An Unmarked Grave

CHAPTER NINE

ONCE AGAIN, THE decision was taken out of my hands in a very unexpected way.

We left the church finally, for there was no place here to rest. I couldn’t take the American to the convent to stay for what was left of the night. It would have required too many explanations as to why I was bringing him with me, and the elderly nuns there would have felt uncomfortable if I simply told them that he too needed somewhere to stay. A British nurse didn’t arrive with an attractive young man in tow, orderly or officer.

We found a small hotel on one of the streets not far from the cathedral, and Captain Barclay went in to bespeak a room. When I was certain he was being given one, I removed my telltale cap and apron, then hurried through the dark, empty streets alone, back to the convent. I reached for the knocker to summon someone inside.

It was several minutes before anyone appeared.

Surely even at this hour someone was awake, acting as porteress.

I knocked again, glancing anxiously over my shoulder. And I was just in time to see a figure sliding quickly into the deeper shadows of another doorway some four houses away.

More frightened than I cared to admit-for myself and for the nuns inside-I tried to think what to do. Screaming wouldn’t help, and if I left the convent, I would be vulnerable with nowhere to turn.

I was on the point of leaving when the convent door opened at last and the elderly nun standing there said, “My dear,” in French. “We were at our devotions. Is anything wrong?”

I glanced again at the spot where I’d seen the figure disappear. And at that same instant, he stepped out of the shadows and lifted a hand in salute before turning back the way I had come.

Captain Barclay had followed me-and while I was in a way glad of his protection, I was also angry with him for not staying safely in the hotel where I’d thought I’d left him.

“Who is that man?” the nun asked, peering after him.

“He’s an orderly. He wished to be sure I was safe, late as it is. As it turned out, my transport was delayed.”

“How very kind of him,” she said, nodding. “But do come in, my dear, out of the damp air. It will do you no good.”

I smiled and thanked her, and followed her into the kitchen, where a light still burned. There she saw me clearly for the first time and said, shocked, “But what has happened to you!”

I had forgot how disheveled I must appear. “A motorcar came along,” I answered, trying to stay as close to the truth as I could, “and in my effort to avoid him in the narrow street, I slipped and fell into a shrubbery.”

“You must wash your face and hands. And brush your hair. I will see to your garments. You can’t leave us in the morning, looking like this. It would not be proper.”

I thanked her again, and very shortly afterward, she saw me to the room I’d used earlier, offered me a warmed nightdress again, and gently closed the door.

Feeling a little better, I thought I might sleep. Instead, I tossed and turned, my mind unsettled over what to do.

I refused to eat breakfast in the morning, knowing how little the nuns had to spare, and hurried back to the hotel where I had left Captain Barclay. In the early light I could read the sign-L’HOTEL DE LILLE-and I stepped inside to find the clerk, a heavy man in his late fifties, just coming back on duty.

I said briskly, “Would you please tell my orderly, Private Barclay, that Sister Crawford is waiting for him in Reception?”

The clerk smiled, offered me a chair, and went up the stairs. After a few minutes, he came down again.

“The Private is not in his room.”

“Not-has he come down for breakfast already?”

“I regret to say, it appears he has not slept in his room. I opened the door when there was no response.” He shrugged. “He was not dressed properly. I thought perhaps he was… not what he appeared to be.”

Taking that in, I said, “May I see for myself?”

“But of course, Mademoiselle.” He escorted me up the stairs to the second floor and a room that overlooked the street. It was simple-a bed, an elderly wardrobe, a chair, and a table that could be used for meals or as a desk. The bed hadn’t been turned down, and even the counterpane was smooth. No one had even sat down upon it. I could see that for myself.

“When did you last see my orderly?” I asked.

“He took a room, went up the stairs, and in a moment had come back down again, going out at once.”

To follow me through the streets.

“And then?”

“I went to bed, Mademoiselle.”

“Yes, of course.”

I thanked the clerk and went down the stairs again, thinking furiously.

What had become of Captain Barclay? Surely he hadn’t been set upon in the streets after leaving me safely at the convent door!

Was he lying hurt somewhere? But I’d taken the same route from the hotel and back to it this morning. I hadn’t seen anything to arouse my suspicions.

Outside once more, I debated, and then finally went to the nearest police station, to ask if there had been any trouble in the area during the previous night.

“My orderly was to meet me this morning. He’s missing,” I explained.

But there had been no trouble, no arrests, no calls for assistance. The gendarme in charge assured me that it had been a quiet night. “They often are, Mademoiselle. There is little money for drunkenness and even less to steal.”

I nodded, then asked where someone would be taken if he had been found injured on the street. “If he was English, Mademoiselle, he would most likely be carried to the American Base Hospital.”

“Yes, of course.”

Once more I was back in the street, this time on my way to the American Base Hospital in what used to be Rouen’s handsome racetrack.

The orderly minding the gates was yawning prodigiously as he stretched, as if it were past time for him to be relieved.

I asked him if an American or British or Canadian soldier had been brought in during the night. “Someone found injured on the street, perhaps?”

