Archie's War

by Margi McAllister

  Dad’s leg still troubled him. Ma said that it hadn’t set properly and he should see the doctor again, but Dad wouldn’t have it. On his worst days, he stayed indoors drawing plans for the new sunken garden.

  “We’re going to build it for Master Ted,” he said. “The Edward Carr Memorial Garden. I talked to Her Ladyship about it and she likes the idea. And she said Miss Julia – I should say, Lady Dunkeld – is coming here next week, so she’ll have something to say about it. She has something to say about most things.”

  “She might bring our Will with her!” exclaimed Ma, then added quickly. “What am I saying? Of course she won’t.”

  Of course Lady Dunkeld wouldn’t bring the garden boy with her. But Archie longed to see Will again and knew how much Ma did, too.

  Lady Dunkeld arrived the next Monday with Dunn, her chauffeur, a small grey-haired man who rarely spoke. On Tuesday Sam the Boots ran through the gardens shouting.

  “Archie, where’s your dad?” he yelled.

  “Kitchen garden!” Archie shouted back.

  “I’ll get him, you fetch your ma!” called Sam. “They have to go the Hall, now!”

  When Ma and Dad came back from the Hall, Ma was grey-white in the face. She held Flora balanced on one hip and held tightly to Dad’s hand on the other side. Dad looked worse than worried. He looked afraid, and Dad was never afraid. Even little Flora was solemn-faced, as if she knew something was wrong. Archie ran to take Flora because Ma looked as if she might drop her. Had someone else died?

  “Open the door for your ma,” said Dad. Archie ran upstairs to let Star out of the bedroom before he could start barking, and when he came down Dad was settling Ma into a chair.

  “Put kettle on,” ordered Dad. “It’s our Will. Now, let’s not panic. He’s all right as far as we know. He’s off somewhere. Her Ladyship asked Lady Dunkeld how our Will’s doing, and Lady Dunkeld was surprised she asked. She thought Will was back here. He’d told her he wanted to come back and help me now that my leg was bad, and he was homesick and all. She gave him his train fare home.”

  “But he didn’t come here,” said Ma, and pressed the heel of her hand against one eye, then the other. “You know what he’s done, don’t you? He’s found the nearest army camp and gone to be a soldier. No doubt he said he were old enough and they believed him.”

  “Lady Hazelgrove’s sorting it out,” said Dad. “She’s got straight on the phone to His Lordship and Master Simon, and they’ll soon get it sorted.”

  “But he’ll be in France!” cried Ma.

  “No he won’t,” said Dad. “He’ll be in a training camp learning to do his shooting and marching. He won’t be anywhere near a troop ship yet.”

  Ma sniffed. “He could have told us,” she said. “He could have written us a letter.”

  “Aye, he could and he should,” said Dad, “and when we get him home you can give him merry hell. And we will get him home. Lady Hazelgrove will sort it.”

  But the next day there was no word of Will. Lady Hazelgrove spent the morning making telephone calls, so that Ma and Dad were embarrassed about how much trouble she was taking. Nobody knew anything about a recruit called William Sparrow.

  “He must have taken a different name,” said Dad. He drummed his fingers on the kitchen table and looked out at the rain pelting down the window. “I’ll go. I’m no use here, not with this leg. He’s my boy, my problem, not Her Ladyship’s. I’ll have a word with her in the morning.”

  Archie knew that, and knew what to do next. He didn’t know how to go about it, though, so he waited until Flora was asleep and Ma was tucking Jenn into bed. Only he and Dad were left downstairs.

  “Dad,” he said, “the estate can’t spare you and neither can Ma. I’ll go and find Will for you.”

  Dad stared at him so fiercely that Archie wanted to take a step back. Then Dad’s face softened, and he laughed.

  “Cheeky little beggar,” he said. “You always wanted to do what you saw me doing. You were hardly walking when you wanted to dig with a full-sized spade. Never mind, son. I won’t send a boy to do a man’s job.”

  “The garden’s a man’s job,” said Archie. “There’s not many of us any more, and it’s the growing season. It’ll be rubbish, Dad, without you. You give the orders, you see what wants doing. I can’t do that, but I can find our Will.”

