In Distant Fields

by Charlotte Bingham

  ‘What on earth Mamma wants with a gun and bullets I do not know,’ Partita said to Kitty as they waited in the carriage outside the family gunsmiths. ‘She has a small army at Bauders to defend her, and I don’t think she has ever fired a shot from a gun in her life.’

  ‘It’s all this talk of invasion, Tita,’ Kitty replied. ‘I’m sure it’s all an exaggeration, the way newspapers always seem to exaggerate things, but they do recommend that wherever possible people should be ready to defend themselves, just in case.’

  Partita shuddered. ‘Imagine. Some horrid Hun rushing up the drive intent on raping us all. Imagine.’

  ‘There would possibly be more than one, Tita,’ Kitty smiled. ‘Certainly if there was only one I don’t think he’d have much chance of success.’

  ‘Do you want me to shoot you if you’re in that sort of danger, Kitty? Because I most certainly want you to give me the bullet if that sort of thing looks like happening.’

  ‘It won’t, Tita.’

  ‘Just in case it does, promise me?’

  Kitty looked at her friend and took her hand. ‘It won’t happen, Partita, it really won’t.’

  ‘If you won’t shoot me, I shall shoot myself. I shall shoot both of us. Or I shall drown myself in the lake. I am not letting any Hun near me.’

  Circe arrived back and climbed into the carriage.

  ‘We have just decided to shoot ourselves if the enemy get to Bauders, Mamma,’ Partita said. ‘No Hun is ever going to lay a hand on any of us.’

  ‘I dare say we shall leave all the shooting to the men, dearest,’ Circe said.

  ‘You’ve just been to get yourself a gun.’

  ‘A four ten, Tita. On your father’s orders. He says if there’s to be a food shortage and we’re short of men at Bauders, I must learn to shoot rabbits. Talking of which – your father, I mean – we spoke by telephone this morning and he has given his consent to James and Allegra to marry by special licence. I just hope they can arrange it before James goes off to France, but since he has already joined up I somehow doubt it.’

  ‘How do you know he will be called to France, Duchess?’ Kitty enquired. ‘Isn’t the war to be fought in Belgium?’

  ‘Not according to the Duke, Kitty,’ Circe replied. ‘He doubts whether Liège will hold since apparently the Belgians are hopelessly out-numbered twenty-five thousand to one hundred thousand. As my husband always says, it isn’t the best side that wins wars, just the one with the most soldiers.’

  ‘But, Mamma—’ Partita began.

  ‘No more, Partita dearest. Let us just enjoy this little bit of peace while we may.’

  ‘I thought it was all going to be over in a week, Mamma?’

  ‘And so it might still be, lovey. We’ve only been at war for two days.’

  A shock awaited Circe when she returned to Knowle House that morning where she learned from Kelly, the under-butler, that Weigel, her London maid, had met with some trouble.

  ‘What happened to you, Weigel?’ she enquired with great concern when her maid finally appeared in the drawing room, with cuts to her cheeks and a badly swollen eye. ‘Who did this to you? How did this happen?’

  ‘I vos in ze market for Your Grace’s usual tasties from ze continental bakery – ze vuns zat you enjoy so greatly – and zis happen me! Zey throw zings at me. Zey call me all zese terrible names. Ze same peoples I have been meeting vith for years.’

  ‘But this is terrible, Weigel,’ Circe said, sitting her maid down. ‘Simply unforgiveable.’

  ‘Filsy Hun, they calls me,’ Weigel sighed. ‘Go back to your filsy country, zey say. A woman hit me mit her fist. So.’ Weigel clenched her own hand and held it up in demonstration.

  ‘You can’t stay here in that case, Weigel,’ Circe decided. ‘If this is the way things are to be, then you must come up to Bauders.’

  ‘Perhaps in truth I should go back to Germany, Your Grace. Perhaps zis would be ze best for us all, I am thinking.’

  ‘That is entirely up to you, Weigel. If that is what you want to do then that is what you must do. On the other hand, if you wish to stay here then I insist you come with us to Bauders. I don’t imagine for a moment the Duke will be keeping Knowle House as a private residence if the war is protracted, so if you don’t return to Germany then you will have to come to Bauders anyway.’

