All Quiet on the Western Plains by Isabella Hargreaves

Author:Isabella Hargreaves
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Rural romance, outback Australia, coming home, postWWI, small town, grazier, Cowboy romance
Publisher: History in Focus
Published: 2015-11-19T00:00:00+00:00

Seven

Fleur thought things would go back to normal if she stopped seeing Jack. And they did, in that her work continued on the same, the townspeople were still friendly and her time in the outback was ticking down.

However, in two unrelated ways, life was the not the same. Matron had started going out with Jack’s friend Bill, who was still staying at Paradise Lagoon. It was a relationship that Fleur didn’t understand at first, until she realised that they were both lonely. They wanted love and companionship, someone to share the rest of their lives. The apparent differences in personality and approach to life were not insurmountable. Both seemed willing to be accommodating.

The other factor that was different was the way Fleur missed Jack with a yearning ache. It was there when she woke, while she worked and when she lay sleepless in bed. Even so, seeing him at a distance, which she occasionally did when he came into town for supplies, and knowing now that he had been a soldier, brought back all her old irrational fears of abandonment.

August was cold and bright, until late one afternoon strange clouds appeared on the northern horizon and the day became unnaturally dark. Fleur worked in the ward until late in the evening, when Matron took her place. She prepared for bed.

Through the window a flash of sheet lightning in the distance startled her. It looked just like the distant shellfire of France. A chill of foreboding ran through her and she began to shake uncontrollably. She quickly pulled on her pyjamas and got into bed, dragging the sheet and blankets over her head.

Within minutes thunder was rolling around and lightning flashed repeatedly outside. Her body tensed into a foetal position. Even with her head covered, lights flashed bright in her eyes. Memories cascaded through her mind. Again bombs rained from a fractured sky. She trembled uncontrollably. Memories of being bombed at night while she worked, or huddled in a dugout, flooded her mind.

One memory stretched forth like a lifeline from the past—when she and another nurse had pushed their beds together and lain beneath them for cover. She launched herself from the bed, pulling the bedclothes from the mattress and laying them underneath. There was no rain to dampen the crack and pulse of the thunder, just relentless clashes and flashes. Fleur huddled in her compact space. She squeezed her eyes closed and clasped her arms around herself. After a pause, a boom of thunder, louder than all the others, exploded above her head.

Another evening of terror surged into her mind: Fleur walking along the seafront at Margate with her sister and nieces. A long summer’s twilight had followed a day at the seaside full of laughter and joy. The beautiful weather had made it special. As they strolled back to their holiday home they were eating ice-creams. The small girls in their pinafores had skipped and chatted about what they could see on the foreshore. Fleur and her sister, Astrid, were talking together.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.