Sixty Days to Live (49 page)

Lavina was no longer strong enough to concentrate on finding the easiest track for them so Sam led the party. Margery, half-comatose, still lay on the sledge. After half an hour Lavina began to lag behind. Gervaise took her arm and urged her to get on the sledge beside her sister, but she mutely shook her head so he tied round her waist a cord which was attached to the sledge and, jerked along by it, she managed to blunder onward.

In the mid-afternoon Sam gave a sudden cry of warning. He had almost stumbled over a forty-foot precipice. The party halted and joined him to examine it, walking some way in each direction along its brink. But the fall was sheer and there was no way down. They knew then that they must have crossed the coast-line earlier in the day or the previous afternoon and had since made a semicircle, returning to it on higher ground, as the place where they were standing could only be the summit of the cliffs of France.

It was now a gamble as to whether Calais was on their left or on their right as they stood looking out through the whirling snow towards the frozen sea. If they chose rightly there was still a chance that they might save themselves, but if their choice was
wrong there were only fishing villages along the coast and by this time these would be buried in the snow-pack.

Gervaise decided to turn right, but his heart was sinking. The ground had become uneven again and their progress was intolerably slow, so he feared now that, even if they managed to find Calais with so little food left and no shovels, they might be too exhausted to dig round until they struck the roof of one of the snow-covered houses.

At four o’clock they could lurch no farther so they started to pitch their camp about sixty yards from the cliff edge. While they were struggling with half-frozen fingers to erect the tents in the usual three-sided ‘square’ Derek missed Lavina and, looking round, found her sitting in the snow a little apart from the rest. Her head was bowed and she was weeping bitterly.

Sitting down beside her he put an arm round her shoulders and drew her muffled head on to his chest.

‘Oh, Derek darling,’ she sobbed, ‘I’ve stuck it all day but I’m so cold; so cold I think I’m going to die.’

‘Nonsense,’ he whispered, with his lips beside her ice-cold cheek. ‘We’ll make Calais yet—if only the food hangs out.’

‘That’s just it,’ she moaned. ‘If we had another day’s rations we’d do it, but now we’ve lost the spades we’ll have to dig down to the houses with our hands, and mine are frost-bitten already, I think.’

Quickly he undid his coat, jerkin and shirt, then drawing off her gloves, placed her frozen hands flat against his chest so that they might receive the warmth of his body.

‘That’s sweet of you,’ she smiled up at him in the semi-darkness. ‘But it’s no good, my dear. You couldn’t warm my body even if you stripped to do it, as long as this wind lasts. There’s not much of me and I’m chilled all through.

‘You’ll be all right again once the tents are up and you’ve had some coffee.’

‘Yes, I’ll be better then, and through the night I’ll be warm enough in my sleeping-bag. But to-morrow! Some of you may get through but I won’t. I’m the weakest and I’ll never be able to stick another day of it without a decent meal to keep up my strength.’

Derek was hungry too, yet he would gladly have given his share of the remaining food to Lavina. The trouble was that he
knew she could never be persuaded to take it. He knew, too, that she had never once complained in the whole grim journey so now that she had at last broken down she must really be at the end of her tether, and that the flame of her life would flicker out unless she had enough food to sustain her next day during their last desperate bid to find Calais.

That the rest of them, with Margery riding on the sledge, could reach Calais he did not doubt. If the snow ceased they would probably wake to see its remaining spires within an hour’s march and, even if the blizzard continued, now that they had the line of the cliff-top to guide them they could hardly fail to strike it if only they had chosen the right direction. He thought of carrying Lavina to conserve her ebbing strength when they set off next morning, but knew that he could not do so for any distance. With frequent halts he might have done so for a mile or two over firm ground but even the strongest man cannot carry a woman any distance over snow.

‘You must ride on the sledge with Margery,’ he said suddenly.

Rather disconcertingly, Lavina laughed, and withdrawing her hands, put on her gloves again. ‘Thanks for my hands,’ she said. ‘They won’t go bad on me until to-morrow now. But you can’t pull two of us with this blizzard raging. No, Derek, no. I was in the dumps just now but there’s no need to worry about me. I’ll manage somehow.’