  ‘You are most kind, Your Grace,’ Weigel replied. ‘I must suppose ze same sing is happening in Germany to any English zat are zere.’

  ‘I’m dreadfully afraid it might be, Weigel. Once peace is gone and war has broken out, then we must expect a lot of visits from the Lord of Misrule.’

  Perhaps because she had been in England since she was a girl, Weigel decided not to return home to Germany, but to accept the Duchess’s invitation, after which Circe prepared to leave London, only to find matters such as keeping a German as a maid were not as easy as she had thought.

  ‘You won’t be allowed to bring Weigel here, Circe dearest. She is due to be interned, as a foreign national.’

  ‘I’ve never heard such a thing – where did you hear that, John?’ Circe stared at the Duke.

  ‘Friend from the FO, my dear.’ Despite frequent reminders that it was not necessary, John was in the habit of shouting down the telephone. ‘Tom Bailey told me at the club yesterday. All German nationals will be interned, no matter what. They’ve already uncovered half a dozen or so spies – stealing military secrets, that sort of thing.’

  ‘Yes, but not Weigel, John. She wouldn’t even steal a recipe.’

  ‘Of course I’m sure you’re right, my dear. But don’t you see this is war now, and the rules of engagement make everything entirely different from how it was before. Nothing to be done.’

  Circe was furious. Weigel had been with her since before her marriage, and a more faithful, kind, sweet-natured and diligent woman would be hard to find. Yet Circe knew there was nothing she could do about it, although she blamed herself for what was about to befall her maid; Weigel had stayed in London because of Circe and now it seemed she was to be interned for her loyalty.

  But that was not the only upset Circe was to experience before she finally left for Bauders. Allegra was waiting for her when she returned from the telephone room, pacing in a state of visible agitation.

  ‘Mamma,’ Allegra began, not knowing or even seeming to care whether or not this was a good time, ‘I am not coming back to Bauders with you all. I’ve made my mind up, so there is little use in protesting or trying to dissuade me because my mind is quite firmly made up. I’m going to stay here in London and learn how to nurse. Properly, I mean. I’m enrolling at the London Hospital, and while James is abroad I shall learn how to be a nurse in case they’re going to need nurses – which, according to everyone to whom I have already spoken, is almost certainly going to be the case.’

  Circe nodded, took Allegra’s hand, and sat her down beside her on the sofa.

  ‘Far from opposing the idea, I completely embrace it,’ Circe said. ‘I think that is a very positive idea indeed, believe me. Did I not say last night that we must all play our part? So what is this but playing a very big part? Of course you must do this – and I know Papa will understand and agree with me.’

  ‘Oh, thank you, Mamma!’ Allegra exclaimed, hugging her mother. ‘I really thought you would forbid it!’

  ‘Perhaps if it had been Partita I might have had second thoughts, but not you. But you must take care. There are all sorts of forecasts being made – about what might happen in London, above all from the Zeppelins. Whatever you do, you must learn to keep a weather eye on the skies. Not that I think the Kaiser will allow his army to bomb innocent citizens, not if he is as civilised as he claims. But even so, you must promise always to be on your guard.’

  ‘Of course I will, Mamma. I promise.’

  ‘I don’t believe for one moment the Kaiser would allow such a thing,’ Circe said again. ‘It’s not the sort of thing a gentleman could possibly condone, least of all someone who prides h
imself on being an aristocrat.’

  But Allegra was not listening. All she was thinking about was that by staying in London she would be nearer to her beloved James when he came home, which of course she was certain that he would.

  Chapter Ten

  Goodbye to So Much

  Harry, having learned of the family’s return from London, took it upon himself to be particularly visible in the hope one of the younger members of the family might see him and bring him up to date. Of course he had to be tactful, for despite the fact that he had been born and raised on the Bauders estate, he still felt shy of simply presenting himself at the house. No matter that he had been in The Pirates of Penzance and had been to Waterside House for the holiday, rather than foist himself on the members of the family, especially the young women, Harry much preferred to be invited. So it was that as he busied himself in the stills room, where the Duchess had famously removed the shot from the beater’s backside, Kitty came across him shortly after the family’s return.

