‘It is good that you have found something to do away from the hospital,’ Sophie said. ‘We were very grateful for your help but I should never have forgiven myself if you had contracted typhus.’
Over the next days Leo learned that conducting a siege is primarily an exercise in boredom, especially when the fighting has stopped but peace negotiations have reached a stalemate. She sensed that Sasha was desperate to get away but when she asked why he did not take his Serbians home and leave the siege to the Bulgarians he told her that it was vital to maintain a Serbian presence. She sensed, too, that he was glad to have her company, though she wondered what he saw in her that his officers lacked. She found the clue in their long conversations. They shared many interests in common, and the discussions ranged widely. He was well-read, not only in classical literature but in the works of Shakespeare, which he read in translation, and of German poets like Goethe, which he read in the original. At the other end of the spectrum, they shared a love of the countryside and of country pursuits; particularly anything to do with horses. The morning ride became a regular routine, and in the afternoon, when Malkovic had carried out his inspection, they passed the time playing cards with some of his officers. Sometimes Sasha dictated letters for her to translate into Greek for the commanders in Salonika, but it seemed to her that there was very little in them of much importance and she wondered if it was just a way of justifying her presence.
In the evenings, after dinner, they sat round the campfire and listened to the gusla and the epic songs that retold the history of Serbia. Most of them centred round the reign of King Dusan the Strong, when Serbia had been a proud and independent nation, and the subsequent defeat in 1389 by the Turks at Kosovo Polje, the Field of the Blackbirds. The poems had the power of myths and Leo began to understand their importance in connecting the men around her to a heroic past and justifying their desire to recreate it.
One morning, returning from their ride, she saw that the train of ox-wagons had just drawn up in the road below the hospital. She nudged Shadow alongside Cloud and said, ‘A friend of mine is probably with that convoy. Do you mind if I go and talk to him?’
‘A friend?’ he queried. ‘Another Englishman?’
‘No,’ Leo said, deciding not to embark on an explanation of Luke’s origins. ‘Just someone I worked with in the hospital at Chataldzha. He’s a stretcher-bearer.’
‘Very well, I’ll see you at luncheon.’
Leo wheeled Shadow away and trotted down to the hospital tent, arriving just as Luke was helping to carry a stretcher inside. She tethered the horse and waited for him to come out. He would have walked past her if she had not called, ‘Luke, wait a minute. I want to talk to you.’
He swung round and she was distressed to see how bleak and haggard he looked. For a moment he stared at her, then his jaw dropped.
‘Jeez, Leo! What have you done now? I didn’t recognize you.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I’ll explain later. Why don’t you come up to the tent? The others can finish off here.’
He looked round, then nodded and followed her up to her tent. Inside, he said, ‘Where’s Victoria?’
With deepening distress she realized that Victoria had not told him of her intentions. ‘She’s gone, Luke. A train came in from Salonika with supplies and took most of the patients from the hospital back. You didn’t know? Victoria went with them.’
His face brightened. ‘Oh, then she’ll be back?’
‘No, I’m afraid not. She took the car and she was intending to find a ship to get her home. I’m so sorry, Luke.’
‘Did she tell you what happened?’
‘She said you proposed to her and she turned you down. It was unforgivable. I tried to warn her, weeks ago, what would happen. I knew you were in love with her and that you would assume she felt the same way. She wouldn’t listen.’
He shook his head sadly. ‘I guess I’m too simple for a sophisticated girl like Victoria. I should have known better than to expect her to marry me.’
‘She should have known better than to lead you on like that.’
He was silent for a moment, then he said, ‘And she went off and left you behind.’
‘That was my choice. She would have taken me with her if I wanted.’
‘Why didn’t you?’
‘I . . . I was happy here. I didn’t want to leave.’
‘Happy?’ He looked at her, frowning. ‘What’s going on, Leo? You look as if you’ve joined the army.’
‘No, I haven’t done that. I’m working for Colonel Malkovic as a sort of secretary. You may have seen him at Chataldzha.’
‘Tall guy on a big white horse?’
‘That’s him.’
‘So what’s the big attraction?’
It was Leo’s turn to drop her head. The urge to confide was almost overpowering. ‘He’s . . . I just . . .’
