The Child Left Behind

‘Are you coming?’ he said to Christy.

‘Might as well,’ Christy said good-naturedly. ‘Though, God knows, you are the Devil’s own company. Let’s walk into the town and see if a few drinks will put a smile on your face.’

The canal was a busy thoroughfare through the week because as well as carrying produce in from the farms, it transported broken military equipment. On Sunday, however, the water was quiet and still, and the ground the other side of it was a carpet of fallen leaves. Finn was morosely kicking them in front of him when suddenly, coming down Rue de Dunkerque, Finn saw the two Jobert girls dressed in the matching blue coats, bonnets and muffs that they had worn to Mass, and they were alone.

At Mass he hadn’t dared look at Gabrielle directly; now, as he drew nearer, he noticed just how fetching she looked in the bonnet that framed her pretty little face, and the blood ran like liquid fire in his body as he said with a smile, ‘Bonjour. May I say how very fine you both look?’

‘We cannot speak to you,’ Gabrielle said with a panicky look around her. ‘If word was to get back to my father, it would be too terrible to contemplate.’

‘We mean you no harm,’ Finn said.

Before Gabrielle was able to answer, Christy added, ‘I hope you didn’t get into trouble for speaking to us this morning.’

‘No, neither of us did, thankfully,’ Gabrielle said, ‘but only because my father was unaware of it. But to tarry here is madness, and if word got to my father, my mother would be in trouble too.’ And so saying, she pulled Finn into the relative shelter of a large weeping willow at the water’s edge.

Finn looked at her in puzzlement. ‘Why?’

‘Because Maman is supposed to guard us,’ Gabrielle said almost bitterly. ‘You see, my father retires each Sunday not long after dinner because he has to be up in the early hours to put on the ovens to bake the bread. My mother is supposed to accompany us on our walk, but she is tired from working in the shop all week.’

‘She usually has stomachache too,’ Yvette said.

‘Yes,’ Gabrielle said. ‘Our poor mother is plagued with indigestion and it is always worse after a Sunday dinner, for all she eats so little of it. Anyway, I am seventeen years old. I can look after myself, and Yvette too. My father would like us both locked up in a dungeon with him as the gaoler. But we must go now. I’m sorry.’

‘We could meet you in the jardin public,’ Yvette said. ‘We normally go there anyway when the weather is fine. We only came here today because Gabrielle thought it was going to rain.’

‘Yvette, what are you suggesting?’ her sister scolded.

‘Nothing,’ Yvette said.

‘We can just meet to walk and talk together,’ Finn said hopefully.

‘Come on, man,’ Christy said irritability. ‘You must see that this is crazy.’

Strangely it was Christy’s words that lit the small flame of defiance in Gabrielle’s soul. What was wrong with walking and talking with two respectable young soldiers far from home, and Roman Catholic soldiers, no less? Some of her old school friends were engaged to be married, despite the war that had taken many young men away. It was no shame now to walk arm in arm with a British soldier about the town and she had seen many who did. They were, after all, allies of the French, and if she was to agree to meet with them again Yvette would be with her as her chaperone.

If her father got to hear, she decided, then she would deal with it, though she felt a little icy finger of fear trickle down her spine at the thought because her father’s rages did frighten her. And yet she knew that if ever she was to have a life of her own, she had to learn to stand up to him.

‘Yvette is right. We could meet at the jardin public next Sunday, if the day is a fine one.’

‘I think you are both courting danger,’ Christy said. ‘Anyway,’ he turned to his friend, ‘doesn’t it depend on whether we have time off or not? We are in the army, unless it has escaped your notice, and our time is not our own.’

Gabrielle shrugged. ‘If you cannot come, there is no harm done,’ she said. ‘If it is fine Yvette and I will be there at about half-past two. It is what you English call a park,’ Gabrielle said, ‘and it is at the other side of the town, not far from the cathedral where you were this morning. Do you think you could find your way there?’

‘I think so.’

‘Well then, wait at the bandstand,’ Gabrielle said. ‘You will have a full view then of the main entrance. We will not come over to you or acknowledge you in anyway but make our way to the woodland further in. You wait a few minutes and join us there.’

