Women of Courage Read online

  ‘All right, I want to have a look at this. Come back with me. Simon, get the car!’

  As they followed Cullen’s motor-bike along the promenade and up, out of the town, there was a strained silence in the car. Simon drove, his goggles masking his face against the stream of cold air that blew in over the Lancia’s low windshield. Charles sat beside him, sunk in thought, gazing out over the dark waters of Belfast Lough, searching the road ahead for the first sign of troops.

  ‘What will you do if they come?’ Simon asked.

  ‘God knows.’ Once Charles had encouraged the boy’s familiarity; it had been a comfort to him. Now it had begun to grate horribly. The question was too near the bone. He couldn’t resist armed, determined soldiers — Simon knew that. If tonight went wrong, the whole bloody cause would probably be lost, forever. Sir Edward Carson would be arrested and imprisoned, and the rest of the UVF High Command would look like a bunch of incompetent idiots. Perhaps because of him.

  Bitterly, his voice deliberately hard and cold and clear above the noise of the engine, he said: ‘If they come, I shall ask them exactly how they knew.’

  But, for all his anger, as soon as the words were out he wished them unsaid.

  Simon drove on for a while, unspeaking. He clashed the gears horribly as he changed them at the foot of a hill. As the car strained slowly upwards, he said: ‘I mean what I say, you know. I’ve kept my word to you so far. You had no call to say that.’

  ‘I’ll say what I bloody well like! Stop here.’

  As the car reached the top of the hill, Charles got out and walked a few paces away down the road, taking his binoculars from their case. It was the highest point on the route; they could see down into Holywood one way, with the distant gas lights of Belfast twinkling beyond; and behind, back into Bangor. In the Lough were the navigation lights of a few ships, moving mysteriously over the coal-black sea. Charles ignored them. He stood beside Cullen and his motorbike, peering down the empty road towards Holywood, listening for the slightest sound of advancing troops. As the sound of the engines died, it became very quiet. Only a damp, insistent breeze gusted around them.

  Simon sat very still in the car, his gloved hands clenched tight around the steering wheel. He had never felt hate for Charles so far, but he was coming very close to it now. This had happened to him several times before. It was the pattern of his life . . . His first lover, when he was eight, had been his father. They had made love when his mother was out at work, and Simon had thought, for a while, that this was how he would get all the love he needed in life. It brought him presents, a secret companionship, a father who no longer scowled but sighed and looked relaxed and happy because of what Simon could do for him. What Simon was happy to do for him.

  Then one day Simon’s father left home, without warning, for another woman! Simon’s life had fallen apart. His father returned, occasionally, but after a few months Simon refused to have anything to do with him. Then, one day, he found out where the woman lived. He locked the doors and set fire to the house when she and his father were in it. To his astonishment no one suspected him. Indeed, so far from being found out and punished for what he had done, he was actually rewarded, in a way. For it turned out his father had more money than anyone suspected — enough money to enable Simon’s mother to send him to a minor public school, and for him to qualify as an officer in the merchant navy.

  As he travelled the world he met other lovers, and a pattern began to repeat itself.

  An affair began with the thrill of discovery, the chase, the secret beddings. Always with the adrenalin-surging fear of detection, the excitement of the utterly illegal. Then, sometimes, there was affection, companionship, something that might be called love, on one side or the other. At first on Simon’s side but increasingly, as he grew harder, on the other. Never, in his experience, on both. And then always, sooner or later, the relationship was corroded by fear, guilt, and the desire of one or other party to escape.

  And when that happened, particularly to mature, established men, they began to realise how seriously, and absolutely, they had put themselves in Simon’s power. And how great was his desire for revenge.

  With Charles Cavendish, this process had only just begun. Part of Simon’s mind still thought of him as a kind, generous man, a father like the one he would always have liked to have. A considerate, if not particularly exciting, lover. A man who had trusted Simon and given him a position of respect in the eyes of society.

