Page 84 of The Gathering Storm (Morland Dynasty #36)

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Beth needed me. It was good to be needed.’ He didn’t say, You never did .

He also didn’t say that Beth had reminded him a little of Polly, in looks, never in character.

He had the sensation of walking on a thin sheet of glass over a chasm.

He had no idea if it would take his weight.

‘You went out with film stars,’ she said. ‘Did you never want to marry them? Ethel told me – she saw it in a magazine – last year you were with Anthea Taylor.’

‘I was never “with” her. I escorted her. It’s a Hollywood thing. Film actresses don’t like to arrive at public events unescorted. They like to have a man’s arm.’

‘All women do,’ Polly said, in a low voice. Then, ‘Didn’t she want to marry you?’

‘I didn’t want to marry her.’

‘Poor lady.’

‘No. She fancied herself in love with me for about five minutes, that’s all. It wasn’t real. It was just because I was there, and apparently unattached.’

‘Apparently?’

‘There was always you.’ Now he looked at her. ‘I don’t know how to say it to you. Now I’m here, I feel as if I’ve never been away. Morland Place feels like home. But you are – you’re Polly. So far out of my league—’

‘Out of your league ?’ she queried, screwing up her nose.

‘It’s an American expression. It means I am not worthy of you. You are my goddess.’

The glass might have shattered then, but instead Polly started laughing, a healthy, natural laughter. ‘ Goddess! ’ she choked. ‘You are ridiculous!’

He smirked, reluctantly. ‘That’s right, trample on my tenderest feelings.’

‘I’m not a goddess,’ she said, looking at him at last. The next sentence broke from her as if she hadn’t meant to say it. ‘I’m lonely.’

He squeezed her hand. ‘You needn’t be,’ he said. ‘I’m here.’

‘But you won’t stay. You’ll go back to America. You called it “home”.’

‘Slip of the tongue. I don’t want to go away. I never want to go away. I’ll stay as long as you want me. As your friend, your cousin—’

She felt a sharp disappointment. ‘I have enough cousins.’

‘Friend, then?’

‘I don’t want a friend.’

‘What do you want?’ he asked, hardly daring to breathe.

She met his eyes seriously, staring at him as if measuring something, questioning something. He felt, as if it were a tangible disturbance of the air, the awakening of her physical desire. ‘It’s not fair to make me say it,’ she said, in the breath of a voice. ‘The man ought to.’

‘I’ll say it then. Do you want a husband? Because I want you that way. As a wife.’

She didn’t answer, but he knew this was the moment to kiss her.

Zephyr jerked back in surprise at the movement, as their arms went round each other, but was checked by his reins. He observed, ears pricked, for a moment, then resumed grazing. The kissing went on for a long time.

As part of the re-drawing of borders after the war, under the Versailles settlement, the Czech Republic was merged with Slovakia into a new country.

Czechoslovakia was a parliamentary democracy, but it was held together only by a fragile coalition in government.

There was high unemployment in the industrial areas, which had never recovered from the Depression, and nationalist Slovaks wanted independence.

Another problem was that certain territories of the old Austrian Empire – sections of northern and western Bohemia and northern Moravia near the Sudeten mountain ranges – had been designated part of the new Czechoslovakia.

These areas were inhabited by three million German-speaking, German-leaning people, who from the beginning wanted autonomy within the Czech state.

Their demands escalated after the Austrian Anschlu? : the Sudeten German Party under Konrad Henlein was Nazi in all but name, and wanted Sudetenland to secede from Czechoslovakia and become part of Greater Germany.

The Czech government grew nervous. In May, rumours had abounded that Hitler was intending to invade and seize the whole country.

Sudeten Germans threatened uprising and the Czechoslovak government ordered a partial mobilisation. Europe held its breath.

Over the summer, France and Britain, under the auspices of the League of Nations, tried to broker a solution, hoping to gain enough concessions for the Sudeten Germans to calm things down.

Above all they wanted to avoid war. But on the 12th of September Hitler made an inflammatory speech at the Nazi Party rally on the Czech ‘menace’.

