She flipped through it, scanned a few more pages and handed it to Kingston. ‘It’s tragic,’ she said. ‘Just to think what those men went through is enough but then, to take the time to write about it …’ Her words trailed off.
Kingston wasn’t listening. He was now seated in the chair next to Jamie and had his eyes glued to the diary’s open pages. The descriptions were simply phrased, almost naïve, which gave them even more gravitas. The thoughts and feelings that accompanied them were like a mirror reflecting the young man’s embittered soul.
Reading on about the soldier’s account of the catastrophic plight that had befallen him and his comrades, Kingston was transported back to those dark days in Europe sixty years ago. Suddenly he looked up. ‘This is starting to sound awfully familiar.’
‘Familiar? What are you thinking?’
‘That it could be Kershaw’s or more likely Kit’s diary.’
‘There’s no name in it, is there?’
‘I haven’t come across one so far. But think about it. How and why did it end up in Ryder’s possession?’
‘I’ve no idea,’ said Jamie, shaking her head. ‘Here, finish this up.’ She poured the last of the champagne into his glass. ‘There’s not much left to do with this lot, I suppose. I think I’ll leave it to you and go and have a bath.’
‘Wait. Listen to this:
It’s night-time and for the first time in days it’s quiet. But the silence is terrible, perhaps worse than the fighting because all I do is lie awake and relive the horrors of the day and dread the coming of tomorrow. I can’t even begin to describe what kind of hell this place is. Every day there are more dead bodies, men with missing limbs and horrible wounds. We’re hopelessly outnumbered by the Jerries and almost out of ammo and I can’t see the point of fighting any more with just a handful of men. Another thing, I’m almost out of fags so things are getting serious!
‘I’d hoped against hope that we would make it out of here alive but it doesn’t look that way now because we are being ordered to fight on to the bitter end. I’ve never believed much in fate but I’m starting to now.
‘Cousin Jeremy has been a lifesaver but I’m beginning to see signs that even his optimism has now deserted him and though he won’t come out and say so, he knows that it will take a miracle for us to survive.’
Kingston looked up. ‘This is the young chap who got shot, Kit. It has to be. It makes sense that he and Kershaw were cousins—it fits with what Loftus told me.’ He scratched his chin. ‘But how on earth did it come to be in Ryder’s possession?’
‘What about the watch? It was neither Kit’s nor Kershaw’s by the looks of it.’
Kingston ignored her question. He was tapping his forehead, eyes momentarily closed. ‘Yes, of course. That has to be it.’
Jamie had stopped what she was doing and was looking at Kingston eager to hear what he had to say next.
‘Here’s what I think happened, Jamie. Kit gives the diary to Kershaw or more likely, Kershaw finds it on Kit’s body after he was killed in that Dutch village. The page that I just read more or less confirms that that was where it was written. We now know they were cousins, too. Funny, Loftus didn’t mention that.’
‘Maybe they didn’t want it known.’
‘Possibly.’ Kingston was pulling on his earlobe. ‘Let’s see. When Kershaw gets out of jail he comes to Wickersham and probably confronts Ryder on two scores. First over his imprisonment, which we’ll assume for a moment was unjust, and second, on account of the death of his cousin Kit, which he blames on Ryder. Kershaw must have had this diary with him. He’d carried it all those years.’
‘You may be overlooking one thing, Lawrence.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Well, we don’t know if Kit was married or not. If he was, surely Kershaw would have given the diary to his wife?’
Kingston thought for a moment. She had a point. ‘One explanation, Jamie, would be that Kit’s wife was no longer living when Kershaw returned to England. If she had been in London through the war, it’s quite possible she could have been killed in an air raid.’
Jamie smiled. ‘I knew you’d come up with an answer.’
He paused. ‘So, when he turns up at Wickersham he shows Ryder the diary.’
‘But why?’
‘To lay the blame at Ryder’s feet for Kit’s death, the unnecessary deaths of many of his men and his own incarceration. To make him feel guilty, ashamed of his actions.’