Under the July Sun Read online

  It infuriated Cat how Lize had begun to laugh at her funny little ways, as she termed it. They were small things initially; such as Cat ironing the handkerchiefs in triangles rather than squares. But now it was harder to tolerate, as Lize’s laughter had turned to open derision and hostility on occasions.

  Lize had recently forbidden Cat to light a fire in her bedroom, because she said she could not afford to heat it as well as her own and the children’s. It left Cat in no doubt that it was time to go.

  So Cat had written to her sister Ellie before Christmas and asked her to join her in England, saying there was work for her and definite accommodation for them both through her job. She thought it would do Ellie good to have a change of scene since hearing her fiancé Jimmy had been killed in France.

  Ellie’s reply had arrived the day before Christmas Eve and Cat was delighted to read she would be arriving at the beginning of January. Thrilled with the knowledge that the end of living with Lize was in sight, Cat felt she could tolerate just one more week.

  It was very cold in the bedroom, so by the light of a candle, she undressed quickly and climbed into bed, the cold air pinching her skin. The bed linen felt icy, and though she had bought herself some socks, Cat shivered violently between the cold cotton sheets. She held her rosary between her fingers and began to say a Hail Mary, but not able to concentrate, her mind drifted to her impending move.

  Once I move into my own place, she thought, I’m gonna have a fire warmin’ me backside every night, if it’s the last thing I do.

  She sat up and blew the candle out; but as she lay in the darkness her thoughts turned to Louis. It had been some time now since he had written and she wondered whether he had lost interest in her or perhaps found someone else to write to. She was bewildered as initially he had been very enthusiastic about receiving her letters; but he had not answered her last three. Cat saw his letters to Lize arrive, so knew he couldn’t be wounded.

  A few days ago Cat had asked Lize if Louis mentioned her in his letters and she had seemed surprised by the question.

  ‘Oh no, but then he wouldn’t would he? He’s probably got himself a nice little French girl,’ she had laughed ‘you know what men are. Fickle, the lot of them!’

  As she lay turning the thoughts over in her mind she could not help feeling depressed. It did seem as though Louis had forgotten her. Now she only had to pluck up the courage to tell Lize the next day that she was going and she would be able to put it all behind her.

  Cat decided to write to Louis once more when she had moved, and if he didn’t reply she told herself their relationship would have finished before it had even begun.

  13

  Plumstead

  January 1915

  Ellie was due to arrive the following day and Cat was moving out. The only problem was she hadn’t yet told Lize! Not that it would come as that much of a surprise, she decided, because Lize had made her feel very uncomfortable for some time.

  Cat was thrilled her application for a house through her job had been approved; but now it was imperative that she break the news to Lize.

  She put Lize’s breakfast tray on the kitchen table and arranged fingers of bread on a plate beside the eggcup. When the egg was boiled she made the tea and took it up to Lize who was having a lie in. She tapped on the bedroom door.

  ‘Come in.’ Lize called and Cat bustled in with her tray.

  ‘Mornin’ Lize I’ve done yer egg and will bring up some toast right away. Now is there anythin’ else ye need?’

  ‘No, thank you. This looks fine,’ she said cracking open the egg. ‘Has the post come yet?’

  ‘Yes, and there’s a letter for me from Louis.’ Cat beamed at her and patted her apron pocket. ‘Oh and one for ye too,’ she added handing an envelope to Lize. Then she disappeared as fast as she could downstairs grinning to herself.

  She was going to take possession of her new house today and knew she had to tell Lize today. She resolved to do this when she took her up another cup of tea.

  While the kettle was re-boiling she stood nervously in the kitchen trying to pluck up the courage to go upstairs again. She willed it not to boil too quickly as she wanted more time to plan her speech to Lize but within seconds the kettle was puffing hot steam from the spout, so she spooned more tea into the pot and topped it up with water. Before taking it upstairs she sat down at the table to read the letter.

  She was surprised to find he was disappointed she had not replied to his last few letters and this puzzled her. She folded up the letter and put it in her pocket, poured Lize’s second cup of tea and took it up to her. She knocked on the bedroom door.

