Three
sisters
The Great War
The end of
innocence…
In 1913, in a quiet corner of
London, the three Fry sisters are coming of age, dreaming of all the
possibilities the bright future offers. But when war erupts their innocence is shattered
and a new era of uncertainty begins.
Cecelia loves Max but his
soldier’s uniform is German, not British, and suddenly the one man she loves is
the one man she can’t have.
Jessie enlists in the army as a
nurse and finally finds the adventure she’s craved when she’s sent to Gallipoli
and Egypt, but it comes with an unimaginable cost.
Etta elopes to Capri with her
Italian love, Carlo, but though her growing bump is real, her marriage
certificate is a lie.
As the three sisters embark on journeys they never
could have imagined, their mother Christina worries about the harsh new
realities they face, and what their exposure to the wider world means for the
secrets she’s been keeping…
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Excerpt
The following
extract from Love in a Time of War follows the middle sister, Jessie Fry, as
she joins the hospital ship she's been assigned to at the Port of Alexandria in
Egypt, which is heading out to tend the wounded from the campaign raging
against the Turks and Germans at Gallipoli during World War I. Much to her
mother's disapproval, Jessie has signed up to become a nurse for the British
Army, and this is her first posting abroad. In this scene she meets a young
Australian nurse named Ivy Roach who will become a good friend. She also muses
about how beautiful and peaceful the voyage in the Mediterranean Sea from
Egypt, past the Greek and Turkish islands is, and justifies her disapproval of
her sister Celie's relationship with a German soldier named Max.
Port Of Alexandria, Egypt – July 1915
The HMHS Letitia sits alongside
the dock, dwarfed by the grey-painted hulks of battleships being loaded with
sacks of provisions and ammunition from the railway trolleys on the supply line
which runs along the Port of Alexandria. Horses stand patiently queuing in the
burning sun, flicking at flies with their long tails as they await their turns
to embark for the Gallipoli peninsula on the eastern Turkish coast.
Jessie picks up her new leather suitcase – a parting gift from her parents –
and, adjusting her straw hat, hastens past the horses and the crowds of raucous
Australian and New Zealand soldiers toward the large white hospital ship with
green crosses painted along its hull. She steps onto the wooden gangway, and,
with one last backward glance at the teeming port, heads up onto the ship.
***
‘Lovely, isn’t it? Ya’d nevva know there’s a war
on, would ya?’
Jessie looks over at the plump young brunette nurse who has joined her at the
ship’s railing. She has a wide, high-cheeked face and mud brown eyes, and she
wears the short scarlet cape and grey cotton dress of the Australian Army
Nursing Service.
Jessie nods. ‘All these islands with
their charming fishing villages, and this turquoise sea … it’s all so idyllic.’
She smiles and extends her hand. ‘I’m Jessie Fry, with the Queen Alexandra’s.’
‘Ivy Roach, AANS. Yeah, like the
cockroach.’ The girl brushes her flapping white nurse’s veil out of her eyes.
‘I’m thinkin’ of changin’ it to de la Roche. Nice ring to it, don’t ya think?
Couldn’t do it when I lived at home, of course. Pa’d have a fit. Now I’m out
here, I reckon I can do what I like. Ivy de la Roche, that’s the new me.’
‘Were you a nurse in Australia before the war?’
‘Yeah. At the Royal Melbourne. Did a bit of everythin’ there. Still, when the
chance came to head outta Australia, I jumped at it. I’ve been to Malta and
Cairo already. Had a ride on a camel to the pyramids. I highly recommend that,
though you’ll be battin’ off blokes runnin’ after ya sellin’ tat all the way to
the Sphinx.’
‘I’d love to see the Sphinx. We had a stopover in Malta for a day on our way
down from England. I had an ice-cream in the Barrakka Gardens. It was lovely.
I’ve always wanted to get out of Britain and see the world.’
Ivy looks out at the craggy coastline of yet another sun-drenched island.
‘Yeah. Shame it has to be under these circumstances. I met a nurse at the
pyramids who’d just been transferred to the hospital at Abbassia, just outside
of Cairo. She’d been on the HMHS Assaye for four months. Said
Gallipoli was an awful place. Said she scratched herself raw from the fleas and
crawlers that came ovva from the mainland with the wounded.’
‘I brought lye soap, just in case. My matron was a nurse in the Boer War. She
warned me about fleas and lice.’
Ivy’s face breaks into a toothy grin. ‘Why didn’t I think of that? You’ll be
the most popular nurse on the ship. Dibs on bein’ your best mate.’
Jessie laughs. ‘Sure.’
‘I’m gonna head down to the mess for some tea. Do ya wanna come?’
‘Not just now, thanks.’
‘Sure thing. Catch ya later.’
Jessie watches Ivy march down the deck and disappear through a doorway into the
ship’s mess. She turns back to the view of the island slipping quickly past the
port side of the ship. The blue-green waves ripple and crest in the gentle
breeze, and a small bright blue fishing boat comes into view. Jessie waves at
the two fishermen and they wave back. She has no idea if they are Greeks or
Turks.
She grasps hold of the white metal railing as the ship lurches over a wave.
What if they were Turks? The Turks who were even now blowing the British,
Australians, New Zealanders and Newfoundlanders to pieces down the Turkish
coast at Gallipoli? It wouldn’t do to think about it. Life is easier if you
keep an eye on the line in the sand. There’s our side, and there’s the enemy
side. Us and them. Celie would do well to understand that. Max is on the enemy
side.
Author Bio
–
Adrienne Chinn was
born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, grew up in Quebec, and eventually made her
way to London, England after a career as a journalist. In England she worked as
a TV and film researcher before embarking on a career as an interior designer,
lecturer, and writer. When not up a ladder or at the computer writing, she
often can be found rummaging through flea markets or haggling in the Marrakech
souk. Her second novel, The English Wife -- a timeslip story set in World War
II England and contemporary Newfoundland -- was published in June 2020 and has
become an international bestseller. Her debut novel, The Lost Letter from
Morocco, was published by Avon Books UK in 2019. Her latest novel, Love in a
Time of War, set during WWI, is the first in a series of three books based
around the changing lives of three English sisters and their half-Italian
mother, with a timeslip to 1890s Capri and London.
Social
Media Links –
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https://twitter.com/adriennechinn
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