The three were already formally dressed, ready to accompany him.
Miss Watkins appeared, sharing a quick glance with David and nodding. The children stepped forward and presented Tommy with a cut out and crayoned birthday card.
“Happy birthday, Dada. Uncle Noah is taking you out to your party. Tell us all about it at breakfast, Dada.”
Tommy capitulated to the conspiracy, walked heavily upstairs and allowed Smivvels to present him for company, for the first time in two years.
Noah drove them into Salisbury, in the Lanchester; the car easily big enough for the four. They kept up a conversation, forcing Tommy to join in or show ill-mannered.
“Sent my papers in last week,” Blue said. “Going back home, at long last. The Old Man wrote to me about an airline setting up, with some of his money in it, and needing pilots and aerodrome managers. You’ll be welcome when you visit.”
Tommy found a proper response, asked where they were flying, what routes. He had to respond to David as well, forced to show interested.
“My company is sending me out to the Middle East, Tommy. With my wife – I am to marry Miss Watkins – you know I have been seeing her these last two years.”
Tommy was vaguely aware that David had been present in Wilton rather frequently. He offered proper congratulations, while wondering just how he was to find another governess and in effect Nurse for Elisabeth Jane and Thomas. He forced himself to ask a question of his own; he was not used to talking, to playing his part with people.
“What about you Noah?”
“Still in the RAF, Tommy. Wing Commander, going out to India in a couple of months. Three year posting and come back to Air rank. Probably pull out then – depends on what Lucy says, of course, but I think she has something planned out. You could walk back in if you wished, at Squadron Leader level. A big expansion in bomber and ground attack work over the next few years – a lot of scope there for your future. Take a week to pull the strings, no longer.”
“Maybe, Noah. Have you heard from Drongo lately?”
Conversation widened and Tommy played his part.
The Rose and Crown still catered to a great extent to the military on Salisbury Plain and recognised the faces of the two Victoria Cross holders. Glancing around the dining room Tommy saw his photograph next to Noah’s and a dozen other decorated men. He was embarrassed to an extent by the overdone deference of the head waiter.
They sat and ate and continued to talk.
“I see Lord Moncur is still busy in government, Tommy.”
“Yes. I speak to him quite often, when they visit the grandchildren.”
“What next, Tommy? Are you to remain as a leisured millionaire with no need to work?”
The question came from David, deliberately sharp. Judging by the reactions of the others, it was pre-planned.
Tommy scowled, reluctantly shook his head.
“No. It will do none of the family good… and Monkey would be angry with me if I remained as no more than an idler. Not the RAF though. I would not fit in, I suspect, Noah. I need a change. Australia, I think. The long way. I will take the children to see their relatives in Nevada, and then go west to Sydney – a long, slow rail and ship journey. I’ll see you inside the year, Blue, and then we’ll see what can be worked out. Good country for the young ones to grow up in – better than decaying in England.”
“Look to their future, and yours, Tommy. I’ll drink to that.”
Noah called for a bottle and they raised their glasses to the prospect of peace and happiness, one day.
*****
By the Same Author
The China Station … After being caught in bed with an admiral’s daughter, naval officer and second son of an earl, Lord Magnus Campbell, is sent off unceremoniously to Hong Kong. The posting is a chance for him to redeem himself, or to get further into trouble… He finds Hong Kong to his liking, as is Miss Blantyre who he met on the outward voyage. However, with China descending into chaos, disaster is never far away.
US Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079WYBN3Q
UK Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B079WYBN3Q
Man of Conflict Series: Youngest son of a wealthy English merchant, Septimus Pearce is an utterly spoiled brat whose disgraceful conduct threatens his family’s good name. His father forces him to join the army in an attempt to reform him, but even the disciplines of army life where he sees bloody action in three countries fail to exorcise his nastier character traits. Please note: (Six Book Series)
Book One Kindle Link http://getBook.at/Conflict-1
A Poor Man at the Gate Series: Book One: The Privateersman is FREE on Kindle -Escaping the hangman’s noose in England, commoner Tom Andrews finds himself aboard a privateering ship before fleeing to New York at the time of the Revolutionary War. It is a place where opportunities abound for the unscrupulous. Hastily forced to return to England, he ruthlessly chases riches in the early industrial boom. But will wealth buy him love and social respectability?
Kindle links to the whole series:
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The Duty and Destiny Series: These superbly-crafted novel length sea/land stories are set in the period of the French Revolutionary War (1793 – 1802). The series follows the naval career and love-life of Frederick Harris, the second son of a middling Hampshire landowner, a brave but somewhat reluctant mariner. (Book One was first published in 2014.) Please note: This series is currently available to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
Kindle links to the whole series:
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UK only:
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Born in a home for fallen women, at the age of eight the barefooted and waiflike Harry is sent out to work. After years of unpaid toil and hunger, he runs away and is cajoled into believing that the Army is his only option. He joins a battalion that is sent to Africa’s Slave Coast where disease is the biggest killer of men. When the much-thinned battalion returns to England and is disbanded, he drifts into smuggling in order to survive. All goes well until he is betrayed and forced back on the run. Leaving the West Country behind, he enlists in a Sussex regiment which is sent to quell rioting in the north where he faces danger from the angry Mob, and from the rage of a sadistic young ensign who is out for Harry’s blood.
Universal Kindle Link
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Billy Bacon the butcher’s apprentice, faces the choice of being abused or of killing his abuser. Charged with murder, he flees and joins the Army. In 1786, he finds safety in a battalion bound for India where he survives disease and conflict and learns to be a good soldier. However, he doesn’t feel safe once back in England. With the chance of another foreign posting, Billy rises through the ranks and joins a previously unknown regiment of slave soldiers in the Sugar Islands.
Publication date: August 10, 2017
Universal Kindle Link: http://viewbook.at/Billy-Bacon1
Book One: Long Way Place
In the early 1900s gutter rat, Ned Hawkins aims to rise from the grinding poverty of an English slum, but is forced to flee the country and ends up in Papua. It is a dangerous place where cannibalism and cannibals are never far away. Despite this menacing backdrop, he prospers and almost by accident, finds love. However, there are ominous stirrings in the land that bode ill for the future. Note: Book Two is now available on Kindle.
Universal Kindle Link: http://getbook.at/Cannibal-One
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A Wretched Victory (Innocents At War Series, Book 6) Page 29