William, not a man who normally used obscenities, nevertheless swore beneath his breath, as exactly a month after the assassinations he read in the following day’s Telegraph that the Austria-Hungary alliance had declared war on Serbia.
‘It’s going to be all-out war, mark my words,’ he told Nora and Eleanor at breakfast. ‘We’ll all be involved sooner or later.’
‘Papa?’ Eleanor spoke across the table. ‘If there’s a war I won’t have to leave school, will I? I really want to stay on and finish my art studies.’
Eleanor was developing into an accomplished artist, designer and seamstress and had said she would like to continue with art as a career. She was turning out to be a positive young woman.
Nora paused with a coffee cup in her hand. ‘Surely we won’t be affected?’ she objected. ‘It’s nothing to do with us.’
‘I’m afraid that it will be, my dear,’ William told her. ‘If France and our other allies become involved, which to me seems in–evitable, then so will we be, together with our colonies. I’ve seen this coming for some time now. Why didn’t our men in power see it?’ He gave a cynical grimace and muttered, ‘Maybe they did. But no,’ he added directly to Eleanor, ‘of course you won’t have to leave school.’ He smiled. ‘We want you to achieve success as much as you do.’
A few days later Lucy wrote to say she’d decided not to celebrate her birthday. It doesn’t seem appropriate, having heard the latest news, she wrote. My birthday falls on a Monday so if I can get home for the Friday prior to that, I’ll travel back to London on the Sunday. Could we just have a small tea for the family and perhaps Eleanor and I can once more share our birthdays?
Eleanor was delighted with the idea; she adored Lucy and regarded her more as a sister than a cousin.
Rather reluctantly, William and Nora agreed, but it turned out to be fitting, as in less than a week Germany and the Ottoman Empire had formed an alliance and a British naval vessel was sunk by German mines in the North Sea; Germany declared war on France and invaded Britain’s ally Belgium, taking the city of Liège, and leaving Britain no option but to declare war with Germany. The Austrian army invaded Poland and on the Eastern Front the Russian army began to advance.
The speed of events left everyone breathless. Within days they heard that hundreds of troops were arriving on the east coast and being billeted in the villages of Kilnsea and Easington, east of Hull, with the sole purpose of protecting the Spurn Point headland from attack by sea, whilst the small market town of Hedon became a garrison town for men and horses.
‘I’m very worried,’ Nora told her friend and confidante Sarah Walker. ‘I’m afraid for my son; will he have to join the military? He’s a scientist, not a soldier!’
‘I shouldn’t think so for a moment,’ Mrs Walker replied, patting her arm. ‘Don’t worry about it. I read in the newspaper that it’s a flash in the pan, a lot of hotheads talking about war, and that it will all be resolved by Christmas.’
William shook his head when Nora told him this. ‘She’s mistaken. It’s happening,’ he told his wife in a voice devoid of emotion as he read the headlines. He looked up. ‘I didn’t tell you before, but I cut down Bond Street on my way home from the bank the other evening. A troop of East Yorkshire Cavalry were waiting on horseback outside Kayes’ tool shop. I stopped to enquire why they were there.’ He took a short sharp breath. ‘One of the men said they were waiting to have their bayonets and swords sharpened.’
Nora put her hands to her mouth and waited for him to continue.
‘They were all in a very cheerful mood. The soldier who was speaking to me said they couldn’t wait to go and fight the Hun, and as soon as the sharpening was finished they were heading off down to the docks to board a ship to take them on their way to Flanders. God help them,’ he muttered. ‘The tentacles of war are spreading wider and wider. I might be considered to be a purveyor of gloom’ – he shook his head – ‘but believe me, the world is well and truly at war.’
Oswald had come home to Hull to celebrate Lucy’s and Eleanor’s birthdays. He brought Eleanor a box of pastels, which thrilled her, and for Lucy a posy of silk flowers. ‘They’ll never die,’ he told her. ‘The colours might fade but the petals will never fall.’ He’d kissed her cheek as he said it and she felt moved to tears.
‘You’re an independent young woman now,’ her uncle said, and symbolically handed her a key. ‘You can do whatever you’ve a mind to without asking permission; providing it’s legal,’ he added jovially.