She saw Finn’s eyes open wide in astonishment. She grabbed hold of his hands and he felt the tingle from her touch run all through his arms as she said earnestly, ‘Believe me, I am not being overdramatic. This—oh, what do you call it?—this subterfuge is necessary to protect us both.’

‘All right,’ Finn said, reading the fear in Gabrielle’s eyes. ‘It will be done just as you say.’

‘You’re a fool, Finn Sullivan,’ Christy said as the two girls left them.

‘You can only say that because you have obviously never felt this way about anyone,’ Finn said as he watched them walk away.

‘No, I haven’t,’ Christy said. ‘And I’ll take care to see that it stays that way. Seems like a mug’s game to me. Now, are we going for this drink or not?’

The following Sunday afternoon the sky was overcast, the air felt cold and there was a bristling wind. ‘I hope we’re not too late,’ Finn said to a reluctant Christy, as they hurried towards the park.

‘How could we be?’ Christy answered. ‘We set off from the camp at two o’clock sharp and it doesn’t take more that fifteen minutes to walk here—less at the pace you set.’

‘I just wanted to be sure we were on time.’

‘What you want is to have your head examined,’ Christy commented wryly. ‘But we have already gone down that road and you don’t listen to reason. Now settle yourself. If they have decided to come out today, despite the fact that it would be far more comfortable to sit by their own firesides, they’ll be along shortly. If there is no sign of them in about fifteen minutes or so, I am going to find myself a nice warm bar somewhere and have a drink, and you can please yourself.’

‘They’ll be here,’ Finn said firmly. ‘I’ve been almost daily to the shop. If Gabrielle wasn’t going to turn up for some reason then I’m sure that she would have found some way of telling me.’

He had been very careful to try to keep his excitement in check that morning when he served Captain Hamilton his breakfast, but he was unable to keep the smile from his face.

In the end, Hamilton said, ‘What the devil is pleasing you so much, Sullivan?’

‘Nothing, sir.’

‘Something damned well is,’ Hamilton snapped. ‘You’re grinning like a Cheshire cat. Got a fancy for a woman or what?’

The blush that flooded over Finn’s face gave Hamilton his answer and he laughed. ‘So that’s it, you sly horse. Glad to see that you have taken my advice and got over Gabrielle Jobert. I hope the girl you’re seeing is a decent sort.’

‘Oh yes, sir.’

Finn knew that the captain would be singing a different tune entirely if he had been aware who he was waiting for that bleak Sunday afternoon. He might easily have him transferred back to his battalion, and in disgrace too. Gabrielle wasn’t the only one who wanted the liaison kept secret.

A few minutes later, from his vantage point on the bandstand, he saw Gabrielle and her sister cross the road and enter the park. They didn’t approach, or even look in his direction, but followed the path round, and Finn thought five minutes had never passed so slowly before he could set off to meet up with them. ‘Bonjour, Mademoiselles Jobert,’ Finn said as he approached them.

He spoke to them both, but his eyes were fastened on Gabrielle and when she blushed Finn thought she was more beautiful than ever.

Yvette laughed. ‘My name isn’t Mademoiselle Jobert. I’m just Yvette and my sister is Gabrielle.’

‘And I am Finn Sullivan,’ Finn declared, as they began to walk on through the trees. ‘And this is my friend, Christy Byrne.’

‘Well, I am very pleased to meet you both,’ Gabrielle said. ‘I was surprised to see you at Mass last Sunday and then again this morning. I don’t recall ever having seen a man from the British Army at Mass before.’

‘Well, although I am in the British Army, Christy and I are from Ireland,’ Finn said. ‘And that, like France, is a Catholic country.’

‘Ah, yes,’ Gabrielle said. ‘I wondered what the accent was. I couldn’t quite place it.’

‘We are in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers,’ Finn explained. ‘We have a fair few Catholics in our regiment.’

‘Then I am surprised there were not more soldiers at Mass,’ Gabrielle said.