The Valley of Bones - Anthony Powell [88]
‘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