As the overloaded ship ploughed southwards towards Corfu, Leo convinced herself that all their troubles were over. There was no food on the ship, and very little drinking water, but once they reached Corfu they would be on friendly territory and their allies would provide for all their needs. In her imagination the island was a paradise, bathed in constant sunshine.
When they eventually docked it was dark and still raining and there was no one on the quayside to welcome them or to tell them where to go. The warehouses were closed and the streets deserted. For eight hours the pathetic remnants of the Serbian army sat huddled on the dock without food or shelter. Eventually, when it grew light, a French officer appeared and asked to speak to the senior officer.
It seemed that in all the confusion of the journey most of the units had lost their officers and Malkovic was the most senior of those that remained. He stepped forward, saying to Leo, ‘Come and translate for me. Ask him why we have been left sitting like this all night.’
It seemed that their ship had not been expected. Others had arrived, in the last few days, but it had been assumed that they carried the only survivors. However, a camp had been prepared for them, some twelve kilometres outside the town.
Sasha looked around at the empty dockside. ‘How are we to get there? Where is the transport?’
Leo translated the question and turned back to him with bitter resignation. ‘There is no transport. We have to walk.’
So they set off again, not marching but shuffling and limping, the stronger among them supporting their weaker comrades, a rag-tag army of ghosts plodding through the rain. The camp, when they reached it, was another collection of tents in another muddy field and there was neither food nor firewood. Sasha called the junior officers and NCOs from the other units together and told them to take a roll call. Each one reported back that less than a third of their men had survived. Of his own regiment, two more had died on the ship and three others were too weak to stand. He dispersed them to find what shelter they could and disappeared into one of the tents. Leo followed and found him huddled on the ground with his head buried in his arms. When she touched his shoulder he turned a haggard face towards her.
‘We were a thousand strong when we left Prizren. Now there are just over three hundred left. How many others have died from other battalions? And what have we struggled for? So we can die here, instead of on the mountains? Where are our so-called allies? Where are the British?’
Unable to answer, Leo turned away. She had never seen him like this and his despair dragged at her heart. She left the tent and as she stood gazing around her in a desperate search for inspiration, she saw a lorry pass along the road, heading for the city. It was quickly followed by another. She wiped her hand across her eyes and went to find Janachko, Sasha’s orderly.
‘I am going into the town to look for help. Don’t tell the colonel, unless he asks for me. He is resting, so don’t disturb him.’
She did not have long to wait at the roadside before another truck came into sight and she saw that it was flying a small union jack from the bonnet. She stepped into the road and held up her hand. The driver sounded the horn and made to drive past but she stood resolutely in his path so that he had to skid to a halt.
‘What the hell are you playing at, boy?’ he demanded. ‘Bugger off out of it! Go on! Imshi! Vamoose!’
Leo summoned her most ladylike tones. ‘I don’t know who you think you are addressing, corporal, but you shouldn’t be deceived by appearances. My name is Leonora Malham Brown. I am an officer in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and I require immediate transport into Corfu Town.’ Then, ignoring his half-throttled exclamation of ‘Blimey’, she swung herself up onto the seat beside him.
‘Beg pardon, ma’am,’ he mumbled. ‘I thought you was one of them peasant boys. I didn’t mean no offence.’
‘And I have taken none,’ Leo assured him. ‘I quite understand that I don’t look as you might expect. But I have had a very long and difficult journey and now I must see someone in authority. Who is in control here?’
The driver gave her a sideways glance as he put the engine into gear. ‘That’s a very good question, ma’am, if you don’t mind my saying so. Officially it’s the French. They’ve taken over the island for the duration and we’re here as back-up. But then there’s the Greek government and the Eyeties. If you ask me, nobody knows who’s in charge.’
‘But there is a British Military mission here?’
‘Oh yes.’
‘Then please take me to the British attaché.’
Ten minutes later she was dropped outside the building housing the British Military mission. The sentry at the gate was not as easily persuaded as the lorry driver so Leo produced what she regarded as her trump card. Fortunately, before leaving England the previous April she had obtained one of the new passports, with a photograph and a description. She had kept it securely buttoned in a pocket of her tunic all through her journey and held it out to the man with a flourish. He peered at it, and then at her, and turned his head towards a small building just inside the gates.
‘Sarge! Something here I think you’d better see.’
The sergeant appeared, chewing and clearly annoyed at having his lunch disturbed.
‘Lad here trying to pass himself off as the owner of this document,’ the sentry said.
The sergeant examined the passport and then looked at Leo. ‘How did you come by this, eh? Did you steal it? Where’s the owner?’
Leo drew a long breath. She was almost at the end of her strength. ‘I am the owner. I am Leonora Malham Brown and I must see the attaché immediately. If you don’t believe me I’m quite prepared to take off my clothes here in the street, so you can see that I am a woman.’
