Read Online Valour and Victory by Candy Rae - Free Book Online

about which way to turn,” Dolvin admitted with
a faint laugh.
    “Any better
now?” was Hilla’s shot.
    “Much better,”
he answered, rising to the bait with equamity, “least I never
dropped a pike down on anyone’s head not like some people I could
mention, someone sitting close to me too.”
    Hilla had the
grace to blush. “Don’t let’s discuss past follies,” she pleaded, “I
still run when anyone mentions the word pike!”
    “What will you
do if you’re gazetted to one of the pike battalions?” asked Dolvin
with interest and some malice.
    “Major
Bellahouston isn’t that stupid,” put in Jen with a
sympathetic glance in Hilla’s direction. “It’s probably written
down in gigantic capital letters in her training records that such
a posting would be an enormous recipe for disaster and one likely,
no sure to, bring discredit on the entire Garda.”
    Hilla, who had
been looking alarmed managed to force out a laugh with a rueful
shake of her head, remembering all too well all the extra
pike-drills the said Sergeant had put her through to help her to
scrape through that section of her training. “Anyway,” she said,
believing in taking the war into the enemy’s camp if at all
possible, “who was it who promised us all a brace of plump rabbits
at the beginning of that ‘living off the land’ exercise last year
and how many did he and his partner bring in?”
    “Two,” answered
Paul, “but they were big ones.”
    The four of
them giggled at the memory. Hilla snuck a private look at Jen,
remembering their own activities during that eventful three
days.
    “At least you
two girls managed to ‘bring home the bacon’,” said Paul in a
generous voice. “These fish fed us all with some to spare. How you
managed to catch so many I’ll never know.”
    Hilla snuck
another look at Jen, one that asked ‘shall we tell them what really
happened’?
    Jen nodded, her
eyes dancing.
    “Perhaps it’s
time we told you the truth,” she said with a burble of
laughter.
    “Truth? What
truth?” asked Dolvin who had forgotten all about his
sea-sickness.
    “We all ate
them,” said Paul, “do you mean that you didn’t catch them, that
they were just lying there in a row waiting to be picked up? Pull
the other one, do.”
    “You’re close,”
said Jen with an arch look. “Leftenant Hallam said not to tell
anyone but I don’t think it matters now.”
    “Just promise
not to tell anyone else,” added Hilla.
    “We promise. We
promise,” said both young men, eager to hear about how the two
girls had done it.
    Jen began to
tell them the story in a low voice. Dolvin and Paul listened,
erupting into gales of laughter as Jen told them about the great
plan that had gone awry when Robain Hallam had caught the two of
them taking the basket of fish out of the river.
    Hilla listened
with perhaps half an ear. That had been the day that had marked the
beginning of her and Robain’s relationship.
    She wondered
where Robain was. It was almost a year since she had seen him and
his letters had been few and far between. She didn’t even know if
he still thought of her the way he had used to, didn’t know if they
still had a future together.
    Hilla closed
her eyes and tried to shut her ears. She didn’t want to listen to
stories about these happy times.
    She was no
longer sure if she still wanted to marry Robain. Perhaps when they
reached Duchesne, he would be there; he had hinted that he was
going to the southern continent in his last letter. He might be
waiting for the army at the staging area Wilf Taplin had been
talking about.
    In a strange
way, Hilla half-hoped he wouldn’t be there. She had enough to worry
about concerning the campaign without that complication.
    Hilla forced a
smile on to her face and joined in the conversation again, much to
the relief of her three friends who had been wondering about her
lack of responsiveness to their quips. The two boys were being
profuse in their admiration about her and