The Beleaguered by Lynne Golding

Author:Lynne Golding
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blue Moon Publishers
Published: 2019-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

PAULETTE

That long day following Jim’s graduation, while Mother played her gloomy strains and Father and Grandpa stared at the breakfast things, we all hoped that Jim would change his mind before he reached the enlistment centre. We were certain that the notion to enlist had come upon him quickly—within the eight hours between his ill-fated proposal to Millie and his announcement at breakfast the next morning. We hoped it would leave him with equal rapidity.

Aunt Rose, who joined our waiting circle on seeing Ina and me walk back from the train station, unusually in tears and even more unusually in an embrace, agreed that a change of heart was certainly possible. But whether his heart would change before he began the formal enlistment process was another matter.

“It was that damn recruiter,” Father said when he finally began to speak. “He put that idea in Jim’s head. I don’t know why Willmott let him address the graduates yesterday. There were enough other speeches. The students are right, he is becoming daft. There were those graduates, all ready to begin their profession, to build practices, to improve the health of their communities, to marry and have children—why was it necessary to talk of war and—” He was going to say “death,” but the recruiter had not actually done so, and Father couldn’t bring himself to say the word that was the natural extension of war.

Grandpa and Aunt Rose echoed those sentiments. None of us wanted to say what we really suspected. Jim had not succumbed to the recruiter’s implorations. His decision to enlist surely arose from his love for Millie—or more specifically, her rejection of that love. If he couldn’t have a life with her here, we assumed he had chosen not to have any life here. None of us would suggest he had chosen not to have any life at all.

“It’s Millie’s fault,” Ina said, finally uttering the words. “What kind of a girl is she? Agreeing to be his sweetheart through the poorest years of his life and then refusing him when he was about to be in a position to actually support her? I never liked her. But I didn’t think she was capable of being this mean.”

Father had a different perspective. “I was always surprised that those Dales would let her see Jim. ‘Not good enough.’ I expect that’s what they told her. ‘Not rich enough. Go get yourself a commission in the army. Become a war hero. Then maybe we’ll consider you good enough.’ See if I ever buy another Dale rose. Don’t hold your breath!” He was on a tear now.

Aunt Rose disagreed. “Oh, I don’t think that can be it,” she said. “If the Dales had considered it an unsuitable match, they would have had Millie break it off years ago. Do you think there is someone else? I would never have expected it. She seemed so devoted to Jim. And yet what other explanation can there be?”

“Maybe the ring was too small,” suggested my cousin Hannah, who had joined us.

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