‘I know,’ she said solemnly, ‘but I don’t ever remember being restricted before in whatever I wanted to do. I’ve been guided so kindly and well, and I thank you for that, both of you.’ She included Nora in her little speech. ‘I’ve been blessed.’
She took the time to visit Edie’s mother whilst she was home and found her beset by worries over her sons; both Stanley and Joshua were already abroad with their regiment. Stanley had gone to Serbia, but she didn’t know where Josh was. Charlie badly wanted to join up too, but both his parents were doing their best to persuade him to stay with the railway company and train as an engine driver like his brother Bob.
‘I wish our Edie would come home,’ Dolly said, wiping her eyes as they filled with tears. ‘She could get a job at ’Infirmary easy as can be. She’s done so well with all her exams. I don’t want her to be away wi’ all what’s going on. I can do nowt about my lads, but I don’t want our Edie to be away as well.’
‘You’ve still got Ada here,’ Lucy said gently. ‘I know she’s not living at home, but at least you know where she is.’
‘Ah. Yes, Miss Lucy, I do know, but, well, she hasn’t told your auntie yet but she’s going to get married soon, and … well, who knows?’ She ran out of other things to worry about.
Lucy clapped her hands. ‘Ada’s getting married? That’s wonderful news – it’s a reason to celebrate, isn’t it? There might be additions to the family in due course.’
Dolly nodded and then blew her nose. ‘Aye, you’re right, o’ course. And our Bob’s wife’s expecting, did you know? Don’t tell our Edie that I’m in a state, will you?’
Lucy said that she wouldn’t but decided that she would write to Edie when she got back to London and ask her to send her mother a cheerful letter as she was worried about them all.
Oswald had secured employment at Burroughs Wellcome & Company as a research scientist; he had obtained a Medical Laboratory Scientist degree and found some decent lodgings. He too was concerned about the state of affairs abroad and discussed privately with William, though not his mother, whether it would affect his work situation.
‘I doubt that you’ll be called up,’ William said. ‘I’m fairly sure you’ll be exempt.’
‘I doubt they’d take me anyway, with my poor eyesight,’ Oswald remarked. ‘But still,’ he said earnestly, ‘I wonder …’ and left the rest of his sentence dangling in thin air.
Lucy and Oswald returned to London together; it had been only a short weekend but she had much work to do and could study better at the hospital with its vast library than she could at home, particularly when everyone was on tenterhooks awaiting the next news bulletin.
Before they left, Eleanor presented them each with a pastel sketch, a delightfully caught image of Lucy dressed in pale blue which contrasted with the darkness of her hair, with her hand on her cheek and her eyelids lowered as she read a book on her lap. Oswald she had captured with his hair flopping over his forehead gazing whimsically over the top of his spectacles as if interrupted by the artist as he too sat with a book in his hand.
They were both astonished at how well she had caught their likenesses and Oswald asked, ‘Oh, can we swap, Lucy? I’ll have the one of you and you have mine. And dearest clever sister, will you draw one of yourself and send it to me?’
‘Oh, yes, and one for me too, Eleanor, please,’ Lucy agreed. ‘How talented you are. You must sign them too, as you are sure to be famous one day.’
They wrapped them carefully and put them in their suitcases, and Lucy wondered what her room-mate would say if she put a picture of her cousin on the wall.
On 23 August came an official announcement which, although expected, filled everyone with fear and dread as the struggle soon to be named the battle of Mons began with the British army’s first engagement in France.
Oswald wrote to Lucy after he read of the British soldiers who were now fighting on French soil, asking if they could meet one Sunday if she had the time. He suggested that he could come to the hospital to meet her and they could take a walk on Hampstead Heath.
It was a soft September Sunday when they met and set off for the heath. There were many people of the same mind, walking up the hills or by the ponds; some were swimming, others just sitting on the grass enjoying a picnic. Any thought of war seemed to have disappeared as children flew kites high in the sky or fed the ducks.
‘Let’s sit, shall we?’ Oswald said when they reached the top of a rise, and they sat on a bench overlooking Hampstead and the city of London. He put his hand in his jacket pocket and drew out a bar of chocolate for them to share.
‘Do you remember when we were children and visited Pearson Park for the first time?’ Lucy said, gazing wistfully down over the green grass. ‘We were all there, Edie and her brothers, your mother and Pa and you and me; we took a picnic and played cricket.’
