In the Course of Time: Book Two

coincidental.

Chapter One

Before the great calm, bells rang out from every church steeple, people cheered and made merry, then came the calm... and God said: ‘Live On!’ At the end of the Second World War, a new era emerged in the history of mankind. The world had been a closed flower in the gloom of attrition for six years. Now the petals started to open slowly and gradually on their exposure to the sunlight of peace. Everything had changed; it was all different, but such is the nature of war! Conflict tended to shift economies from depression... it altered the standing of nations... changed the status of the people and traditions... and left smaller populations behind to perpetuate the human race. War was an ever-turning wheel which always heralded violent change. It opened the floodgates to reconnection and redevelopment and it never failed. As time moves on, modern technology increases the pace and the intensity forcing civilisation to move on to the next stage. The termination of war always provided a fresh start. It usually began with a flourish which attracted the thrill of excitement, the fragrant smell of Spring, and the advent of new ideas, progress, great hope and even greater ambitions.

By mid-1946, World War Two was past history for most people who came through the conflict unscathed. There was no option but to get on with their lives. After all, what was the point of dwelling on hindsight or reflecting on the follow of War. Man always claimed that he learned from history but wars continued to flourish without end. The fighting troops had returned home in their tens of thousands. Husbands were reunited with their wives, parents and grandparents with children, lovers with sweethearts, brothers and sisters with their siblings, relatives with each other, and friends with their dearest colleagues and acquaintances. It was a time for people to renew their relationships after the horrors of separation, the hostility and the holocaust. However some families were less fortunate for their loved ones failed to return. Their relatives and friends waited for them in vain while, in many cases, they knew of the bodies of their loved ones rotting beneath the soil in a corner of some foreign land. Those who waited and were denied did so with bitterness in their heart and a monument of sorrow. However despite such sadness and misery suffered by some, and the overwhelming joy and jubilation of others, one thing was undeniably certain... the conflict had ended and, for a time at least, the world was at peace!

Gus Ekland could hardly wait to be demobilised from the army. There was so much he need to do in his personal life that waiting around for papers to be processed became tiresome and frustrating. As an unmarried individual, the army authorities had relegated him to the lowest level of priority for release. The rules were extremely clear for all soldiers. Those who were married and had children were demobilised at the earliest possible moment to enable them to return to their families and restart their lives. As a result, patience became a virtue. Eventually, when his name reached the top of the list and his release papers came through, he arranged to depart without delay. Stuffing his spare military clothes into a kit-bag at the Aldershot barracks, he looked around the room in which he had worked for the very last time. The war had been kind to him... very kind... but in return he had given good service to the army. As a junior defender in the legal division, he had taken on nearly eighty cases and lost practically every one of them... but that had been his role. He had learned the lesson well that if a soldier was caught perpetrating a military crime, the arrested man was automatically found guilty under military law. The army provided no serious defence mechanism, no element of equity, no mitigating circumstances similar to the pleas allowed to defendants in the civil courts. Gus had been employed to defend hopeless cases to the best of his ability. Nonetheless he had enjoyed the involvement, learning specific techniques in argument even though his excellent rhetoric had made no impression on the Commanding Officers or those presiding at Courts-Marshal. As a junior defender, he was expected to lose every case and, except for two occasions, he never failed to disappoint his superiors. However, unlike other legal defenders in the army, he put up a tremendous fight each time and always went down fighting fiercely. Some of the legal staff chided him regularly because of his attempt to defeat the process and they laughed at his bold efforts. Yet he was so devoted to his task that beneath the surface they were forced to respect him.

Brigadier Watson, his Commanding Officer, entered the room before Gus had finished packing. The senior officer had already tried to urge him to consider enlisting for a full-time career in the legal division of the army. He held out the carrot of a promotion to the rank of Captain if the young sergeant agreed but Gus had declined graciously. He no longer wished to practice military law. Criminal and matrimonial cases beckoned him and they were clearly more interesting and much more remunerative. He sought the flexibility of the civil courts and he had already agreed to set up in partnership with Captain Jeremy Banks, his superior at Aldershot barracks.

‘I’m sorry to lose you, Sergeant Ekland,’ declared the Brigadier sadly. ‘Really sorry. Of one thing I’m certain. I’ll never forget the Bassett case as long as I live. You took on a dead case and turned it on its head. Without you, Basset would definitely have had to face a Court-Martial. In the end, he was acquitted and went on to be a good soldier by all accounts.’

‘Well you know how it is, Brigadier,’ returned Gus wearing a sad expression on his face. ‘My first priority is to find my family before I do anything else in life. It may take weeks, months or even longer.

And then there’s civil law. It has a lot of attraction.’

‘Can’t blame you,’ muttered the senior officer. ‘You can make good money in Civvy Street. Good money. But if you ever change your mind, don’t hesitate to contact me. There’ll always be an appointment for you in the army. I mean you have youth on your side. You have a lifetime ahead of you. How old are you?’

‘Twenty. Sir.’ Gus had deceived the army about his age for some years but now that he was leaving he felt that he could reveal the truth.

