Anthony Powell - The Valley of Bones

‘You’re wanted on the phone, sir,’ he said, grinning, as if he and I had shared most of the fun of the Bithel incident, ‘your unit.’

I went to the telephone in the Duty Officer’s room.

‘Jenkins here.’

It was the Adjutant.

‘Hold on a moment,’ he said.

I held on. At the other end of the line Maelgwyn-Jones began to talk to someone in the Orderly Room. I waited. He returned at last.

‘Who is that?’

‘Jenkins.’

‘What do you want?’

‘You rang up for me.’

‘What was it? Oh, yes. Here’s the chit. Second-Lieutenant Jenkins. You will report to Divisional Headquarters, DAAG’s office, by 1700 hrs tomorrow, taking all your kit with you.’

‘Do you know what I’m to do there?’

‘No idea.’

‘For how long?’

‘No idea of that either.’

‘What’s the DAAG’s name?’

‘Also unknown. He’s a new appointment. Old Square-arse got bowler-hatted.’

‘How shall I get to Div HQ?’

‘There’s a truck going up tomorrow with some details for hospital treatment. I’ll tell it to pick you up at Castlemallock on the way. I expect you’ve heard about certain changes in your Company.’

‘Yes.’

‘Strictly speaking, this instruction should have been issued by me through your Company Commander, but, to avoid confusion, I thought I’d tell you direct. There was another reason, too, why I wanted to speak personally. If the new DAAG is an approachable chap, find out about that Intelligence course I’m supposed to be going on. Also about those two officer reinforcements we’ve been promised. All right?’

‘All right.’

‘Report what I’ve just told you about yourself to the two officers concerned — Rowland and Idwal — right away. Tell them they’ll get it in writing tomorrow. All right?’

‘Yes.’

Maelgwyn-Jones hung up. Castlemallock was to be left behind. I heard the news without regret; although in the army — as in love — anxiety is an ever-present factor where change is concerned. I returned to Kedward and told him what was happening to me.

‘You’re leaving right away?’

‘Tomorrow.’

‘What are you going to do at Div?’

‘No idea. Could be only temporary, I suppose. I may reappear.’

‘You won’t if you once go.’

‘You think not?’

‘As I’ve said before, Nick, you’re a bit old for a subaltern in an operational unit. I want to make the Company more mobile. I was a little worried anyway about having you on my hands, to tell the truth.’

‘Well, you won’t have to worry any longer, Idwal.’

These words of mine expressed, on my own part, no more, no less, than what they were, a mere statement of fact. They did not convey the smallest reverberation of acerbity at being treated so frankly as a more than doubtful asset. Kedward dealt in realities. There is much to be said for persons who traffic in this corn, provided it is always borne in mind that so-called realities present, as a rule, only a small part of the picture. On this occasion, however, I was myself in complete agreement with Kedward’s view about my departure, feeling even stimulated by a certain excitement at the thought of being on the move.

‘You’d better tell Rowland right away.’

‘I’m going to.’

I returned to the Company Office. Gwatkin was surrounded with papers. He looked as if he were handing over an Army in the field, rather than a Company on detachment for security duties. He glared when I came through the door at this disobeying of an order that he should be left undisturbed. I repeated Maelgwyn-Jones’s words. Gwatkin pushed back his chair.

‘So you’re leaving the Battalion too, Nick?’

‘The Adjutant didn’t say for how long.’

‘You won’t come back, if you go to Division.’

‘That’s what Idwal said.’

‘What can it be? They’d hardly give you a staff appointment. It’s probably something like Bithel. I hear he’s going to the Mobile Laundry. The CO must have rigged that.’

I saw that even Bithel’s new command was painful to Gwatkin, destined himself for the ITC. My own unexplained move was scarcely less disturbing to him. He frowned.

‘This must be part of a general shake-up,’ he said. ‘CSM Cadwallader is leaving the Battalion too.’

‘Why is the Sergeant-Major going?’

‘Age. I don’t understand why Maelgwyn-Jones did not pass the order about yourself to me in the first instance.’

‘He said he spoke to me personally because he wanted to explain about some questions I was to put to the new DAAG.’

‘He should have done that through me.’

‘He said you would get it in writing tomorrow.’

‘If the Adjutant ignores the correct channels, I don’t know what he expects other officers to do,’ said Gwatkin.

He laughed, as if he found some relief in the thought that the whole framework of the Company, as we had known it together, was now to be broken up; not, so to speak, given over unimpaired to the innovations of Kedward. There was no doubt, I saw now, that Gwatkin would have preferred almost anyone, rather than Kedward, to succeed him.

‘Idwal will get either Phillpots or Parry in your place, I expect,’ he said.

He began to fiddle with his papers again. I turned to go. Gwatkin looked up suddenly.

‘Doing anything special tonight?’ he said.

‘No.’

‘Come for a stroll in the park.’

‘After Mess?’

‘Yes.’

‘All right.’

I went off to pack, and make such other preparations as were required for departure the following day. Gwatkin came into dinner late. I was already sitting in the ante-room when he joined me.

‘Shall we go?’

‘Right.’

We left the house by the steps leading to what remained of the lawn, its turf criss-crossed now with footpaths worn by the feet of soldiers taking short cuts. Shrubberies divided the garden from the park. When we were among the trees, Gwatkin took the way leading to Lady Caro’s Dingle. After the heat of the afternoon, these woods were wonderfully cool and peaceful. The moon was full, the sky almost as light as day. Now that I was about to leave Castlemallock, I began to regret having spent so little time in this park. All I knew was the immediate neighbourhood of the house. To have frequented its woods and glades would perhaps have only increased the melancholy inherent in the place.

‘Do you know, Nick,’ said Gwatkin, ‘although the Company used to mean everything to me, it’s leaving the Battalion that’s the real blow. Of course there will be up-to-date training at the ITC, opportunity to get to know the latest weapons and tactics thoroughly, not just rush through them and instruct, as we have to here.’

I did not know what to say to that, but Gwatkin was just getting it off his chest. He did not require answers.

‘Idwal is pretty pleased with himself now,’ he said. ‘Let him see what it’s like to be skipper. Perhaps it isn’t as easy as he thinks.’

‘Idwal certainly enjoys the idea of being a company commander.’

‘Then there’s Maureen,’ Gwatkin said. ‘This means leaving her. That was what I wanted to talk to you about.’

I had supposed that to be the reason for our coming to the park.

‘You’ll at least have time to say goodbye to her.’

That did not sound much consolation. It seemed to me he was well rid of Maureen, if she really was disturbing him to the extent that it appeared; but being judicious about other people’s love affairs is easy, often merely a sign one has not understood their force or complexity.

‘I’m going to try and get down there tomorrow,’ he said, ‘take her out for the evening.’

‘Have you been seeing much of her?’