The Soldier's Song Read Online Free

his gifts? He had a talent for mathematics – a rare talent if the reports were true – but guilt would eat it all out of him if he wasn’t careful. And his flaming brother didn’t help. He had a neck, accusing Stephen of living it up when he paid the rent and put food on the table by giving lessons and tutoring schoolchildren. But Joe’s words had hit home and hurt; Billy could see it even in the way Stephen sat on the bed, perched on the edge, not quite at ease.
    ‘Very moral, your brother,’ Billy said when Stephen finished talking. ‘And I don’t mean that in a good way. Look where morals have brought us now, look.’ He picked up a newspaper from the cluttered desk and handed it to Stephen, who read the headline:
    GERMANY DECLARES WAR ON RUSSIA
    Stephen gave him a sceptical look.
    ‘Moral? I’m curious to hear how you think war is moral.’
    ‘It’s not! Of course it’s not!’ Billy called over his shoulder as he rummaged around his desk, ‘But I bet you’ll find that all those top-hatted buggers who started it are terribly moral. Fine, upstanding, churchgoing men one and all. Men of honour, I’m sure they’d say. They honour their stupid bloody terribly moral treaties – for Brutus is an honourable man! I dare say they’d stand by a bargain with the Devil. I mean, there’s Germany going to war with Russia because one’s got an agreement with Austria and the other with Servia. No other earthly bloody reason to fight, but they’ll do it anyway because a couple of old farts shook hands on it. And we’ll be in it next – you mark my words. We cannot stand aside, they say. We’re all chained together by flaming agreements, the whole bloody lot of us. Ha!’ Billy triumphantly held up a half-bottle of Bushmills and shook it at Stephen, ‘What about a snifter before we walk up?’
    ‘Why not?’ Stephen threw the newspaper on the bed, but his eye was drawn to it as Billy went looking for glasses. ‘I’m sure it’ll all blow over,’ he said, absently reading the words again. ‘It’s all just bluster. They’ll sort something out.’
    ‘You must be bloody joking,’ Billy chuckled, and Stephen noted the high colour in his cheeks. He always flushed when he was excited, though that was usually only when he got started on Home Rule. ‘It’s gone too far for that now. They’re bombing Belgrade already. Did you hear what Lord Grey said in the Commons? About the lamps going out all over Europe. Well, when the Foreign Secretary starts talking doom like that, you know the game is up. King Solomon couldn’t sort this one out. We’ll be at war next week, no two ways about it, and God help us all.’
    He picked two glasses from a drawer, cleared a spot on the desk and poured a generous measure of whiskey into each. He handed one to Stephen and raised his own.
    ‘Well, here’s to all those moral people and the trouble they get us into.’
    ‘Here’s to them,’ Stephen agreed, and swallowed half his glass, wincing as the whiskey burned his throat. He shook his head as if to clear it, and added, ‘Though I’m not sure if Joe is as moral as all that. Did I tell you he’s got a gun?’
    The sombre look that had settled over Billy’s face cleared in an instant. ‘A gun?’ he asked disbelievingly, ‘What sort of gun? And where did he get it?’
    ‘Howth, I imagine,’ Stephen said with a shrug, and went on to tell him about finding the rifle in the parlour, and how he had sprung it on his brother before storming out.
    ‘Bloody hell!’ Billy exclaimed, ‘But how do you know it was part of the Howth shipment? Are you sure?’
    ‘I know a thing or two about guns, Billy. It was a single-shot rifle, rather old, German-made. I’d say it fits the bill, according to what I read in the newspapers.’
    ‘Well, well, well! A smuggled rifle!’ Billy broke into a delighted grin and sat down on the bed beside Stephen, ‘Not that there’s anything unusual about that. I mean, every dog, cat and devil