Flora's War Read Online Free PDF Page A

they can play sports, write letters, read magazines and newspapers and borrow books. A place to have tea and conversation with British ladies, rather than –’ Mrs Travers stopped short, glanced sideways at Gwen, and coughed.
    ‘Rather than what, Mama?’ asked Gwen, innocent as a kitten.
    ‘Rather than frequenting bars and being cheated in the bazaar,’ said Frank. He gave Gwen a warning look.
    ‘Yes. Exactly. Rather than, uh, things like that.’ Mrs Travers looked at Frank gratefully. ‘Lady Bellamy has procured a pavilion in the Ezbekieh Gardens suitable for the purpose,’ she went on. ‘Would you be willing to help, Flora? Most of the soldiers are a long way from home, and they’re very young.’ She turned to my father. ‘Of course, the girls would be suitably chaperoned at all times.’
    ‘Well, I suppose,’ I said. I looked at my father. ‘But I do have work on the excavation.’
    Mrs Travers rode over my objections. ‘Oh, it would only involve a morning or two a week. I’m sure your father can spare you for that.’ She smiled at Fa sweetly. ‘You will have no objection, will you, Mr Wentworth?’
    It wouldn’t really have mattered if he had, I thought. Mrs Travers was highly experienced in getting her way. And it seemed she was very keen on assisting Lady Bellamy.
    ‘Did you know about this?’ I muttered to Gwen when I could.
    Gwen shrugged again. ‘It’s a new scheme to me,’ she said. ‘But Mama only had tea with Lady Bellamy today, they must have discussed it then. I rather wish she’d ask me before she gets me involved in these schemes, but she always wants to please Lady Bellamy and keep in with her crowd.’ She looked thoughtful. ‘I’ll ask Frank sometime exactly what unwholesome activities the soldiers get into, the ones Lady Bellamy wants to save them from.’
    ‘Do you think he’ll tell you?’
    Gwen giggled. ‘Probably not. But it’ll be fun watching him trying not to tell me.’
    ‘I wonder if the soldiers actually want to be saved from their unwholesome activities,’ I said.
    ‘I wouldn’t expect so. Tea and conversation sounds awfully slow to me,’ said Gwen. ‘Maybe no soldiers will come to the rest and recreation centre and we’ll have nothing to do. They’ll all be too busy having a good time doing who-knows-what.’
    That seemed likely to me. Whatever the soldiers got up to, I was sure it had to be more entertaining than tea and magazines and polite conversation with heavily chaperoned girls.
    When we’d finished dinner, we all moved out onto the terrace. Professor and Mrs Travers, Frank and Fa sat down in cane chairs around a low table, and a waiter brought coffee. Gwen and I strolled towards the far end of the long terrace, watching the lights shivering and trailing across the surface of the river as dusk deepened.
    ‘It’s lovely to be back here,’ sighed Gwen. ‘Just think, it’d be freezing in Boston.’
    ‘It’s cool here, too,’ I pointed out. The temperature had dropped sharply from the warmth of the day and we were both glad of the light shawls we’d wrapped around our shoulders.
    ‘Yes, but it’s not cape-and-galoshes-and-gloves cold,’ Gwen said. Suddenly, she stumbled. I caught her arm to steady her. ‘Oh! Oh, I’m so sorry!’ Gwen apologised. I looked down and saw she’d tripped over a pair of boots sticking out from a tall cane settee with a protective sun hood over it.
    ‘Damn!’ a woman’s voice said.
    ‘I’m so sorry,’ Gwen went on. ‘I just didn’t see you. Did I hurt you?’
    ‘No, no, not at all,’ the voice said. ‘And I can’t blame you for not seeing me. I didn’t mean to be seen!’ The person the voice belonged to was moving hurriedly in the darkness. She seemed to be trying to hide something. What was she doing? I wondered, intrigued. A small light appeared and a wisp of smoke curled around us. In the light of a match, a young woman’s face looked up at us.
    ‘Oh!’ said Gwen. There was a long pause.