette out into the yard, Gerald leapt to his feet. ‘I love you, Meg,’ he said, taking her in his arms and kissing her on the lips. ‘Do you think you could ever love me?’
She pushed him away gently. Everything was total confusion. When he kissed her it was exciting and left her wanting more, but was that love? She had nothing to compare it with other than the emotions that Rayner had aroused in her, and sometimes she wondered if that had been simply a glorious dream. She shook her head. ‘I don’t know, Gerald. I really don’t know.’
‘I think that means you do have some feeling for me. It was worth coming here just to hear you say that.’
‘To hear her say what?’ Eric’s stern voice from the doorway made them move guiltily apart.
Meg felt a blush rising from her throat to suffuse her face. ‘Eric, it’s not what you think.’
‘I don’t know what to think.’ He gazed at Gerald with a mixture of pleasure and puzzlement. ‘I hope you’ve got an explanation for this, son.’
Meg moved away tactfully and went to saddle Conker. What passed between father and son was really none of her business and at this moment she wanted to be on her own.
After riding round the estate and discovering that her fears had been justified as Billy and Joe were the only workers who had not left for the mainland, Meg had a brief chat with them. Satisfied that they were content to stay on and work the land, she took Conker for a long ride along the cliff tops. She hoped that Eric would have talked some sense into Gerald and convinced him to return to the mainland while he had the chance. She would feel terribly guilty if he got himself into trouble with the army because of her.
When she returned home in time for the midday meal she found Uncle Bertie and Aunt Maud already seated at the dining table eating roast chicken and vegetables as if they had not had a square meal in weeks. Demolishing food at an equally alarming rate were her cousin Jane and the unspeakable Pip. Although he was seventeen, Pip still behaved like a ten-year-old. Something had gone wrong at his birth, or so Meg had been led to believe, although sometimes she thought he just put it on to get attention. He giggled a lot, spoke with a stutter and held his large head slightly to one side, peering at people through the thick pebble lenses of his spectacles. Meg’s feelings of sympathy towards him were usually short-lived, as he seemed to take a delight in annoying her. She groaned inwardly at the sight of him now.
Jane looked up with a forkful of chicken halfway to her mouth. ‘Hello, Meg.’
‘Cousin Jane, Pip.’
‘When I heard that Mummy and Daddy were coming here, I thought this was the best place for Pip and me,’ Jane said, staring at Meg with eyes that appeared twice their size behind thick lenses similar to her son’s. She put Meg forcibly in mind of a goldfish she had won at a school summer fete and kept in a jam jar on her bedside table.
‘Capital plan. The whole family safe together under one roof,’ Bertrand said, completing the statement with a loud belch.
‘Manners, Bertie,’ Maud said primly.
‘It’s quite dreadful to see the houses deserted. Some people haven’t even shut their front doors.’ Jane wiped the gravy off her plate with the remains of her crusty roll. ‘There are abandoned animals everywhere. There are cows in need of milking; dogs and cats running loose. Where will it all end, I ask myself?’
Meg had witnessed similar scenes during her ride but it had seemed like someone else’s problem. She was only just beginning to realise the full impact of the mass evacuation. ‘Someone has to do something about it,’ she murmured, more to herself than to the others.
‘Not your problem,’ Pip said, scraping his plate and licking the gravy off his knife.
Sh
e watched him with disgust and suddenly her appetite left her.
Marie bustled into the room and began clearing the table. ‘I’ll bring your lunch before I fetch the pudding, shall I, Meg?’
‘I think I’ll just get a sandwich in the kitchen, thanks,’ Meg said hastily. She could not stand the sight of Pip shovelling food into his mouth one moment longer. The sound of his irritating high-pitched giggle followed her as she left the room.
With the help of Joe and Billy, Meg and Eric rounded up a dozen or more soft-eyed Guernsey cows that were in desperate need of milking and lowing pitifully. They found a few goats tethered and in need of fresh pasture, and soon had a following of abandoned dogs with eagerly wagging tails and soulful eyes.
‘Meg, you can’t take them all. We won’t have room or be able to feed them,’ Eric said as she made a leash out of baler twine and secured it through the collar of a collie that was attempting to lick her face and hands.
