RATING: VERY GOOD
SPOILERS!!!
This was a fascinating story, and the ending was quite sad.
What is known as the Big Push starts and the two armies fight fiercely. The first consequences of the war come for the Hunters. They receive a telegram, informing that Bobby has been killed in action. That part was so unexpected and sad. I like Bobby so much, and his optimism filled the novel. What I can't understand is Beattie's attitude. She guiltily admits in silence that for a second she was relieved that it was not David. After that first moment, she seems to mourn briefly, but it is as if she never loved her son Bobby.
Bobby's death is eclipsed when the next day they get another telegram saying that David had been wounded. A second telegram informs them that because David's condition is serious, the government is to arrange for Beattie and Edward to travel to see David. They find David think and haggard as if she were twenty years older than he is, and that first day he is unconscious, but other days he is awake but refuses to speak. Edward tries to comfort Beattie, but she flatly refuses him, and she even almost tells him that David is her son alone. During this conversation Beattie realises that she has forgotten about Bobby completely. I really can't understand Beatty, and she has this side that I don't like very much. Edward has to return home, and Beattie stays the rest of the week, but David is not better.
Ethel finds herself in a desperate position when she is fired and has no way to find a job. She goes to the Elms, but Cooks throws her away without compassion. Yet, when Beattie sees her outside, Ethel begs her to help her. Beattie sees Ethel as she was when Louis got her pregnant, and Nula had to help her. So Beattie agrees to help her, tells her to stay in the nursery, and even though Cook is disapproving, Beattie is adamant to help her, and Edward supports her. One day Frank comes to see Ethel and asks her to marry him, and she says yes in the end. Ethel is still too proud to show her real feelings, and finding out that she is the fruit of incest fills her with shame. Then Ethel loses her baby and has to stay in bed for weeks. The wedding is cancelled, but Frank intends to marry her. Yet, when he comes to see her, she says that she won't marry him. It is not that she doesn't have feelings for Frank, but because knowing who her parents are fills her with disgust towards herself, and she doesn't want to impose herself upon anybody.
David is first transferred to a hospital in England. Beattie visits him, but he keeps saying her that he is all right, and she doesn't need to come back. When Sadie goes and see him, he is more accommodating and they talk about the war and how he got injured.
When David is finally released from hospital, he goes home, and a nurse is hired, and since Ethel is still at home, she will be working to help the nurse and David. When David leaves the crutches for the stick, the nurse goes, and Beattie and Edward decide that Ethel will help David. He is still depressed. When his fiancée comes to visit him, he tells her that she is free to break off the engagement, but she says that she will not do such a thing. She visits a few times, and when Oliphant comes to see his friend, he warns him that the man who his mother wanted for Sophy, Humphrey, is on leave and he and Sophy meet socially. David just hears him, but there is nothing he can do.
One visit that makes David happy is when Antonia turns up, and she tells him that she didn't know that he had been wounded. Oliphant wrote to her, and she has come to see him as soon as she has been able to. Antonia's attitude towards him is so different from what he has experienced so far that he feels comforted and they have a great conversation.
Frank still wants to marry Ethel, but she refuses. There has been talk about an officer, Andy Wood, being beaten up by four soldiers, but he refused to say who his attackers were. Andy finally admits that it was him who beat him up as he deserved it for the way he had treated Ethel. Andy cowardly said that four men had attacked her because he was too ashamed to say that it had been a civilian. Ethel feels grateful, and Frank's warm personality makes her agree to walk out with him on her day off and see how things turn up.
Louis return and despite the grief that Beattie should be feeling, she goes to see him and they continue their affair. They talk about Edward and how he doesn't deserve what they are doing, but neither wants to finish their love. Edward is not better himself. As he feels that Beattie pushes him away more and more - he even has taken to sleep in another room - he is now seeing Elise more and more, and I fear it will be a matter of time that they go from friendship to something more.
Diana is now pregnant, and even though she knows there is no love in her marriage and the moments of intimacy are not comfortable for her, Rupert is fun to be with. We know that Rupert is still seeing Erskine, but she is still too blind or naive to see what is happening.
I loved this book, and I'm longing to read what is going to happen next.
No comments:
Post a Comment