Alone In The Trenches Read Online Free Page A

lost?”
    “We could have been anywhere. And it fair gives you the runs when you thinking you’re going to end up in one of Jerry’s trenches. Pardon me for my soldier’s language,
young Annette. Then all of a sudden, up goes a flare, and for a moment it’s like noon on a midsummer’s day. We hear Jerry shouting, and he lets off a few rounds in our direction. Only
it’s gone dark again so there’s precious little chance of them hitting us, or so you’d think. Then suddenly there’s a cry from the captain and he says to me under his
breath, ‘
I think I’ve stopped one in the leg, Perkins.
’ I crawl over to him, and best as I can feel he’s all right, though it’s a bit hard to tell what’s
blood and what’s muck. So I take a deep breath – at least I’ve got my bearings now I know where the fire’s come from, assuming it’s Jerry shooting and not us. I tie up
Captain Garvey’s leg and then I haul him all the way back and over the top into the fire trench. And I reckon that must have taken all of an hour too.”
    “How’s Garvey now?”
    “He’ll live. Might have been more of a graze than actually stopping one. They’ve put him on a cart down to the dressing station. They’ll fix him up again
there.”
    “So it’s back to Blighty for him, and a medal for you?”
    “I wouldn’t count on either, lads. But it don’t half make you feel glad to be alive and back at
Rosie
, I can tell you that. I put it down to our little guardian angel
here. I reckon she was the one who saved us.”
    “Any news about the raid?”
    “Well, ‘C’ company went and had a pop at Jerry first thing. But I don’t think it came to much, ’cos of course by now Jerry had got wind something was up. I think
the boys in ‘C’ threw a few bombs and came back again sharpish.”
    When we were on our own later, Charlie said, “I meant that bit about you being my guardian angel. You get superstitious out here. You keep the same lucky charm in your trouser pocket. You
carry the same pages of scripture in your jacket. You start to think your life depends on it. We’ve been up against it these last few weeks, I can tell you. The generals wanted us to batter
Jerry good and hard before winter came on, so we were taking regular turns up at the front, and not catching a wink of sleep. We lost a lot of good men one way or another, killed or maimed. You
start thinking about your chances of ever making it to the end of the bloomin’ war. And if anything at all good happens you hold onto it tight. So maybe you really are my lucky charm, Miss
Annette. Only thing is, Corporal Warren says I must take you down to Transport, so they can decide where to send you.”
    I’d only known Charlie twenty-four hours, but now the thought of moving on without him was scary. I knew it wasn’t very safe at
Rosie
– we were so very close to the
German lines – but I didn’t want to leave Charlie behind. He’d been so kind. He didn’t shout or scold. He was my new big brother.
    “Can’t I stay here with you?” I asked plaintively.
    “No, you can’t! And you know you can’t,” he replied. “I’ve got a job to do. And a very unpleasant one it is. Soldiers aren’t fit company for a little
lady like you, with all our rude talk and coarse language.”
    “What’s happened to your foot?” I asked, changing the subject. Charlie was still hobbling.
    “Oh, that!” Charlie laughed. “I don’t know who made my boots,” he said, “but whoever they were, I’d have ’em sacked. The left one started falling
apart up at the line, and by the time I’d pulled myself out of a hundred squelchy mud-holes and tripped over a dozen rotting tree-stumps, the sole came off completely. It was slowing me down,
so it had to go, and now I hope I can find myself a new one from somewhere. Meanwhile, I’ll have to make do with this.” And he pointed down at the khaki bandage he’d wound round
his foot, made from the tight stockings or