‘Well I’m not leaving them to starve.’ She patted the dog and secured the lead to the back of the farm cart with half a dozen other distressed animals. ‘We’ll manage somehow.’
It was early evening by the time they had herded cows and goats into a field and tethered them safely. Meg settled the dogs in the tack room with food and water, all except one, a large black Labrador who refused to be parted from her. Every time she went to shut him in with the others, he somehow wriggled through the door and stood looking up at her with laughing eyes as if it were a huge game.
‘You’re impossible,’ Meg said, grinning back at him.
He wagged his tail and his pink tongue lolled out of his mouth. He ambled off in the direction of the house, stopped and looked at Meg over his shoulder.
Meg threw back her head and laughed. ‘All right, you win. I can see you’ve adopted me.’ She walked on towards the scullery door with the dog following close on her heels, but she stopped and caught him by the collar before stepping inside. ‘You’d better behave or you’ll find yourself back with your friends in the tack room.’
Marie was just about to hang her apron on its hook when Meg strolled into the kitchen. ‘What in the name of heaven is that?’
‘He seems to have adopted me.’
‘You’re not going to keep that animal in the house, are you?’
Meg nodded emphatically. ‘I am, and as I don’t know his real name I’m going to call him Buster because it suits his character.’
‘Don’t blame me if he brings fleas into the house. And there might come a time when we can’t feed ourselves, let alone a big brute like him.’
‘We’ll meet that when we come to it. Buster is my dog now and he stays.’
Marie sniffed, and jamming her hat on her head she stomped out of the kitchen.
With Buster following her, Meg wandered into the drawing room to listen to the BBC news and found Bertie and Maud seated comfortably on one of the sofas while Jane and Pip sprawled on the other. An empty coffee pot and cups scattered on side tables bore witness to the fact that they had already dined, and Bertrand was snoring gently with a brandy glass clutched in his hand.
Meg opened her mouth to speak and was immediately hushed by Jane and Maud who were listening to a big band concert.
‘I don’t like dogs,’ Maud said with an exaggerated shiver.
Pip curled his long legs up on to the sofa. ‘Does he bite?’
‘He only bites people I don’t like,’ Meg said, frowning. ‘Where’s my father?’
‘He went to his room,’ Jane said, eyeing Buster nervously. ‘Please take it away, Meg. Can’t you see it’s frightening Mother and Pip?’
Without saying a word, Meg left the room. She felt the sudden need to be alone and she left the house through the front door. It was dusk and bats were already spinning about the darkening sky as the sun plummeted towards the horizon and starlings squabbled noisily in the stand of Spanish oaks at the end of the drive.
‘Come on, Buster, let’s go for a walk.’ Meg walked slowly towards the pleasure gardens and the lake. The scent of roses and mock orange blossom filled the air. A soft breeze rippled the water, which seemed to boil mysteriously in the last feeble rays of the setting sun. Buster snuffled about amongst the reeds, startling a family of ducks that had settled down to roost, and their agitated quacking echoed across the water, shattering the eerie stillness. Meg turned as she heard footsteps approaching and was barely surprised to see Gerald striding towards her. The whole day had been strange, with a surreal quality that made her wonder for a moment if it was a dream and at any moment she might wake up and discover that things had returned to normal.
‘I’ve been looking for you,’ Gerald said breathlessly. ‘My dad’s still a bit upset with me so I’ve left him to tell Mum that I’m home.’
‘But you will leave tomorrow? You must.’
‘I will, but I’m still glad I came.’
She was silent for a moment. He was standing so close to her that she could feel the heat from his body. She did not pull away when he curled his fingers around her hand. Buster took a sudden dive into the water just a few feet away from them and emerged carrying a stick, which he dropped at Gerald’s feet, grinning up at him and wagging his tail.
‘Good boy.’ Gerald patted the dog’s head. ‘Dad told me you rescued a lot of livestock, including dogs. I suppose this is one of them.’
‘I couldn’t leave them to starve or wait for some government official to decide their fate.’ She smiled and squeezed his hand. Suddenly it felt good to have someone who understood and approved of her actions. Gerald moved closer and as their eyes met, Meg felt the tug of desire. She closed her eyes, parting her lips as his mouth seized hers in hard, greedy kisses that rendered her breathless.
