Chapter XXIII
"Walt got a job as a Maths Professor in Redmond!" Julia exclaimed while holding the unfolded letter in her hands.
It was the middle of March, and spring was slowly coming through the fields and woods to the military camp near Rouen. It was a regular Friday afternoon, and Julia, Olive and Amelia's day-duty was over. They were switched again to the "newly arrived" ward and after working almost four years as a nurse, Julia could hardly mind seeing all of the fresh and new wounds on the newly arrived soldiers.
After the memorable bombing in December, the days seemed to calm down a little bit, as the most of the important fights were now happening in Italy and Asia and not in France, therefore Julia and her girls didn't have as much work as they once did.
The three girls were sitting on the bench outside with Niall, who just finished helping out with the new packages of blankets and food that arrived that afternoon. Julia was getting letters from every member of her family on regular basis, bringing her news about the Glen's life, which Julia was always reading out to her friends each afternoon.
"In this college, you mean?" Olive asked her curiously.
"Yes, in Kingsport." Julia replied with a smile "I'm so happy for him, he always wanted to work there. But…" she sighed wistfully "Kingsport is so far away from Glen!"
"But it's still in Canada." Niall said "And what about me? Half of my family lives all the way across the Atlantic!"
Julia nodded and smiled at him warmly "You're quite right about that. But you see it seems as if everyone from my family is just moving away from me, as soon as they get married." she said the last bit reluctantly.
"And maybe when you'll marry, you will move out of Glen as well?" Amelia suggested and grinned knowingly at Olive and Niall.
Julia smiled at her, feeling how her cheeks turned red with hearing the word "marry", "I hope not." she said slowly "Cilia is in Charlottetown, Rose says that when her John will come back from the front, they will move to Montreal, and now Walt is going to Kingsport. I wonder where I will go?" she asked.
"I'll tell you what you'll do." Olive said with shining eyes "You and I will rent out a beautiful apartment in Kensington together, and will become nurses famous all over London, and we will never marry and live happily ever after." she laughed and so did the others.
"That's a wonderful proposition, but I'm afraid I have to refuse it." Julia chuckled and squeezed Olive's hand "Whether you like it or not, I want to get married, one day." she said and caused Niall to look at her meaningfully although she didn't see it.
"I do as well!" Olive sighed theatrically and hid her head in her arms, making her friends laugh even louder than they did before.
"Well, this thing is sorted then!" Niall concluded joyfully and turned to Julia "Did you get any other letters?" he asked her.
"Yes…" she replied briskly and took out the bunch of letters from the pocket of her coat and put them on her knees "Aunt Rilla wrote to me, so did Gilly, Rose, Mother, and Uncle Carl." she said.
"That's not so many then." Olive said suddenly "You always get like ten every week."
"Yes, I don't mind though, I wouldn't have the time to answer them all anyway, in such detail as everyone expects me to." she looked over to Amelia "Did you get a letter from your sister?" she asked her curiously.
"Yes, but just a short one." Amelia answered quickly "Mollie is thinking about joining up too." she smiled shyly.
"Oh, that's splendid!" Olive exclaimed "Do you think that she really will, though?"
"I don't know." Amelia replied honestly "I don't think our parents will allow her to. She just turned eighteen after all."
"Gosh, I was eighteen ten years ago!" Niall sighed "Am I really this old, do you think girls?" he asked, looking at each of them with hopeful eyes.
The girls looked at each other and giggled. "Yes!" the three of them said in the same moment causing Niall to laugh light heartedly.
"Oh!" Olive gasped suddenly and reached for something in her pocket "I forgot to tell you, Bath, I got a letter from Claire." she said and unfolded the small envelope.
"What did she write to you?" Julia said in an excited tone.
"She said that her husband is coming back home, as he got wounded in the eye and can't see properly." Olive responded, her eyes twinkling.
"That's what happened to my Uncle Carl in the First War." Julia added "Is Claire happy or devasteted? She can't be somewhere in the middle, knowing her." she chuckled and so did Olive.
"She is very happy." Olive replied, smiling "Especially becasue she wants to quit nursing 'as soon as possible'."
"Why?" Julia asked in a suprised tone.
"Becasue she is so exhausted that "she can hardly stand on her legs"." Olive read out and rolled her eyes "Anyway, she says that Lewis is coming back in April and they are going to settle down in Birmingham, near her Grandma."
"That's good." Julia grinned "I'm really happy for her, but then…" she gasped "She will leave my poor Leslie all alone!"
"I'm sure she'll be fine, Julia." Olive replied and patted her friend's arm "You don't think that your Leslie won't make a new friend, do you?" she raised her brows.
"No, I don't." Julia replied "Especially when it comes to my Leslie." she grinned.
Julia and Olive were right. In April, Julia got two letters, one from Claire informing her that she just moved to a new house with Lewis, and the second one from Leslie telling her that she has been moved to a room with a girl who was called Jane Lucas, and "she is a real gem, I'm telling you." as she wrote to Julia.
Accidentally at the same time, Blythe made a new friend too. "Edmondo Buccharei is my new pilot-friend." he wrote to Julia "He is from Milan, and always dreamed of becoming a pilot. His mother is English and that's why he and I can communicate really.
"He teaches me a little bit of Italian, and in my opinion it is the most wonderful language on the Earth. It's so rich in pronounciation, and all of the Italian words sound as if they were so… important and meaningful. When I learn new words or hear Edmondo speaking Italian, I feel as if I was hearing the language of the gladiators's home and Roman history. Don't you think that it would be wonderful if one day, I would go to Italy and could talk and laugh with real Italians?