He leaned forward and touched her arm. ‘Are you in love with him?’
‘Yes, I think I am.’
‘So why are you dressed up as a boy?’
‘Because he doesn’t approve of women anywhere near the front line. If he knew who I was he’d send me away.’
He shook his head at her. ‘I can’t see much future in that arrangement.’
‘Nor can I,’ she agreed sadly.
He heaved a deep sigh. ‘What a pity you and I didn’t fall for each other. We could both have been so much happier.’
She forced a smile. ‘Yes, you’re right. But these things don’t happen to order.’
‘You’re right there!’
‘But we are friends, aren’t we? I should be sad to lose that.’
‘Of course we are. Don’t worry. Victoria’s decision doesn’t make any difference to that.’
‘I’m glad. What will you do now?’
He shrugged. ‘Go home, I suppose. The fighting seems to have died down again at Gallipoli. There isn’t much work to do. You don’t fancy a trip to New Zealand?’
‘I’d love to, one day. But not now. I don’t know what I’m waiting for, but I know I have to make the most of this time. You will keep in touch, won’t you?’
‘Of course I will. Except I don’t know how. I don’t have your address. I can’t really address it to “the girl with the chestnut hair who dresses like a boy c/o Adrianople”.’
Leo laughed, relieved to see him recovering something of his old spirit. ‘And I can’t address mine to “the tall, thin, red-headed man who lives in New Zealand”. I’ll give you my home address and you can give me yours.’
She found some paper and wrote her address in Sussex Gardens, then tore it in half and told him to write his on the blank piece. In the hospital mess below a bell rang, summoning the staff to eat.
Leo stood up. ‘My boss will be expecting me back, and you should get some food.’ He stood up too and they looked into each other’s faces. ‘It’s been lovely to know you, Luke. I wish it hadn’t ended like this.’
‘It isn’t your fault,’ he said. ‘It’s been good to know you, too. I wish I could see a happy ending for you, at least.’
‘I’ll survive,’ she said. ‘So will you.’
‘I imagine I will.’ He took her hands and kissed her on the cheek. ‘Take care of yourself.’
‘And you.’
It wasn’t quite the end, because outside the tent he paused to admire Shadow and, remembering their common interest in horseflesh, Leo said, ‘I’ll come and inspect your animals one day.’
‘Make that a promise!’ he said, and walked away down the slope. She watched him out of sight and wondered if she would ever fulfil the pledge.
Nineteen
Two days later, riding back to camp, they saw the train from Salonika steaming in.
‘More supplies!’ Sasha said. ‘Excellent!’
Back in his tent the orderly had just come in with the warm wine when the guard on duty outside put his head round the tent flap.
‘Excuse me, sir. You’ve got a visitor.’
‘Send him in.’
Malkovic was removing his cloak and Leo was pouring wine with her back to the entrance when a voice behind her caused her to slop it onto the tray.
‘Forgive me for intruding on you. My name is Thomas . . .’ Leo whirled round and Tom’s words dried in his throat. He gaped at her and she saw him turn pale, as if he was seeing a ghost, or a vision. Seizing the advantage, she did the first thing that came into her head. She marched across the tent and slapped Tom jovially on the shoulder.
‘Good Lord! Tom! What are you doing here, old friend?’ Then in the same tone, remembering that Sasha spoke no English, she continued, ‘Don’t say anything. If you give me away I shall never forgive you. Let me do the talking.’ Turning to Malkovic she went on in Serbian, ‘Sasha, this is an old friend of mine, all the way from England. His name is Thomas Devenish.’
‘Indeed?’ Malkovic’s eyes had the guarded look she had seen when they first met. ‘Please tell him he is welcome.’
‘Tom,’ she said, reverting to English, ‘this is Colonel Aleksander Malkovic. He has been kind enough to give me a position in his entourage. He asks me to say you are welcome.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Tom croaked. ‘What are you doing dressed like that?’
‘Never mind that for the moment. Just be polite to the colonel.’ She was careful to keep her voice light, as if they were exchanging pleasantries.
Tom advanced as if in a dream and extended his hand. ‘How do you do, sir? I hope you will forgive me for intruding without an introduction.’
