Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear Read Free Book Online Page B

was working on the boiler, making a fair bit of noise meself, and every now and again, there it went again. I came up a couple of times, t'see if I could answer it for you, but it stopped its nagging just as I got outside the door-I c'n use me master key in an emergency, like. I tell ya, I nearly got me kit and put in a line so that I could answer it downstairs meself."
    "Pardon?"
    "Remember, Miss, I was a sapper. Let me tell you, if I could run a line in the pourin' rain and on me 'ands and knees in the mud-and get the brass talkin' to each other while the 'un's trying to knock me block off as I was about it-I can bloomin' well do a thing or two with your line."
    "Is that so, Billy? I'll have to remember that. In the meantime, whoever wants to speak to me will find a way. Now then, what do you have to tell me?"
    "Well, I was askin' round some of me old mates, about that Vincent Weathershaw bloke. Turns out one of the fellas knew someone, who knew someone else, you know, who told them that 'e wasn't quite all there after one of the big shows"
    Billy Beale tapped the side of his forehead, and Maisie inclined her head for him to continue.
    "Lost a lot of men, 'e did. Apparently never forgave 'iniself. Took it all upon 'is shoulders, as if 'e was the one that killed them. But what I also 'card was that some funny stuff went on between 'im and the big brass. Now, this is all very shaky, but ... ."
    "Go on, Billy," Maisie urged.
    "Well, Miss, you know, if truth be told, we were all plain scared 'alf the bloomin' time."
    "Yes, I know, Billy"
    "0' course you do, Miss. You know, don't you? Blimey, when I think of what you nurses must've seen ... anyway, if the truth be told, we was all scared. You didn't know when you were going to get it. But some of 'em... "
    Billy stopped, turned away from Maisie, and took the red kerchief from his neck and wiped his eyes.
    "Gawd-sorry, Miss. Don't know what came over me"
    "Billy. It can wait. Whatever you have to tell me. It can wait. Let me pour that tea."
    Maisie went to the stove, poured boiling water from the kettle onto the tea leaves in the brown earthenware teapot, and allowed it to steep. She took two large tin mugs from the shelf above the stove, stirred the tea in the pot, then poured tea for them both, with plenty of sugar and a splash of milk. Since her time in France, Maisie had preferred an armyissue tin mug for her private teatimes, for the warmth that radiated from the mug to her hands and to the rest of her body.
    "There you are, Billy. Now then ..
    "Well, as you know, Miss, there were a lot of lads 'o enlisted that were too young. Boys tryin' to be men, and blimey, the rest of us weren't much more than boys ourselves. And you'd see 'eni, white as sheets when that whistle blew to go over the top. Mind you, we was all as white as sheets. I was barely eighteen meself."
    Billy sipped his tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
    "We'd 'ave to get 'em under the arms, shove 'eni over, and 'ope that the push would get 'em through. And sometimes one of 'em didn't make it over."
    Billy's eyes misted over again, and he wiped them with the red kerchief.
    "And when that 'appened, when a boy was paralyzed with fear, like, 'e could be reported for cowardice. If 'e'd been seen afterwards, not 'avin' gone over with the rest of his mates, the brass didn't ask too many questions, did they? No, the poor sod's on a charge and that's it! So we 'ad to look out for each other, didn't we?"
    Drawing the red cloth across his brow, the young man continued his story for Maisie.
    "Court-martialed, they were. And you know what 'appened to a lot of 'em, don't you? Shot. Even if some of 'em weren't quite so innocent, villains getting up to no good when they should've been on the line, it ain't the way to go, is it? Not shot by their own. Bloody marvelous, ain't it? You pray your 'ead off that the Kaiser's boys don't get you, then it's your own that do!"
    Maisie allowed silence to envelop them and held