Chapter XVIII
Leslie Ford arrived in the small hospital in London, in the early hours of 3rd June 1942, just as it was all planned. Julia and Leslie couldn't help not hugging each other till the rest of the day, especially when she learned that Mrs Ashby agreed on moving all the girls to a bigger, four-bed bedroom with Leslie being their new room-mate.
To Julia's surprise, Leslie found more of a kindred spirit in Claire than she found in Olive. Both of them were almost unseperable after the week of Leslie's arrival. But Julia and Olive didn't mind at all and were even relieved that Claire finally had someone who understood her completely without asking any questions.
Leslie's first day as a nurse was a very tearful day. She was almost ready to pack up and come back to Canada because she didn't expect what she had seen that day in the hospital. However, she decided to stay after a very long talk with Julia on the side. And with every day, she was getting better and better and eventually was able not to think about all these "horribly poor men", after her duty, just like Julia, Olive and Claire were able to.
And because of having her cousin and one of her best friends by her side, Julia finally got back to her old self; the crazy, funny, decided, strong, brave and smiling Bathsheba who every single night dreamed about riding horses across the haunted woods during the moon's eclipse.
"Bathsheba, you got a letter from Cilia." Leslie said just after their duty when the post arrived.
Julia smiled and took the letter from Leslie's hand, written in the neat hand-writing of her cousin.
"I didn't hear much from Cilia lately." Julia said when she sat down on her bed and started opening up the envelope.
"The last time I've seen her, she was just fine, so I don't think you have to worry about her." Leslie replied and sat down by Claire who smiled at her friendly.
"I worry about Marshall every time I see her name on the envelope." Julia explained and sighed "She always talks about him and the letters she gets from him. She is very in love with him, you and I know it perfectly well."
"I know she is." Leslie agreed "I sometimes think that she can't think of anything else but him." she giggled.
"Oh, Goodness!" Julia exclaimed and put her hand on her mouth while reading the letter in her hands.
"What?" Olive squeezed Julia's hand quickly "What happened?"
"Marshall's foot has been amputated…" Julia answered slowly as she was still reading the letter "And he's coming back to Canada in September!" she said in an excited tone and grinned at the girls surrounding her.
Leslie whooped "Oh, I know I shouldn't be happy becasue he had his foot amputated but…" she smiled "He's coming home to Cilia! She must be so happy!" she said.
"She is more than happy. She is happily blithe!" Julia said and the four girls laughed joyfully.
"So they will probably be the next ones to marry." Leslie said dreamily, putting her arms around her knees.
"Maybe," Julia continued on reading "-she says that they won't marry until the next February because that's when Marshall will end his course for a doctor in Redmond."
"I thought he finished it before enlisting." Leslie admitted.
"No, he clearly didn't. But he doeasn't have much of this course left." Julia sighed "And I will miss another family wedding!"
"Oh, well!" Olive said and patted her friend on the shoulder "At least we know that you certainly will be at your own wedding." and with that Julia couldn't help but to start laughing with the rest of her friends.
One day, at the end of August, Julia, Olive, Claire and Leslie came down to the canteen for breakfast. In there, there was a very loud sound of chattering spreading across the room. Some of the nurses there had their faces painted with worry, others with excitement.
"Something must have happened, I'm sure." Claire said while eating her porridge.
"I'll go and fetch the newspaper." Leslie said and jumped up from her seat and she quickly dissapeared into the crowd. Julia's eyes followed her cousin, and she put down her toast on the plate, as she felt that she can't eat it anymore.
"Oh, I have a bad feeling in my stomach." Claire shivered.
Julia rolled her eyes and looked at Claire sternly "Claire, please, if we would loose the war, there certainly would be much bigger excitement than this." she said but before Claire could answer her, Olive jumped from her seat.
"Oh! There she comes!" Olive said hurriedly and waved to the upcoming Leslie with a fresh newspaper in her hand.
"What happened then?" Julia asked her cousin who sat down while still reading nervously.
Leslie looked at Julia and all three girls could see fear and worry in her hazel eyes "Dieppe." was her simple reply.
"What's Dieppe?" Claire asked her with wide eyes.
"The Battle of Dieppe happened yesterday." Leslie said to them in a low voice "Along the British were our Canadian boys…" she gulped "From the Second Canadian Division."
Julia's face turned pale "Merry, Walt and Jake." she whispered and thought that it must have been some mistake.
"There were around 900 Canadians killed." Leslie added breathlessly as well.
"Oh my God." Julia managed to say before covering her mouth, feeling that unless some news from France will come, she will get no rest from her emotions seething in her chest.
The news from France came and they were, ("thank Jesus, Mary and Joseph" as Julia said) very positive. Walt, Merry and Jake were in the battle but weren't wounded badly at all, except for "some ridiculously small bruises" as Jake later wrote to Julia.
Although, Julia didn't know it until early September, Blythe was in the Dieppe Raid as well. "I will never forget what I saw when I flew over no man's land in Dieppe after the raid." he wrote to Julia "It was the most terryfying sight I have ever seen and I shall not, nor I want, to ever forget it.".
The summer '42 went so fast that neither of the girls even noticed it passing. The four of them got transferred into the night duty again and the autumn-days were even faster than those during the summer. There was still no news about Gilly or whether he was alive or not. Leslie started giving up hope, even though Julia was trying her best to stop her from doing that. Julia's brothers along with her cousin Jake, were quite safe in the trenches, being still in France. Blythe finally got moved up to a position of Flight Lieutenant. "It's nothing really." he wrote in the early days of October "I don't even feel I deserve such an honor like this." But Julia and everyone else knew that he truly did deserve it, "and even more" Julia thought however she didn't allow herself to say it outloud.