  ‘Come in,’ Lize called, ‘are the children up yet?’

  ‘Yes, Reggie’s already gone out with that boy Rodney, and Iris has gone to see yer mother.’

  Lize looked relieved and settled back to drink her second cup of tea whilst reading a book.

  ‘Lize,’ Cat began, ‘there’s somethin’ I’d like to tell ye.’

  Lize looked up surprised. She waited for Cat to continue.

  ‘Lize, I’ll be movin’ out now to be livin’ with me sister, Ellie. Her fiancée was killed in France, so she’s comin’ over to join me, an’ I’ve been offered accommodation through work. There’s a development of hutments, and I’m to get one.’

  There, she thought, I’ve said it. She waited for Lize’s reaction. For a few moments there was silence until Lize put down her book and turned her face to look at Cat.

  ‘Well that’s fine actually, Cat. I had already decided to change my shift to daytime. Night duties just don’t work for me. I can’t sleep in daylight and I’m just worn out not getting my rest.’ She sipped her tea and began to hum.

  ‘So that’s all right wit’ ye then?’ Cat asked, hoping for some pleading on Lize’s behalf to show she cared and had appreciated having her help the past few months.

  Lize smiled. ‘Yes, Cat. It is.’ She picked up a book again and began to read.

  Deflated that Lize had not shown an iota of concern at her departure, Cat turned and went downstairs.

  14

  Paddington Station

  January 1915

  Waiting on the platform at Paddington Station, Cat could barely contain her excitement. As the swarm of people streamed off the boat train from Fishguard, she searched their faces for her sister’s. Then she saw Ellie, with her unmistakable halo of unruly auburn hair standing on the platform looking around her. She called to her but her voice was drowned by the general babble of people; so she elbowed her way through the crowds until she was standing behind her.

  She tapped Ellie on the shoulder, expecting to see the familiar dancing green eyes and sprinkling of freckles on her milk-white skin, but when Ellie turned, Cat gasped at the alteration in her face. Her skin looked grey and she had lost a lot of weight. She seemed to have shrunk, leaving her skin hanging emptily on her bony frame.

  Ellie threw her arms around Cat’s neck and sobbed.

  ‘There, there, mo chuisle,’ Cat said, stroking her hair. ‘everythin’ will be fine now. Ye’ll see.’ She dried Ellie’s eyes with her handkerchief. ‘God has a funny way of workin’. Jimmy was a good man and God’s taken him. God rest his soul.’

  ‘Amen,’ Ellie whispered.

  ‘I know he’ll be sittin’ up there in Heaven now on the right hand of God,’ Cat said, then lifted Ellie’s bag, but immediately dropped it. ‘God in Heaven Ellie, what have ye altogether in here, house-bricks?’

  ‘I’ve brought all I have Cat. I’m not goin’ back. Not ever. I’m goin’ to work, and do anythin’ the Woolwich Arsenal asks of me, until those rotten Germans are sent packin’.’

  ‘C’mon now, let’s get goin’,’ she said hugging Ellie to her, ‘at least we have each other and we’ve both got work. We can do our bit for the war effort together now. Oh by the Blessed Virgin Mary Ellie, ye don’t know how grand it is to see ye!’

  * * *

  When they reached the development of hutments
in Eltham, Cat stopped outside number 74 Crookston Road. She took a key from her pocket and dangled it in the air.

  ‘This is the one,’ she said going through the gateway, then opened the front door and stood aside to allow Ellie in first.

  Ellie stepped into the small hallway and turned to Cat, ‘Which way now?’

  ‘Turn right’

  Ellie walked into the room and gasped, ‘Is all this ours?’

  ‘Sure! All of it. And there’s more. We’ve three bedrooms and a scullery and out back, our own flushin’ toilet. Isn’t it wonderful? Cat babbled on excitedly. ‘And to think there’s just the two of us here. A bedroom each and our own parlour. C’mon in here and look,’ she said, rushing into a bedroom. ‘Grand isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes ’tis indeed,’ Ellie smiled, ‘’Tis nothin’ short of a miracle, Cat.’ She stood for a little while taking it all in. ‘Now, let’s set about unpacking, I’ve brought some things with me to make it feel like home.’

