Last Letter Home by Rachel Hore

Author:Rachel Hore [Hore, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781471156977
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Briony finished typing up Sarah’s letter, noticing the address, a Salvation Army hostel in Pimlico, where Paul must have mixed with all sorts of people after being bombed out. The idea of the Pioneer Corps piqued her curiosity, and she googled the name to remind herself what they did. The Corps had a long history. They were non-combatants who went wherever their labour was needed to keep a military operation going. During the war they’d handled stores and ammunition, built camps, airfields and fortifications, cleared rubble, mended roads, railways and bridges . . . the list went on and on. Briony sat back in her chair and flexed her aching shoulders as she pondered what she’d read.

As an enemy alien, Paul would not have been allowed to join up to fight early in the war, even if he had wanted to. Entering this corps would have still meant him being prepared to support the destruction of his fellow countrymen. Even so, that must have been a tough decision for him to make, and not for the first time Briony longed to know his thoughts. He’d have had to be physically strong, but as a gardener he would have been. Despite what the months of internment had done to him. And there would have been training, of course.

She sighed and selected the next letter in the pile. Altogether this had been an interesting afternoon, she reflected. Robyn had remembered Briony’s grandfather Harry and that was a breakthrough. Briony could almost hear Robyn’s crisp, clear voice speaking:

‘A cheerful, happy-go-lucky sort of boy, Harry. He was one of those it was impossible to dislike. I sometimes wondered what happened to him, but we weren’t close and I didn’t see anyone to ask. Everything was so difficult after the war ended. So many of the young people one knew had scattered. Several of my friends were killed. So Harry moved to Surrey, it seems. Did he have a brother? I can’t remember. If so, perhaps the brother took over the farm eventually.’

Briony tapped the end of her pencil against her teeth as she noted Robyn’s words. There was much that was puzzling. Not simply about what had happened to Paul Hartmann, but to others. The Baileys for instance. Where had they gone after the war ended? She should have asked Mrs Clare. She leaned forward and reached for the next letter.

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