A Time for Honour

Chapter 17

Early the next morning, when Cassie came into the kitchen, she found Betsy already hard at work. 'Good morning, dearie,' Betsy said as Cassie came through the door, 'I hope you got a little rest after I left you.'

Cassie smiled at Betsy, and said, 'a little. You gave me a lot to think about.'

'Come and have some breakfast,' Betsy said, as she put a loaf of bread on the table, 'you must eat when you can. You never know, at times like these, when or where you'll be able to eat next.'

Cassie was slicing herself some bread when Susie came into the kitchen and sat opposite her. Susie was still a little frightened of Cassie. All the young women at the club had, at one point or another, been the recipient of Cassie's sharp tongue, and Susie had been no exception. 'Would you like some bread?' Cassie said brightly to the young girl as she sat down.

Susie nodded and whispered shyly, keeping her eyes down and staring at her plate, 'thank you.'

Betsy brought a steaming pot of tea to the table and then sat down. 'After breakfast,' Betsy said as she poured three cups of tea, 'we need to make a start, preparing for the next few days. It'll be quiet during the day,' she had said to them authoritatively, 'so this will give us a chance to make a start.'

'What are we preparing for?' Susie had asked curiously in between mouthfuls of bread that she had plastered with butter. At the club, food had been rationed, and Susie had always been hungry. Now, she was in Betsy's care, decent food, and copious amounts of it, were always available, and she always took full advantage of this abundance.

'The injured,' Betsy said softly. 'I know it's quiet out there, but later, when we start to hear the artillery,' Betsy said, with a faraway look in her eye, 'we'll know our boys have begun to fight.' She stopped and looked down at her cup of tea, her eyes full of sorrow, and added, 'come late afternoon, we can expect the first of the wounded to arrive.'

'Wounded?' Susie had said, looking at Betsy with wide eyes, 'But I don't even like the sight of blood. It makes me weak at the knees!'

Betsy smiled at her affectionately and patted her on the back of the hand. 'Yes, my child,' Betsy said quietly, 'there will be many of our men, some with horrific injuries, coming back to us today from the frontline.' Betsy was always very patient with Susie. She desperately wanted Susie to have back a little taste of her childhood that had been cruelly taken away from her by Ellington. It saddened Betsy to think that the young woman, who was still only a child, would have to witness the harrowing aftermath of war. However, there was nothing she could do to shield her from the inevitable events of the next few days. 'Just stay with me, and I'll look after you,' Betsy had said as she let go of Susie's hand.

It was not long after they had finished breakfast that the distant and relentless sound of artillery, at last, began. The three women said very little as they started to prepare themselves for the casualties they knew that would be on their way later that day. They sat around the kitchen table, tearing up old pieces of linen to make bandages, listening in silence, to the faraway rumble of war.

Later that evening, when the shelling had eventually stopped, the streets, which had been almost deserted during the day, were beginning to come back to life. Carts, full of groaning wounded men, were slowly starting to trundle into the city. 'Come,' Betsy had said to Cassie, 'we had better go and see if we can find any of our boys and bring them back here. Susie,' she gently commanded the younger woman, 'stay here and look after the children.'

Later that evening, Betsy and Cassie returned to the safety of the barracks, bringing with them many of the suffering. They both spent the rest of the night, tending to their injuries and providing comfort to those they could not help.