The Lost Years (31 page)

‘Thank you, sir. That would make both me and Polly very happy.’

Chapter 48

Having dropped off Martin at St Omer, Perys reached the airfield close to the Royal Flying Corps headquarters at St Andre and taxied to the hangar area. He brought the BE2c to a halt and switched off the engine.

His arrival was expected. By the time he climbed out of the cockpit and lifted out his suitcase, a staff car was beside the aeroplane. The driver, a corporal, dressed far more smartly than his colleagues in the forward airfields, hurried towards him, saluted stiffly and queried, ‘Lieutenant Tremayne, sir?’ .

‘That’s right, Corporal. Is my aeroplane all right here?’

‘It’ll be fine, sir. The maintenance staff will put it in the hangar and check it out, ready for the morning.’ Lifting the suitcase from the ground, he asked, ‘Is this all the luggage you have with you, sir?’

While the corporal was placing the suitcase in the luggage compartment of the car, Perys removed his flying suit.

Once seated beside the driver, Perys asked, ‘Where am I billeted for tonight, Corporal?’

‘In the chateau, sir. You’ve been given a room there. It’s usually reserved for senior officers, but General Ballard insisted that you be given a room there, to be close at hand when he needs you.’

Mention of the general’s name startled Perys ‘General Ballard, you say?’

‘That’s right, sir. Major General Sir Giles Ballard. I believe he’s over here from the War Office on some fact-finding mission. If you don’t mind me saying so, sir, it’ll make a nice break for you to be flying this side of the lines and not having to worry about having a German aeroplane coming at you out of nowhere.’

‘Pardon . . . ? Oh, yes, it will be.’ But Perys’s mind was not on what the driver was saying to him. General Ballard was Grace’s father. Perys believed he must have asked for him to be allocated as his pilot during his tour of France. He also believed that Major Kemp would have been aware of this. He wished the commanding officer had told him.

The driver was speaking again.

‘I’ve been told to tell you that General Ballard would like you to join him for drinks before dinner, sir. That should give you plenty of time to have a nice hot bath. I’ll speak to the housekeeper when we get to the chateau. She’ll see that your uniform is pressed and ready for you before you meet with the general.’ He grinned at Perys’s bemused expression. ‘Life here’s a bit different from what you’ll be used to up at the front, sir.’

‘Yes . . . yes, I’m sure it must be.’

Perys wondered whether Grace was aware that he was to be her father’s pilot on his visit to France - or whether she was even aware that her father was in France. He and Grace wrote to each other occasionally, but she was moved around a great deal, to where most casualties were suffered. They usually occurred in futile attacks that achieved nothing, against an enemy who was proving increasingly stubborn in defence.

Perys was never certain whether or not his letters were reaching her - and Grace had time to pen only the briefest of notes. No doubt General Ballard would have more up-to-date knowledge of his daughter’s whereabouts.

Perys was already apprehensive about meeting with such a high-ranking officer before he entered the luxurious room which served as a mess for the senior officers. He was dismayed to see there was not an officer present under the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was by far the most junior, both in age and rank.

But Major General Ballard, although the most senior person present, was by no means the oldest. An ex-guards officer, he had earned rapid promotion serving with his regiment during the Boer War.

Seeing Perys standing uncertainly in the doorway, he broke away from the group about him and advanced towards the young man. Reaching him, he smiled, extended a hand and said, ‘Lieutenant Tremayne! I am delighted to make your acquaintance at last.’

‘Not nearly as pleased as I was to see him on the last occasion he and I met, Giles.’ Following General Ballard was Brigadier Palmer, the officer whose rescue from the Germans had resulted in the award of a Military Cross to Perys. Also shaking Perys’s hand, he added, ‘I owe my life to this young man.’

‘I had no idea it was you he saved, Henry,’ said General Ballard. ‘I learned the story from my daughter, Grace. She and Lieutenant Tremayne are very good friends.’ To Perys he explained, ‘Brigadier Palmer and I were in the same regiment, in South Africa.’

