Harvest of War (19 page)

Her reverie was broken by the sight of familiar faces on the dockside. Victoria and Luke were waving excitedly and very soon she was embracing them both.

‘How are you? Are you exhausted? The sea's really rough today. Were you sick?'

‘No, I'm fine. You know me. I'm never seasick.'

‘How's Tom?'

‘He's doing really well. He's started painting again and we've found an excellent man to look after him. He's going to be all right.'

Her luggage was loaded into a horse-drawn cab and they set off through the city. As they drove Victoria told her how they had distributed half the extra food and clothing to the Serbian soldiers in the garrison on the morning of the Orthodox Christmas.

‘You should have seen their faces! It was heartbreaking in a way to see how pathetically grateful they were. But they were so thrilled. I saw one officer line up his whole platoon and go along the line giving each man a spoonful of jam. They looked as if they were being given manna from heaven! I made sure they knew it was from you, and how hard you had worked to get the money. General Bojovic wants to thank you personally.'

Listening to her, Leo thought that it was a long time since she had seen her so animated. This new expedition had been good for her. Perhaps, she reflected, she had needed to get away from London. Luke said little, but his ready, boyish grin had returned.

‘And you have kept plenty back for the men in Bitola?' she said.

‘Oh, yes. But the road is still closed through the mountains. We shall have to wait until spring to deliver that.'

They arrived at length at a small hotel on the outskirts of the city.

‘It's not very grand, I'm afraid,' Luke said, ‘but accommodation is hard to find since the fire.'

‘This will do perfectly,' Leo said, glad that there was nothing here to remind her of the room she had shared with Sasha through those blissful summer days.

That night at dinner she began to realize that the excitement she had sensed in Victoria and to a lesser extent in Luke was not simply the result of the success of their mission. Nevertheless, she was stunned when Luke said, ‘Leo, there's something we have to tell you. Victoria and I are going to be married.'

‘Married!' Leo put down the wine glass she had been about to raise to her lips. So many questions crowded into her mind that for a moment she was unable to speak, but the glow on her friends' faces was irresistible. She got up and went round the table to kiss them both. ‘I'm so pleased for both of you. You're made for each other. I'm sure you will be very happy.'

‘It wasn't an easy decision for either of us,' Luke said. ‘After all, I'm asking Vita to move to a distant country and take on a ready-made family. But Anton and Nadia really need a mother.'

‘Yes, I can see the difficulty,' Leo said. ‘But I presume you're happy with it, Vita?'

‘The distant country, or the ready-made family?' Victoria asked with a smile.

‘Well, both.'

‘I know I told you years ago that I wouldn't consider moving to the other side of the world, but things are different now. I'm different. My wild motor-racing days are over and what I really want now is a bit of peace and stability. And Luke has convinced me that life in New Zealand can be wonderful. To hear him talk about it, you would think it was an earthly paradise.'

‘So it is,' Luke chipped in.

‘As to the family . . . well, I've never thought of myself as the maternal type, but I'm willing to give it a try. I just hope they take to me.'

‘Of course they will,' Luke said. ‘And there's still time for another addition.'

Leo saw a shadow cross Victoria's face. ‘That's . . . well, we'll have to wait and see.'

‘I wish you every happiness,' Leo said, but a chill was beginning to creep round her heart at the thought of losing her friend. ‘I just wish you weren't going to be so far away.'

‘As to that,' Luke said, ‘you made me a promise years ago that you would come out and visit. I'm going to hold you to it.'

‘Yes, you must come,' Victoria added. ‘And bring Alexandra with you. You never know, you might decide to settle there too.'

‘It's good horse country,' Luke put in.

Leo smiled. ‘I will come, one day. I promise. When do you plan to leave?'

‘Not until you've found your daughter,' he said. ‘We won't leave you to search on your own.'

Alone in her room that night, Leo tried to reconcile herself to the news. She knew she should be glad for Victoria and reminded herself that years ago in Adrianople she had been furious with her for refusing Luke's proposal. But she could not rid herself of the feeling that yet another one of those dearest to her was being taken away.

