Evie's War by Anna Mackenzie Page A

out such a yell that he startled awake, wild-eyed and rigid. I have seen the look before and gave him a reassuring smile, whereat he held my gaze. There are things that Mother and Aunt Marjorie will never know about this War, but that cannot now be unknown between Edmund and I.
22 July
    I forgot yesterday to write that Winifred on Monday received a note from Mr Lindsay, dated the same day as mine but somehow delayed. So we are even!
    Edmund will by now be back in France. I wish more than ever that it were over, and can only trust that Uncle Aubrey is right when he says it will be so before Christmas. One can’t help but remember the same being said last year.
24 July, Deans Park
    Lady B has come up with a splendid scheme, being the formation of a local branch of the Girls’ Friendly Society — patroness, one Lady Braybrooke — with Millie and Eugenie amongst the founding members. Aunt Marjorie is quite puffed up. Mother, somewhat less enraptured by Lady B, wonders rather loudly ‘whether we are all to become so swept up in the War that we risk forgetting where our Home and Duty lies’. Aggravating that one should be constantly admonished to Support The War Effort, but that, on doing so, one is accused of Neglecting One’s Duty At Home. Clearly Mother’s first duty is to ensure Father’s comfort and attend to William, while Aunt Marjorie’s lies with her children and household. Those duties attended, surely my time may be freely contributed to the War Effort? At the very least I should think I might be allowed to decide for myself where my Duty is spent.
Sunday 25 July
    At Millie’s request I attended the founding meeting of the GFS, held in the Church Hall immediately following Morning Service. There are seven girls, aged from eleven to fifteen, and their first project is to produce surgical dressings and bandages, of which I heartily approve. Lady B caught me off guard with a proposal that I should speak about my work. As changing men into pyjamas after washing mud and blood and worse from their limbs is not a topic for girls so young, I simply said that I assisted with each new intake of wounded and attended their needs while they remained in Hospital — for which I received a strapping round of applause and blushed like a beet! Millie looked proud as could be. For good measure I assured them how useful additional medical supplies will be.
30 July, 1st Eastern
    Another exhausting week, with an endless stream of ambulances unloading their sorry cargoes. I was walking along the Backs this morning as they poured by one after another, after another — they do make a fearful racket. An Auxiliary Hospital is being opened in town to take some of our medical cases, as we simply cannot keep up.
3 August
    A note from Major D: he is keeping well and often thinks of the care given him at 1st Eastern, without which he says he would have remained in decline.
4 August
    The War has lasted a year. All agree it cannot go on much longer.
5 August
    Matron sent for me and bid me sit, which I took to be a bad sign. It was, though not as dreadful as I first feared. A soldier admitted to the Hospital has asked for me by name and Matron wished to check that I knew him. It is my half-brother Harry, from whom I have heard nothing since our meeting of four months ago. When I explained that he was a relative whom I had newly met, she told me his ward and allowed I should visit.
    Harry appeared pleased to see me. He has suffered a compound fracture of the femur and is in considerable pain. I sat with him for half an hour, during which he asked about my work in the Hospital, and I told him quite honestly that I had previously had no notion of undertaking such a job, but at least now felt useful, and that, though it is hard, I would be loath to give it up. He next asked whether I would take up nursing as a career. I could not answer that for I do not know, and said only that I thought it impossible for