  ‘Harry? Goodness, how delightful to see you.’ Kitty stopped. ‘What a stupid thing to say, why wouldn’t I see you? I don’t know why but just at this minute I hardly expect to see anyone of our age at all, everything being so awfully topsyturvy.’

  Not unnaturally, the ensuing talk was mostly of the war, once the social niceties had been observed. Harry was intrigued to learn of Partita’s excitement over the declaration of war, and the scenes of jubilation that followed the announcement when they were at the theatre.

  ‘People become so excited by war; they always have,’ he said, not looking at Kitty in case she felt quite the same sense of euphoria.

  ‘I hardly dare say it,’ Kitty confessed, ‘but I feel nothing but a sense of awful dread, quite different from everyone else. It’s not that I’m not patriotic, because I am, but I keep remembering Waterloo, and – and, well, you know, battles like that. They were not very pleasant.’

  ‘At the famous ball before the battle, the young men drank lemonade.’ Harry turned and gave Kitty a rueful look. ‘It doesn’t bear thinking about, does it? Going into battle against the French with nothing to give you Dutch courage except lemonade.’

  ‘I don’t suppose the French were asked to muster a fighting spirit on lemonade. I expect Napoleon brandy was their refreshment. You know Almeric, James – oh, and Gussie – have joined up? Almeric has rejoined his regiment, and the others have volunteered.’

  ‘My father is set against me volunteering,’ Harry said as, having finished in the stills room, they went outside to sit on a still unrepaired part of the wall, where a few of the estate gardeners were now hard at work, starting to create the Duchess’s new garden. ‘I suppose my father’s stance is perfectly understandable, what with him being alone in the world except for me as family. Not that he hasn’t his other family here at Bauders, with all the servants and everyone. But I’m my father’s future and I don’t think he can see beyond that. Much as he loves working here, he doesn’t want me to follow in his footsteps—’

  ‘I can understand that – sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.’

  ‘That’s perfectly all right.’ Harry paused, and smiled. ‘I don’t mind.’

  ‘I was just going to say that obviously things never stay the same, and even if there hadn’t been a war, one can sense there are changes in the air already,’ Kitty finished.

  ‘It’s got a lot to do with this government, obviously,’ Harry said, nodding his agreement. ‘You can sense they want to cut everyone down to size, to level things off as it were, and if that’s the case, then all this’ – Harry gestured around them – ‘will be very different, and we have to imagine an awful lot of changes around here, nothing quite the same.’

  ‘And particularly now we’re at war, Harry. The men were all saying at dinner the other night – and this was before war had actually been declared – that there would be changes coming, social changes – that they had to happen.’

  ‘Yes, but that was because everyone knew there was going to be a war, Kitty.’

  ‘Just as much as everyone hoped there wouldn’t be.’

  ‘I don’t know about that. You should have heard some of the talk round here. People were getting pretty shirty about the government because everyone had sort of got to thinking that Asquith wouldn’t fight – that he wouldn’t go to Belgium’s aid, and France’s. You get the feeling that when we’re at peace, all an awful lot of people are waiting for is the chance for another war, for all sorts of reasons.’

  ‘As long as they don’t have to fight it. One does notice really that most of this belligerence comes from the older people who know they won’t be the ones shouldering arms.’

  Harry turned and looked at Kitty, appreciating as he always did the brightness of her mind and the economy of her thought. Kitty caught the look and smiled at him, something she had not intended to do.

  ‘Come on,’ he said, suddenly dropping his gaze and hopping down off the wall. ‘Let’s go and walk by the lake, and imagine it’s all frozen over again as it was at Christmas.’

  Kitty knew she should be doing busy things, but instead she found herself walking side by side with Harry along the path through the ancient bluebell woods and on towards the lake where only a few months before they had all been skating.

  ‘Anyway, to return to the subject in hand,’ Harry was saying, pretending not to mind that she had politely refused the offer of his arm. ‘My father says that if I am to join up then I should only do so when there really is no danger whatsoever. So I suggested that perhaps I should volunteer after the war is over, that that would be the best time,’ he joked.