‘I’ll see you do,’ he said slowly. ‘You’re more than life to me. You know that. Even if all of us don’t reach Calais you’ve got to.’

‘Why me?’

‘Because you’re the best of us. I can’t tell you why I know that, but I do. It’s not just because I’m nuts about you, and your beauty is only a sort of bodily expression of it. There’s a kind of spirit in you which I can’t define, but it’s something that’s the salt of the earth and the champagne too. God knows, humanity’s suffered a bad enough set-back but there are probably countries that escaped the flood and other little groups of survivors like ourselves. Life’s darned hard to kill, you know, and it will struggle on somehow but it can’t afford to lose its finest elements. That’s why you owe it to yourself, and to us, to reach Calais and keep the old chin up until you can find a better land to live in.’

‘A better land,’ echoed Lavina. ‘That’s it, with sunshine and
flowers and things. I’ll get there, darling, but I’m worried about you.’

‘Oh, I’m a tough guy,’ Derek laughed.

‘I know, but I do worry,’ she sighed. ‘You’ve been so marvellous all this time. You’d melt a heart of stone, and mine’s only flesh and blood. Take me in your arms a moment.’

He put his arms round her and they sat there silent for a little time in the snow.

She lifted her face and kissed him, then drew away as she said: ‘Look, they’ve got the tents up; let’s get inside.’

All of them crawled into one of the tents and lay for an hour huddled together in their sleeping-bags, until their mutual warmth had restored their circulation. Margery, who was the least fatigued of the party from having ridden most of the day, then got up and crossing to her own tent began to heat some coffee on the primus. As they had been so economical with their remaining food they had enough left for a small evening meal and for one more on the following day.

A few minutes later Lavina entered the tent carrying her sleeping-bag. She got one of the maps, crawled into the bag, and turning over on her tummy, began to write in pencil on its back. When she had done, she took some items out of the pockets of her coat and folded the map round them. They were a one-pound tin of marching chocolate, two small bottles of Brand’s Beef Essence and a good-sized flask of brandy. She had selected them herself before they left Selfridge’s and carried them with her through the whole journey as an emergency-ration in case she got separated from the party at any time and was temporarily lost.

Having made up her package she turned over and said to Margery: ‘Do you know what to-day is?’

Margery looked up quickly. ‘Yes, it’s the 7th of September.’

‘I expect Sam told you,’ Lavina went on, ‘that I promised to give him a decision on the 7th about our matrimonial tangle.’

‘Yes, he told me that,’ Margery replied, trying to still the sudden beating of her heart. ‘But hadn’t we better leave things now until we, er—well, you know what I mean?’

‘No, I made a promise so I’m sticking to it. Whether any of us will live to cross the Straits of Gibraltar is pretty uncertain, but I see no reason why those of us who survive the next forty-eight
hours shouldn’t do so. This blizzard has been raging for over two days now and it can’t go on for ever. Once it lifts, we’ll be able to see a church tower or something sticking up out of the snow which will show us where Calais lies; and once the party’s restocked from the food that must be in the houses there, it can begin the long trek south. Things should improve from then on with every stage of the journey, and even if some of the villages are buried completely it shouldn’t be difficult to identify others from towers and gasometers, so there’s quite a decent chance of getting through.’

‘Yes, I feel that too,’ Margery nodded. ‘If only we can hang out for another forty-eight hours; but can we? With no fires, no brandy, and so little food?’

‘Well, whether we can or not; as to-day’s the 7th I’ll tell you my decision. I believe you think that you’re a better woman than I am because Sam’s fallen for you; but that isn’t true. You may be a very good cook and housewife but don’t kid yourself that those things make you so very marvellous.

‘You’ve never earned a penny in your life. If we were back in normal surroundings you couldn’t hold down a job at more than a couple of pounds a week, however hard you tried; whereas I am an artist. People who know have even said that I’m near-great as an actress and you can’t achieve that sort of thing without working for it. While you sat at home I slaved in the studios to make a career for myself. It isn’t easy to do that and keep your self-respect, if you happen to be good-looking, in a game where all the strings are pulled by men; but I did it, and I did it by sheer hard work. When I threw up my job to marry Sam I was earning as much money as a Cabinet Minister, and I did that without any help or favours from anybody.