Malkovic shook hands with him and greeted him in his own language, adding, ‘Will you have a glass of wine?’
Leo handed Tom a goblet and out of force of habit he raised it to Malkovic. ‘Your health, sir.’
Sasha looked past him at Leo. ‘What has he come for? To take you home?’
‘Oh, no!’ she replied, ‘He is here out of concern for me, to make sure I am all right, that is all.’ She turned to Tom. ‘Did you come on the train? I expect you’re tired.’ His pallor and look of confusion gave credence to the assumption.
‘Yes, but—’
She cut across him, turning back to Sasha. ‘My friend is not strong. He’s exhausted after the journey. Is there somewhere he can rest?’
Malkovic lifted his shoulders. ‘Why not in your tent?’
‘Of course,’ Leo said hastily. ‘Will you excuse us? I think he should lie down at once.’
‘As you please.’ He turned away to his table. ‘I have work to do, anyway.’
Leo looked at him and knew that he was suspicious of this newcomer, and possibly jealous as well. That was something she could try to sort out later. For the moment, Tom was the priority. She took him by the arm.
‘Come with me to somewhere we can talk.’
He nodded and put down his goblet, and they left the tent. Outside he erupted furiously, ‘Leonora, what is going on? Why are you dressed like this?’
‘Don’t call me Leonora! I’m known as Leo here. What are you doing here, Tom?’
‘Looking for you, obviously.’
‘Why now? I’ve been gone for months.’
‘And I’ve been looking for you for months. Have you any idea of the trouble you have caused? I’ve traipsed round half of Europe looking for you. I’ve been arrested and nearly shot as a spy. I’ve been through hell on the battlefields in the west. Have you any conception of what things are like around Skopje and Bitola? I saw horrors I’ll have nightmares about for the rest of my life. And I’ve been ill. If it wasn’t for an American journalist I’d be one more corpse rotting in the mud outside Bitola. And then, just when I was recuperating in Athens and thinking you were safe home and I was free to get on with my life, I get a letter telling me you haven’t gone home and asking me to go back to Salonika to find out where you had got to. And now I find you here, like this!’
Taken aback by this furious tirade from a man who had always seemed to her so lacking in spirit Leo could only say, ‘I’m so sorry, Tom. I never imagined you would come after me. I thought my grandmother might inform the police and I might be stopped at a frontier somewhere, but I never imagined this.’ He said nothing and they walked in silence for a few minutes. Then Leo said, ‘What made you think I was safe at home?’
‘I had a letter from Ralph. He had seen that Mrs Stibbert—’
‘Stobart?’
‘Yes. And he found out that you had not come back with the other women. She told him that you and Victoria were planning to travel via Salonika, so he asked me to go there and find out which ship you were on.’
‘Yes, well, we changed our plans. Victoria went home without me.’
‘I know.’
‘How?’
‘She told me.’
‘You saw Victoria?’
‘After a fashion. She was on board a ship that was just setting sail. We yelled to each other from the deck to the dock. She told me you were here but she said you were nursing typhus patients.’
‘I was when she left. I’m . . . doing something different now.’
‘That much is apparent! Well, I suppose it is something to be grateful for. At least you are away from the danger of infection.’
‘How did you know where to find me?’
‘I asked at the hospital. They directed me to Colonel Malkovic’s tent. But what on earth has got into you, to dress like this?’
They had reached her tent. ‘Come in,’ she said, holding the flap aside. ‘Sit down and I’ll try to explain.’
He sank onto the bed that had once been Victoria’s and she sat opposite. In the close confines of the tent their knees were almost touching.
‘Is this where you sleep?’
‘Yes.’
‘Not with him?’
‘Of course not! What sort of a man do you take him for? He thinks I’m a boy.’
‘Precisely my point!’
She laughed suddenly. ‘Oh come on, Tom! Think about it. It isn’t possible.’
He ran his hand over his face. ‘Of course. I’m sorry. I’m just confused. Dear God, Leo! When I first saw you just now I thought you were Ralph. Not Ralph as he is now, but as he was seven, eight years ago, when we were at school. I felt as though I had stepped into a time machine.’
‘Poor Tom!’ she said, smiling. ‘No wonder you looked stunned.’