The Night Train to Berlin by Melanie Hudson

Author:Melanie Hudson [Hudson, Melanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2021-03-27T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Eliza

Field Hospital, Rennes, late July 1944

Wearing her already tatty Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) fatigues, and tired out to the brink of exhaustion, Eliza stood in the nurses’ wash tent and wrung out her underwear above a bowl of cold water.

Where on earth was Lady Arbuthnot now, she wondered?

She thought suddenly of Mrs Kelly from her childhood back in Penzance, wringing out clothes above the kitchen sink. Mrs Kelly would scrub Eliza’s face with a starched, rough cloth until her poor skin glowed red. ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness, Eliza, remember that!’ she would say, her gentle eyes attempting sternness while Eliza stood on a box next to the high enamel sink. Such simple times. Times that were always so underappreciated at the moment they happened for their calm and comfortable security. But it wasn’t too late to appreciate them now, when she needed the warmth of those memories the most.

Eliza had been released from the hospital ship in early July. She returned to London, briefly, only to find that Arthur remained squirrelled away in Scotland and Nancy had been deployed to a field hospital in Berkshire. There had been no word from Alex. Nora had been as good as her word and had quickly found exposure for Eliza’s D-Day paintings, even securing a feature in the July edition of American Life magazine, with the emotive Brothers in Arms painting taking pride of place on the cover. Eliza’s work became a cause of controversy, being criticised as too ‘real’ for public consumption. But Nora had devoured them and whatever the critics said didn’t matter, because Eliza had never been so proud of any work she had released before.

The pace of her life, Eliza realised, had shifted up several gears. She was busy, she was in demand, she was the darling of the London art scene once more, but it was the cover of Time that led to the next extraordinary turn of events. A request was sent, via Mr Cartwright, from the British Red Cross organisation for Eliza to become their own particular War Artist. Cartwright, it seemed, on having seen Eliza’s work and hearing that she had, somehow, made it to the Normandy landings, had altered his opinion regarding the possibility of female war artists deploying to the front. The fact that Arthur seemed to have given up trying to keep Eliza home didn’t harm matters either. Cartwright explained how impressed the ‘higher-ups’ of the Red Cross had been by Eliza’s work. As they were also aware of her impeccable record in her nursing capacity, they asked if she might consider recording the remainder of the war from their perspective – or more particularly, from the perspective of the medics in a field hospital as it moved eastward through France.

Would she go, Cartwright asked, when she visited him in London? Or was it perhaps time to concentrate on her home life?

Eliza did not hesitate with her answer. It was yes.

And the surprises did not stop there. A second

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