We Shall Not Sleep_ A Novel - Anne Perry [108]
Culshaw’s face was very pale, the lines of exhaustion deep in his skin. “I never saw it like that.”
“How did you see it?” Joseph had asked him.
Culshaw’s eyes were wide. “He didn’t do that!” he breathed out. “I swear! Jesus, do you think I’d have covered for him if he had? He skewered that German officer’s foot, and he’d have beaten the hell out of any of the other prisoners, if we’d let him, but he never touched Sarah Price. You have to believe me!”
“I don’t have to,” Joseph told him, disgust filling his mind at the senseless violence toward men already beaten by violence and shame.
“But it’s the truth!” Culshaw protested desperately.
“Yes,” Joseph conceded. “I daresay it is.”
Judith was thinking of the same things, but she at least faced the practical questions she had been wishing she could avoid. Material proof would have been so much easier, less viciously painful, but perhaps in the end it was always going to have come to this. She could not expect Joseph to do it, or Matthew, for that matter.
Now it could wait no longer. She told Wil she would be gone for a while but gave him no other explanation.
She found Lizzie helping Allie Robinson. They were preparing some of the more seriously wounded for evacuation. There was an almost euphoric sense of release now that the station was open again at least in part; and men could leave. It was as if a long paralysis were ended.
“Lizzie, I need to speak to you,” she said quietly. “Sorry, but it’s urgent.”
Allie looked at her sharply. “When this is finished, Miss Reavley,” she said with a certain coolness. There was a warning in her eyes and her manner. Judith was overstepping her authority.
“It’s urgent,” Judith repeated. “I’m sorry, but there’s no time to wait.”
Allie stiffened. “If you have wounded, Miss Reavley, then you need either an orderly to help you or a doctor. You do not need Mrs. Blaine, who is already occupied here.”
Judith’s emotions were raw with loathing of what she had to do. She felt guilty because of the pain she knew she was going to cause, and afraid Lizzie would hate her for it. Allie was a nuisance she had not foreseen, and the irritation of it scraped her raw, but if she lost her temper it would only make it all the more difficult, especially for Lizzie.
“I don’t have wounded,” she replied as civilly as she could, but her voice had an edge to it and she could hear it herself.
“I thought not.” Allie smiled bleakly. “Then you will have to wait.”
Judith took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It can’t wait, Allie. It’s important.”
Allie’s eyebrows rose. “To whom, Miss Reavley? To you?” The use of her name was a rebuke, and her face had no warmth in it, no possibility of yielding.
“It’s not your concern, Miss Robinson, but if you force the issue, then it is important to Major Onslow of the military police. It is a matter of information that obviously I cannot discuss.” It was no more than half a lie.
Anger flared in Allie’s eyes. “Then why did you not say so in the first place?” she asked angrily. “Just because you drive an ambulance around like a man does not give you the right to come in here giving orders. You forget yourself. You are going to find it extremely difficult after the war when you’re not needed anymore. You would be wise to learn how to behave like a woman again. You’re in danger of becoming a complete misfit, unwanted by men and an embarrassment to women.”
Judith was stunned. The fury in Allie’s manner had taken her completely by surprise. Was it her own fear speaking? Surely not. There were going to be years of skilled nursing ahead; peace would not affect that.
“Well, if it’s so urgent, get on with it!” Allie snapped. “Experience your authority. You won’t have it much longer.”
Judith bit back her retaliation and turned to Lizzie. They went out together, Lizzie looking anxious and unhappy.
As soon as they were beyond the Evacuation tent and in the open, the day bright and cold with frost in the wind, Lizzie spoke again.
“Does