Chapter 10

When George got down to the breakfast table in the morning he was surprised to see Elizabeth, William and Timothy all there. The rest of his family were there too but everyone else lived there, Elizabeth and William must have gotten up exceptionally early just to be here, was it just to see he off to training or was there another purpose in mind.
“Good Morning Elizabeth, my dear sweet sister and what a lovely surprise for you to join me for breakfast on the morning before I leave”, he gave her a great big hug and squeezed her quite tightly. She squeaked from the embrace and pulled herself out of his arms.
“Don’t tease”, she huffed, “You know that I would never miss saying goodbye to my brother”.
“Is that why you’re here?” George quizzed “The only reason then? Fantastic lets eat then, shall we? I know I won’t taste eggs as good as Henrietta’s for a very long time.”
“That sounds like an excellent idea” chimed in Maggie, who was oblivious to all the goings on last night. She wasn’t particularly happy to see her sister or Timothy this morning as last night they were exceptionally officious towards her. First Elizabeth had virtually dragged her off the floor in front of John and her other friends and then she along with Timothy started lecturing her about the protocols of engaged women. She was just happy when William declared that Maggie had endured enough for the day and that he and Elizabeth would walk her home as Timothy would miss the next train if he took any detours. When she heard Timothy’s voice coming from down stairs this morning she thought she was still dreaming. She cringed at the thought of waking up every morning next to someone who would probably start making the bed before Maggie had even got out of it.
“There wasn’t anything that you wanted to mention first?” Timothy enquired.
“Oh...umm... I am sorry about my behaviour last night and that ti won’t happen again”, Maggie said on auto-pilot while heaping a spoonful of eggs on to her plate.
“I wasn’t talking to you”, Timothy said, “although there is a few things I thought we should discuss at a later point today. In fact I was talking to your brother who left the dance rather early with Anna”.
George sat himself down next to Maggie and took her plate full of eggs, grinning from ear to ear. “Thanks Maggie, how nice that you have learnt to serve others before yourself. This one is going to make a great wife someday, hey Father”, George goaded Maggie, he figure that this was a good line of defense and that Maggie although annoyed with him now would be understanding when he explained to her in private later on. George had decided that it was Timothy that he was particularly upset with in this matter, he even figured that maybe this would be a good way of getting rid of Timothy for Maggie. He was going to keep his plans and thoughts to himself until the very last minute, he knew this would annoy Elizabeth simply because she liked to know everything that was going on around her, he also knew that it would be torturous for Timothy because he liked to be in control of all things and the thought that George could upset his plans by marrying a wanton woman just might be enough for him to call off his engagement to Maggie.
For the rest of breakfast George discussed other issues such as his training program with William and what he thought the next plans for his battalion might be. Maggie asked when he thought the nurses would be mobilised and if her pay would only increase after war had been declared. Maggie was being a lovely distraction, and talking about all sorts of things that she heard about from John last night. She mentioned that because John had been accepted into medical school that he was asked to join the medical division, he expected to be working with the surgeons and doctors and that he might end up being sent to the same place. George knew that this sort of talk would normally rattle Timothy but this morning all he seemed to do was to direct the conversation back towards George.
Once breakfast was over George stood up to leave the table but before he could go anywhere his mother asked him if there was anything that he wanted to share with the rest of the family.
George looked over to his father and smiled, he walked over to his mother and kissed her on the cheek. “Yes Mother, there is. I just wanted to say that I love you all, very much.” He then leaned over towards his mother’s ear and whispered “Soon, we need to make this dramatic”. George then went around the room kissing his sisters and Henrietta and shaking the hands of the men. When he came to Timothy he looked him straight in the eyes and squeezed his hand in a firm grasp.
“And how was you talk with Annabel, last night?” Timothy asked, he decided that he had needed to be with direct with George now as he was clearly being taken for a ride.