She began to fumble with the buttons of her tunic and saw the Sergeant’s face turn red.
‘Now then, that’s enough of that! You’d better come with me and get this sorted out inside.’ Leo followed him into the house, where they were met by a Greek in civilian clothes who appeared to be the butler. ‘Someone here to see the major,’ the sergeant said, neatly by-passing the question of Leo’s sex.
‘Major Frobisher is at lunch,’ the butler responded. ‘You will have to wait.’
‘I can’t wait,’ Leo said. ‘I am an English woman and I have some vital information which the major must hear at once.’ The statement was not exactly accurate but she judged that it was an approach that would strike a chord with the military mind.
At that moment a servant passed through the hallway where they stood carrying a tray and disappeared through one of the doors. Guessing that this was the door of the dining room Leo marched across to it and went in. The major was having lunch with a lady, but Leo paid no attention to her. Instead her eyes went to the plates on the table, which bore the remains of their meal. Beyond them, on a sideboard, was what was left of a chicken and a joint of beef.
Frobisher looked up sharply. ‘What the …? What do you mean by barging in like this? Sergeant, who is this ragamuffin?’
‘Lady says she has vital information,’ the sergeant mumbled.
‘Lady? What lady?’
Leo found she was unable to withdraw her eyes from the food on the sideboard. ‘I am Leonora Malham Brown,’ she intoned, addressing the joint of beef. ‘I have just walked through the mountains of Albania with the Serbian army and I haven’t had anything to eat since …’ She tried to remember when she had last eaten and found that she could not. ‘We need your help. You must give us some food.’ The floor seemed to be rocking under her feet. She groped around her for support, found nothing and lost consciousness.
She came round to a pungent smell and the sensation of being supported on someone’s arm. The major’s companion was kneeling by her and holding a phial of smelling salts under her nose, murmuring in Greek, ‘Oh, the poor child! Poor little thing.’ Then, in English, ‘Don’t worry, my dear, you are quite safe now.’
‘Here, give her this.’ A glass of red wine was held to Leo’s lips. She sipped, choked, and sat up, struggling against the urge to sink back into oblivion.
‘Please, Major Frobisher, we need your help. We arrived last night and we were sent to a camp, but there is no food. Nothing! Men are dying, major, dying by the dozens. You must send food, at once.’
‘We?’ he queried. ‘Who are you talking about?’
‘I came with a shipload of men from the Serbian army. Other ships have come, too. So many died in the mountains and the rest are starving. Why is there no food for them?’
She staggered to her feet and the major’s lady friend caught her by the arm. ‘Sergeant, a chair, quickly!’
Leo sat and Frobisher seated himself at the table again. ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t answer that question. The French are officially in charge here. I know a supply ship docked yesterday and I assumed that the food was being transported to the camps, but that is not part of my remit.’
‘Then take me to whoever is responsible,’ Leo begged. ‘Where is the French commander’s office?’
‘No, no, my dear,’ the lady protested. ‘You cannot go anywhere in your present state. The major will go and talk to his opposite number and sort everything out, won’t you, major? You must stay here and have something to eat. Then you can have a bath and we will find you some more suitable clothes.’
Leo shook her head. ‘No, I can’t eat until I know my friends have food too. Please, Major Frobisher, can we go at once?’
‘Not until you have eaten!’ the lady said. ‘What good can you be to your friends if you are going to faint again? Dimitri, a plate for the young lady.’
‘Give her some of that chicken,’ Frobisher ordered.
‘No! If she has not eaten for several days her stomach will not be able to digest it. Some soup, Dimitri. That will be best.’
Leo saw the sense of what she said and allowed herself to be moved to a place at the table. A bowl of soup was set in front of her and she had difficulty in restraining herself from falling on it like an animal. But before she had swallowed half her stomach rebelled.
‘I’m sorry, I can’t eat any more,’ she said. ‘Can we go now?’
‘Very well. But you must promise to come back and let us look after you.’
‘I … I will come as soon as I can,’ Leo agreed evasively, getting to her feet.
While she was eating the major had called for his car, and they were soon winding through the narrow streets of the town to the headquarters of the French mission. The man at the desk in the foyer informed them that M. le Colonel was not in his office.
‘Mais, c’est le midi, n’est pas?’
By-passing Frobisher’s inadequate French, Leo, emboldened by the red wine, told him that midday or not the colonel must be summoned, if he did not wish to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of men. The colonel, arriving rumpled and flush-faced from his interrupted siesta, gazed at her in horror as Frobisher introduced her, and then spread his hands as the problem was explained.