‘Twenty?’ The Brigadier stared at him in astonishment. ‘But surely that can’t be right! It means that you were only sixteen years old when you defended Bassett!’

‘That’s right, sir. I’m afraid I had to bend the truth a little when I went to the recruitment centre. I told the sergeant there that I was two years older than I really was.’

The Brigadier began to laugh loudly. ‘Well I’ll be damned! Sixteen... and you had the whole of Aldershot at your feet. Officers and men! You little Devil. Had I known that you were that age, I’d have thrown you out on your ear.’

‘I think you would have, sir, but when all’s said and done, justice prevailed at the time. Did you know I’m setting up a law practice with Captain Banks in London?’

‘I did hear about it. I wish you the best of luck.’

Gus finished his packing, swung the kit-bag over his shoulder, and stuck out his hand. ‘It’s been a pleasure working with you, sir,’ he said finally. ‘I wish you the best of luck in the future as well.’

They shook hands and Gus went outside where another soldier was waiting in a vehicle to take him to the railway station. His army career was over at last. He was free to do anything he wished... free to go anywhere he wanted! Yet despite his liberation, time proved to be his real enemy. There were so many things he had to do, so many priorities to handle. His first task was to search for his family... a family that he had never seen or met before. Finding them was to be the first priority although he hardly knew where to start on the quest. The second matter related to an invitation from King Gustav the Fifth of Sweden, his grandfather, to stay at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. He recognised that he was the illegitimate son of the Crown Prince of Sweden who had seduced his mother. Inge Ekland had been a chambermaid at the high house of Tesser, a place at which the Crown Prince visited occasionally. Gus had met the King many years earlier when Harold Ekland had taken him to Sweden to attempt to blackmail the monarch and an affinity had grown between them. He felt obliged to see the old man again. After all, the monarch had arranged to pay for his schooling at a grammar school in London as well as for his lodgings in Whitechapel for a number of years. It matter little whether a person was illegitimate or not... blood was thicker than water! His third priority was Hannah Greenberg, his first love. Yes... he certainly had a lot of catching up to do! However th path leading to romance and marriage was strewn with obstacles and countless hurdles mainly because he was a Gentile and she was of the Jewish faith. Their relationship had been very rocky at times as a result of the teachings of her parents and her Rabbi, and there remained an invisible barrier which ostensibly divided them. Through natural consequence, they had been intimate with each other but such occasions had been erratic and less than satisfying. He still wished to marry her but he was fully aware of the need to be committed to studies and religious rituals if he wanted to change his religion. At the end of the war he had been ordered by the army to go to Germany and defend a war criminal. Hannah and her parents were shocked when he did so. They could not comprehend that an order in the army had to be obeyed however distasteful such action may be to an individual soldier. Gus soon noticed that the letters of love which they sent to each other began to dwindle and continued to diminish until all communication between them was lost. At the age of twenty, Hannah was a mature woman with strong sexual feelings. As a result of the lack of contact, Gus was uncertain whether or not she was involved with another man. Yet he recognised that there was a fourth task. He needed to sort out his relationship with Maria Stubbs, the young, beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed nurse he had met at the hospital in Aldershot. She was head-over-heels in love with him and she had written to him every week for eighteen months following the night she had entertained him in her quarters at the camp. Maria would be returning to England shortly from Italy where she had been posted by the army medical corps to a military hospital. And lastly, after all that, there was the new partnership he intended to start with Jeremy Banks, his ex-Captain. Banks had already been demobilised and was busy setting up the practice just outside the environs of London.

Despite the fact that he had been given the customary civilian suit of clothes offered to all ex-servicemen, Gus continued to wear his army uniform. It was comfortable and he was used to it. The transition to civilian clothing would take a little longer to accept. The crux of the problem was that he had entered the army at the age of sixteen having never worn a suit before. It created for him an entirely new experience. The first thing he discovered on leaving the army, however, was that he had to fend for himself. The umbrella of hospitality and welfare provided by the army, which offered everything from shelter and medical assistance to meals and salary payment, had vanished. Suddenly, he found himself separated from his friends and colleagues for the first time in years. After demobilisation they had all dispersed to different corners of England. There would never again be the same spirit of camaraderie in their lives. The men had lived together, laughed together, cried together, argued with each other, got drunk together, trusted each other, fought each other, shared defeat and victory together, suffered joy and pain and jubilation and, above all, they respected and loved each other. Suddenly, it had all come to an end. It was finished and each one of them had to face a new life without the rest. There was an air of silence all around him which made him feel isolated and vulnerable. He didn’t like it... he didn’t like it at all!

Gus had promised to visit Jeremy Banks before he set out on his quest in Liverpool to find his family. The ex-Captain’s house, located on the outskirts of London, was his first port of call. Two hours later, he sat in the lounge on a comfortable armchair holding a full glass of sherry in his hand. He knew that Banks was married and the father of two children. Apart from seeing their photographs in the officer’s office at Aldershot, there had often been conversations between the two men at times when friends and family had been discussed. Now that he could meet Banks’s family in the flesh, he felt green with envy. His partner had it all! The love of a good woman, two splendid children, a lovely home, a new business, and most important of all, he had other relatives. He could enjoy celebrations, birthdays, family gatherings, anniversaries, births and the like. They could appreciate the happiness that radiated from their love for each other. Gus, with no relatives whatsoever, had never had the opportunity to experience such events.

