White Feathers Read Online Free

think.’
    Joseph found Tamar on the hillside above Kenmore’s small family cemetery, standing with her back to him and staring intently at the ground. She was wearing a voluminous pair of Liberty print harem trousers tucked into rubber boots, a short jacket belted at the waist and a large straw hat with a ragged hole in the brim. She jumped as he came up behind her.
    ‘Hello darling!’ she said brightly. ‘We weren’t expecting you!’
    He kissed her smooth cheek, appreciating the faint scent of lavender he had associated with her since early childhood.
    ‘Well, I’ve got some news,’ he responded, then added quickly, ‘Ian says James will be home this afternoon.’
    ‘Yes, he’s bringing someone with him, and I think I know who, too. Well, not who perhaps, but what .’ She gave a small smile, her eyes shining with anticipation. ‘He’s been a trifle secretive lately, has our James. I hope he doesn’t arrive early — Andrew says these trousers are dreadful and I shouldn’t be seen in them in public, so I ought to change. I quite like them, actually, they’re very comfortable. But I’m glad you’re here, dear. I seem to have lost my daffodil basket. You’re definitely going away, aren’t you?’
    She turned her face away, but not before Joseph had seen the tears welling in her eyes. He put his arms around her and hugged her to him. Her hat fell off and, with her head against his chest, she watched absently as the breeze snatched it and rolled it down the hill.
    ‘It will be all right, Mam. I’ll come home again, I promise you.’
    Tamar said nothing, and hung on to him even more tightly.

C HAPTER T WO
    J ames arrived late in the afternoon accompanied by a man in uniform and a very pretty young woman.
    When Tamar hurried to meet them at the front door, James introduced the man as his very good friend Captain Ron Tarrant, then announced proudly, ‘Mam, I’d like you to meet Miss Lucy Mason, my fiancée.’
    Tamar smiled brightly and feigned surprise. James was a private person by nature, but he had hinted in recent months that there was someone special in his life, and she had been wondering when he might bring her home.
    ‘Your fiancée, James? How lovely, we had no idea!’
    James smiled wryly; not much got past his mother.
    Tamar stepped forward and touched cheeks with the girl. ‘I’m delighted to meet you, Lucy. Please come in, and you too, Captain. Your father will be in at five, James. He’s been out in the paddocks all day.’
    As she ushered James and his guests into the formal parlour, Joseph and Ian could be heard kicking their boots noisily off at the back door and skating down the polished wooden hall in their socks, Ian laughing uproariously. They came to an abrupt halt outside the parlour door when they saw there were visitors.

    ‘Hello,’ said Ian immediately.
    James rose to shake his brothers’ hands, then grinned broadly as he broke the news about the impending end to his bachelorhood.
    ‘Really?’ said Ian, genuinely surprised and delighted.
    ‘I say, that’s good news, isn’t it?’
    ‘Yes, we think so, don’t we, sweetheart?’ said James, sitting down again next to Lucy and taking her hand. ‘We’re planning to marry as soon as we can make the arrangements. Here, actually, if that’s all right with everyone. We’re in a bit of a hurry, what with the Expeditionary Force leaving so soon, Mam, but we were sure you’d understand.’
    Tamar allowed herself a very quick, very discreet glance at Lucy’s waistline before exclaiming, ‘Well, of course it will be all right, dear!’ The girl was not displaying any overt signs of an imminent arrival but pregnancy was not always easy to discern under the fashionably loose and high-waisted clothes women were wearing today.
    Lucy Mason was very smartly dressed in a straight skirt of terracotta tweed with a matching short jacket over a cream silk blouse, worn with amber beads, beige gloves and a hat sporting a long