Redemption - Leon Uris [336]
“I love you that way, too, Caroline.”
“It can’t be wrong then. I see Chris coming down off his high horse and Jeremy rising to manhood, and you are the two of them wrapped into one. Are you going to make me a grandmother, are you?” and she wept unabashedly. “You might have gotten killed too.”
“No way I was going to leave you alone. You hurting over last night?”
“It’s all right,” she whispered. “It was the right way to go about it and the right thing to do.”
“Dry your tears, huh…and let’s figure a way out of this mess…let’s see if I can stand.”
He fought to his feet then sank to his knees again. “Can you drive the car in?”
“No, the path is too narrow. I’ve a large-wheeled pushcart.”
“I’m too heavy for you to handle, darling. Here’s what we’ll do. You pack and clear out and tie the ribbon on the gate. When you’re clear, there’s a pair of Brotherhood lads in the duck blind nearby. They’ll see the ribbon and come and tidy up, deal with me, and remove the body.”
“I’m not leaving you,” she said.
“They’ll see your face.”
“I’m not leaving you,” she repeated.
“I think it’s quite safe. Only other men I saw in Ballyutogue were these two, Boyd McCracken and his son, Barry. Boyd was with Conor at Lettershambo.”
“I trust them,” she said without hesitation.
“Then get them in here.”
In ten minutes Boyd and Barry were in the lodge and sized up the situation. Rory was made comfortable on a makeshift bed on the rear seat. Every constable and soldier knew Countess Hubble and would pass her through automatically.
Caroline hugged Boyd and his son with compassion and affection they would remember all their days. They started her car and moved back to the lodge to clean things up and remove Brodhead’s body.
“Here’s what we do,” Rory said. “Full syringe of morphine. Every twenty minutes stop and see if my pulse and heart are steady. If I begin to lose pulse, there’s a couple vials of smelling salts to pick up the old heartbeat…. Use back roads around Derry to clear it…then find a telephone…Atty is waiting in a safe house in Belfast…. She’s to give you the name of a safe doctor as soon past Derry as possible. I can’t make it all the way to Belfast.”
She gave him the shot, tucked him in, and kissed his cheek. As his eyes fluttered shut she said, “Don’t worry, son, I’ll bring you through.”
90
“My dear, dear, dear Caroline,” Churchill said, leaping from behind his desk, holding her hand and kissing it. He took a look at her from arm’s length and his eyes misted up. “It’s been so long since you were in London. How is Sir Frederick?”
“About the same. Unfortunately he is a cat who has used up eight and a half of his lives. You, dear Winston, are only making your third comeback.”
“Minister for Munitions isn’t exactly First Lord of the Admiralty, but I feel I have a use and even perhaps a future.”
“And I predict that your future will make your failures very small potatoes.”
“Dear Caroline, loyal comrade. Your affection and support have been a pillar of my strength. You know, I still feel faulty in your presence.”
“Quite honestly, Clementine has told me how you have suffered over our losses at Gallipoli.”
“She shouldn’t have. I don’t believe in public displays of grief.”
“You have suffered,” she said.
“I’m doing my all to mold my agony into a determination to make something of my life that will make those wrongs palatable. I cannot still my prodigious will to be a leader. I may not be able to come to peace with the reality that my hold over the life and death of others must always be a part of it.”
When they were seated, Winston saw that Caroline bore her look of unusual power that spelled a conversation demanding absolute candor.
“We are going to have to talk about Gallipoli and some other unpleasant matters, and I am going to do most of the talking.”
“In that case, I’ll do most of the listening,” he said.
“I have analyzed the Commission of Inquiry reports and your own testimony, syllable by syllable. You were the