  But he was about to take it all away, as they all did in the end. Because of a woman — Deborah, Charles’s wife. Simon gazed out over the dark waters of Belfast Lough, and realised suddenly that one of the ships — the one far out in the middle, with passenger lights all down its sides — was probably the returning ferry that Deborah Cavendish had taken to England yesterday. Simon gazed down at it with venom, wishing it had sunk or caught fire. With her on it.

  But it hadn’t, of course. Things like that could be made to happen, but you have to do more than just wish it. Simon thought about that for a while. Then he turned his eyes away from the ship, and gazed instead at the tall man in the long Ulster raincoat and military cap, who was still peering anxiously down the road towards Holywood. It was a man he had loved more than many before. Now that love was stained at the edges, with a growing mould of hatred and distrust. Soon it would be disfigured beyond recall.

  Simon knew he would have to plan his own revenge . . .

  ‘Coffee, sir?’

  ‘What? Yes, thank you, Simon.’ Charles took the cup gratefully, wrapping his hands around it for the warmth, before he sipped. It might be April but it was cold, here on the end of the quay at 3 a.m. Cold, and, for the moment, quiet. Just the wash and suck of the rising tide on the harbour walls outside, and the buzz of the gas mantle in the harbour light above his head. Waiting.

  To his great relief, the reported detachment of British soldiers had not come their way. Whatever night exercise they were on, it did not seem to involve Bangor. So far, at least. So, leaving pickets posted at all approaches to the town, Charles had returned to the harbour.

  ‘Sergeant says 47 cars all arrived and in position, sir. Engines off and lamps doused as you said. Those with the furthest to go, for Banbridge and Donacloney, are at the front of the line, ready to be loaded first.’

  ‘Good. No reports of the phantom army?’

  ‘Not yet, sir, no. They must have marched down a hole in the ground somewhere.’

  ‘I wish them joy of it.’

  Charles favoured his young ADC with a brief smile, then retreated into the haven of his own thoughts. There was no rancour now; for the moment that was behind them. Just the anticipation, the shared worry of what might happen, what might go wrong.

  He still worried that the company of British troops - the ‘phantom army’ as he called them - would reappear. Bangor could be so easily cut off. There were only two main roads to the west, both of which passed within a few miles of Holywood Barracks. If they were blocked, Charles would have no way of sending his guns to the UVF units who needed them, inland in North and South Down. He could only keep them here or send them south, into the trap of the Ards peninsular. Either that, or fight his way out.

  But so far, all roads were clear. So Charles could concentrate on his operation. He had been round all his pickets twice, organised a load of thirty tons of coal and water to be ready for the Clydevalley on the quay, and supervised the arrival of his convoy of cars. Now there was a lull. The sleeping town was occupied by over a thousand tense, expectant men. All ready.

  But no Clydevalley.

  ‘Sir! Sir! Colonel Cavendish, sir!’

  A sentry called, running out of the little harbourmaster’s office at the side of the quay. The nails in his boots sent red-hot sparks leaping into the air from the cobbles as he sprinted through the dark. ‘Sir! Message on the phone from Lame, sir!’

  ‘Right, I’ll come!’ Leaving his coffee steaming on the harbour wall, Charles hurried to the phone, t
he one vital line that his engineers had left connected in the whole town.

  ‘Cavendish here, sir!’

  `Ah, good! Karnal, yanda sab thiik-thaak hai. Jahaaz as gayaa hai our hamtog saamaan utaar rahe hai. Puliis kii taraf se koii pareshaanii nahii hai.’

  Charles smiled. It was the old trick, which had been perfected in the Boer War and carried over into the UVF, of communicating crucial messages over doubtful phone lines in Hindustani. Certainly it had foxed the Boers, but in an operation in Ulster against their old comrades in arms it was a little more problematic. Still, any RIC officers or telephone operators who were listening would have had to have served in India to have a hope of understanding it. Charles had been brought up in Simla as a boy, and served again for two years in the Punjab after fighting the Boers.

  ‘Tabut acchaa! Jahaaz hamlogd ke paas kitne baje pabiicegaa?’

