The Girl from Rawblood by Catriona Ward

Author:Catriona Ward
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2017-01-16T16:00:00+00:00

TOM GILMORE

2 january 1918

Somewhere in france

Iris

sorry for the silence. Not been myself. Got back from leave a week ago. Moved again yesterday. can’t say where. the rats always seem to find us all right. No secrets safe from rats.

Red sky this morning. Crates came with the new boots but only left feet so we’ve cut the toes off. We were doing the barbed wire last night by full moon. Two men shot. one by them and one by us in error. in the head. Not clean shots. I won’t go on about all that.

Sorry for the jumble. all my thoughts.

a few weeks ago I thought I saw you. We were in a town. Everyone blind drunk and looking for women. I couldn’t quite take it. Took a bottle to the fountain in the square. moonlight. Sound of water. Everything very still and muffled up in sandbags.

Scent of lilies. Didn’t see her till she was at my shoulder. came up quiet as smoke. I jumped a mile. But it was a worse shock when I looked at her. I said sorry for gawping you look so like someone I knew. would have sworn it was you but she was different colors. Red hair. For a moment there was rot or decay in the air like something was dead nearby. but no. just lilies. Anyway I said sorry again. but she just smiled so I thought perhaps her English not very good. then she said in a very English voice, you must go to dig the grave. for some reason it was the most frightening thing anyone’s ever said. I said what do you mean but she was gone. And the smell of.

I wasn’t right for days after. think perhaps everyone is mad now. and there’s always something dead nearby. You and I. would we know one another? Am not what I was. Expect you’re also changed.

Anyhow then came leave. Not a moment too soon you might say. Home was awful. Farm knee-deep in dust. weeds high in the yard. In the house floorboards rotted through. Windows broken. Dead pigeon in the chimney. Well the stink. Wasn’t so bad last time I was down. Or maybe I didn’t notice. it looks a place where only sad things have happened. Is that true? But I did what I came to do.

Your ring. Kept it with me all this while. Not in a pocket or with my things. On a string around my neck. Was afraid I’d lose it in the mud. Or it’d be stolen. There’s as much of that about as you’d expect. thought I might give it back to you one day. that won’t happen.

Left it for you. in the cave. on the stone. The water in the walls sounds like death. That’s where it is if you want it. Do you remember? That the ones you love may never die. people used to believe that sort of thing. What a joke.

Never thought I’d be glad to see the trenches but I am.

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