‘Meg, I love you. I really do love you.’ His dark eyes reflected the fiery afterglow of the sunset and Meg felt she was drowning in their depths. There was no mistaking his sincerity. An odd detached part of her mind thought of Rayner, whose thoughts she could not even begin to guess. He had been a thrilling enigma but he had gone away and she would probably never see him again. The romantic dreams that she had built up suddenly burst like a soap bubble and vanished into the encroaching dusk. She could not tell if it was love she felt for Gerald but tomorrow he too would be going away. She could feel the intensity of his emotion overriding her doubts and scruples.
‘Meg, do you love me?’ He kissed her again, this time with mounting desire. ‘Say you do, please.’
She drew away in an attempt to catch her breath and gather her scattered thoughts. ‘I’m not sure. I can’t think straight when you do that.’
He looked deeply into her eyes. ‘Say you love me, Meg. I’ll be leaving in the morning, and this might be the last time I ever see you. Tell me you love me. Just say it once and I’ll carry it with me forever.’
Waking early next morning, Meg knew that she would never forgive herself if she did not make the effort to see Gerald off. She was tiptoeing across the entrance hall hoping to leave the house without being seen when her father emerged from his study, briefcase in hand.
‘You look like a sneak thief caught in the act, Meg. Where are you going this early in the morning?’
She hesitated, twisting a strand of hair round her fingers. ‘For a walk.’
‘You can’t fool me that easily. You look just as you did when you were little and you’d done something really naughty.’
‘It’s Gerald, Pa. He came home to see his parents and he’s leaving this morning for the mainland. I was just going to see him off.’
‘The damned young idiot!’ Charles strode to the hallstand and picked up his hat. ‘What on earth was he thinking of? If he doesn’t get on one of the boats he’ll be in serious trouble.’ He opened the front door. ‘I’m picking up Eric on my way to the courthouse. I’ll make sure the young fool gets away safely.’
Meg followed him out to the car. ‘I’m coming too.’
*
Charles swung the big car easily round the tight be
nd into Havelet and up the winding street into Hauteville; a narrow canyon between tall terraced houses. The street was silent and deserted, and it felt to Meg as though the whole town had taken flight.
‘Wait here,’ Charles said, as he drew up outside the LeFevres’ house. He stepped out onto the pavement and went to hammer on the brass doorknocker.
Peering out of the window, Meg saw that it was Eric who opened the door, and she was alarmed by his appearance. His face was ashen and dark circles underlined his eyes. He looked like a man who had had very little sleep. She could not hear what was being said but Pa must have put forward a strong case as Eric disappeared into the house, returning moments later with Gerald.
‘You don’t look too good, old chap,’ Charles said, as Eric stepped forward to open the passenger door.
‘I’m fine, sir. Had a bit of a bad night, that’s all. Indigestion, you know, but I feel a bit better now.’
Gerald had climbed in beside Meg, reaching out surreptitiously to hold her hand. His smile was heartfelt and she squeezed his fingers.
‘Drop me off at the States offices,’ Charles said, as Eric urged the Bentley forward. ‘You’d better take young Gerald to the harbour and make sure he gets on one of the boats.’
‘Yes, sir. Thank you.’
It was a short drive to the courthouse, and as the car slid to a halt Charles laid his hand on Eric’s sleeve. ‘Don’t hang about, Eric. See the boy off and then I suggest you get yourself checked over by a doctor.’ He glanced over his shoulder. ‘Good luck, Gerald. Don’t take any unnecessary chances. We don’t want a dead hero.’ He climbed out of the car, closing the door with a thud and motioning Eric to drive on.
The streets closest to the harbour were blocked with abandoned vehicles and Eric had to make several detours before they could get anywhere near the White Rock.
‘It looks as if half the island is here,’ Meg said, staring at the mass of people sitting on the ground, standing in family groups, leaning against walls or huddled together as they waited for a chance to board a ship bound for England. Several small vessels, packed with human cargo, were already edging their way out of the harbour and Meg could see the funnels of a larger boat waiting to come in. There was a flurry of activity as the word passed round the anxious evacuees.
