Hope - Lesley Pearse [228]
One called out, asking if she’d lost her way.
‘No, just resting after the climb,’ she called back. She got up and walked towards them to explain she was going to find her husband.
‘Keep over that way,’ the taller of the two men said, pointing in the direction of the sea, where she could see tents and huts in the distance. ‘If you stay on this path you’ll come to the trenches and that could be dangerous.’
Hope set off in the direction they’d advised, but as she drew nearer to the camp she became confused. Nothing looked the way it had when she’d last come up here with Bennett.
It had of course been a grey day in winter then, and there had been only a sea of mud and tents. She couldn’t get her bearings now for the sun made everything look different, and with all the new huts, and even some patchy grass growing back, she didn’t recognize anything. As she recalled it, the hospital marquee had stood out from everything else, and it had not been far from the trenches. Surely when they replaced it with a hut, they would have put it in the same spot or very nearby?
She wished she’d told those soldiers who her husband was, and which regiment he was with, then maybe they’d have been able to direct her straight to him. Her feet were throbbing from the long walk, her arm was aching from her heavy bag, and she didn’t want to walk right down to the end of camp, only to have to turn and go back again.
Standing for a moment and shielding her eyes from the sun, she studied the layout of the camp. To her far left were the Russian defences – every now and then a volley of gunfire came from there, and the wisps of smoke hung in the early morning air. Much nearer, still on her left, were the British trenches, not that she could see much more than mounds of earth from where she stood. She wasn’t even sure if they were manned because she couldn’t see anyone and no one was answering the Russian fire.
Nearer still there were tents, huts and a great many men, carts, horses and mules. One of the huts was larger than all the others, and she thought that maybe the carts were being loaded with wounded to take down to the base hospital.
To her right was the rest of the camp, extending right over to the French camp, where heavy gunfire was taking place.
But straight ahead of her was a large open area with a flagpole which she had no memory of seeing before. She was sure that if Bennett had taken her across that to the field hospital, she would recall it.
So she turned to her left, making straight for the biggest hut. It wasn’t until she was near the first row of tents that she saw how close they were together, guy ropes and pegs making an obstacle course she couldn’t get through. She managed to find a way through in one place, then found herself in another rowjust the same, and then another. There were no men here, nothing but tents and more tents, and she couldn’t see the hut she wanted to reach any more for she was lower down.
Just as she was beginning to despair of ever leaving this maze, she slipped between two tents and found herself on a path with nothing ahead but the trenches. Some soldiers moving a gun on its carriage were 300 yards further down and she began to walk towards them.
Suddenly she heard someone yell, ‘Mrs Meadows!’ from behind her. Wheeling around, she saw Robbie, Queenie’s husband, with a group of other riflemen she recognized.
It was good to see friendly faces, and she stood still, waiting for them to reach her. Suddenly a burst of gunfire came from the Russian lines. The men dived for cover, but to her shock she saw Robbie reel back, dropping his rifle and clutching at his thigh.
She had never seen anyone shot before, and for a second didn’t realize that was what had happened, not until he fell to the ground.
The other riflemen immediately began firing back at the Russians. But Hope could see to her horror that Robbie was right in the line of enemy fire. She could see blood spurting out on to the ground beside him as he tried to scrabble along the ground to get