The Sudeten area responded with violent uprising, the Czechoslovak government declared martial law, Heinlein and other Sudeten leaders fled to Germany.

‘That’s why Chamberlain went to Germany, to meet Hitler face to face,’ Richard explained to Cynthia.

It was a cool, damp September evening, and Cynthia had had the fire lit.

It was burning rather sulkily – the weather had been so warm until now that this was the first fire in months so the chimney was cold and wouldn’t draw properly.

She was a little distracted from the conversation by wondering whether to get down on her knees with a sheet of newspaper, or to pile on more coal and hope for the best.

‘It was pretty brave of Chamberlain to fly over there,’ Richard went on.

‘Apparently, he’d never been in an aeroplane before, so you can see how serious he thought the situation was.

He and Hitler agreed between them that, to avoid worse problems, the Sudeten Germans should be granted self-determination.

Now Chamberlain has to persuade the Czech government to let them go, and in return Hitler promises not to invade. ’

Cynthia frowned. ‘That doesn’t sound like a very fair bargain. What right has Hitler got to invade anyway?’

‘The same right as he had in Austria,’ said Richard. ‘The right of arms. He’ll do it because he can.’

‘You don’t think it’s settled, then. You think he will invade?’

Richard stared at the feeble flames. ‘France is bound by treaty to support the Czechs, and we’re bound to support France.

If the Czechs let the Sudetenlands go, it will calm things down for a bit, but for how long?

We know what Hitler’s ambitions are. And you’ve only got to look at a map.

The Czech state is completely surrounded on three sides by Greater Germany.

He’ll want to draw that line across the fourth side and have it all. ’

‘Countries aren’t a matter of straight lines,’ Cynthia said.

‘I know, dear. I wasn’t being flippant. But that’s how dictators think. They don’t consider real people. It’s toy soldiers on a paper battlefield to them.’

‘Are there Jews in Czechoslovakia?’ she asked, after a moment.

‘Yes,’ he said, having had the same conversation with Samuel earlier that day. ‘I don’t know how many, but I think about three hundred thousand.’

She was silent.

‘Britain and France will warn Hitler of the consequences if he invades Czechoslovakia,’ he said, hoping to reassure her, though it didn’t reassure him.

On that day, the 27th of September, the Royal Navy had mobilised.

Expectation of war was heavy in the air, like approaching thunder after hot summer days.

She was looking at her hands, clasped in her lap and twisting uncomfortably. ‘I went to see the doctor this morning,’ she said.

War was forgotten. ‘Are you all right? I thought you were looking a bit pale. What did he say?’

Now she looked up. ‘He said I’m going to have a baby.’

He didn’t know what to say. He slipped to his knees in front of her and took her in his arms.

‘Are you pleased?’ she said at last, muffled by his shoulder.

‘Oh, my dear,’ he said, ‘so pleased!’ He set her back a little and scrutinised her. ‘But how are you feeling? Is he worried about you? What did he tell you?’

‘He said I’m all right. He said I must be careful, that’s all. Not to exert myself. Not to lift anything heavy. Are you really pleased?’

He smiled at her. ‘I’m very, very happy. Do your mother and father know?’

‘I haven’t told them yet. I wanted to tell you first.’

‘We’ll tell them together, then. Tomorrow. You’ll have to give up working at the office.’

‘I don’t lift heavy weights at the office,’ she objected.

‘But he said not to exert yourself.’

‘I don’t want to be left here all alone day after day for months and months.’

‘Perhaps you ought to move back in with your parents.’

She gave a painful smile. ‘Don’t be silly. I’ll come to work with you in the car and come back at night. You mustn’t fuss, Richard. Women have been having babies for thousands of years.’

‘But they weren’t you,’ he said, standing up. ‘Shall I make you a cup of tea? Do you want a hot-water bottle?’

‘Just a cup of tea,’ she said, her eyes shining with amusement. ‘Richard!’ She called him as he reached the door, and he turned. ‘I love you,’ she said.

It was not something they commonly said to each other. ‘I love you, too,’ he said.