One day, Julia came back to her room from the canteen with a very enthusiastic expression on her face which made all the other girls look at her in a strange yet curious way "Are you alright, Bath?" Olive was the first to ask.
"I accidentally overheard the two nurses talking to each other," Julia started with a smile crossing her face as she was taking her seat next to Leslie "-and they were talking about going "into the action on the continent"!" she clasped her hands together and her cheeks turned red from excitement.
"And?" Claire inquired.
"And? And?" Julia repeated and stood up again "And I learned that I will be able to go "on the continent" in just one year's time!" she squeaked.
Olive's eyes started to shine and she stood up to catch Julia's hands in her own "And this means so can I!" and the two girls gave each other a 'high-five'.
Claire rolled her eyes and sighed "Why are you so excited about it anyways?" she asked them.
"Oh, Claire!" Julia exclaimed and sat down by her friend "How can I not be? To serve for your country in a way like our boys do?"
"You can't go to the front with a gun on your back, Jules." Leslie pointed out and Claire nodded in agreement.
"I don't mean it in that way and you know exactly what I'm talking about, Leslie Gertrude Ford!" Julia said in an annoyed voice "What I mean is that we, women, can go to the front and help soldiers there besides, I'm sure that there is a difference between the soldiers here and the soldiers in for example, Italy or France." she explained.
"It must be." Olive agreed eagerly "We only get men who are very much injured but have the possibility to get better because they survived the journey from the front to here." she said.
"Exactly." Julia added "And that is why it makes me so excited. You just have to serve as a VAD for three years to join in the army as a nurse. And I'm going to do just that." she said and put her hands on her hips in a funny way.
"I wouldn't imagine you doing anything else." Leslie replied with a grin.
And unexpectadly and even a bit surprisingly, Christmas and New Year came as quickly as no one could ever imagine them to come. Olive and Claire got their leaves for Christmas and they came home to Surrey and Birmingham, leaving Julia and Leslie by themselves. Julia was very jolly during the Christmas time in 1942, however her cousin Leslie appeared to be very homesick and fearful of what future might bring to them.
"Evil won't win, Les." Julia assured her while cuddling up Leslie in her arms on the Christmas Day.
"I know." she agreed quietly "But what is evil? Is it really just Hitler?" she questioned and both of the girls fell silent again.
But they did spend a happy time together. There was a very homely Christams dinner with all the staff from the hospital and the soldiers. There was even dancing and singing carols together, which Julia, obviously, enjoyed more than anything else.
"I can't believe it's been a year since I've seen my parents, Cee, you and everyone else." Julia wrote to Blythe a day before New Year's Eve "This year was the quickest one of my entire life. I don't know why but I really don't feel like a twenty-year-old woman. But to be honest when I think of it know, I don't feel like a child, teenager or a woman too. I just feel like myself and actually I prefer this to anything else.
"Do you remember the one time when I was six and you were seven, and we both went to our Rainbow Valley and pretended to be soldiers? Doesn't it make you feel weird, I mean that now, almost fifteen years later, we are both at war, and you are a real soldier?
"Oh, Blythe how much would I give to see peace in the world again! And to end this horrible waiting! Waiting for you, my boys, to come back to us alive and safe… and even waiting for myself, to come back to the old P.E.I! I'm whining like a child, I know. I will stop now.
"Blythe, how is it that you, the most fearful one of us, is the most faithful at the same time? I don't think I would be able to survive this war without your letters, you know. They always give my heart the feeling you get when you smell a new perfume, that nice feeling which overcomes you completely and makes you smile. How do you do that?
"I suppose that, again like our dear Uncle Walter, I'm more afraid of my imagination than of the reality." he wrote back in the early days of January 1943 "And you must know Sheba, that even though I can hide it very easily, I am scared, very at times, but when these moments of horror come, I just manage not to think about them.
"I always admired you for your incredible bravery in everything you always do. No, no don't argue with me (I know that you are right now). And I am so happy to finally hear or rather read that you are your old self again!"
"And I always will be nothing else but Bathsheba, I promise you." Julia wrote him back with a smile crossing her face when she put down her pen on the table.
Dear Julia,
I have the most wonderful news to tell you; I married Marshall Douglas last weekend. Our wedding was so sudden because Marshall got a job as a surgeon in Charlotettown and he was needed there at once. It was a very quiet ceremony. There was just our family and his, no family friends of any sort. We had a small party afterwards and then Marshall and I caught the evening train to Charlotettown.
Our new house is very small but cosy as well. I won't describe it to you, you know that I was never as good in describing things as Blythe or you always are. Oh, dearest, you can't even imagine how happy I am in this very moment! With the war going on around me, I feel almost perfectly happy. With my Marshall (my husband!) by my side in our little sweet "Blue House" as we call it.
He didn't change at all, you know. And to be honest I don't even think about his missing foot, although he is quite concerned about it, sometimes. My Marshall is still there, even though there is a dark scar coming down his right hand.
I even thank God for taking this foot of his; it brought him safetly home to me and now, to his new wife.
I just wish, dear Bathsheba, that one day you will be half as happy as I am right now.
Your friend,
Cecilia Douglas