Read Online Winter Roses by Amy Myers - Free Book Online Page B

would be helping her, but Phoebe claimed she was too busy now she was working as a postwoman. Caroline suspected that Phoebe, after the death of her young soldier sweetheart, could not adjust to the company of other soldiers. She had returned to her previous job at the Crowborough army camp canteen, but had seized the first opportunity of leaving, even though this had meant helping Caroline again. Agriculture and Phoebe did not mix well, even in wartime, and at Caroline’s first mention of soldiers to bring in the hops, she had rushed off to take another job. How long would that last, and what would be next? Caroline dreaded to think. Father had remarked rather sadly to Caroline that times were not only changing, but if his post was to be delivered by his own daughter, they were metamorphosing into something unrecognisable.
    ‘I had hoped to play Horatius,’ he had said to her, ‘stemming the rush across the bridge of time, but instead I find myself playing King Canute, demonstrating that the tide of time can’t be held back. You were right, Caroline.’ A rare admission indeed.
    ‘Where now, Simon?’ Tilly asked, after they had made their way out after the dazzling finale. ‘The Carlton?’ Simon’s addiction to its restaurant was a standing joke.
    ‘No. We’re taking a few rickshaws up west.’
    ‘Just as well,’ Tilly retorted drily. ‘It looks rather unwelcoming over here.’
    Looking upwards, Caroline could see the sky criss-crossed with searchlights some way away.
    For a moment Simon’s eyes met Caroline’s, both thinking of last October. ‘We must go,’ he said lightly. ‘The chow mein will be getting cold. I’ve booked at one of these new Chinese restaurants.’
    ‘Good,’ Caroline said immediately. ‘Here be oysters,’ and all humming the chorus from the show, they turned their backs on the war. Their confidence worked, for no Zeps came that night.
    The next day Felicia and Tilly elected to go down to Ashden immediately, George and Phoebe went off on their own, and Caroline decided to take a walk with Penelope in Kensington Gardens, of which she had always been fond. Her plans, however, were disrupted when Isabel arrived, just as she was setting out. Unfortunately Robert was not with her, and this was an Isabel she recognised of old.
    ‘Oh, Caroline, it’s terrible.’ She flung herself into her sister’s arms.
    ‘What is, Isabel? Robert? Bad news?’ She was instantly sympathetic, for something terrible must have happened to cause this outburst on Robert’s short leave.
    ‘No,’ she sobbed. ‘ Me .’
    Of course.
    ‘Oh, Caroline,’ Isabel wept on, ‘you were right after all. Robert says I’ve got to go to East Grinstead. We had the most frightful row this morning. I’ve come straight here, I knew you’d understand.’
    ‘You can’t leave poor Robert alone on his leave, Isabel, whatever’s happened.’ Caroline was horrified.
    ‘You don’t understand. He says there’s no alternative. The Army are taking over The Towers and Hop House from the end of hop-picking. That means in less than a month . Oh, Caroline, I shall die, I know I shall.’
    Caroline tried to comfort her, even while battling with her own mixed reactions to this news. ‘East Grinstead isn’t so far away. We can travel to see you by train, and you can come to see us.’
    ‘It’s the end of the earth,’ Isabel moaned. ‘And how can I be expected to live with Edith and William? That’s another thing. I’m supposed to call them Mother and Father. I won’t. They’re not my father and mother, and Robert is being perfectly beastly about the whole thing.’
    ‘Why? He’s not usually so dogmatic.’
    ‘He says he doesn’t want me living on my own again. You don’t think – oh, Caroline, last year, you didn’t say anything to him about that misunderstanding over Reggie and me?’
    Caroline blenched. ‘No. It’s hardly something I’d boast about, is it?’
    ‘I suppose not.’
    Dear Isabel. Her