George, unused to Timothy cutting the social graces, could help but enjoy keeping him in the dark for longer simply said “Enlightening”. George then grabbed his duffel bag and went to open the front door. He looked around at the faces of his family and pretended that he had only just thought of the idea. “I have a good idea, why doesn’t the family walk with me to the train platform. It’s still early for a nice morning walk and yet late enough for you William to catch the train to work.”
“Oh yes nothing like getting to work early on a Monday morning”, William joked.
“Yes I’ll come too”, said Elizabeth a little too enthusiastically.
“But you hate exercise”, laughed William as he grabbed his coat.
“Well”, hesitated Elizabeth, “Maybe it’s time that I changed that, you are always saying that I should go walking”.
“Well have a nice time you lot, I’m back to bed again, I don’t start my shift at the hospital until two”, said Maggie who was clearly trying to get away from Timothy and her sister.
“Oh come on Maggie”, pleaded George, “It’s not all the time that I ask you to walk me somewhere. Who knows”, he added, “You might just get to find out a interesting bit of news”.
Maggie sighed dramatically but got her coat all the same. “This had better be exceptionally interesting, I need to work out how I am going to break my news to the Matron”.
“Are you coming Father?” George asked.
“I think I will wait back here” he said, “For the fall out” he then whispered into his son’s ear as he hugged him goodbye. “I’ll do what I can here, my son, I look forward to seeing you again very soon”.
“Soon indeed”, whispered Mother into George’s ear as she kissed him and held him close to her. “When will you tell them?”
“Soon”, he said with a wink and he held the door open for everyone to leave.
Father watched them all leave knowing that it wouldn’t be long until he saw them again, this time he imagined that Timothy would be leading the charge back into the house. Father didn’t particularly think it was a good idea to reveal the truth in this manner, he had felt somewhat deceitful but George asked him to let him have a little fun, at Timothy’s expense. Well, thought Father, if Timothy did want to be a part of this family then I suppose he needed to get use to our odd sense of humour. He doubted that that would happen and went and poured himself a strong cup of coffee and headed to his study to wait for their return.
Even though the group walked reasonably fast to the station the train was already waiting at the platform, William mentioned that he had never been early enough for this train before and kissed Elizabeth goodbye and hopped on board. Elizabeth kissed him back and quickly returned he focus to George.
“Out with it”, demanded Maggie, and then said in a hushed tone to George “This had better be good, because now I have to walk all the way back home with these two”.
Oh dear, he then thought, I hadn’t really thought about that for Maggie’s sake, but he thought the news would considered good on both his sisters part that Elizabeth should be bearable for her. Timothy on the other hand, he knew would be quite aggravated by the news, although by now George suspected Timothy knew what he had to say. Just then the train attendant let out the whistle which caused George to jump, he realised that they were cutting it fine but this made the announcement even more dramatic. He jumped on board and stuck his head out of the carriage window.
“Do you remember how I told you that I asked Anna to marry me and she said no?” George began.
“Yes” shrieked Elizabeth half knowing what was coming next.
“Well I changed her mind”, George beamed. He could see the aghast look on Timothy’s face. He felt a little mean in shocking Timothy’s moral standards but once Timothy knew the truth he hoped that Timothy would give them his support, then they would be better rid of him. Elizabeth looked delighted, she always loved to be right and William quickly stuck his head out the window to see her elated expressions and gave a short laugh in appreciation of her exultant deposition. It was Maggie that made him laugh most of all, as he could see that she hadn’t quite understood the news yet.
“Changed her mind about what?” George heard her say.
“Anna’s going to be my wife”, George yelled back.
George could see Maggie and Elizabeth giving each other a hug and looking very happy on George’s behalf. He knew that they trusted his judgement, even though this was all happening so quickly, his sisters knew that once George had made a decision that he would stick to it and they would have a new sister-in-law very soon. He could also see Timothy already on his way out of the station and heading home. He knew that Timothy would waste no time in telling Father what he knew. But Father already knew- the truth. Father would sit down with the rest of the family and let them know Anna’s sad story and they would all pitch in to help things happen.