‘But, my dear madame, it is all in hand. You must understand it is a question of priorities. There is a limited amount of transport available and many demands to be met. But the food will be delivered, in due course. C’est la guerre, n’est pas?’
‘Yes, we are at war – and these people are supposed to be your allies!’ Leo exclaimed passionately. ‘Is this the way France behaves towards those who are prepared to lay down their lives in her cause? If more men die in that camp it will be your responsibility and you will not be forgiven.’
Suddenly she found herself in tears, tears that grew from fury and a sense of helplessness. At once, she was led to a chair, a clean handkerchief was pressed into her hand, and the colonel was saying that of course something must be done at once and he would summon the officer in charge of organising transport. Weakened as she was, it crossed her mind as she mopped her face to reflect on the irony of her position. She had always despised what she regarded as ‘women’s wiles’; fainting and bursting into tears. Now she saw that they had their uses.
Twenty minutes later Leo, Frobisher and the French transport officer arrived at the docks to find a scene of chaos. Crates of supplies were stacked on the quayside, while a Royal Navy Petty Officer and a French sergeant were shouting at each other in their respective languages and the Greek stevedores sat in the shelter of a doorway, eating pistachio nuts and playing backgammon. It was clear that none of the three elements in the equation was able to understand the other and all were equally taken aback when a filthy urchin appeared in their midst, demanding first in English, then French and finally in Greek, to know what the problem was. It took only minutes for Leo’s identity to be explained and for her to elucidate that the cause of the hold-up was a bureaucratic muddle over paperwork.
As the sun set, Leo arrived back at the camp in the passenger seat of a lorry loaded with food. She jumped down triumphantly and was met by a furious Sasha.
‘Where have you been? How dare you go off without asking my permission? Have you any idea how much anxiety you have caused me?’
She looked at him and felt tears rising again in her throat. She forced them back and said faintly, ‘But look. I have brought you food.’
Already the lorry was surrounded by hungry men, their eyes huge with hope in their skeletal faces. Sasha swung away from her and began issuing orders. What might have turned into a chaotic scramble became instead a disciplined process by which the crates were unloaded and their contents distributed amongst the various different units. While this was happening, Frobisher looked around him and turned to Leo.
‘I had no idea … I’m sorry. When we heard that the Serbian army was being evacuated we assumed … well, that it would have the usual support systems, supplies, cooking facilities, medical care and so forth. What happened?’
Leo shook her head. ‘You can have no idea what it was like. There are no roads through those mountains. The track is too narrow for wagons and the bridges too weak. The animals died from lack of forage. We had to abandon everything – guns, ammunition, cooking pots … Men died from cold and starvation, and they will go on dying unless you help us.’
‘I will do all I can, I promise,’ he said. ‘But I don’t understand how you came to be with them.’
‘It would take too long to explain,’ Leo said. ‘I will tell you one day, when there is not so much to do.’
Sasha came back and she introduced him to Frobisher, who saluted and said, ‘I must apologise, Colonel. I was not aware how bad your situation was until this young lady arrived in my dining room.’ He glanced from her to Sasha and added, ‘I must congratulate you. I don’t know how Miss Malham Brown came to be in your company, but if she had not been around to ginger us all up you might have waited days for your supplies. Now, I must get back to town, but I’ll come along again tomorrow. Is there anything you particularly need?’
‘Firewood!’ Sasha said at once. ‘We are desperate for some means to warm ourselves.’
‘I will see to it,’ Frobisher promised. He saluted again. ‘Good night, sir. Goodnight, ma’am. Till tomorrow.’
They watched him get back into the lorry and neither of them spoke until it had turned around and left the camp. Then Leo held out her hands to Sasha.
‘I’m sorry you were worried. You were exhausted and I knew I had to do something, but I was afraid that if I told you what I intended you would have forbade it.’
He took her hands in his and held them tightly. ‘My lioness! What would I have done without you? You have saved us all.’
‘You saved me,’ she replied. ‘Without you I should have died on the mountain.’
They gazed at each other in silence and she saw how worn and thin his face was, but his eyes burned into hers. She felt his desire and it drew her like a magnet. She longed to lean to him and press her lips to his, but at the same time she was aware that they stood in the open field, in full view of his men and she knew that he recognised it too. She squeezed his fingers and stepped back.
‘Have all the men been fed?’
‘Yes, all who are capable of eating. Misha died today, while you were gone and I fear two more will not make it through the night.’
‘Is there anything I can do?’
‘No. They are being cared for. You have done enough. Have you eaten?’
‘Yes, earlier. The major insisted. How about you?’
‘Janachko has put something in my tent. Come and join me. I told him to leave enough for you, too.’
