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“That sounds like an English gun,” said Julia, picking herself deliberately up off the floor.
“It’s most likely a trench raid,” offered Emmie. “Don’t you think?”
“Goodness, listen to us,” said Alice with a high-pitched laugh. “We’ve become such military experts.”
“We could teach a class at Smith,” said Kate, her own voice as unnatural as the rest. “English and German gun noises, the differentiation thereof.”
They all sat still, listening. Kate could feel her nails cutting into her palms. But the guns, German and English, had gone silent.
“You see? It was a raid and they’re done,” Emmie said quickly, but Kate noticed she was shredding the edge of her napkin.
Florence dropped her own napkin next to her plate. “I’m going to go see to the cows. It’s another full day tomorrow.”
“Bed for me too.” Nell smothered a yawn, and stood, stretching her back. “If that was the big drive, it wasn’t much of one.”
“Don’t tempt them,” said Kate, doing her best to keep up the casual tone. “Shall we take bets on when the next big drive will be? My money’s on a week from Tuesday.”
But it wasn’t nearly that long. Kate had barely fallen into an exhausted sleep when she woke to a tremendous pounding, the walls of the barrack shivering around her.
“What time is it?” Kate asked hoarsely.
Emmie was sitting up in the next bed, her knees pressed to her chest. “It’s just past four.”
The noise was like nothing Kate had experienced before. It was terrible, crash after crash after crash, unceasing, unrelenting, driving out all thought, leaving nothing but raw fear and a dreadful instinct to huddle and hide.
Emmie lifted her face from her knees and shouted over the din. “Will—someone told me they meant to pound the Germans to keep them from advancing. If it ever came to it.”
“I hope they can,” said Kate through numb lips, but her words were lost in the sound of the guns.
The barrage continued all that day and into the evening as they went about their rounds, visiting villages, directing the teams harrowing the fields, hauling furniture donated by the Red Cross to the poor of Douilly, trying to pretend this was just another day. Julia doled out headache powders without comment, possibly because no one would have been able to hear it if she had commented.
When the guns finally stopped, a little after breakfast on Friday morning, the very silence made Kate’s head hurt.
It felt very strange to hear the normal everyday noises, like the sound her boots made against the thin floor of the barrack, or the way her breath seemed to rasp in the suddenly still air. Next to her, Emmie was filling her rucksack with handkerchiefs, soap, and combs for her weekly hygiene class at the new civic center in Verlaines.
Kate took a deep breath. “I guess your Englishmen beat them off.”
Emmie paused, looking at her over the rucksack. “I only have one of them,” she said. “One Englishman, that is. I can’t take credit for all of them.”
“You can take credit for whatever you like.” Kate bit her lip, trying to find the right words. “Emmie. I never thought you were a child—I never meant to treat you that way. If I did, I’m sorry.”
Emmie’s rucksack hung off one shoulder, the empty strap dangling. “I know you didn’t mean to.”
She hesitated, but before she could finish her thought, Florence barged through the door as though she still lived there.
“Kate? Kate? Those blasted guns spooked the horses. Emmie, Alice is waiting for you with the jitney. She says you’re going to be late.”
“Thank you,” said Emmie. She looked at Kate and gave her head a sad little shake. It felt like farewell.
“If you look east and I look west, we should be able to find the horses,” said Florence, cheerfully oblivious.
At least tramping through the mist hunting for horses gave Kate an excuse to stomp heavily.
By the time she’d been hunting for an hour, Kate was sweaty and cross. Her hair was falling in scraggles from her chignon and her shirtwaist clung damply to her back in a most unpleasant way. Kate just hoped Florence was having more luck than she was. They had parted ways somewhere just past the water tower, Florence going left while Kate went right.
The blasted horses could find their own way back as far as Kate was concerned. She was meant to have been out with the store an hour ago.
Except that they really did need those horses for plowing.