‘What’s more, you threw your hand in to-day but I didn’t; and as woman for woman, you wouldn’t stand an earthly chance against me. If I wished, I could get Sam back from you before to-night is out. But, as it is, I’m very fond of Sam and I believe that he’ll be happier with you than he would with me.’

Margery’s hands trembled and she drew a sharp breath as Lavina went on quietly:

‘And I’m not thinking only of Sam. Although we’ve never been great friends I’m fond of you in my own way, because you
are
my sister and I haven’t forgotten the good times we had
together as children. We’ve grown apart a lot, but now we’re up against it those sort of memories come back. It wasn’t always my fault that every man we knew always fell for me, but I’d like to make it up to you a bit, now I have the chance.

‘As there’re no Law Courts or clergymen or anything left in the world, we’ll have to go back to primitive conditions and look on Gervaise as our law-giver and priest. By his word, in the presence of the party, we must consider that he has formally divorced myself and Sam. Then he can read the marriage service over Sam and you. I hope, darling, that you’ll be very happy.’

‘Oh, Lavina!’ Margery suddenly burst into tears and flung her arms about her younger sister. ‘You don’t know what this means to me. You can’t. You’ve had so many people in love with you; but I’ve never known the joy of the love of a fine man before. If only we can get to Calais you’ve opened the gates of Heaven for me.’

For a little she sobbed, and then she said: ‘But what about you, darling? What are
you
going to do?’

Lavina gently disengaged herself from Margery’s embrace, picked up her package, and stood up. ‘Oh, you needn’t worry about me,’ she smiled. ‘I’ve still got a string to my bow.’

Pulling her furs round her, she added as she left the tent: ‘I’ll send Sam to you.’

The four men were still huddled in the tent which was shared by Sam and Hemmingway. Lavina undid the flap, poked in her head, and calling Sam out led him to the third tent, which at the moment was empty.

‘Sam,’ she said, as they crouched together in the confined space, ‘I’ve just left Margery. I suppose you feel the same as you did when we talked things over a month ago?’

He nodded. ‘Yes. I hate to hurt you, but I’m still in love with her—in fact I love her more than ever.’

Lavina smiled. ‘I felt quite sure you did because I’ve been watching both of you very carefully.’

‘To-day’s the 7th, isn’t it? What have you decided?’

‘That I love you a great deal, Sam dear.’

As she paused she saw by the light of the candles that his face went white and that he was biting his lip, so she went on quickly: ‘Therefore, I’m going to give you up. Just give me one kiss before you go to her.’

Sam took her in his arms and kissed her cold little face, muttering his thanks; then, feeling an utter brute, he turned and left her.

Sam had felt all along that Lavina would release him and he knew now beyond a shadow of doubt that he loved Margery best. Their perfect understanding of each other all through the long hours they had spent together during the last terrible month had proved that to him. As he entered the tent she lifted a face radiant, transfigured, beautiful, to his, and said:

‘I didn’t think Lavina would say anything until we were really safe again but I’ve just realised why she insisted on telling us now.’

Sam smiled as he knelt down and gently drew her to him. ‘Why, it’s the 7th and Lavina always keeps her promises. What other reason could she have had?’

‘She wouldn’t have waited till the 7th if we’d been in such desperate straits before. She wanted to give us to-night, Sam; and afterwards—well, I’m not going to mind half so much if we do have to die.’

‘But we’re not going to,’ he said firmly. ‘I have a hunch we’re coming through. I don’t get such hunches often but when I do I’m never wrong.’

Ten minutes later the coffee was boiling and Margery called out to the others. The three men came out of their huddle and as they crossed the few feet of open space between the tents Gervaise exclaimed:

‘Hullo! The wind’s dropped. Thank God for that at least.’

‘It did last night,’ said Hemmingway, ‘but it didn’t stop snowing.’

‘Anyhow, it’ll make it easier for me to do a little job I have in mind,’ remarked Derek. ‘There’s a biggish hump about fifty yards inland. I noticed it while we were pitching the tents but I was too cold to go and examine it then. There’s just a chance that it might conceal the roof of a cottage and it would be a godsend if we could shelter there for the night. Ask Margery to keep my coffee hot for me, will you, while I go and see?’