by Holly Green
At breakfast the next morning, she said, ‘Ralph, I have decided I should like to go home.’
‘Why?’ he asked. ‘I thought you were enjoying yourself here.’
‘I was, but now I am tired and I think I need a little peace and quiet.’
He shook his head. ‘You can’t possibly go home all alone. If you’re tired, just don’t accept any more invitations.’
‘You know it isn’t as easy as that. Anyway, why can’t I go home? I wouldn’t be alone. The house is still there, presumably, and the staff.’
‘I let some of them go. But Beavis is there, and Mrs Sanders and one or two of the others.’
‘Then I can go to them. I don’t need a nursemaid.’
He looked at her, chewing his lip as he did at moments of indecision. ‘Leo, I don’t want you in London, where I can’t keep an eye on you.’
‘Oh, for goodness sake! What do you think I am going to do?’
‘Who knows? You will probably chum up with that Langford woman, for a start, and those FANYs. God knows what sort of mad scheme you might get yourself involved in. I’m sorry, Leo, but I just don’t trust you to be sensible.’
Leo glared at him. She had cried herself to sleep the previous night and had no more tears to shed but in her extremity she felt she could hurl the cups and saucers and the cutlery at his head. Instead, she forced herself to be calm and to employ the last stratagem at her disposal.
‘Would it make any difference if I were engaged to Tom?’
He looked stunned. ‘Engaged? You mean you have finally come to your senses?’
‘I believe so, yes.’
‘And what makes you think Tom will still have you, after the way you have treated him?’
‘The only one of us who has ill-treated Tom is you. He has never blamed me for what happened, or if he did he has forgiven me. I think he would be prepared to give me his name.’
Ralph’s face cleared. ‘You know nothing would please me more than to see you two married. If Tom is willing to go ahead with the engagement I see no reason why you shouldn’t go back to London together.’
Three weeks later the London Gazette published the following paragraph.
‘The engagement is announced of Miss Leonora Malham Brown, of 31 Sussex Gardens, London, to Mr Thomas Andrew Devenish, only son of Sir William Devenish, Bart., of Denham Manor, Hertfordshire.’
The following day, the Bulgarian General Savov launched a surprise attack on Serbian forces in Macedonia. The two former allies were at war.
*
Back in England Leo took refuge from the congratulations of friends and acquaintances and the inevitable invitations to attend social functions with her new fiancé by retreating to Bramwell, the family estate in Cheshire. Here, under the care of James and Annie Bartlett, the estate manager and housekeeper who had always treated her like one of their own children, she had time to reflect and recover. It was clearly understood between her and Tom that their engagement was simply a matter of expediency and was not to lead to marriage. The question she had to answer now was how she intended to use the rest of her life. She could not imagine finding a new love, and the idea of marrying for convenience, to secure her place in society, was abhorrent to her.
Whatever her grandma had thought of Leo’s behaviour, she had not changed her will, which left her a generous settlement. That, together with her father’s legacy, meant she was well provided for financially, so she had no worries on that score, but she urgently needed to find some purpose powerful enough to distract her mind from the contemplation of her loss. The newspapers were full of increasingly hysterical assertions of German aggressive intention and war seemed inevitable. Leo’s one consolation was the thought that she had shown that she could be of use on the field of conflict and it seemed likely that before long she would be called on to prove her courage and ability again.
Make sure you read the rest of the Frontline Nurse series
Can she find the courage to do her duty?
When war breaks out in 1914, Leonora Malham Brown and her best friend, Victoria, head to Calais to volunteer with the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. Determined to see her sweetheart, Colonel Malkovic, again Leonora soon decides to return to the Front.
But once there, Leonora gets caught up in the danger and chaos of the battlefields and she loses hope of ever finding Sasha. Alone and in danger, Leonora must put into practice the very best of her nursing training if she is to return safely home.
When war comes, friendship will seem them through the tough times
In the midst of the First World War, Leonora Malham Brown is a volunteer with the Red Cross, while her best friend, Victoria, is a nurse at the Front in Calais. Despite the hardships of war, Leonora is delighted to be reunited with her sweetheart, Colonel Malkovic.
Before long, Leonora falls pregnant but she daren’t tell Sasha for fear he would send her home. But when she finally plucks up the courage to tell him, tragedy strikes and he is reported missing in action. Heartbroken and now a new mother all alone, Leonora must turn to her friends back in England to help her …
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Epub ISBN: 9781473560536
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Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing
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Ebury Press is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com
Copyright © Holly Green, 2011
Cover photography: women by Head Design; background © Mary Evans / Topfoto / Shutterstock; Cover: www.headdesign.co.uk
Holly Green has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
This edition published by Ebury Press in 2018
First published as ‘Daughters of War’ by Severn House in 2011
www.penguin.co.uk
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9781785039577