There was another switch, for a central light, by the door. When this opened, and the light was switched on, ‘Spectre’ West was seen standing there.
“Oh. I beg your pardon,” he said distinctly, before switching off.
Sasha called out, “Hullo, darling!” as she turned over to reach the switch of the bed-head lamp. “Phillip and I were just talking about you. Were your ears burning, darling? Oh don’t go! Darling, look! I’m in my dressing-gown!” She followed him through the door. He heard her say, “I was just coming, darling, cross my heart, but dropped in to say good-night to Phillip, and found him shivering with cold——”
She came back a minute or two later, and said, “I suppose I am the Scarlet Woman of Flowers’ hotel after all.”
“Is that what he called you, Sasha?”
“Oh heavens no! Someone called me that once—who was it—Lord Something—one of the new ones—‘Streaky’ Southbend, the Golden Grocer. I suppose I am a bit that way, if one comes to consider it in the light of Methodism.”
“Where did Harold go, Sasha?”
“Back to his room. Only he’s locked the door. I don’t think I quite deserved that, darling.”
“I ought to go to him.”
“No, leave him alone, darling. I’ll go and calm him later on. He’s such a poor lost child, really. All you soldier boys are lost children.”
She got in beside him, and bent over to kiss him. He felt a tear fall on his forehead. He lay tense, thinking of Westy. What would he think of him? Had he come between Westy and Sasha, as he had between Desmond and Lily? He must go to Westy. He lay still.
“You hold on to your ideals, darling,” she said, kissing him on the cheek. “I love you dearly, you are so sweet.”
He lay unhappily still, until he heard footfalls along the passage. He got out of bed, pulled on slacks and tunic, and in bare feet hurried to Westy’s room. It was unlocked and empty. Returning along the passage he put on socks and shoes and ran down the stairs. The night porter was in his lodge, stirring a cup of tea beside an open bottle of saccharine tablets.
“Have you seen Major West?”
“’Im as just went out? With a black patch over one eye?”
“All ’e said to me was Good night and a ’Appy Noo Year, as ’e give me a dollar. Took ’is ’aversack wi’ ’im, so I reckon he’s gone, sir.”
Phillip went back to find Sasha. The bed was empty. He dressed, and went after Westy.
Devon.
May 1957–May 1958
By the Same Author
by Henry Williamson in Faber Finds
THE FLAX OF DREAM
The Beautiful Years
Dandelion Days
The Dream of Fair Women
The Pathway
The Wet Flanders Plain
A CHRONICLE OF ANCIENT SUNLIGHT
The Dark Lantern
Young Phillip Maddison
How Dear Is Life
A Fox Under My Cloak
The Golden Virgin
Love and the Loveless
A Test to Destruction
The Innocent Moon
It Was the Nightingale
The Power of the Dead
The Phoenix Generation
A Solitary War
Lucifer Before Sunrise
The Gale of the World
Copyright
by Faber and Faber Ltd
Bloomsbury House
74–77 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DA
All rights reserved
© Henry Williamson Literary Estate, 1958
The right of Henry Williamson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
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ISBN 978–0–571–30999–3