When Victoria came into her room to wake her next morning she found her standing at the window with tears running down her face.

‘Oh, my dear, what is it? What's wrong?' Victoria put her arm round Leo's shoulders. ‘It's not because of me and Luke, is it?'

‘No, no,' Leo assured her, wiping her eyes. ‘I just realized that it is a year ago to the day that Alexandra was born . . . and that Sasha died.'

‘Oh, love! I didn't know. I'm sorry.'

‘How could you know? I had to work out the dates myself. It was all so confused. But I'm sure it's right. My baby is one year old today.'

Victoria squeezed her shoulders. ‘Soon the snow will begin to melt and we'll be able to get through to Bitola and, who knows, to Lavci too. When we find her we'll have the best birthday party we can possibly arrange.'

Later that day Leo went to call on General Bojovic and receive his thanks for her efforts. ‘What is the chance of a new campaign this summer?' she asked.

‘Undoubtedly there will be another attempt to break out,' he assured her. ‘And this time we shall succeed. My intelligence suggests that the Bulgarians have had enough of the fighting. It is only the backing of the Austrians and the Germans that keeps them in the field. By the end of the summer we shall be back in Belgrade.'

Leo smiled and thanked him, but inwardly she was remembering how the same sentiments had been expressed two years earlier.

‘I have a little surprise for you,' the general said. ‘Come with me.'

He led her down to the courtyard of the house he was occupying and shouted an order. A soldier appeared leading a small chestnut horse.

‘It's Star!' Leo exclaimed. ‘How did she get here?'

‘She was sent back from Bitola at the same time as you, and I have made sure she was looked after. I knew you would return some day.'

Leo was tempted to throw her arms round the general but checked the impulse in case it was seen as bad for discipline. So she ran down the steps from the door and embraced the horse instead. Star nuzzled her pocket and whickered softly and Leo allowed herself to believe that the little mare remembered her.

‘Thank you, General!' she said. ‘Thank you so much. I can't tell you how much this means to me.'

Over the following days Leo renewed her acquaintanceship with a number of old friends. They all expressed their delight at seeing her back, looking fit and well, and tactfully sympathized over Sasha's death. Victoria and Luke had already made arrangements to borrow mounts from the French cavalry regiment stationed in the city and the three of them rode out every morning. In the evening they were often invited to dine with various officers and their families or with local residents. It was not unlike the happy days Leo had spent there before, but she could take very little pleasure in it. Each morning she looked out of her window at the distant mountains and hoped to see signs of the snow melting, but winter seemed reluctant to relax its grip.

At long last a messenger arrived from Bitola: the road was open again and the town was desperately in need of supplies. Leo, Victoria and Luke left in the first convoy, in a car loaned by the general himself, escorted by a detachment of Serbian troops. It was a long, hard drive, over roads flooded by the melting snow, and when they came in sight of the town Leo had to suppress a cry of distress. Bitola had been battered when she was there the previous winter, but now there was hardly a building standing. It seemed hard to imagine how the garrison had held out so long.

They found Dr Pierre Leseaux still at work in what remained of the hospital. He was thin and worn and looked ten years older, but he greeted Leo with his usual warmth.

‘
Bienvenue, ma chère!
I am so glad to see you well again. Really, the transformation is amazing. When I sent you off back to Salonika I was not sure that you would survive the journey.'

‘I wouldn't have survived at all if you hadn't found me and pulled me out of that snow drift,' Leo said. ‘Patty told me how you saved my life.'

‘Ah, Patty! Do you hear from her? How is she?'

‘She's nursing in France. She writes when she can and when I last heard she was well.' She turned to introduce her two companions and Pierre shook their hands warmly.

‘I am afraid I can offer you very little in the way of hospitality, but now that the supplies have arrived perhaps we can manage a good dinner.'

‘Please don't worry about us,' Victoria said. ‘We've both worked at the front in various places, so we're used to roughing it. And we're not here as guests. We'll work for our keep. I've been driving ambulances and Luke has worked as a stretcher-bearer, so we can both make ourselves useful.'