  Ellie fetched her bag from the hallway, lifted it onto one of the beds and rummaged about between the clothes; then after carefully placing a statue of Our Lady on the mantelpiece, she pulled out something wrapped in muslin and handed it to Cat.

  ‘Mummy made it specially for ye and it comes with her love.’

  Cat unwrapped the bread, closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. It smelled of home and she saw in her mind’s eye Maeve kneading dough, her strong arms up to the elbows in flour. Suddenly her eyes filled with tears and Ellie, seeing she was upset, put her arm around Cat’s shoulders.

  ‘C’mon now, don’t let’s get downhearted. We’re together and ’tis all that matters now isn’t it?’ Ellie looked down then at the bed and changed the subject. ‘One thing, Cat where did ye get the beds from?’

  ‘Ah. Well, Lize had some spare furniture she didn’t need and got someone to bring it over on a cart early today.’

  ‘That was kind.’

  ‘Yes. I had thought she’d be annoyed I was leavin’ ’cos I only told her yesterday, but she didn’t seem to care. Then she offered me some furniture she was glad to be rid of. She surely is a queer one.’

  ‘Ye’re confident that she wasn’t just glad to be rid of ye? Ellie laughed. ‘When I told old Mrs. Connell I was leavin’ The Grange, all she gave me was the benefit of her tongue.’

  Cat grinned. ‘Ye were obviously goin’ to be missed, whereas I clearly was not! C’mon now let’s get the place sorted out.’

  ***

  As darkness fell, Cat lit a fire and they pulled up a couple of boxes in front of it, where they sat chattering over endless cups of tea roasting the fronts of their legs, their skirts pulled up above the ankle.

  ‘D’ya have any candles to light us to bed, Cat?’

  ‘Oh, I can do better than that – I’ve bought an oil lamp. There’s gas laid on, but I’m too scared to light it, so we’ll make do with the oil lamp and cook on the range. ’Tis safer that way otherwise we may blow ourselves sky high.’

  At last having decided they really must get some sleep, the girls undressed and climbed into bed. But they continued calling out to one another until finally they decided it was stupid sleeping in separate rooms. They tugged Ellie’s bed into Cat’s room and gossiped until the watery winter sunlight filtered in between the slit of the bedroom curtains at dawn.

  15

  Fleurbaix, France

  January 1915

  Louis screwed up his eyes, scouring the horizon. For hours there had been no movement from the other side; sniper fire had ceased and in its place an eerie silence hung in the space between his battalion and the enemy.

  Knee-deep in a muddy trench, he eased his weight from one leg to another as he stiffened in the cold. He tried not to move too much as it encouraged little gushes of freezing water to trickle between the stitching of his boots, soaking his socks.

  Soldiers to his left and right puffed hot vapour into the freezing air, giving the only visible signs of their presence above the trench line. It was quiet. Too quiet, he thought, and wondered what the enemy were doing. Somehow it was better to be on the move dodging bullets and running for your life, rather than the unnerving feeling of standing there in silence waiting to kill, or be killed. He found that too often his mind began to wander in moments like this.

  He thought about a letter he had received from Lize. It gave him no pleasure to learn from his sister that he was now a house owner, not when it had been at the expense of young Private White’s life. Lize’s letter explained how Mrs. White had died, and had left Louis the house because of his kindness to her son. Apparently she had nobody else in the world, and having lost her only son had also lost the will to live. She had written her Will, Lize explained, and then had simply slipped away.

  The only feeling Louis had about the inheritance was bewilderment. It did not seem real and he could not summon up any enthusiasm. Standing there amid filth and body parts with rats running over him when he tried to sleep - that was his reality.

  Lize’s letter had depressed him as she had included the fact that she had fallen out with their mother. He wished she had not written and burdened him with the news; it sounded so petty. Family disputes, lovers’ quarrels, world wars, what was the difference he wondered?

