Eleven Eleven - By Paul Dowswell Page 0,49

early this morning,’ said one man.

Will’s mood abruptly changed. He felt a terrible gnawing anxiety. Jim should have rejoined his unit by now.

‘What about Ogden? Hosking?’

The man shook his head. ‘Sorry, lad. No sight of any of them.’

Will returned to Eddie and Axel. He remembered the medical orderly’s instructions. Keep the wounded man talking. That would keep his mind off Jim.

A young Belgian woman wandered by to peer at the three of them. Eddie started rambling. ‘Looks like my girl Janie Holland,’ he told Will. ‘Same curly brown hair. Not as pretty though.’ He laughed. ‘Left me for a sailor. From what I heard, he’s twiddling his thumbs on a destroyer somewhere south of Iceland. Nice work if you can get it. Nearest they’ve come to sinking a submarine is spotting a whale!’ Eddie let out a long sigh. ‘Maybe I should have joined the navy.’

Will heard a familiar voice. It was Lieutenant Richardson. ‘Franklin. How did you end up here?’ Will explained that they had been ambushed and scattered. ‘Have you seen Sergeant Franklin?’ he asked eagerly. ‘Is he back with the platoon?’

‘No sign, nor any of the others on the forest patrol,’ said Richardson. ‘Still, nil desperandum. I’m sure they’ll be joining us soon. We’re mustering here for a pep talk by the colonel. But I want you to stay here with this injured man. And keep an eye on this Hun lad too. When the ambulance chaps get here, you can take your prisoner to the rear.’

Will nodded. Axel was staring into the distance and looked no threat to anyone. Some colour was coming back to Eddie’s cheeks. He would be OK if an ambulance arrived soon. Will racked his brains for things to say, to keep Eddie talking, but it was difficult to think when he didn’t know whether his brother was dead or alive.

CHAPTER 19

12.00 noon

The town-hall clock struck out its slow chimes. Axel sat at the side of the square with Will and Eddie. They seemed to have forgotten about him for the moment.

Axel no longer noticed the cold of this chilly November morning. He looked at the leaden sky and the square that was filling up with English soldiers – more King’s Own, by the look of their badges – and he felt indifferent to everything. Maybe it was the shock of being nearly blown up and lynched on his first day in combat, or of seeing his comrades killed before his eyes. He felt a great weight of exhaustion, as heavy as the grey sky, pushing down on him. He rested his body against a stone column on the front of the town hall and for a few moments he slept.

He awoke with a start, dreaming about explosions and the horrible sight of that dead soldier in the crater. But he was still alive. In an instant a spring of joy seeped into his soul.

The soldiers in the square seemed strangely muted for a victorious army, almost dazed. While everyone was ignoring him, Axel wondered if he could slip away now, back to his own unit. He supposed they would be somewhere to the east.

But he felt safe where he was, motionless in the corner of the square with Eddie and Will. He was like a sparrow in the forest, perched on a branch beneath the canopy, hidden from circling hawks unless he broke cover into the open sky.

On the far side of the square the soldiers were forming themselves into ranks before the railway station. There were hundreds of them. A sergeant called out and they fell silent. A senior officer, judging by the smartness of his uniform, stood on the steps leading into the station and began to address them all. Axel looked on him with scorn. Here was a man who had been a safe distance away from combat, he supposed, come to the Front, in his shiny boots and immaculate creases and pink, shaved face, for the last hour of the fighting.

As he looked across the square, Axel suddenly remembered where he was. The last few hours had been so extraordinary, so terrible, it had quite escaped him. This was the town he had marched through after they had disembarked from the train. Was it really only nine hours ago he had been here before? It seemed like half a lifetime.

As the soldiers continued to gather outside the railway station, he remembered with horror the men he had seen on the roof the previous night. Hadn’t they been