‘And of course I'll help out, too,' Leo said. ‘I'm sure you can do with extra hands.'

‘Always!' the doctor agreed. ‘The bombardment of the city seems to have stopped, for the time being at least. But we still have casualties to care for, and there are many cases of frostbite and general sickness of one kind and another. But you did not come here for that, I know. Leo, can you forgive me for what I did? I had to find someone to care for your baby, or she would have died. I hope you understand that.'

‘I do, now,' Leo said slowly. ‘But did you have to send me away?'

‘I sent you to Salonika because I felt we could not care for you properly here. It was not my decision to put you on that hospital ship for England. But perhaps it was for the best. You would not have regained your health so quickly here. Now, you have come back to search for your child, but alas, I have to tell you that Lavci is still in Bulgarian hands.'

This was a blow, but not unexpected. ‘Has there been any communication?' Leo asked. ‘Is there any chance of getting a message to the family?'

‘I fear not. The area has changed hands several times over the last year but at the moment all the approaches are guarded by Bulgarian troops.'

‘General Bojovic assures me that there will be a new attempt to break through this summer,' Leo said. ‘I suppose I must just try to be patient.'

They had brought the best that Salonika could offer in the way of wine and provisions with them and that evening they sat down with Pierre and what remained of his staff to a better meal than the beleaguered medical team had seen for months. There was taramasalata and artichokes, and roast suckling pig and the first fresh green vegetables of the year, and pastries rich with almonds and honey. As the wine bottles emptied there was a general air of celebration, but Leo could only think of the village a few miles away up the mountain road and wonder how long it would be before she could reach it.

The next day they presented the comforts they had brought from England to the Serbian troops in the garrison and saw their pinched, half-starved faces light up.

‘It's so little,' Leo said with a sigh. ‘But it means a lot to them.'

After that, it was back to the familiar routine of work in the hospital and the apparently endless wait for something to happen.

Then one day they heard that there had been renewed fighting along the River Vardar and in the Struma area. It seemed the summer offensive had started at last. A week later a messenger rode into town and the commandant of the garrison sent word that he would like to see Leo as soon as she was free.

‘I have good news for you!' he said as soon as she appeared. ‘According to the men I have posted on the heights above Lavci, the Bulgarians are pulling out.'

‘Pulling out!' Leo felt she could hardly breathe. ‘Why?'

‘Perhaps to reinforce their lines elsewhere. I hear they are being pushed back by our troops.'

‘Are you sure? Are they all going?'

‘It's too soon to tell. But I will keep you informed.'

For three days Leo existed in what felt to her like suspended animation. Then word came that the last Bulgarians had left the village and the road was clear. A small force was sent out to investigate and Leo, with Victoria and Luke beside her, mounted on borrowed horses, went with them. The snow had melted from the lower slopes now and the mountainsides were green with new grass. Acacia blossoms overhung the road and the alpine pastures were starred with tiny pink orchids, but the evidence of the recent conflict was everywhere in the craters left by shells and the debris of broken gun carriages and spent cartridges.

Victoria looked around her. ‘This place must have been lovely in peacetime.'

Leo lifted her face to the hills and took in the view for the first time. ‘Yes, it must. But how long will it take to restore it to the way it used to be?' She rode in silence for a moment. Then she said, ‘Am I doing the right thing, Vita? She's been with this other family for over a year. She will think of that other woman as her mother. Do I have the right to drag her away?'

‘She's only a baby,' Victoria said. ‘She will soon forget. Just think of how much better her life will be with you. Think of all the advantages you can give her.'

As they rounded the last bend in the road Leo had to put her hand to her mouth to suppress a cry of horror. The village lay ahead of them, but all that remained of it were ruins. Not one single building stood higher than a few courses of the once-sturdy stone walls. As they rode into what had once been the main square there seemed to be no sign of human habitation and Leo gazed around her with a sense of disbelief. All the way up the road she had been preparing herself for meeting her daughter, trying to envisage the scene, wondering how the child would react, what she would look like. And now there was nothing except emptiness.