  “WHAT?”

  The word fired into the back of Archie’s head like gunshot. Ma was behind him with her hands on her hips and fire in her eyes.

  “Isn’t it bad enough?” she demanded. “I’ve got one son running away to be shot at, and you have to take yourself off as well?”

  “I don’t want to be a soldier, Ma!” he insisted. “I only want to find Will and stop him!”

  “That’s your father’s job,” she began, but she stopped suddenly and Archie could see that she was thinking exactly what he thought himself. Dad couldn’t go looking for Will.

  “I’ll go,” she said. “I’ll go looking for Will and heaven help him when I find him.”

  “You can’t,” said Archie. “What about Flora?”

  “Jenn can look after her.”

  “Jenn can’t do everything. She can’t do all the cooking.”

  “She’ll have to learn. Archie, that dog – I mean, that dog that isn’t there, that we don’t know about – is sitting at back door with its paws crossed. Go and let him out.”

  There was no point in arguing with Ma. He still tried, right up until he went to bed, but her mind was made up. There was only one thing to do.

  After an early morning walk with Star, Archie scrubbed himself clean and went to the Hall. He was lucky to meet Mr Grant the butler at the back door.

  “Please, Mr Grant,” he asked, “may I see Lady Hazelgrove? Or Lady Dunkeld?”

  He was relieved to find that it would be Lady Hazelgrove, as he was a bit scared of Lady Dunkeld, who could be bossy. He was sent to the morning room and stood very awkwardly, his feet neatly together, hoping that he’d got his boots clean enough to leave no mud on the carpet. It was such a thick carpet, too, like walking on turf. Connel lay there in the sunshine.

  Lady Hazelgrove’s eyes looked small and pink. He guessed that she had been crying for Master Ted, and it made him embarrassed to look at her.

  “Please, my lady,” he said. “It’s about our Will. I need to find him before he can go off to France.”

  “Lord Hazelgrove and I will find him,” she said. “Recruits have to do three months training before they go to France, and we will have tracked him by then.”

  “But if he’s using a false name he could be anywhere,” he said. “Somebody who knows him has to go and look for him, somebody who’ll recognize him, my lady. Dad can’t go, you need him here, and Ma can’t leave the girls.”

  “Indeed,” she said. Connel raised her head and sniffed the air.

  “Please, my lady,” he said, “I reckon our Will would have gone to a camp near where Lady Dunkeld lives. I reckon he’s still down south.”

  She almost smiled. “‘Down south’ is a big place, Archie.”

  Connel scrambled to her paws, wagging her tail. She raised her shaggy head, looking from one side to the other.

  “Poor Connel,” said Lady Hazelgrove. “She misses Star. She’s looking for him.”

  Archie felt his face glow with heat and hoped it didn’t show. Silently he willed Connel to leave him alone, but she was padding to his side, twitching her nose and wagging her tail.

  “Connel likes you,” observed Lady Hazelgrove. Connel hunted all round Archie, pushing her nose hard against his jacket. “She doesn’t usually do that.”

  “She knows I like her, my lady,” muttered Archie as Connel sat down on his foot and pressed her face against his side.

  “So, Archie, how do you presume to get to Kent?”

  Archie was too emb
arrassed to answer and he was distracted by Connel. She clearly knew all about Star, and had such an intelligent look about her that she might have started talking. Finally he managed to whisper, “I don’t know, my lady.”

  “Did you want permission to travel with Lady Dunkeld?”

  He’d thought about exactly that, but he hadn’t dared ask. Fortunately she spared him from having to answer.

  “I will have a word with Julia,” she said. “Maybe you can go with her. But you should know…”

  The door swung open. Lady Dunkeld strode in like a headmaster.

  “Morning, Mother,” she said breezily. “I’m all ready to go.”

  “Julia, do you remember Archie?” said Lady Hazelgrove. “Will Sparrow’s brother? He wants to come with you and go looking for Will.”

  Lady Dunkeld stood back and looked Archie up and down.

