Jackdaws

In the hall, nurses bustled about with cups of tea. The soldiers might be here to convalesce, but they still had to be wakened at daybreak. Flick asked for Mrs. Riley, the housekeeper, and was directed to the basement. She found her staring worriedly at the furnace in the company of two men in overalls.

“Hello, Ma,” said Flick.

Her mother hugged her hard. She was even shorter than her daughter and just as thin, but like Flick she was stronger than she looked. The hug squeezed the breath out of Flick. Gasping and laughing, she extricated herself “Ma, you’ll crush me!”

“I never know if you’re alive until I see you,” her mother said. In her voice there was still a trace of the Irish accent: she had left Cork with her parents forty-five years ago.

“What’s the matter with the furnace?”

“It was never designed to produce so much hot water. These nurses are mad for cleanliness, they force the poor soldiers to bathe every day. Come to my kitchen and I’ll make you some breakfast.”

Flick was in a hurry, but she told herself she had time for her mother. Anyway, she had to eat. She followed Ma up the stairs and into the servants’ quarters.

Flick had grown up in this house. She had played in the servants’ hail, run wild in the woods, attended the village school a mile away, and returned here from boarding school and university for the vacations. She had been extraordinarily privileged. Most women in her mother’s position were forced to give up their jobs when they had a child. Ma had been allowed to stay, partly because the old baron had been somewhat unconventional, but mainly because she was such a good housekeeper that he had dreaded losing her. Flick’s father had been butler, but he had died when she was six years old. Every February, Flick and her ma had accompanied the family to their villa in Nice, which was where Flick had learned French.

The old baron, father of William and Diana, had been fond of Flick and had encouraged her to study, even paying her school fees. He had been very proud when she had won a scholarship to Oxford University. When he died, soon after the start of the war, Flick had been as heartbroken as if he had been her real father.

The family now occupied only a small corner of the house. The old butler’s pantry had become the kitchen. Flick’s mother put the kettle on. “Just a piece of toast will be fine, Ma,” said Flick.

Her mother ignored her and started frying bacon. “Well, I can see you’re all right,” she said. “How is that handsome husband?”

“Michel’s alive,” Flick said. She sat at the kitchen table. The smell of bacon made her mouth water.

“Alive, is he? But not well, evidently. Wounded?”

“He got a bullet in his bum. It won’t kill him.”

“You’ve seen him, then.”

Flick laughed. “Ma, stop it! I’m not supposed to say.”

“Of course not. Is he keeping his hands off other women? If that’s not a military secret.”

Flick never ceased to be startled by the accuracy of her mother’s intuition. It was quite eerie. “I hope he is.”

“Hmm. Anyone in particular that you hope he’s keeping his hands off?”

Flick did not answer the question directly. “Have you noticed, Ma, that men sometimes don’t seem to realize when a girl is really stupid?”

Ma made a disgusted noise. “So that’s the way of it. She’s pretty, I suppose.”

“Young'?”

“Nineteen.”

“Have you had it out with him?”

“Yes. He promised to stop.”

“He might keep his promise-if you’re not away too long.”

“I’m hopeful.”

Ma looked crestfallen. “So you’re going back.”

“I can’t say.”

“Have you not done enough?”

“We haven’t won the war yet, so no, I suppose I haven’t.”

Ma put a plate of bacon and eggs in front of Flick. It probably represented a week’s rations. But Flick suppressed the protest that came to her lips. Better to accept the gift gracefully. Besides, she was suddenly ravenous. “Thanks, Ma,” she said. “You spoil me.”

Her mother smiled, satisfied, and Flick tucked in hungrily. As she ate, she reflected wryly that Ma had effortlessly got out of her everything she wanted to know, despite Flick’s attempts to avoid answering questions. “You should work for military intelligence,” she said through a mouthful of fried egg. “They could use you as an interrogator. You’ve made me tell you everything.”

“I’m your mother, I’ve a right to know.”

It didn’t much matter. Ma would not repeat any of it.

She sipped a cup of tea as she watched Flick eat. “You’ve got to win the war all on your own, of course,” she said with fond sarcasm. “You were that way from a child-independent to a fault.”

“I don’t know why. I was always looked after. When you were busy there were half a dozen housemaids doting on me.”

“I think I encouraged you to be self-sufficient because you didn’t have a father. Whenever you wanted me to do something for you, like fix a bicycle chain, or sew on a button, I used to say, 'Try it yourself, and if you can’t manage I’ll help you.’ Nine times out of ten I heard no more about it.”