with the mist of the day and the billowing smoke from the guns it was hard to see who it was. Then one of the other chaps pointed out a clump of bushes on the map. It was hard to see how big it was from the rough map, but if we managed to get out of the trench without injury and slither under the wire, we decided to make for there and decide on our next move.
‘I was concentrating on what my mate said and all around us was noise. And there was the stink of cordite in the air and I didn’t see or hear the shell till it was too late. I heard Barry give a frantic yell and only seconds later there was a massive explosion and I was knocked clean out.
‘Days afterwards I came to to find I was minus a leg and my other two mates had copped it. People say Barry launched himself at this chap. No one seemed to know who it was, but I would imagine there was a state of confusion because I was told a barrage of shells followed that first one. One chap said that though it was obvious Barry was dead, the one he tried to save didn’t look in great shape either so he might have died too. That was the war over for me.’
Angela, thinking of the pictures of the Somme she’d seen, could well imagine the scenario, with whining shells exploding all around the frightened soldiers as they desperately searched for cover to save themselves to fight another day. Daniel would probably have no idea of what battlegrounds were like – neither had she before the photographs from the Somme – but he turned to them all and said:
‘I feel I’ve got to thank you all. I came here with some shadowy idea of a father who didn’t care for me at all, a man who would leave me money when he was dead, but nothing of himself when he was alive. I am going away with a fuller picture than I ever imagined and, because of the photograph, I even know what he looked like. I now have a really full picture of the father I will never know.’
‘Doesn’t that make you sort of sad?’ Connie asked.
‘Maybe a little sad that I’ll never get to see him,’ Daniel admitted. ‘But now at least I can think of him. I know he was a real flesh and blood person and he cared for me and he was my father.’
All were moved by Daniel’s words spoken with such sincerity and Angela said, ‘Daniel, I knew and loved your father dearly and I will say with absolute certainty that he would be so proud if he could know the man you have turned out to be.’
Daniel gave a wry smile and said, ‘Don’t know if you’ll be so proud of me when I tell you that I’m starting in the bank on Monday.’
Disappointment flitted across Angela’s eyes, for she thought Daniel needed to break free a little from the dominance of his aunt and uncle. But she betrayed none of it in her voice when she spoke. ‘I thought you wanted to do something else?’
‘I did … I do,’ Daniel said, and then went on, ‘To be honest, both Roger and Betty have been pretty foul to me since I said they should have told me the truth about my father. They made me feel really guilty when they said that that was all the thanks they got for bringing me up without a penny piece of support from my excuse for a father.’
‘But they wouldn’t accept anything!’
‘I know, but they deny that now and my mother claimed he didn’t even offer to give them anything. They financed everything, from the expensive uniform for the private school they sent me to in order for me to get to grammar school where the uniform was equally expensive. They cited the day-to-day expenses of bringing up a child, including Christmas and birthday presents – though they were never lavish – and the fact that they then financed me through university. Anyway, then my uncle said that the gravy train was coming to an end. I had to get a job and quick and pay my way in the world and pay them back for the money they have spent on me. He has a job set up for me at the bank and on Monday morning I am going into the city centre with him on the train. He said he will listen to “no nonsense” about anything I would rather do.’
‘Golly,’ Connie said. ‘Why are they being so mean to you?’
‘Because I am not doing what they want,’ Daniel said. ‘And because I am finding out more about the father they denied me, and they don’t like it. They don’t like me spending so much time here either, at least Betty doesn’t.’
‘What does she want you to do?’
‘Basically, she wants me to keep her company day after boring day, and as I’m not prepared to do that, she’d rather have me at work under my uncle’s watchful eye.’
‘I can see the way they put it. You had no other alternative,’ Maggie said.
‘No,’ said Daniel with a short dry laugh. ‘The way my uncle went on though, I wouldn’t be surprised if he wrote down every blessed thing I’ve ever been bought or caused him to pay in any way and presented me with a bill to be paid off out of my wages.’
‘Doubt it will come to that,’ Angela said. ‘But, talking of money, what are you going to do with the money your father left you?’
‘Oh, that’s already sorted,’ Daniel said. ‘I took the solicitor’s advice and saw the bank manager. I have opened an account and put it in there. Not the bank I will be working in but a new one altogether where my uncle is not known.’
‘In a bank?’ Connie cried and her voice came out like a squeak. ‘Not a post office?’
‘I don’t know much about either,’ Daniel said. ‘Never had enough money to worry about where to put it so I did what the solicitor advised. That money in the end will signify my freedom. From what was said, there will be no financial help from my aunt and uncle, nor should I expect any, they said. They have paid for me to be well-educated and now it’s up to me. I will save as much of my wages as I can and when I have enough I can say goodbye and at least live somewhere else, even if I have to continue working with my uncle for a while.’
‘D’you think you will get to like it in the end?’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Daniel said. ‘I have the feeling it will bore me to tears. But jobs are not that easy to get, so I suppose I will stick at it till something better comes along at least.’
‘Well, that’s sensible.’
‘I’m very sensible,’ Daniel smiled. ‘My friends would tease me about it. It was the way I was brought up, but they used to call me Doubtful Daniel. They would suggest something and I would often worry we might get into trouble if we did it.’
‘Did you do it anyway?’ Connie asked.
‘Sometimes,’ Daniel said and laughed, a low rumble of a laugh just like his father, and Angela laughed with him. As she did, she thought what a serious young man he was. She had never heard him laugh before.
‘You can’t be good all the time,’ she said.
‘Good,’ said Connie. ‘I’ll remind you of that.’
‘You watch out,’ Angela told her daughter with mock severity. ‘Or I’ll clip your ears for you.’
‘That’ll be the day,’ Mary said from her chair before the fire, for it was well known Angela had never laid her hand on her daughter. Mary began to laugh her wheezy laugh and it was so infectious that in minutes everyone was joining in.
Daniel was so grateful he had made contact with this warm and happy family, knowing there was another way to live to the way he had been brought up.
