White Feathers by Deborah Challinor

Author:Deborah Challinor [Challinor, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2012-10-22T11:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

James sat on the neatly made cot. There were temporary bars on the window and a guard outside the door, but other than that his accommodation was not uncomfortable — he was, after all, still an officer. He was scheduled to be tried later that afternoon at a general court-martial convened by the divisional commander. There would be five officers acting as judge and jury, including Major Lydon, as James’s commanding officer, and Lydon’s senior, Lieutenant-Colonel George Chapley.

James was allowed a ‘soldier’s friend’, an officer appointed to support him during the trial, and he and the court had accepted Ben Harper’s offer to fulfil the role. Not that James had said much to anyone at all since the incident. The New Zealand Division was now in the process of being withdrawn from the Somme battleground, but James had been removed from the front line immediately and for the past two days had sat, silent and withdrawn, in this room in a house requisitioned from some French landowner.

But he hadn’t been alone — Thomas had turned up only hours after James’s arrest. Gossip spread like brushfire in the trenches and as soon as Thomas heard, he’d requested and been granted permission to go to his brother. He hadn’t, however, been allowed to represent him, despite his civilian qualifications as a lawyer. Visiting his brother in a time of need, even if it did involve a charge of murder, was one thing, but representing him, especially if you were a well-known conscientious objector skilled in the arts of the courtroom, was quite another. Besides, Thomas was only a corporal.

He was almost at his wits’ end over James’s stubborn refusal to elaborate on the events surrounding Ron Tarrant’s death. He would say only that he was guilty of killing the man but would provide no evidence of mitigating circumstances or provocation. But it was clear to Thomas that there was something very wrong with his brother: his speech was flat and monosyllabic, and he was unable to pay attention for more than a few seconds at a time. He was also physically unwell, to the extent that a medical officer had been summoned and had diagnosed chronic dysentery and acute haemorrhoids together with advanced neurasthenia, or shell shock.

Thomas and Ben both knew that shell shock was very unlikely to be considered a mitigating factor, especially after the recent edict from British High Command that left no doubt that a failure of mental equilibrium would not be accepted as an excuse for indiscipline. And a bleeding backside or the shits wouldn’t help either, as many men, officers and enlisted alike, were suffering from the same unpleasant complaints. James knew this too, and perhaps that was why he seemed to have given up. But still, Thomas simply could not believe that his brother, normally such a stringently ethical and honourable man, could have shot someone in cold blood without any apparent justification.

‘But why, James?’ he asked again, almost desperate now. ‘I just don’t understand what happened.

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