Chapter 6

The autumn deepened. The work crew went back to road repair and garbage hauling. He felt his chest clogging up sometimes at night and wondered if he'd get sick. His lungs had remained weak after his illnesses in '37 and '38. The prospect was worrisome mostly for the discomfort but not any particular outcome.

He saw Mary about the village occasionally now, mostly alone, but sometimes with the German colonel. Von Roons, he learned when he listened around town. The village felt restive, resentment plain on faces as crops and freight trundled away in boxcars.

Peter Mills walked into the garage bay one evening as Matthew banked the embers in his little fire pit. Matthew looked out anxiously, but saw the lad sit smoothly on a box and moved quietly.

"Would you like some water? I warm it up sometimes with some mint leaves, sort of a tea. It's not that bad."

"Well, thanks, yeah, I'll give it a try."

Matthew handed over his cup. Peter smelled and then sipped quietly. He shrugged and nodded, then held the cup close as he looked at the glow in the pit fade.

"Are you all right, then?"

"Yeah, my mum left a store of dried and canned things. Should have brought you something maybe."

"Thanks, but I'm fine these days."

"It's a different county, like."

It was Matthew's turn to shrug and nod. "I don't exactly receive visitors..."

"Right. I just wanted to tell you that I think you are right, that it's best to leave. Maybe to help others leave." The lad looked at Matthew in the thickening gloom of the garage.

"Well, you should probably go now."

"They want you to get Lady Mary to go."

"Sorry?"

"They are leaving. The Earl anyhow, and the rest of the family. Yours."

"What?"

"I don't know it all. Only Lord Grantham spoke with me last Sunday in the cemetery. I was looking at Isobel's grave."

Matthew hadn't been there since he'd seen Mary.

"He said he was leaving and wanted you to know, and to know that Lady Mary had decided the place was more important, that the boche colonel was the way to keep it safe. She doesn't know the Earl's leaving but he wants her to come. He thinks you can get her to."

Matthew sat back on the floor, gaping at the boy. It was a ridiculous adventure story. Mills continued though, and told him that he could find Mary when she visited the colonel in town as she did many nights at Von Roons's rooms in the old Haley house. On the right night there would be a knife and perhaps a pistol in the bin down from the outhouse he used. A staff car would stop in the middle of the block near Von Roons's quarters after 12:30 and then pick them up going east at the south end of the lane. It was up to Matthew what he did as long as nothing was discovered until dawn.

"I won't do anything to harm her."

"They don't want you to. You may of course leave her there, or not try, at your choice."

"This comes from Robert?"

"He is the one who told me. Guess I don't know where it comes from before that."

"Do they want me to kill Von Roons?"

"I don't think it matters either way. For myself it would be nice if not; I hear there are reprisals in towns where Germans have trouble."

Matthew nodded. "And he didn't say anything about me other than that I could get Mary?"

"Right," said Peter slowly.

"I can't go checking that bin every night."

"It will have some sort of different lid."

Matthew looked at the lad again. It was tempting to think that this was why he was back, that this was what he could do. What did it matter, though, if Robert and Mary got away, what could they do to fight? Again Peter seemed to know what was on his mind, explaining before he said anything that the earl was getting away as part of a group of old families leaving to help form up a government in exile. Matthew couldn't believe there wasn't one already somewhere, but he supposed it might be so.

"You are asking a lot. She is still, well, I could end up in a position to cause her great harm. I don't think I can have that."

"Lord Grantham said he knew he was asking too much. He said he thought he must take the young people as they will be at risk. He doesn't know if she would be or not, but thinks it's right to go. I thought about what you said, that leaving would help the fight and so I decided I would try to help."

"Do they take you with then?"

"No," said the boy with a drawn out sigh. "I didn't even ask. I'm walking out of the town in the next week or so. I hope to find some of those that are supposed to be in the hills going north."

The boy got up and thanked Matthew as he handed back the cup.

"I don't know they'll take you, actually."

"I wouldn't expect so," said Matthew.

Peter nodded with a little grimace and put out his hand to Matthew.

"Best of luck to you, Peter."

"And to you, sir."

Matthew watched the bin after that as he came away from the outhouse. Peter Mills didn't return to the work crew. The nights grew cooler and Matthew's room was quite cold at night. He brought in some branches and rushes he tied together into something like a bed and got himself up off the floor while sleeping, but still woke up stiff.

It made sense that Mary didn't want to leave. She had always had the house more than anything else. It was why she had been so angry when he got in the way and he'd always known he wouldn't have been in her view if he hadn't been linked to the place. When he'd put in his money and then the inheritance laws had changed that pull had loosened a bit, but his claim to the title still provided a fitness to things for her. It wasn't that she didn't love him, even now he thought she did, but it was more complicated for her. He'd always thought it was simpler for him, though now he wasn't so sure.

The dreams came back stronger again, still of the first war. When he had a bit of detachment, he thought it interesting that experience still ruled him. His days were mostly clear and he found himself able to consider and plan.