  The smile faded as his question was answered. The Clydevalley was late. She was still unloading in Lame and could not be expected to arrive in Bangor before 5 am at the earliest. The fact that her crew had also renamed her Mountjoy, in memory of the ship that had first broken the boom at the siege of Derry in 1689, impressed Charles considerably less than the fact that it would be well after daylight before he could hope to finish unloading.

  And in daylight, sooner or later, someone was going to get across the fields to Holywood Barracks and give them away.

  Charles put down the phone thoughtfully, and strolled out into the night. At the end of the quay the long line of cars stood, silently waiting. Their paintwork glistened dimly under the gas streetlights, and little red spots in the gloom showed along the promenade where their drivers stood patiently, smoking. Charles walked down to his company commander at the end of the line to pass on the message.

  The man, a short, burly Canadian with a bristling moustache, shrugged his shoulders and grinned reassuringly.

  ‘So? We’ll have more light to see what we’re doing. Should make the job quicker, eh?’

  ‘Maybe. Just make sure the noble officers of the law don’t get in the way.’

  ‘Them?’ The Canadian glanced at the little group of RIC officers standing round their Inspector on the other side of the road, loosely guarded by half a dozen UVF men. ‘Not a chance. They’ll be as happy to see the guns as we are.’

  Charles had already spoken to the Inspector, and he thought he agreed. There had been only the mildest protest, and the RIC presence throughout the night was probably only a matter of form, rather than real concern. A lot of RIC men had relatives in the UVF, and sympathised with its objectives. On the other hand, they had their careers to think of. If it could be proved they had at least tried to prevent the operation, their consciences would be clear. But then it only needed one, more zealous than the rest, to bring the troops down on them.

  Charles wondered what he would feel if that happened. Angry, undoubtedly, if the operation failed. But if the guns were landed, and he and his men had to fight their way out, that would be a different matter. He had spent a lot of time in the last few months, training his men to combat readiness. But play-acting was one thing, the stimulus of real battle another. If the gunrunning ended in a real, victorious skirmish, his men’s morale would be sky-high. And, as far as Charles was concerned, the political message it would send to the Liberal government in London would be long overdue.

  He had had nothing but contempt for politicians most of his life, and this last attempt to destroy the country by breaking the Union at the heart of the Empire filled him with scorn. Surely a blind fool could see that that was the one thing, the Union, that mattered above all else? That was why so many loyal men, and women too, had signed the Covenant.

  It was then, as he walked slowly back along the quay, his hands clasped behind his back, watching the dark water flowing between the hulls of the moored fishing boats, that Charles remembered again what Deborah had said. Over the past few days the words had faded from his mind, but now, in the empty waiting of the night, they came back to haunt him.

  I don’t care a fig for your Union.

  She had seemed almost shocked herself when she said it. It was such a strange thing for her to say, she was usually so mild and unassertive.

  I wonder where she is now, he thought, and whether she has come to her senses. Perhaps I will write, and persuade her to come home . . .

  The Clydevalley – with a white sheet draped along her side, proclaiming her fictitious name, Mountjoy – finally arrived at 6 a.m. The unloading began immediately. As the first car drew up alongside, a small man in civilian clothes, tired, but still vibrant with energy, ran down the gangplank.

  ‘Colonel Cavendish?’

  ‘Yes. Mr Crawford, sir — delighted to see you!’ Charles saluted, then shook Crawford’s hand. Of all UVF men, this was the one he most admired — the little determined gun-runner who had managed, against so much cautious advice, to actually hire the ships, buy the rifles in Germany, and bring them here now, running the gauntlet of the whole British Channel Fleet to do it.

  But Crawford was in no mood for small talk. ‘Same here. You got my message? Where’s the coal?’

  ‘There.’ Charles waved to his left, where a platoon of men were already heaving coal sacks out of a lorry and standing ready to run up the after gangplank with them as it was lowered.

  ‘Good. I hope it’s better quality than the muck we had last night — that’s what slowed us. And the water?’

  ‘Over there.’

  ‘Good. Listen, Cavendish, these rifles you’ve got: I’ve had ‘em all wrapped ready for use. Each rifle’s got a hundred rounds of ammunition with it in its pack, and they’re bundled in sets of five. So if your men meet any opposition they can take them out and use them straight away. I suppose they know how to shoot?’