There was less food than either of them would have liked but the immediate hunger pangs were assuaged. As soon as she had finished, Leo was overcome with a feeling of intense exhaustion. She wrapped herself in her cloak and, without a second thought, stretched herself on the ground beside him and fell asleep.
*
Leo woke to the smell of wood smoke and coffee. Crawling out of the tent, she saw that every company now had its campfire and the men were busy brewing up the last remnants of their precious coffee. Sasha was sitting nearby on an upturned crate and as soon as he saw her he filled a tin mug from the jug at his side and held it out to her.
‘There is even sugar, thanks to your friends in Durazzo.’
‘When did this happen?’ Leo asked, indicating the fires.
‘Soon after dawn this morning. You slept though it all, but I presume it was arranged by your Major Frobisher.’
‘Good for him!’ Leo said, sipping the hot drink.
‘Yes.’ Sasha gazed into his cup for a moment in silence and Leo saw that he was brooding over something.
‘What is it?’
‘Ten more men died during the night – including two of mine. The food came too late for them. And there are others who are terribly weak and will go the same way.’
‘We must talk to the major about getting proper medical care,’ Leo said.
Frobisher himself appeared soon afterwards and Leo tackled him at once.
‘It is in hand,’ he responded. ‘We are setting up a hospital on the island of Vido, out there in the bay.’
‘Why on an island?’ Sasha queried sharply. ‘Why not somewhere closer – easier to get to?’
‘The Greek authorities are concerned about the possible spread of infection.’
‘We are dying of starvation and exposure, not some kind of plague!’ Sasha exclaimed angrily.
‘I can understand the authorities’ point of view,’ Leo put in reasonably. ‘There is typhus and dysentery in the army. I know that from experience. It is sensible for them to take precautions.’
‘I assure you they will have the best possible care,’ Frobisher added. ‘Some of your own medical teams are already there. Tell me how many men you have here in need of urgent care and I will see that transport is sent for them.’
‘There are others here, then?’ Sasha asked eagerly. ‘Other Serbs?’
‘Oh yes. Soldiers and civilian refugees. There are camps all round the city. We estimate around a hundred and fifty thousand all together.’
‘A hundred and fifty thousand?’ Sasha repeated. ‘There should be twice that number.’
Frobisher looked at him sympathetically. ‘I can only express my condolences. It is becoming obvious that what you have all suffered is beyond anything we can imagine. But the fact that you are all here at all bears witness to your heroic determination. I salute you.’
Sasha thanked him and turned away, Leo guessed to hide tears that he was too weak to repress.
Frobisher addressed her.
‘Miss Malham Brown, I have two messages for you. The first is this. We are setting up a committee to co-ordinate the relief effort. But as you have already seen, there is a difficulty of communication. There are French, Greeks, and Italians involved, apart from ourselves and the Serbs. You obviously speak most of the languages required. Will you join the committee and act as our interpreter?’
Leo glanced at Sasha, who had recovered himself and nodded. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘of course. I shall be glad to help in any way I can. And the second message?’
‘That is from Melinda – Madame Papadakis – whom you met yesterday. She asks me to remind you of your promise. She invites you to her home, where you can bathe and rest and be well fed.’
Leo’s first impulse was to thank him and refuse. To accept seemed like a betrayal of Sasha and his men. But then it occurred to her that if she was to serve on the committee she must make herself reasonably acceptable and she was desperately in need of a bath and clean clothes. She smiled at Frobisher. ‘That is very kind. I shall be very pleased to accept her offer.’
‘I can take you there as soon as I have finished my business here, if you like,’ he said.
Sasha touched her arm. ‘Go. You should go.’
Frobisher was temporarily distracted by a query from one of his men, which gave Leo the chance to say, ‘I shall come back, later today; this evening if not before.’
Sasha frowned. ‘No, you should stay with this lady who is offering you a home.’
‘I can get a bath and a change of clothes,’ Leo said, ‘but then I will come back here.’
He shook his head. ‘Do you not see? It is not fitting for you to sleep in my tent now. On the mountains it was different, but here there is no excuse. God knows, I should prefer to have you with me, but the fact is I am a married man and you are an unmarried woman. My men love you for what you have done for them, but they all have very strict ideas about morality. Already there is gossip. It is bad for morale.’
Leo felt herself flush. It had not crossed her mind that her relationship with Sasha could be interpreted as anything other than innocent, but now she saw how it must look to outsiders. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she stammered. ‘I didn’t think. Of course, if that is what you think is best …’
He looked into her eyes. ‘You know what I should wish, if it were only up to me – but we have to think of what the rest of the world will say.’
She nodded and swallowed. Frobisher returned to say, ‘If you will show me which men need to be evacuated to the hospital …’
An hour later, Leo found herself being ushered into the house of Melinda Papadakis, where she was received, quite literally, with open arms.