  ‘So what are you going to do, Harry?’ Kitty wondered, her heart growing heavy since she already knew the answer. Much as she disliked the thought, she knew that any young man of merit and virtue had no alternative but to join up. It was called duty. Yet Kitty knew it was something more than that. People could not be, and were not, simply dutiful, not when the cause was wrong or unjust. But when the cause was right and proper, young men were willing to sacrifice their lives in order to save the lives of others. It might be imagined that it is a very beautiful and proper thing to die for one’s country, but what men really died for was other men, for everyone they knew and loved, and since she also knew Harry, she was less than surprised by what he said next.

  ‘I’m going to join Al’s regiment,’ Harry told her. ‘Al said he’ll look after us all and that there actually is less chance of something happening to all of us if we’re in the same regiment, and we’ll have a hell of a party.’

  ‘Is this something you intend to do soon?’

  ‘I’m going to see the recruiting officer tomorrow.

  Al has already put a word in for me, so that’s that, really. Anyway, from what I gather from the news, the Germans are not finding it as easy as they hoped. Liège still holds – in fact my father told me word has it that twenty-five thousand Germans have fallen there.’

  ‘That is awful,’ Kitty said quietly. ‘Twenty-five thousand … I know they’re the enemy, but twenty-five thousand …’

  ‘They want a truce so they can bury their dead, but it’s not been granted, which is despicable.’

  ‘What nation can sustain losses like that? Twenty-five thousand – in just one siege.’

  ‘I don’t think any nation can, Kitty,’ Harry said, skimming a flat stone skilfully across the placid waters of the lake. ‘Then two German warships more or less committed suicide by leaving neutral waters with us in full pursuit. They chose to go down with all guns blazing, apparently, rather than surrender. After which there’s a very big rumour that Japan are about to come in on our side, so really perhaps this is the best time for me to join up!’

  Harry laughed and threw some more stones across the lake, handing Kitty some for her to try her hand. But Kitty declined, standing instead by the water’s edge and imagining it to be the sea.

  The following day Harry took himself off into town in the hope of enlisting in Almer
ic’s regiment, his application being considered by a stern recruiting officer whom he considered to be about the same age as his father.

  ‘Wrong regiment, son,’ the officer said when he was halfway through taking Harry’s particulars. ‘No can do.’

  ‘It’s the right regiment, sir, if you’ll excuse me,’ Harry replied politely, his natural good manners sharpened into deference by the smartness of the man’s uniform and general demeanour. ‘I’m absolutely sure of it, sir.’

  ‘You might be sure of it, son, just as sure as I am that it is not the right one.’

  The recruiting officer put an end to the matter as far as he was concerned by defacing Harry’s application with a huge pencilled X.

  ‘I don’t understand, sir,’ Harry said. ‘Is there something wrong with my – my credentials?’

  ‘You could say that, son, although if it was up to me I’d have you in like a shot. A likely lad such as you, just the ticket for the army – but not this regiment I am very much afraid.’

  ‘But – but I have a personal recommendation, sir, from one of the regiment’s officers. The Duke of Eden’s son, Lord Almeric Knowle, he’s a friend, and it was he who said I should apply.’

  ‘Very impressive too, son, but, with all respect, your friend the marquis, or whoever, should pay attention to the regimental mandate. Were he to do so, son, he would discover that you do not qualify for the regiment.’

  ‘I don’t qualify?’ Harry looked at the hardened old recruiting officer. ‘Then tell me what I have to do to qualify, sir, and I’ll set about it at once.’

  ‘Very well, son. If you want to qualify for your friend’s regiment, you will have to go back to school.’

  ‘What? I need – what? – I need better examination results, do you mean?’

  ‘I mean nothing of the sort, son. I mean you will need to go back to school but not only will you need to go back to school, you will need to go to a different school. A school as itemised and delineated here in the regimental mandate.’ The recruiting officer opened a handbook at the relevant page and handed it to Harry. ‘The regiment does not admit young men what have been to a grammar school, son.’