A Rose for the Anzac Boys by Jackie French Read Free Book Online

that’s Boadicea. Down, Dolores!’
    Midge pushed Dolores’s nose out of the bucket of water. ‘Boadicea?’ she asked.
    ‘Our truck. Beautiful, isn’t she?’ said Slogger proudly. ‘Dolores, no! The nice soldier doesn’t want you sniffing him there. Boadicea used to be a butcher’s van. Jumbo and I gave her a coat of paint before we brought her over—well, you can’t have wounded men riding in a butcher’s van, can you? Might give them all sorts of ideas. Dolores, don’t kiss the poor man either! He doesn’t like it. Pardon, monsieur .’ She grabbed the big dog’s collar firmly and turned back to Midge. ‘Any chance of that tea?’
    ‘I’m sorry, only cocoa.’
    ‘As long as it’s hot and wet. Any grub going? I’m starving. We’ve been on the go since dawn yesterday. There’s another big push on.’
    ‘A push?’
    Slogger nodded. ‘Poor blighters are ordered out of their nice muddy trenches to try to take another few yards of mud. Mostly they’re just forced back—what’s left of them—but it makes a lot of work for us.’ She looked aroundthe quiet station. ‘No one told you you’re for it today?’
    ‘For it?’ Midge felt as though she’d stumbled upon yet another foreign language.
    ‘We’ve been ordered to start bringing the wounded here for the hospital trains. The stations down the line can’t cope. You’re going to have hundreds of wounded men here soon. Maybe thousands.’
    ‘Thousands?’ said Midge faintly. She pulled herself together. ‘I’ll tell the others.’ She hurried down the platform, her heels clicking on the damp concrete.
    Slogger strode beside her, Dolores bouncing at their side. ‘Don’t forget that cocoa.’
    ‘Ethel!’ Midge called.
    Ethel turned from slicing bread. ‘What is it, lass?’
    ‘They’re going to bring the wounded men here. Thousands of them! What are we going to do?’ she asked desperately. ‘There’s no way we can cope with that many! We haven’t got enough milk or bread.’
    ‘Then we’ll have to find it. Settle down, lass. I’ll see what we have in the storeroom.’ She hurried away down the platform.
    Midge turned back to the waiting Slogger. ‘Here’s the cocoa. Sorry the fresh stuff isn’t ready yet. You’d better take a couple of sandwiches too. I didn’t know they had women driving ambulances,’ she added curiously.
    ‘Could you make it three sandwiches? Just to keep Dolores happy. My dear girl, anyone and anything are drafted into service these days. As long as you’ve got handsor wheels. Or paws. Down , Dolores! No, you can’t have that poor man’s sandwich. We’re with the Duchess’s mob.’
    ‘The Duchess of Sutherland? I thought she was in Flanders.’
    ‘No, ours is the Duchess of Westminster. She’s wonderful
    —as soon as war was declared, she rounded up trucks, drivers, supplies and just came over. Dolores is hers. Her ladyship says she needs the fresh air.’
    ‘She brought her dog over?’
    Slogger bent down and rubbed Dolores’s ears. ‘A dalmation, two wolfhounds and a Pekingese, plus three trunks of evening dresses. Am I glad I wasn’t given Peke duty. It’s a horror.’
    ‘Bites?’
    ‘Wees. Her ladyship says having us in evening dress each night and the dogs around is good for the men’s morale. But I say it’s bad enough being wounded without being weed on by a Peke too. I’d better dash. Have to get our poor chaps onto the platform then get going again. We’ve got three more runs at least tonight—they’re really piling up. Those bloody generals ought to be shot.’
    Midge stared. She’d never heard a woman say ‘bloody’ before. ‘You mean the German generals?’
    ‘No, ours. Silly asses. They give the orders and we pick up the results. Thanks for these. Dolores, that is very, very rude! Be seeing you!’
    She strode off across the platform. Dolores gave one of the men dozing by the storeroom a final loving sniff, gulped the crust of bread from his hand, then loped after