Harvest of War by Hilary Green Read Free Book Online Page A

your leg?’
    â€˜Broken ankle. I tripped over some barbed wire and fell into a trench. Bloody stupid! I’ve been stuck back here at HQ while you chaps are out there doing the business. I look at you, Tom, and I’m ashamed.’
    â€˜It’s not your fault,’ Tom muttered.
    â€˜Where are you wounded? Is it your arm?’
    â€˜No, my shoulder. It’s just a flesh wound. But apparently I’ve lost a lot of blood.’
    â€˜Right!’ Ralph straightened up. ‘You are going to have the best that this godforsaken place can provide. You are going to have a meal and a bath and sleep in a proper bed and then you are going on sick leave.’
    â€˜The doc said it wasn’t bad enough to warrant being sent home.’
    â€˜I don’t care what he said. I’ll make out the necessary pass. Now, what do you want first?’
    â€˜Please can I have a drink of water?’ Tom croaked.
    â€˜Water? Of course! What have I been thinking of? Here.’
    There was a jug on the desk. Ralph poured water into a mug and placed it in Tom’s good hand. His throat was almost too dry to swallow but he allowed the water to trickle into his throat and almost wept again with sheer relief. Ralph was shouting for his orderly and when the man appeared told him to see to it that Tom was given the best meal the kitchen could produce.
    Next morning, still weak but in control of himself after a long sleep, Tom was eating breakfast when Ralph came in and sat opposite him.
    â€˜Now, about this leave. Where do you want to go?’
    Tom struggled to adjust his thoughts. ‘I don’t want to go home. I think I’d like to go to Paris. Is that possible?’
    â€˜Certainly. I’ll make out the paperwork.’
    Within the hour Tom was provided with a new uniform and handed a warrant that allowed him to travel to Paris for two weeks’ leave. Ralph even arranged for a car to take him to the station and came to see him off.
    â€˜Don’t overdo it now,’ he counselled. ‘No riotous nights with girls from the Folies Bergère.’
    Tom looked at him. ‘That’s not my style – and you know it.’
    For a moment their eyes held, then Ralph did an extraordinary thing. He leaned into the car and kissed Tom on the cheek.
    â€˜Off you go! Have a good leave – and don’t worry about the future. You’re too valuable to be wasted.’
    In Salonika the days passed too slowly for both Leo and Sasha, but for opposite reasons. Sasha was bored and frustrated with the lack of agreement over tactics. Leo longed for the summer to end so that the time for campaigning would be over for another year. They would have the whole winter together. But even as she thought of that she felt a tremor of dread. She was not sure how Sasha would cope with being confined to Salonika for all that time and she feared he would embark on some rash exploit without waiting for his allies.
    One evening Sasha came quickly into their room at the hotel in Salonika and Leo felt her heart give a jolt.
    â€˜It’s come!’ he said. ‘Serrail has finally decided to attack. There are rumours that Romania is about to declare for the allies and they want a diversionary assault here to draw away German forces that might otherwise be deployed against the Romanians.’
    â€˜When?’ Leo asked, almost unable to breathe.
    â€˜In five days, on August the fourteenth.’
    Five days! Now that the time was almost upon them, Leo cast about desperately for some way to delay their separation. At the hospital she waylaid the chief medical officer on his rounds.
    â€˜I suppose you have heard that there is to be a new campaign?’
    â€˜Of course.’
    â€˜I assume you will be sending out a field hospital to care for the wounded.’
    â€˜Are you trying to tell me my job?’
    â€˜No, of course not. I just want to volunteer to go with them. I have had experience of