In the end, it was a wily company sergeant named Crom who got to him. Over the corporal’s beleaguered objections, Crom pulled Danny out from the punishment detail to confront him directly.
“Listen lad,” he challenged, “I’ve been watching you for a week now and you ain’t got much more left in ya before you drop down dead. Now, it’ll go a lot easier for you if you show some brains and a little backbone for once in your young life. “ Crom stared at him and raged, “By rights I should have you up on report and delivered to the stockade where they can keep you for the rest of your enlistment.” Then the sergeant stepped back and shook his head, “But I know there’s a good soldier in there somewhere if you’d just give yourself half a chance.”
Danny stood silent and defeated. He knew a term in the stockade would end any hope of keeping his promise to Rose.
Crom ended their confrontation by promising him a fresh start if he would agree to straighten up and keep his mouth buttoned shut. Filthy and exhausted Danny knew he had finally met his match and quietly nodded his agreement.
“We’ll shake on it then,” Crom insisted as he thrust his hand forward. Danny shook the man’s hand obediently and lowered his head in defeat.
“Now you run along now to the canteen and tell Sergeant Wilkes that I ordered you a portion of that lovely lamb stew you missed at lunch, find y’self a hot shower, get cleaned up and report back to me. Tomorrow, we’ll commence to make a true soldier of you.”
Over time the sergeant’s patience had begun to win him over. The steady reinforcement of the military manual and standing orders, constant drilling and repetitive weapons training forced Danny to reconsider his options. As the weeks slipped by and his skill and acumen for all things military took hold, he felt his anger begin to abate and his urge to run retreat. From deep within he began to acknowledge a begrudging acceptance of his plight and by the end of three months Danny had capitulated to a soldier’s life. He reasoned that it was now his only chance to survive a purgatory that the vicar, Dr. Welsey had pronounced, “his pre-ordained oblivion.”
Propelled by the veteran smarts of two new pals and fellow conscripts, Jack Charlton and Terry Graves, Danny had determined to accept the sentence that life had thrust upon him and he began to count the months until the end of his enlistment.
* * *
India
“The Royal West Kent Regiment will proceed immediately to the Khyber Pass in India to support and relieve Her Majesty’s forces in command of the northern frontier.” The long feared regimental orders swept through the camp like a whirlwind, ‘four days leave and we’re off!’ was the order of the day.
Danny arrived at the kitchen door of Meaford House seven hours after hopping a lift on a freight wagon bound for Tunbridge Wells and hitched a ride out from town by an old farmer. His first real challenge of the day was to persuade Lily to permit him the time to bid farewell to Rose.
“Ah, another soldier’s farewell. How many times must I suffer this?” Lily moaned. Without looking up, she continued to churn away at her mixing bowl and muttered, “You go out to that old tack room in the small barn and I’ll send her there to ya. You’d best be quick about it, young fella ‘cause if you’re caught, they’ll be no mercy for either of ya.”
He waited breathlessly behind the door until she pushed it open with a slow creak. In one fluid motion, he stepped out from behind the door, pulled her hard against him and kicked the door shut with his left foot.
“Ouch!” she whimpered, “That hurt!”
“So sorry, Luv,” he grinned, “but I’ve been just crazy to see you.”
She paused, head down at first and then lifted her face up and smiled. She eased forward to kiss him softly on his lips, “I’ve missed you too, Danny.”
He pulled her close again and began to ramble in her ear, “I just had to see you before we left. I have to tell you everything right now.”
Surprised and confused she pulled back again to stare into his eyes. “What do you mean, ‘before you left’? Where are on earth are you going?”
He hung his head slightly and exhaled, “India, Rosie. They’re sendin’ us off to India.”
“India? When. Now? You don’t mean straight away?”
“Straight away. Some kind of emergency on the frontier.”
“India. Oh, my God, Danny. India!” She began to cry and then she yelled much louder than she should, “You’ll be killed for sure. I just know it.”
“Not me, Luv. I’m not dyin’ on some dusty friggin’ hill in India. I’ll be comin’ back to ya Rosie, just as quick as I can.” She folded her head down into her chest again and continued to weep.
“Scuttlebutt says we’re only goin’ for a year - eighteen months at most.”
“Eighteen months! That’s a year and a half! Oh, Danny, that’ll feel like forever.”
“No, Luv, we won’t let it. Not if you write to me regular.”
She waited in a long moment of reflection, dabbed her tears aside and nodded quietly. Then she lifted up on her toes and pulled him by the collar in a long embrace.
He closed his eyes as they began to fill with tears, “Promise me you’ll wait for me Rose. I won’t make it if you don’t wait. You’re all I’ve got in the world.”
She eased back to face him directly and wiped a tear from his face. “Yes, Danny, I’ll wait for you. Just promise me you’ll be back soon ‘cause I won’t wait forever.”
“I will, Rosie. I promise you no more than a year and a half at most. I promise.” He kissed her wet cheeks and gently wiped away several tears with his fingertips, “When I get back my hitch will be nearly up and we can get married and start all over.”
“A year and a half, Danny. I’ll give you just a year and a half for you to come home to me. If you’re not back I’m off to sail away with Maggie.”
“I promise ya Luv. I’ll be back in your arms in less than that.”
They fell silent again, lost in each other’s arms in that shabby little tack room, each offering a private silent prayer.
Finally Rose eased upward and pulled his face next to hers and whispered, “We’d best hurry now, Luv, we haven’t much time.” She reached behind and slid the bolt shut and began to unbutton her dress. He waited a moment and raced to undo his tunic and kick his boots off into the corner. In less than a minute they were lying naked on a saddle shelf that was barely covered by an old horse blanket. “Just don’t leave me with a baby,” she whispered.
Twenty minutes later there was a soft knocking at the door and a young woman’s voice called out softly, “Rosie, you’d better hurry along. Mrs. Beechly has been askin’ for ya and it’s less than an hour til we serve dinner.”
“Coming, Lucy,” Rose called back toward the door, “I’ll be there in just a minute.” She turned back to take Danny’s face in both hands. “Now, you just you remember your promise to me, cause if you break it, you’ll lose me forever and that’s for certain.”
“No worries Darlin’. I’ll never break my promise to you, never.”
“Alright then, that’s our pact. I will wait but you must be back for me in eighteen months.
“I promise,