‘Well, if he’s to be your pilot while you’re here with us, you are in very safe hands, Giles,’ said Brigadier Palmer. ‘When I recommended him for his MC I was told he would one day be one of the RFC’s finest pilots. A couple of mentions in dispatches since then would seem to bear out that promise - but allow me to buy you both a drink. I seem to remember you are quite partial to whisky, young Tremayne - and I have no need to ask what you will have, Giles . . .’

For the remainder of the time before dinner both senior officers went out of their way to make Perys feel at home in the august company present at the Royal Flying Corps’ French headquarters. When word was passed around that Perys was a close friend of General Ballard’s daughter, and had been instrumental in saving the life of Brigadier Palmer, his acceptance by the other senior officers was assured.

Later, after they had eaten, General Ballard asked Perys to take him to see the aeroplane in which they would be flying. Outside the chateau he suggested that they walk to where the BE2c was being kept. ‘It’s a fine night and it’ll be good to get some of that tobacco smoke out of my lungs. It’s bad enough when everyone is smoking English cigarettes. I would have thought that smoking the French varieties would make a man immune to poison gas before very long.’

Perys smiled in sympathy. He had noticed that General Ballard did not smoke.

As they walked together, the general said, ‘Have you heard from Grace recently?’

‘I had a brief letter a week or so ago,’ Perys replied, ‘but I don’t think she has much time to write. She is being moved around so often that few of my own letters seem to have caught up with her yet.’

‘Her mother complains about exactly the same things,’ the general said. ‘But Grace has been able to make a telephone call to me at the War Office on two occasions. When we last spoke she was expecting to be in Paris with a hospital train sometime this week. I told her I would send a letter to our Embassy there, giving her details of my visit to France. I hope she was able to pick it up and that I might find her waiting for me somewhere along the way.’

‘I’m sure that would be very nice for both of you, sir. I hope I might also have the opportunity to meet up with her.’

‘I would never hear the last of it if the two of you were not able to spend a little time together!’ General Ballard gave Perys a sidelong glance when he added, ‘Grace is very fond of you, you know.’

‘And I of her,’ Perys affirmed. ‘I only wish she was working somewhere safer than a field hospital. Some are situated frighteningly close to the front, especially when a major battle is taking place.’

‘Her mother and I are concerned for her too’ The general spoke as a father and not as a soldier. ‘She could have remained at Saint Thomas’s in London, but this is what she wanted. I could hardly insist it would be too dangerous when other nurses are out here doing the same thing.’ He remained silent for a couple of minutes before asking, ‘Have you and Grace ever discussed what the future might hold for the pair of you?’

Perys was aware that the general had been replaced by the father once more and he replied, ‘I don’t think either of us has looked beyond the duration of this war, sir. For Grace it must seem that every man who is sent into battle is going to eventually pass through her field hospital - and I have no illusions about my own chances of survival. I have been with my squadron for less than six months, but am already one of its longest-surviving pilots. No, sir, even thinking of a future would be tempting fate.’

‘You are a level-headed young man, Perys - and a realist. As Grace’s father that is very comforting. Nevertheless, although our casualty rate is horrifyingly high, a great many young men are going to survive the war. Young men like yourself, who have experienced war at its most desperate, will be the senior officers of the future. The RFC will have need of you.’

‘Thank you, sir.’ Perys realised the purpose of General Ballard’s questions, but he had decided he liked Grace’s father and felt he should be honest with him. ‘Unfortunately, my service pay will probably be all I have to live on. It won’t exactly keep a wife and family in luxury.’

The general gave Perys an appreciative glance. ‘I know exactly how you feel. Do you know, I had very similar thoughts when I first met Grace’s mother. She is the daughter of an earl - has Grace told you that? Well, she is. When I met her I was a young lieutenant on a salary far less than yours. We married - against her parents’ wishes - when I was promoted to captain. For a few years things were hard, but we survived. More than that, we were happy. Very happy - and still are. Please don’t misunderstand me, I am not suggesting you should rush off and ask my daughter to marry you. Indeed, Grace would be extremely embarrassed were she to know I was having this conversation with you. However, should you feel strongly enough about Grace to contemplate marriage, I am pointing out that you should not allow financial considerations to stand in your way. Money will not be the primary requirement for any man Grace might wish to marry. I hope I have made myself clear?’