  “Jolly good idea,” she announced. “And when you find him give him a walloping from me. I’ll scoop him up, shall I, Mother, and take him with me?” Without waiting for an answer, she went on, “but I have to tell you, Archie, I’m turning Fivewells – that’s our Kent house – into a nursing home for wounded soldiers. The place is already full of officers and nurses. I can’t squash another body in anywhere, so goodness knows where we’ll put you.”

  “I’ll sleep in a shed or anything, my lady!” said Archie.

  “You’ll have to. And if you’re going to go hunting for your brother you’ll have to do it by yourself because we can’t spare anyone to help you.”

  “Julia!” said Lady Hazlegrove. “He’s only a boy!”

  “Boys grow up quickly in wartime,” said Lady Dunkeld. “Archie, can you ride a bicycle?”

  He hesitated, gently pushing Connel’s nose away. Master Ted had sort of taught him how to ride a bicycle, but there had been a lot of falling off.

  “If you can’t, you’ll have to learn,” she said briskly. “Either that, or walk everywhere. When you’re not cycling all over the place to find your brother, you can do a bit of gardening to earn your keep. Do the work Will would have been doing if he hadn’t taken the king’s shilling. Off you go, then, you’ve got half an hour to pack. I’ll tell my chauffeur to bring the car round.”

  “Thank you, my lady – my ladies!”

  In the potting shed at Fivewells the windows rattled and there was a smell of earth and damp plant pots. Archie’s bed was a soldier’s camp bed with a pillow and a few blankets, and when he finally flopped into it, it felt like heaven. Anywhere would have done, anywhere he could just lie down and shut his eyes. Star settled down beside him with a sigh.

  Leaving home had been dramatic. Ma had flown into such a rage that Flora had burst into tears and Jenn had had to grab her and run outside. Dad had come in to see what the fuss was about and quietly pointed out that Archie wasn’t leaving for ever, he was only going to find Will. Then Ma had stopped raging at Archie and grumbled at Dad instead until Archie said he had to be out in less than half an hour, and could he have a sandwich to take with him, please? Ma started to say that he could get his own sandwich, but then she suddenly stopped scolding and started mothering. She filled a basket with so much bread, ham, cheese and fruit that he felt he’d be embarrassed to take it with him, but it would be enough for two. When he picked up Star’s bowl she looked up from cramming pie into the basket.

  “You can’t take him with you!”

  “He’ll have to,” said Dad. “There’s nobody here to go smuggling him to the woods three times a day.”

  Archie hadn’t been thinking about whether to take Star. They’d both lost Master Ted, and didn’t want to lose each other. Of course they couldn’t be separated. Where Archie went, Star went. He’d already worked out what to do.

  There had been hugs, with Ma trying not to cry and Dad telling him to find that young monkey sharpish and get home. Ma had said that if she had Will in front of her she’d knock him into the middle of next week, but Archie knew that really if she had Will in front of her she’d hug the breath out of him. Dad had slipped him some pocket money and told him not to keep Lady Dunkeld waiting. Lady Hazelgrove had had the idea of writing a letter about Will and asking Dad to write one too, to prove that Will was underage for the army.

  “How long do you think you’re coming for?” demanded Lady Dunkeld when Archie arrived. He was carrying a carpet bag, a covered basket, and a straw shopping bag which he held bundled in the crook of his arm. “Throw your stuff in the back and hop in. You’re in the back, I like to sit up front beside Dunn when I’m not driving myself. Dunn’s my chauffeur, by the way, but don’t distract him when he’s driving.”

  Archie did as he was told, his heart quickening with excitement. His first-ever ride in a motor car. He placed the bag on the seat beside him.

  By the time they were a few miles clear of the village he had been wishing he’d never seen the car. He’d closed his eyes and taken deep breaths because that was what Ma always told him to do when he felt ill. With his eyes shut he couldn’t see the countryside hurtling by so fast, which helped, but he could still feel every lurch and jolt on the road and the relentless churning of the engine. He had forced himself not to think about being sick. He had nothing to be sick into, and as for the inside of the car with the shiny leather seats … he’d never be forgiven if he threw up in there.

  He had kept the basket with Star in close by his side. He hadn’t asked Lady Dunkeld if he could bring his dog, not so much in case she guessed that it was Star, but because she might say no. At last, just when he felt he had been in the growling belly of a beast for years and it would never end, the car had slowed and jerked to a stop. Archie had opened his eyes, hoping that this was Kent.

