A Wife's War by Rosie Meddon

Author:Rosie Meddon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788630801
Publisher: Canelo Digital Publishing Ltd
Published: 2018-11-28T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

‘Naomi tells me that you volunteer.’

In response to Mr Aubrey’s remark, Kate nodded. ‘That’s right, sir.’

It was Monday morning and, at Mr Aubrey’s insistence, she had served breakfast at the kitchen table, the debris from which she was now clearing away.

‘I have no desire to cause you more work,’ he had said the previous evening, Naomi having mentioned something to her about laying the table in the dining room. ‘If eating in the kitchen is good enough for you, Naomi, then it’s perfectly fine for me, too. When one has stood knee-deep in mud, fighting off rats and devouring one’s rations from a tin mug with enemy shells sailing over one’s head, a proper plate at a kitchen table is the height of luxury, I can tell you. So please, Mrs Channer, do proceed as you would on any other day of the week. Pay not the least heed to my being here.’

And so, despite the peculiar sight of an army lieutenant eating in her kitchen, she had done just that.

‘I volunteer at St. Ursula’s in Paddington,’ she replied now to his earlier observation. It had been on her tongue to say, ‘we volunteer’, but she’d thought Naomi could probably do without having to explain to him why she had given it up.

‘And what happens at St. Ursula’s?’

Continuing to clear the table, she explained to him about Marjorie Randolph, and about the wives and the widows of the Tommies who went there for help. ‘In fact, sir, not knowing that you were a-coming,’ she said, glancing to Naomi and anticipating a problem, ‘I had volunteered to go there this morning. But perhaps that won’t now be possible…’

By way of response, Aubrey Colborne raised an eyebrow. ‘No? Why ever not?’

‘On account of needing to prepare a luncheon for you, sir – a proper sort of a luncheon, I mean.’

‘And is the preparation of my luncheon the only impediment to your going there and doing good?’

Warily, she nodded. ‘As things stand at present, sir, yes.’

‘Then that is most easily remedied,’ Aubrey said, bringing his hand smartly down upon the table and causing the single remaining coffee cup to rattle upon its saucer. ‘I shall take Mrs Colborne out to luncheon. I ought to, anyway, as a thank you for putting me up – for the second time in a matter of weeks. Yes, we shall go to the Albemarle. I shall make a reservation. Do you have a telephone?’

Naomi shook her head. ‘Lawrence didn’t have time to organize for one to be connected up.’

‘No matter. I shall go there myself, first thing, and make a reservation. Would one o’clock suit?’

Clearly, Kate mused, to treat Naomi to luncheon, Mr Aubrey must have resolved the matter of his outstanding pay. But then she chided herself for such a mean-spirited thought; he was making a generous gesture, in no small part so that she might spend the morning at St. Ursula’s. In addition to which, it would do Naomi good – proper company and a nice luncheon being just what she needed.

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