Perys felt that General Ballard would hardly have been so forthcoming had he not believed that Grace was herself seriously contemplating marriage with him. He appreciated her father’s forthright way of dealing with the situation.

‘Thank you, sir, I really do appreciate being able to have this talk with you.’

‘Good. Now, here we are at the hangar. Let’s have a look at this aeroplane of yours . . .’

Chapter 49

The next few days were busy ones for Perys. Major General Sir Giles Ballard had come to France with instructions direct from the Prime Minister to learn the truth about the shortages being experienced by men at the battle-front.

Some of the shortages were of a purely local or temporary nature. However, others, in particular the lack of artillery shells, were far more serious.

During his tour General Ballard was able to relieve the immediate situation slightly - by ordering the relocation of some stocks, and persuading the French to part with some ammunition that was capable of being fired from British artillery pieces, but such amounts were not significant.

What was apparent was that the production of shells in Britain fell far behind that of France which, in turn, could not match the output of the German factories. It was a dire situation that needed to be redressed immediately and General Ballard worked well into each night compiling his reports and recommendations.

Sometimes there were as many as four conferences in a day, and when the BE2c landed at each location both Perys and the general had hopes that Grace might be there to greet them. They were to suffer disappointment until the final day of the general’s tour of France.

Perys landed the BE2c at an airfield on the outskirts of Paris for the final meeting with high-ranking French government and military officials. It was to be held at the British Embassy in the city.

An Embassy car was waiting at the airfield, and after Perys had passed responsibility for the aeroplane to a British liaison officer, General Ballard insisted that he accompany him into Paris. When the meeting was over the general would be returning to England - by train.

It was the first visit Perys had made to the French capital and he was impressed both by the wide boulevards and the magnificent buildings that flanked them.

Learning that Perys had never been to Paris before, General Ballard delighted in pointing out places of interest along the way.

Eventually the motor car turned off the boulevards and passed through massive gates, beyond which was Great Britain’s Embassy, shut off from the outside noise and bustle of the city.

There they found Grace waiting for them.

Her delight at discovering that Perys was accompanying her father was apparent to everyone who witnessed the reunion. The greeting for her father was less inhibited, but her expression when she greeted Perys told her father far more about her feelings for him than any words.

She looked at her father accusingly. ‘You said nothing in your letter about bringing Perys with you.’

‘That’s because I did not know at the time whether he would be available to pilot me around France.’ he protested. ‘However, I could not have chosen a more considerate pilot. He kept me well clear of danger, allowing me no more than a high-altitude view of the front-line trench system. As a result of this glimpse of the front, I will return to London with a much greater awareness of the difficulties experienced by the troops on the ground. My only regret is that Perys refused to allow me to have a machine-gun mounted in my cockpit in order that we might go in search of enemy aeroplanes.’

‘I should think so!’ Grace pretended to be shocked. ‘But how long am I going to be able to enjoy your company?’

‘Well now,’ said her father, ‘I am about to go into a conference with some very senior French army officers. We will have a number of policy matters to thrash out. My hope is that all will be resolved by this evening. If it is, then I will take you both out to dinner and return to London on a train in the morning. Until this evening you will need to entertain each other, but I doubt if that will pose too much of a problem here, in Paris, especially as it is Perys’s first visit.’

* * *

Perys and Grace had lunch only a couple of streets away, in a restaurant recommended by one of the Embassy staff. From the outside, with its peeling paintwork and indifferently cleaned windows, it seemed the sort of establishment that should be avoided. However, the food was truly delicious, and the presence of an English pilot and his nurse girlfriend prompted the chef to new culinary heights.

The other diners in the restaurant were equally eager to please them and more drinks were offered to the young couple than they could possibly consume.