No Peace for Amelia Read Online Free PDF Page A

going to Flanders to fight the Hun!’
    Amelia’s heart did a little leap inside her chest. Flanders meant Belgium, where the war was. Gallant little Belgium, people used to call it, when the war started. Nobody said that so much any more. But who was the Hun?
    â€˜What?’ Amelia asked, gently disengaging herself and brushing Lucinda’s fringe out of her eyes, so that she could look at her. ‘What did you say, Lucinda? Frederick is going to the war ?’
    â€˜Yes!’ said Lucinda in a strangled voice. She was rather enjoying being the grief-stricken sister, and she hung her head, so that her burnished curls trembled in an affecting manner.
    â€˜To fight who? I mean, whom?’ asked Amelia, still trying to get the story straight in her mind.
    â€˜The Hun of course. The Bosch.’
    â€˜The Hun? The Bosch?’ They sounded like monsters or machines.
    â€˜Yes of course, you ninny. The Germans. Who do you think we’re at war with? Anyway, the thing is, Frederick has joined up. He just marched into some horrid recruiting office in Grafton Street, and he’ll be gone by the day after tomorrow!’ And here she gave another effective little sob.
    â€˜Lucinda, I don’t understand. Quakers don’t go to war. Frederick is a pacifist. Isn’t he? He must be. We all are. Aren’t we?’ Amelia was quite confused.
    She was remembering Frederick’s outburst on the train on Sunday. He had sounded quite the conventional Quaker, showing his abhorrence for this war. Hadn’t he? Or had he? She tried to remember his exact words – war is beastly, people get killed, not a laughing matter. At the time, they had sounded like anti-war views, but of course you could read them as just the apprehensive thoughts of somebody about to join up and under no illusions as to the seriousness of his action. Then a thought struck her:
    â€˜They haven’t conscripted him, have they?’ she asked. ‘I thought there wasn’t any conscription in Ireland.’ No, they couldn’t have. Amelia was sure Mama had been involved with other Quakers in a successful campaign to oppose conscription in this country.
    â€˜No. That’s the awful thing. He wasn’t conscripted. Hewent and enlisted, voluntarily. Isn’t it dreadful? Mama is distraught.’
    â€˜Prostrate,’ corrected Amelia absently. No wonder Frederick had been so uneasy on Sunday. She was right to think he was trying to tell her something. What a piece of news!
    â€˜And Papa …’
    â€˜Is nearly out of his mind with worry and anger.’
    â€˜How did you know?’ asked Lucinda in surprise.
    â€˜Oh, you know, one can imagine,’ replied Amelia. ‘But why, Luce? What can have possessed him?’
    She searched her own mind for the answer. And why hadn’t he told her all this the other day? He must have been afraid she would have tried to dissuade him. Would she have? She supposed so, but she wasn’t sure. Why wasn’t she sure?
    â€˜That’s the thing. He won’t say why. At least, he’s been rowing a bit with Papa lately, I suppose. Maybe he’s trying to …’
    Lucinda spilt out a long and complicated story of family tensions which she thought must be the cause of Frederick’s taking this extraordinary step. Frederick had finished school some months before and had joined his father in the family business. They had not been getting on together at all, Lucinda said. Frederick didn’t like the office, he didn’t like the work, he didn’t like working with his father. In short, he was deeply unhappy with his life at the moment. The war, dreadful as it was, musthave looked like a way out, a chance to prove himself as a man, separate from his family and away from his father . But what a course of action! No wonder his parents were in such a state!
    Amelia sat down and tried to assess her own reaction to this piece of news. Her