No Man's Land by Reginald Hill

Author:Reginald Hill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Published: 2019-01-16T16:00:00+00:00

PART TWO

THE FARM

In 1917, the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) began, like the Somme, in July, and lasted, like the Somme, till November. British losses were in the region of 300,000. Of the 346 men executed during the war, 266 were condemned for desertion, 37 for murder, 18 for cowardice, 7 for quitting post, 6 for violence against superior officers, 5 for disobedience, 3 for mutiny, 2 for sleeping on post, 2 for casting away arms. No Australian soldier was executed during the war.

1

Sunrise, and three figures crawl from the Warren and pause, as timid as any rabbits sniffing the morning air for danger.

The sentry does not share their caution. All he feels is envy.

‘Lucky sods,’ he says, adding as he makes an obscene gesture with his arms, ‘give ’em one for me!’

The sun is more sudden in these rolling flatlands than it has scope to be among the foothills of the Harz or the high fells of Cumberland. As the three figures move westward it rolls swiftly up behind them, filling each dip and hollow in turn with an explosion of light. The thin mist has no defence and is blown away by the gusts of light rather than any movement of the air, as the three men move with swift care through the broken trees. They have gained their skill in different ways – game-stalking on a nobleman’s estate, sheep-herding on precipitous hillsides, childish games of pursuit and flight through the ill-lit back streets of Bradford – but now their abilities meet and conjoin in a strange dance as each takes the point in turn, then waits and watches till the others have flitted by. They have been doing this twice, sometimes three times a week for over six weeks now and they are growing as used to each other’s rhythms as old partners on a ballroom floor.

The huge sky is growing bright from horizon to horizon as the clouds which stem from the far western sea glow pearl-grey, then pink, then quilted white, and the three men increase their pace. They are out of the Desolation now and can take full advantage of hedgerows and trees as they hasten over the last half-mile to the Gilberts’ farm.

The working day had already begun. Madeleine greets them with her customary brusqueness. Life has not treated her gently and it’s going to take more than a bit of politeness, a few hours’ work and a scattering of soldiers’ rations to erode her high-piled suspicions of anyone and everyone outside her family.

Nicole welcomes them with bright-eyed delight, marred for Josh only by its apparently equal distribution among all three of them.

Madeleine’s parents, Monsieur and Madame Alpert, come somewhere between the two greetings. Old Georges, half-crippled by arthritis in his knees after a lifetime as an estate gardener, acts as if he would not be surprised by the arrival of the Kaiser himself. His wife, a lively, rose-cheeked, bird-like seventy-year-old, smiles and nods and chatters happily to the newcomers as she bustles round the farm as though she had a large household to look after and keep tidy.

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.