“There’s been a convoy of wounded, Sister, but only nine men this journey. All from sector aid stations. No one else has been brought in since well before midnight.”

Then where had Captain Barclay got to?

I thanked him and went to find the officer in charge of the port.

He couldn’t help me at first, and then he spoke to his sergeant, on the off chance there was any information that hadn’t yet been officially reported.

The Sergeant, eyeing me with interest, said, “There was an orderly who couldn’t account for himself wandering the streets last night. He’s been taken up for desertion. I’ve sent to the Base Hospital to ask if he’s one of theirs and what we should do with him. So far there’s been no answer. And that’s been several hours.”

“Taken up for-” I exclaimed. It was the last thing that had crossed my mind. “Could I see this man, please?”

“It’s a military matter, Sister,” the officer told me politely. “He isn’t the person you’re looking for.”

“Yes, I understand about the military matter,” I said. “But I must also locate my missing orderly before I report to my own sector. If you have him, then I can explain why he isn’t with me.”

“What was he doing in the streets of Rouen, then? If he’d come in with the wounded, why didn’t he say as much?” The officer was losing patience with me.

“I don’t know. He’d been hurt himself.”

“In a fight most likely,” the Sergeant muttered. “We had a-there was a spot of trouble bringing him in.”

I stood there, waiting. Finally the officer said, “All right, Sergeant Brent. Take her to him. If she does know him, we’ll have a name, and then we can find out what he’s running from.”

I wanted to tell the Major that this particular man was resisting arrest because he was to meet me in the morning at the Hotel de Lille. But that would never do.

The Sergeant led me through the maze of the port to the small square building where miscreants and deserters were held until their situation could be determined. As I neared it, the odor of urine, stale spirits, cigarette smoke, and unwashed bodies struck me.

Three of the men incarcerated here were, the Sergeant told me, drunk and disorderly. He asked me to wait outside, and after a moment he brought out a reluctant Captain Barclay, who blinked in the watery morning light and then recognized me. There were new bruises and scrapes on his face, but I read the message in his eyes quite clearly.

Watch yourself.

I took a deep breath before I spoke.

“What’s to become of him, Sergeant?”

His gaze never leaving the Captain’s face, he said with some satisfaction, “He doesn’t have the proper papers to be in Rouen. Desertion is a capital offense, and so is spying. And if you ask me, he looks more like a blood-a German officer than an orderly. He doesn’t even sound like an Englishman.”

“Yes, well, I expect that’s because he’s Canadian. He’s an orderly, one Private Barclay, and Dr. Hicks can vouch for him.”

“And who is Dr. Hicks when he’s at home?” the Sergeant demanded, turning to look at me. I was suddenly grateful for the nuns’ care in cleaning my coat and cap. The Sergeant was prepared to think the worst.

I told him, but it made no difference. Dr. Hicks wasn’t here, and he wasn’t likely to leave his post to come here and identify this man, much less explain why he had no pass.

We were getting nowhere.

I said, “Very well, take me back to the Major. He’ll have to deal with this matter.”

Turning on my heel, I started back the way I’d come, and the Sergeant was hard-pressed to usher Captain Barclay into his cell and still catch me up before I reached the Major.

I said, as I was summoned to his presence, “The man you have in custody is one Private Barclay, a Canadian. If you will contact Colonel Crawford through the War Office, you will be told why Private Barclay is in Rouen.”

“Sister Crawford? Any relation to this Colonel?” he asked, dubious.

“That’s not the issue here. Please contact the Colonel immediately. It’s urgent business, and he will not care to have this man in your custody any longer than absolutely necessary.”

“How is it that you know so much about this matter?”

I said, showing my exasperation, “I was asked to provide a reason for Private Barclay to pay a brief visit to Rouen. He was the driver who accompanied me when I was transferring patients from the forward aid station to the Base Hospital here.”

He didn’t believe me. But I thought perhaps he was just curious enough about what was going on to contact London.

The Major said, his voice sour, “And if that’s the case, why wasn’t a pass provided?”

“You must ask Colonel Crawford the answer to that. I expect there was no time to see to it.”

“Why Rouen? And why weren’t we told?”

“I’m not Colonel Crawford, Major. You must ask him. I’m overdue at my own post, and must make arrangements to return. I wish you a good morning.”

Before the Major could think of a reason to detain me as well, I left his untidy office and walked away from the port with some misgivings.

And what was I to do now? I was hungry and it was starting to rain. I had no papers assigning me to transport to England, and I wasn’t likely to be given them by this officer. I still had no way to reach my father. My best hope was that the Major would indeed contact him, and once the Colonel Sahib heard that Captain Barclay was in difficulty, he would assume that I needed help as well.

The only thing left to me, then, was to go to the Base Hospital, beg paper and pen, and then haunt the port until I found a Naval officer I knew by sight. With a smile and some excuse such as not having had time to write before this, it might be possible to persuade him to carry my letter to Portsmouth and post it there.

The American nurse in charge this morning looked askance at me when I was ushered into her tidy office. The small board on her desk identified her as Nurse Bailey.

