Peacetime by Robert Edric Read Free Book Online

arrested him. Four years. He’s being released early under some sort of amnesty for Hostilities-Only men. He qualifies, apparently, because although he went absent, he didn’t do it while on active service. It gets him off the hook.’
    Mercer struggled to remember what either Mary or Elizabeth Lynch had told him or implied about the man. ‘Do you think the girl knows all this?’
    Jacob shrugged. ‘You can understand how much more convenient it would be for him to return as some kind of hero rather than a jail-bird.’
    â€˜But surely everyone else must know.’
    â€˜Of course they know, but I imagine they’ll keep up some kind of pretence while it makes any sense to do so.’
    Mercer tried again to remember precisely what Mary had told him, to understand what she herself truly believed.
    â€˜Why did he go absent?’ he said.
    â€˜Who knows.’ Jacob started coughing again, but this time the bout was neither so severe nor so prolonged.
    â€˜She has a release date,’ Mercer said.
    â€˜I know. I wonder what she expects. According to a man at the airfield, she never once went to see him in Colchester. The boy, his youngest, was little more than a baby when they took him off. Apparently, him and the girl were close, so perhaps that’s why they’re keeping up the pretence.’
    â€˜She’ll soon know,’ Mercer said.
    â€˜Of course she will.’
    â€˜Perhaps the others believe you’ll be the one to tell her. Perhaps that’s why they drive you off with sticks.’
    â€˜Look at me,’ Jacob said. ‘They don’t need any good reason to do that.’ He stared absently across the grass and distant runway for several seconds, and then said, ‘My sister was her age. Anna. She reminds me very much of her.’ His voice was even and low, and Mercer knew not to interrupt him. Then Jacob drew a ball of phlegm to his lips and spat it at his feet with a grunt. In the distance, the drills and hammers finally fell silent. A cloud of flies drifted back and forth above the drain.
    Jacob turned to look at Mercer. ‘They’ll run rings around you,’ he said.
    â€˜It might serve my purpose to let them do it.’
    â€˜And supposing the girl already knows about her father. What kind of homecoming would that be?’
    â€˜I don’t think she does,’ Mercer said.
    â€˜Apparently, he had a temper. It wasn’t the best of marriages even before all this.’
    A klaxon sounded on the airfield, and a group of men, tiny figures at that distance, ran towards one of the buildings. In places, tractors had already startedploughing up the land beneath the recently removed concrete.
    â€˜Do you think the man will stay here?’ Mercer said.
    â€˜I daresay there will be terms and conditions attached to his release. I doubt if it’s what he would want, but I doubt he’ll have much say in the matter.’
    â€˜And his wife and children even less.’
    â€˜Who cares?’ Jacob said. He rose from the chest and wiped the flakes of rust from his trousers.
    â€˜Why do you imagine he came back here in the first place?’ Mercer said. ‘Surely, this was the most obvious place for them to come looking for him.’
    â€˜The man who told me all this said he came back because he’d heard his wife was messing around with another man here. She wasn’t, but that’s what he believed. He came back to sort her out. When they arrested him, they took one look at her and the results of this sorting-out and tried to persuade her to press further charges.’
    â€˜What did he do to her?’
    â€˜Use your imagination.’
    Mercer rose and they walked together along the road.
    â€˜Was Anna your only sister?’ Mercer said eventually.
    â€˜She was.’
    They parted where the road turned inland.
    â€˜I’d like to come and visit you,’ Mercer said.
    â€˜There’s nothing