  “Good heavens, you look rough!” exclaimed Lady Dunkeld. “Never been in a car before?”

  “No, my lady.”

  “Poor old Archie! Never mind. You’ll get used to it.”

  The house where they had stopped didn’t look like a family home. They were in a small town, outside a hotel with “The Royal George” on a sign at the door.

  “Where are we, my lady?” he had asked.

  “Market Willoughby,” she replied promptly. “Good place to stop for lunch. You and Dunn can eat in the staffroom.”

  “I don’t want anything, thank you, my lady.” He didn’t even want to think about food.

  She looked sternly at him. “I can’t have you wasting away,” she said. “Dunn, will you make sure… Good heavens! What’s that?”

  The straw shopping bag was moving. Star, wrapped in a towel inside it, had slept all the way. Now that the car had stopped, he needed to know what was happening. Wearing the bag like a hood he licked Archie’s wrist, and wagged his tail. He had just decided that Archie was there, so everything must be all right, when he recognized somebody else he knew, and launched himself so eagerly at Lady Dunkeld that she had to take a step back to steady herself. She caught him and fussed him, but she was looking at Archie.

  “Archie Sparrow!” she cried in a voice so loud that women on the other side of the road turned to look. “Get out of the car and come here!”

  Archie did as he was told. Star was tucked firmly under Lady Dunkeld’s arm.

  “Archie,” she said firmly. “This looks very like my brother’s dog.”

  Archie had his lie ready, but he still stammered as he gave it out. “No, my lady, he’s from the same litter. My Dad got him. He’s very like Master Ted’s dog, my lady. Lady Hazelgrove had that other dog shot, my lady.”

  Her face was still stern. “What do you call him?”

  “We called him ‘Carr’ after the family, my lady.”

  “Let’s see,” she said, and put Star down. “Carr! Sit!”

  Star who was used to having two names by now, knew what to do. He sat down with his head on one side, wondering what was coming next.

  “Good lad, Carr,” said Arc
hie.

  There was a snort of laughter from Dunn. “Good name for it, my lady,” he said. “Looks like it should be on wheels.”

  Lady Dunkeld gave an unladylike guffaw of a laugh. “He’s your problem, not mine, Archie,” she said. “Make sure he behaves himself.”

  She marched into the hotel for lunch. The chauffeur went in through a different door and later brought Archie a pie, which he fed to Star. There was a water fountain in the town square, and after a walk to that and a drink for Star and himself, Archie had felt a bit better.

  “Sit up at the front with us,” Lady Dunkeld had said when they were ready to go. “You’ll feel better up here.”

  “Bit crowded, my lady,” remarked Dunn.

  “Be quiet and drive the car,” she had said. So Archie had sat beside her feeling the wind in his hair as the car roared on. This was like flying, Star was on his lap, and Archie had wanted it to last for ever. When they stopped again his stomach was growling with hunger, but while Lady Dunkeld and Dunn found somewhere to eat he stayed put and shared his food from home with Star. By the time they reached Fivewells he had drifted into a sleep in which he felt cold except for his feet, where Star was lying. He opened his eyes and saw stars in the night sky above him.

  “They should be able to find you something to eat in the servants’ hall,” Lady Dunkeld had said. “And some bedding. Off you go.”

  In his potting shed nest of blankets with Star beside him, Archie was soon warm. His bag was tucked under the bench and the basket from Ma hung from a nail among bunches of dried herbs and bulbs.

  “This is just us, Star,” he whispered. “You and me on an adventure.”

  In the morning, after he had scrubbed himself down at the garden tap and had breakfast in the staff hall, Dunn took him to the garage. He wheeled out a bicycle that looked as if it had already seen a lot of owners.

  “Her Ladyship says to take this and go and find your brother,” he said. “You’re in luck, it’s even got a basket to put your dog in. What more could you want?” He spun the wheels and flicked dust from the dented handlebars. “There’s any number of army camps round here. Nearest one’s Great Pimlow, eight miles north.” He pointed. “And north is thataway.”