He laughed. ‘Yes! I was furious with Pa for forgetting the cricket bat and we had to use Stanley’s.’
‘It belonged to Max,’ she corrected him. ‘He came too because it was his bat! Funny, isn’t it – the odd things we remember.’
Oswald put his head back and his face up to the sun as he remembered. ‘That’s right.’ He turned to gaze at her. ‘I was going to be a sworn enemy of everybody because I was the first to be out!’
‘What fun it was,’ she said reminiscently. ‘And I fell in love with Max because I thought him so handsome and he chose me for his team.’
‘Did he? Did you?’ He seemed astonished.
She nodded. ‘I was only young, wasn’t I?’
‘You were; we all were. Are you still?’
‘Am I still what?’ She pointed up at the sky as a blue and yellow kite battled with a green one, both being flown by young men and not children. ‘Young?’
‘In love with Max?’ he murmured.
She looked at him and laughed. ‘No! The last time I met him, which was quite some time ago, I thought him arrogant and egotistical. Neither did he have a very good opinion of women. Did you know that he sacked Edie for asking for time off? I was furious on her behalf!’
‘Oh, my word,’ he said in mock fright. ‘I must try never to upset you.’
‘You never do,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘Max always seemed to be such a polite caring sort, but I don’t know if it was really genuine. I think perhaps he’d cultivated it for their shop customers or to impress people. I remember your mother saying how polite he was.’
‘Mmm,’ he commented. ‘Are you studying behavioural characteristics during your training or is this something that you have naturally acquired?’
Lucy glanced at him to see if he was teasing, but he wasn’t, he was looking at her very seriously. She hesitated before answering, touching her mouth with her fingers, and his eyes followed the movement.
‘Lucy?’
‘Erm, it’s part of our reading matter, yes,’ she murmured. ‘But I find it a very interesting subject.’
Oswald turned his gaze down the hill and sighed. Changing the subject, he asked, ‘Do you know if Edie knows where Josh and Stanley are? Have they been sent abroad with their regiment?’
She noticed a small dark cloud hovering to the west and thought that the atmosphere between them had also changed. ‘She receives letters from them,’ she said. ‘As their mother does, of course. The last I heard was that Stanley was in Serbia but was expected home to help in the recruiting drive. She didn’t mention Josh. I suppose he’ll have been sent abroad. Why do you ask?’
‘It’s just that I’ve heard from one or two of the chaps I made friends with at Cambridge.’ He hesitated, and then went on, ‘They tell me that they’re going to join the military, and asked if I would join them.’
Aghast, she put her hands to her face. ‘And will you? Surely you won’t. Oswald, say that you won’t!’
‘It wasn’t part of my plan,’ he pointed out. ‘I’m a pacifist at heart and I won’t enlist voluntarily, but if conscription is brought in then I’ll have to. I’ll play my part, but not as an officer. I’d join the troops.’
‘I do hope it doesn’t come to that, Oswald.’ Her voice wavered as she spoke. ‘I’d be so afraid for you, and your mother would be too.’
‘All mothers will be afraid,’ he said gently. ‘And wives and sweethearts as well.’
She nodded. ‘And sisters and cousins too.’
He gave a wry smile. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Those too.’
His reason for asking about Joshua and Stanley had been that he’d thought he would write to them and find out which regiment they were in, so that if the worst came to the worst he could try to join them. But there was something else troubling him. He would, he was sure, enjoy his work once he had settled in to something specific, but it seemed to him that there were things happening that he wasn’t privy to; official-looking groups of men were constantly coming and going, being closeted with senior management for hours at a time, and even the researchers who had been there for many years didn’t know, or if they did were not saying, what was going on.
‘Come on,’ he said, standing up and taking her arm. ‘Let’s go. It’s looking like rain. Let’s find a café and have a cup of tea before I catch my train back.’
They walked arm in arm down towards Hampstead village. Neither said much, both busy with uneasy thoughts; there had been a change in atmosphere, a cold wind blowing and rain clouds overhead. Life was going to be different, not only for them but for everyone; no one would escape whatever was coming, not the smiling young couple pushing a baby in a perambulator up the hill towards them, not the young errand lad, whistling as he cycled by, not the man up a ladder painting window frames or the young woman in the café who served them tea from a china teapot. This was to be a time of change and both were anxious and rather afraid.