  Charles stiffened. He had always taken any insult to his troops as reflecting on him personally. Even from Crawford he would not take that.

  ‘Half of my men are ex-army anyway, sir, and every single one has had firearms practice, despite the lack of ordnance. This isn’t the boy scouts, you know.’

  A faint grin flickered briefly across Crawford’s tired face. ‘Glad to hear it, Colonel. I haven’t come all this way to throw these guns away on fools or halfwits. They’re here to be used, if need be.’

  The two men’s eyes met, and each saw the same hard resolution in the other. It’s really going to work, Charles thought. With men like this on our side, we can do it! Just get these guns out of Bangor to their units in the country, and the Liberal government will never be able to use the army against us without the most almighty bloodbath. And the Liberals haven’t got the stomach for that. Only we have.

  The next hour was one of the proudest of Charles’s military career. The operation, so carefully planned, moved ahead like a parade at the Coronation. Each car, shuddering and gleaming in the morning sunlight, came up to the ship in turn, was loaded with its bundles of rifles, and moved off, to be replaced by the next. Gradually the line grew shorter, as the cars trundled away off the quay, along the promenade, and out of sight.

  The first coal lorry was replaced by a second and a third, while the coal sacks were heaved into the ship in a never-ending stream. Gallons of water were pumped into the ship through a snaking hose. And all the time, Charles’s men moved smoothly, knowing exactly what to do and knowing the urgency of doing it right, first time, straight away.

  Inevitably, there were hiccups. Two car engines stalled, but Charles had anticipated that. The reserve mechanic section immediately pulled them out of line, and had them running again within ten minutes. A coal lorry drove over the water hose and burst it, but a second was found in five minutes. Worst of all, when a message came through from the UVF’s efficient spy system that a Royal Navy destroyer had been seen steaming south from Lamlash in south-west Scotland, Crawford’s engine room crew refused to sail, stating that he had paid them to come this far and no further. But within quarter of an hour Charles had found qualified replacements
from within the UVF.

  Charles’s Lancia was the last car to be loaded. There was no time for ceremony. He shook Crawford’s hand and watched, for a few minutes, as the ship steamed out again into the bay. There was no sign of the destroyer yet, but already Crawford had his crew busily altering the paintwork on the funnels, and taking in the sheet with Mountjoy on it, so that the Clydevalley had her own name back again. Under Crawford’s orders, the ship sailed north, towards the rumoured destroyer — playing the part of an innocent coaster with nothing to hide. Charles got into the car beside Simon, and laughed.

  ‘What’s the joke?’ Simon asked. He let in the clutch, and moved the car smoothly down the quay, past the dispersing UVF footsoldiers towards the small, astonished crowd of nervous Bangor residents watching from the promenade.

  ‘No joke. I was just thinking, what a pleasure it is, to do something perfectly right for once.’

  For a while Simon did not answer. He steered the car carefully past the crowd of elderly onlookers, and began the climb up the hill towards Holywood, where they had been earlier in the night. To Charles’s great relief, there had been no further messages from his scouts about the ‘phantom army’, and motor-cycle riders had come in to tell him that the first cars had already cleared all possible bottlenecks and were away safely into the country.

  Simon said: ‘Morally right, do you mean, or good organisation?’

  Charles glanced at him. There was something a little cold about the question, he thought, unnecessarily analytical at this time of the morning.

  ‘Both, of course. Why do you ask?’

  ‘No reason. I just like to know what you are thinking.’ Simon flashed his dazzling smile at Charles, a little too early, a little gratuitously to create the reassurance he wanted. ‘Of course, it was a brilliant piece of organisation. Crawford was hugely impressed, I could see that.’

  ‘Good. So he should be.’ Despite his pleasure, the conversation made Charles feel slightly uncomfortable. It was too important to him, to look well in the eyes of UVF High Command. It was the thing he wanted more than any other — a reputation that would take him to the top because men trusted and admired him. But it was a weakness, too, not a thing he liked others to notice. Simon knew him a little too well . . .