“Sister Crawford? What can I do for you?”

“My transport back to the aid station hasn’t come,” I said pleasantly. “Is there somewhere I could sit and write letters? They will reach England sooner if I can hand them to someone at the port.”

I could see that she was of two minds about offering me space. She was new to me, a small woman with light brown hair and a thin scar on her cheek. Pursing her lips, she considered me.

“The convoy back to your sector has already left,” she told me primly. “You came in with wounded, I think? I was just going off duty.”

I held on to my patience. “I’ve been posted to Passchendaele. Ypres. I was to meet someone here to transfer me to that sector. But he hasn’t come.”

“On the contrary. He was here looking for you at six o’clock this morning.”

She lifted a sheet of paper from a basket to one side of her desk and read what someone had written there.

“ ‘Driver arrived for one Sister Crawford. He was informed that she was not staying with us, and he left. No message.’ ”

“Indeed!” I said, repressing the urge to look over my shoulder. “Who took that down, may I ask?”

“Nurse Saunders, I believe. She would have been on duty.”

“Would it be possible to speak to her? It’s rather important.”

“It is not possible. What are we to do with you, Sister Crawford? It would seem-and I must say your appearance rather bears it out-that you have mislaid your driver, rather than the other way around.”

I lost my temper. It had been a long night, I’d had a fright, dealt with the recalcitrant port authorities trying to release Captain Barclay, and now this woman was treating me as if I had spent the night carousing and found myself too late for my transport. I’d only come here for pen, paper, and an opportunity to write to my father.

I said coldly, “If you care to look into my movements, I suggest you send someone to the convent where I spent the night. The nuns there will be happy to confirm that I chose to stay with them rather than go to an hotel as a woman alone. Now, will you allow me to write my letters or not?”

“I think not, Sister.” She reached for paper and took up her pen. After a moment she considered what she had written and then said, “Your nursing service has very high standards, Sister Crawford. I am sending you to England for proper disciplining. One of our orderlies will escort you to the port, see you aboard the first available ship bound for Portsmouth, and hand this letter to the First Officer to be delivered to the proper authority as soon as you land at your destination. Do I make myself clear?” She was reaching for an envelope as she spoke, inserting the letter into it and sealing it.

I had to bite my tongue at the reprimand. I was getting what I wanted, actually, an opportunity to sail to England straightaway. Once there I could deal with these charges easily enough. And I could reach my father by telephone when I had landed, and set Captain Barclay free even sooner than I’d expected.

And then I had a brilliant notion.

I said, in as petulant a tone as I could muster, “It’s not fair that I have to be sent home. What about the orderly who got me into this trouble? The port authority is holding him, but is he being sent home in disgrace? I think not! You are a woman, Nurse Bailey. Do you think it right that he escapes scot-free? He’s in the Army Medical Services just as I am. Because he’s a man, should his dereliction of duty be seen in a lesser light than mine?”

I watched her eyes. They narrowed as I was finishing.

“I have no authority over the port officials.”

“The Major there would most likely honor any request coming from the American Base Hospital.”

She was tempted.

“At the very least, you could try,” I pleaded. “He’s quite handsome, Barclay is. I tried to withstand his advances, that’s why I went to the convent, but he followed me from the Hotel de Lille. Thank God he was stopped and asked for his papers! I don’t know what he would have done.”

She considered me for a moment, eyes narrowing again. Finally she rose from behind the desk, asked the direction of the convent, ordered me not to leave the room, and for good measure locked the door behind her as she went out.

I sat there fuming for over an hour. Had she believed any part of my story, or had I only succeeded in ruining my own reputation for no purpose? Time was passing, and I was locked in here.

Halfway through the long wait, I felt a spurt of horror. What if she’d gone in search of my driver instead? If he came here, promised to deliver me to Ypres as ordered, would she feel that I had learned my lesson and remand me into his care?

Surely not. He had gone long before this.

When I finally heard the key turn in the lock, I tried to make myself look frightened and contrite.

Nurse Bailey came in accompanied by a man dressed in the uniform of an orderly, but he was older, and I guessed-correctly as it turned out-that he was in charge.

I was told that he would escort me to the ship waiting on the river even now, and that he would deliver the letter Nurse Bailey had written to the First Officer, as she had intended from the start.

I didn’t protest when he took my arm and led me out of the small room, through the passages, and out the gate of the hospital.

We walked together to the port. I was escorted up the gangway and handed over to a young officer who looked at me as if I were carrying the plague. Disgust was writ large in his face, and whatever he’d been told, he’d believed every word of it. I was conducted to the quarters of one of the officers and once more locked inside.

After a while I heard the sounds of the ship weighing anchor, then moving with the tide as it prepared to follow the river to the sea.

I’d failed to get Captain Barclay freed, but I’d be in Portsmouth in a matter of hours.

My worry now was, could I reach my father once I got there? Or was he off on one of his mysterious forays and out of touch for days on end? What could Mother do in his stead? Was Simon even well enough to attend to this?