Historical Fiction

426

The Long Shadow illuminates a period of history not often featured in fiction and is highly topical as we approach the centenary of WW1 in 2014

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Loretta Proctor
Troubador Publishing
Loretta Proctor

This must be it. This must have been what he saw glint in his mother’s hand when he was a small child. This then was the key to Pandora’s box. He now turned the lock of the wooden box and opened it. Inside he saw two books, a red one and a black one. These looked like diaries. Opening the first page of the red one, which lay on top, he saw the date January 1916. He knew then that this was what he had been looking for. Beneath the diaries were several photos, yellowing slightly and curling at the edges. Then he found a Christmas Day menu with various pencilled signatures all over it, dated December 25th 1916. There was also a thick yellow-gold wedding ring. He took out the photos and found several of his mother, dressed in the long skirts which now seemed so old-fashioned, a long white apron over the dress with a Red Cross on the bib, white tents behind her, bleak hills in the background. In some pictures she was with other nurses, in others by herself, looking so young, gentle and dignified, with that sweet smile on her face. Another was with Ethan in what looked like an operating theatre. In many of these pictures was a pretty blonde nurse, arm affectionately linked with his mother’s, whom he now recognised as the mysterious May whose photo was on the washstand. At the very bottom was another picture; a man in full military uniform, his peaked and braided cap shading his eyes a little. Andrew took it out with trembling hands. A lean, hawk-like face looked back at him. They were not kindly features but full of stern character. The likeness to himself took his breath away. For the first time in his fourteen years, Andrew looked upon his father’s face.