Edmondo loves poetry, especially Shakespeare and Tennyson's work and therefore we really have lots and lots to talk about! He really is the nicest fellow and companion I could ever ask for.".
Everything in Julia's world, and her friends' world, seemed to be finally calm and quite peaceful, without any problems or sharp pains going through anyone's soul. But Julia knew that something must have happened eventually, as she knew that the world wasn't all colourful and painless, especially during the war. On one afternoon, after Julia's and Olive's duty, both of the girls decided on taking a walk around the camp before returning to their 'tent-home' for supper.
"I can't believe it's April already." Julia said when she put her hand through Olive's arm "It seems as if the new year has just started, and it's almost half way through!" she sighed "Don't you think that the time flows ever so quickly?"
"Yes…" Olive replied absent-mindedly, in a voice which wasn't quite her own. Julia looked at her friend's face seriously. Was this Olive or someone else walking next to her? Surely it couldn't be Olive, who looked so tired and absent-minded. Olive was never absent-minded, however tired she would get. Julia noticed before that Olive's thoughts were drifting in the couds sometimes, and that her face looked worn out, but she never truly considered it as a very serious issue until this moment, when she knew that Olive wanted to tell her something but couldn't.
"Olive?" Julia said softly "What is it?" and she took her hand in hers.
Olive looked up to Julia's face shyly "Will you promise that you won't laugh if I tell you?" she asked her, with her cheeks flushing with bright red.
"I would never laugh at whatever is bothering you." Julia assured her and smiled at her kindly "Now, tell me; What is troubling you?"
Olive took a deep breath and looked at the grass in front of her "I am… in love." she whispered finally.
Julia stopped walking and turned around to face Olive with wide eyes, full of surprise "In love?" she said repeated in disbelief. Could Olive ever be in love, she thought, could she be in love? And if so why, in Heaven's name, didn't she tell her?
"Yes, Bath, in love." Olive replied quickly, a bit harshly "Now, do stop looking at me like this!" she ordered, taking Julia's arm quickly and starting walking with her again.
"But Olive!" Julia exclaimed and stopped her friend again "We are friends, and you have never told me this!" Julia crossed her arms, feeling almost offended.
"I was…" she started and sighed helplessly "The man that I'm in love with is in love with someone else." she said eventually.
Julia looked at her with raised brows "Don't I know all about it?" Julia asked her and made Olive to chuckle bitterly.
"I haven't thought about that, actually." she said.
"But who is this mysterious man who stole my friend's heart so easily?" Julia demanded with a hint of excitement in her voice, forgiving her friend at once "Do I know him?" she asked again.
"Yes, you do." Olive whispered again, her cheeks flushing with red again.
"I do?" Julia asked her, being surprised once more "But… this leaves me with just one person on my mind!" Julia gasped and put her hands on her cheeks "Niall?!"
Olive's eyes started to shine and she looked at Julia shyly "Niall." she replied quietly.
"But Niall isn't in love with anyone!" Julia exclaimed.
"He is in love, Julia, he is." Olive said sorely and looked meaningfully in her friend's eyes.
And, all of a sudden Julia understood the message and her mouth opened slightly, being then in a complete shock "You must be joking." she said seriously.
"How could I ever joke about a thing like that?" Olive asked her even more seriously "He really loves you, I can see that so plainly in his eyes, in the words he says to you, in the way he says them. It's just…" she gulped, holding back tears "-really hard for me to bear."
"Oh, Olive…" Julia said quietly and put her friend in her arms, hugging her tightly "Whether Niall loves me or not, you know that I don't love him. I can't love him because of… Blythe." she whispered into Olive's ear, hardly able to say Blythe's name outloud.
"I know, but it doesn't make the matters any better, does it?" Olive asked her, and looked at Julia's face with a heartbreak in her eyes.
"No, unfortunately." Julia replied wistfully "What is it about me, that I always attract such bitter love-stories into my life?" she sighed loudly and waved her hands in despair.
Olive chuckled sadly "You are Bathsheba, remember?" she said.
Julia looked at her and grinned hopelessly "Yes, and sometimes, it complicates my life too much, and that's the very problem." she said.
"And so," Julia wrote in her diary two days later "Olive is in love with Niall; Niall is in love with me; I'm in love with Blythe; and Blythe is in love with Cornelia. Life couldn't get any better, could it?
"Olive and I decided that we can't do anything about any of these points listed above. We have to let things happen, and focus on our daily lives and work… Oh, what nonsense do I write! Both Olive and I know that this is impossible to do, to just focus on our lives and work and not on our love-affairs (which aren't even real).
"Nonsense, or no-nonsense, but it's true, and both of us have to accept it. Even my Mother-dear wrote to me the same thing: "Darling, work as hard as you can, help others, and be yourself. Let everything else happen in its time. And this time will come, you'll see." And I suppose I have to believe that whether or not I like it.
"It seems a bit selfish, actually, me thinking about my feelings for Blythe when at the same time, everyday, even now, so many innocent people are dying everywhere in the world. And that's another reason why I must just put the love-doings aside, and focus on being a nurse.
"Today I said my farewell to a soldier, Lieutenant Thomas Nicholson, whom I nursed for three months, since he experienced an explosion in no-man's-land. He had burns all over his body, and was quite downhearted through the whole recovery-time. But today he came back home, to Brighton, and he said to me before he left: "If it wasn't for you, Nurse Blythe, there would be a wooden stick standing in front of you, not alive at all, instead of a happy man I am today.". Isn't the life of a nurse, the most wonderful and precious of all the jobs out there in the world?".
And with this Julia closed her diary, snuggled into her bed and fell asleep with a smile crossing her lips.