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Billy had not been brought up to look on cruelty without a protest. "The boy is only sixteen, sir!"
"Too late to say that now," said Fitzherbert. "And don't speak until you're spoken to, Corporal. "
Billy knew that Fitzherbert did not recognize him. Billy was just one of hundreds of men who worked in the earl's pits. Fitzherbert did not kno
w he was Ethel's brother. All the same, the casual dismissal angered Billy. "It's against the law," he said stubbornly. In other circumstances Fitzherbert would have been the first person to pontificate about respect for the law.
"I'll be the judge of that," said Fitz irritably. "That's why I'm the officer. "
Billy's blood began to boil. Fitzherbert and Carlton-Smith stood there in their tailored uniforms, glaring at Billy in his itchy khaki, thinking that they could do anything. "The law is the law," Billy said.
Prophet spoke quietly. "I see you've forgotten your stick this morning, Major Fitzherbert. Shall I send Bevin back to headquarters to get it for you?"
It was a face-saving compromise, Billy thought. Well done, Prophet.
But Fitzherbert was not buying it. "Don't be ridiculous," he said.
Suddenly Bevin darted away. He slipped into the crowd of men behind and disappeared from sight in a moment. It was so surprising that some of the men laughed.
"He won't get far," said Fitzherbert. "And when they catch him, it won't be very funny. "
"He's a child!"
Fitzherbert fixed him with a look. "What's your name?" he said.
"Williams, sir. "
Fitzherbert looked startled, but recovered fast. "There are hundreds of Williamses," he said. "What's your first name?"
"William, sir. They call me Billy Twice. "
Fitzherbert gave him a hard stare.
He knows, Billy thought. He knows Ethel has a brother called Billy Williams. He stared straight back.
Fitzherbert said: "One more word out of you, Private William Williams, and you'll be on a charge. "
There was a whistling sound above. Billy ducked. From behind him came a deafening bang. A hurricane blew all around him: clods of earth and fragments of planking flew past. He heard screams. Abruptly he found himself flat on the ground, not sure whether he had been knocked over or had thrown himself down. Something heavy hit his head, and he cursed. Then a boot thumped to the ground beside his face. There was a leg attached to the boot, but nothing else. "Oh, Christ," he said.
He got to his feet. He was uninjured. He looked around at the members of his section: Tommy, George Barrow, Mortimer. . . they were all standing up. Everyone pushed forward, suddenly seeing the front line as an escape route.
Major Fitzherbert shouted: "Hold your positions, men!"
Prophet Jones said: "As you were, as you were. "
The surge forward was halted. Billy tried to brush mud off his uniform. Then another shell landed behind them. If anything, this one was farther back, but that made little difference. There was a bang, a hurricane, and a rain of debris and body parts. The men started scrambling out of the assembly trench at the front and to either side. Billy and his section joined in. Fitzherbert, Carlton-Smith, and Roland Morgan were screaming at the men to stay where they were, but no one was listening.
They ran forward, trying to get a safe distance from where the shells were landing. As they approached the British barbed wire, they slowed down, and stopped at the near edge of no-man's-land, realizing that ahead was a danger as great as the one from which they were fleeing.
Making the best of it, the officers joined them. "Form a line!" shouted Fitzherbert.
Billy looked at Prophet. The sergeant hesitated, then went along with it. "Line up, line up!" he called.
"Look at that," Tommy said to Billy.
"What?"
"Beyond the wire. "