  He decided it all amounted to the same thing; the inability of people to listen to one another and work out their differences. It seemed to him people just ran headlong into conflict and he was sick of it all.

  Then another thought crossed his mind. Now that Lize was in what was now ‘his house’, it may not be so easy to ask her to leave if he wished to marry. The thought had bothered him when he first read her letter but other things soon took priority and he knew he could not afford to think about anything - except staying alive for the time being.

  Fighting a war was enough for him to contend with and it was made worse because his heart just wasn’t in it. This was not a fair fight – they were all just cannon fodder.

  As scores of men died, more arrived to take their place. It went on relentlessly. An all-too-familiar wave of depression swept over him; a feeling he knew they all felt increasingly of late.

  Highlights of his life were letters or little gifts from home and he turned his mind to the letter he had received before Christmas from Cat. He pulled the letter from his pocket. It was now quite wrinkled from the many times he had read it.

  The opening of her letter, My Dear Louis, had moved him. He had never received a letter before beginning My Dear. She described her days and how she looked after the children for Lize, who was working in a hospital. He thought she sounded fond of Iris and Reggie. That was nice. He thought they were nice children too.

  In his mind he played games with the children and planned how he would take them to the seaside when he returned, have picnics in the park, play cricket on the common and - suddenly his mind switched back to Cat.

  He recalled her walking towards him in the field that day in Fethard last summer, and felt once more the reaction of his heart quickening as it had when she stood before him laughing. He remembered the top button of her blouse had been undone, and he checked his thoughts, not wishing to sully his memory of her with lewd imaginings.

  He supposed he ‘had a girl’ now, and it felt good. He said to himself, ‘My Dear Louis,’ and decided he liked the sound of it.

  Later, he would write back to her. He folded the letter and slid it back in his tunic pocket and gave it a little pat for reassurance.

  His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the crack of gunfire, and immediately his horse, tethered a short way off, reared up in fright pulling wildly on the bridle. He turned to look and saw blood streaming down the horse’s flank so he quickly crawled out of the trench, and crouching low, worked his way across the clearing. He tried to undo the rope tethering the animal while fighting to keep hold of the bridle but the horse repeatedly reared up onto its hind legs, kicking out in fear.

  Then another round of gunfire followed as a mortar shell exploded illumi
nating the scene. In the instant flash of detonation, black figures silhouetted the skyline and they were cut down by gunfire.

  Louis continued frantically trying to untie his horse as another shell exploded and the terrified, animal reared up, its hooves thrashing wildly. As it rose time and again into the air Louis fought to keep a grip on the reins but the ground was slimy and the animal losing its foothold, slid horizontally and pounded down on top of him.

  Assailed by unimaginable pain in his leg, he only momentarily felt the impact of the horse’s weight before sinking into unconsciousness.

  He was unaware of being pulled away from the horse; or the medic ripping his trousers away from his smashed limb. His leg was tied to a wooden plank wrenched quickly from the trench wall, and he was taken away from the war.

  16

  Royal Herbert Military Hospital

  Woolwich

  January 1915

  The sound of Cat’s heels resonated on the ward’s polished floorboards until she stopped at Louis’ bed where he lay asleep.

  She stood in awe looking at him, noticing something beneath the covers to keep the blankets away from his injured leg and a kidney bowl under his chin containing a little vomit.

  She watched him for a while unwilling to disturb him, but her thoughts and emotions were in turmoil.

  Until then her memory of him had been of a healthy young man with a brilliant smile and strong weather-beaten complexion, but this person looked shrunken beyond belief and his skin looked kind of green. A feeling of immense pity rose inside her and tears pricked her eyes.

  The man in the next bed said, ‘He was in the operating theatre four hours so he won’t wake up today, Missis.’

  Collecting herself, she turned to him. ‘No. I don’t suppose so. I just brought him in some apples, but I’ll leave them on the locker. Perhaps you’ll tell him I came.’

  ‘You his missis?’

  ‘No.’