Page 205 of The Armor of Light

‘Does that make a difference?’

‘Well, if he was hungry...’

‘Suppose he had stolen something else? What would you say if he took your toy soldiers?’

The soldiers were Joe’s most treasured possession. He had more than a hundred, and he knew the rank of each by its uniform. He often lay on the carpet for hours, fighting imaginary battles. Now he was disconcerted. After a minute’s thought he said: ‘Why would he steal my soldiers?’

‘For the same reason that he stole a pink ribbon – to sell and use the money to buy bread.’

‘But they’re my soldiers.’

‘But he was hungry.’

Joe was so torn by this moral dilemma that he was on the verge of tears. Seeing that, his mother, Bel, intervened. ‘What you’d probably do, Joe, is let him play soldiers with you, and ask the cook to bring him some bread and butter.’

Joe’s face cleared. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘And jam. Bread and butter and jam.’

Joe’s problems were solved, but there was no parallel available for such as Tommy Pidgeon. However, Hornbeam did not say that. There was plenty of time for Joe to learn that not all life’s problems could be solved with bread and butter and jam.

*

Elsie went to see Jenn Pidgeon and make sure she was all right. She crossed the double bridge and followed a track to Morley’s farm. Before she got there she saw Paul Morley in a field and he told her that Jenn lived in a lean-to at the back of his barn. She found the place, but no one was there. It was about the poorest home Elsie hadever seen. There was one mattress and two blankets, plus two cups and two plates, but no table or chairs. Jenn had not been merely short of money, she had been destitute.

Mrs Morley was in the farmhouse and said Jenn had left late yesterday. ‘I asked her if she was all right, but she didn’t answer.’

Elsie’s journey had been in vain, and she headed back to the town. Approaching the bridge from the southern side, she saw a man coming along the near bank. He had a fishing rod strapped across his back, and he carried in his arms something that made Elsie’s heart stand still.

As he got closer she saw that it was a woman, in a dress so wet it was dripping as he walked.

‘No,’ said Elsie. ‘No, no.’

The woman’s head, arms and legs all dangled helplessly from her body. She was completely unconscious, or worse.

Elsie was shocked to see that the woman’s eyes were wide open, staring up at the sky and seeing nothing.

‘I found her at the bend in the river, where all the rubbish fetches up,’ the man said. Judging by Elsie’s clothes that she might be a person of some authority, he added: ‘I hope I done right to bring her.’

‘Is she dead?’

‘Oh, yes, and cold, too. I reckon she went in the water yesterday after dark, and no one seen her till I come along. I don’t know who she is, though.’

Elsie knew. It was Jenn Pidgeon.

Elsie stifled a sob. ‘Can you bring her to the hospital on Leper Island?’ she said.

‘Oh, yes,’ said the fisherman. ‘Easily. She don’t hardly weigh nothing, poor thing. Nothing at all.’

*

Napoleon never invaded England.

He took the army he had gathered at Boulogne and marched them east, to the German-speaking territories of central Europe. They engaged with the Austrian army, and that autumn the French won battle after battle: Wertingen, Elchingen, Ulm.

However, England’s Royal Navy won a major sea battle off the coast of Spain, near Cape Trafalgar, to national rejoicing.

Then in December the French defeated the combined Austrian and Russian armies at Austerlitz.

And so, year after bloody year, the war dragged on.