Gus and Banks retired to the lounge after enjoying a sumptuous dinner and they say in comfortable armchairs smoking cigars and drinking brandy. The ex-Captain flicked the ash off his cigar and exhaled smoke towards he ceiling.

‘There’s something I want to ask you before you depart for Liverpool,’ he ventured seriously. ‘I need a favour. We have two clients already. One’s a criminal case which will have to be handled carefully. It need a fair amount of research, interviewing witnesses, and so on and so forth. The other’s a matrimonial case... the defence of a divorce. I can’t handle both of them at the same time. I could hire another solicitor but, rather than do that at the initial stage of our partnership, I prefer you to handle the matrimonial case. It shouldn’t take you long and you can then go on your way.’

Gus stared at him in dismay. There always seemed to be an obstacle of one kind or another in his way which prevented him from doing what he wanted to do in his personal life. In the army, he had been forced to defend a German concentration guard accused of war atrocities which had delayed his demobilisation. Now it was something else!

‘I’m not sure that I can,’ he responded calmly. ‘You submitted my application to the Law Society but we have to wait for it to be approved. I haven’t got a Practising Certificate and without it I can’t act in Court as a solicitor.’

‘I don’t think we should worry too much about that,’ countered Banks firmly. ‘I mean to say the application’s already in front of them. By the time the case comes to Court, you should have approval... and the Certificate. I see no reason to be unduly concerned about it.’

‘What happens if the case is underway and they haven’t approved it? What happens then?’

‘There’s no reason to think they would refuse the application,’ continued the other man easily. ‘Look... if such a thing happened... although I’m positive it won’t... you’ll have to hand the case back to me. Until then, put it out of your mind.’

The ex-Sergeant could do little but agree especially as Mrs. Banks and the children entered the room at that point. ‘Of course,’ he returned. Ostensibly enthusiastic although he felt extremely reluctant to accede to the request. ‘I’ll handle the case. I hope everything works out all right.’

‘You have a head start,’ continued Banks, picking up a mania folder from a side-table. ‘It’s in the East End of London. You lived there... you went to school there.’

‘That’s right,’ responded Gus woodenly. ‘I’ll handle it.’

‘There’s just one more thing,’ said Banks with an element of discomfort. ‘We each agreed to pay two thousand pounds into the partnership. I’ve put up my share. It would be appreciated if you could do the same, as soon as possible. Are you in funds at present?’

‘Jeremy,’ declared Gus, knowing that he had less than one hundred pounds in his pocket. ‘I put my trust in God. He’ll help me in my time of need as he always does. I’ll pray to him tonight.’

The Banks family stared at him bleakly, recognising it to be an unsatisfying financial answer to their request but, diplomatically, no one pursed the matter further.

On the following morning, ex-Captain Banks bounded into the lounge almost unable to contain his excitement, holding a newspaper in his hand. However the moment that he saw Gus he enthusiasm faded a little and his face assumed a sad expression as he waved the newspaper in front of him. ‘Have you heard the news yet, seen the papers?’

Gus shrugged his shoulders aimlessly and looked at the other man enigmatically. ‘What news are you talking about?’

Jeremy sat down opposite him and inhaled deeply. ‘I’m afraid I have some very bad news for you. It’s about your step brother.’

Gus felt his blood-pressure rise dramatically. ‘My step brother!’ he gasped. ‘You have news about my family?’

‘In a way, it’s about one of your other step brothers... in this morning’s paper.’ He opened the newspaper widely and pointed to an item on the front page. ‘Your step brother, Prince Gustav Adolf, he died in a plane crash yesterday.’ He started to read the information out aloud. ‘Prince Gustav Adolf, eldest son of Crown Prince Gustav VI Adolf, heir to the Swedish throne, was killed in an air crash at Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen. His wife, Sybilla, Princess of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, bore him a son, Prince Carl XVI Gustav, only last year. Banks paused for a moment. ‘It goes on with all the sordid details of the disaster. What are you going to do?’

Gus shrugged his shoulders again. ‘There’s nothing much I can do,’ he uttered miserably. ‘The news is sad but I never met him or his wife. I don’t really know very much about any of the Royal Family of Sweden. My only contact is with my grandfather, the King. I’m not particularly interested in that side of the family. It’s my brother and sister on my mother’s side that I need to find.’

‘Will you go to the funeral?’

There was a long silence before the reply was made. ‘No, I don’t think so. If I turned up, it might start a scandal. I don’t want to be responsible for that. It’s the last thing they need in Sweden at the present time.’

Banks lowered the newspaper and stared at his guest intently. ‘Does this bring you any nearer to the throne of Sweden,’ he asked with interest. ‘Could you see yourself sitting on the throne of Sweden one day?’

Gus laughed so loudly that the echoes reverberated around the room. ‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ he riposted rudely. ‘Not a chance! I was born on the wrong side of the blanket!’

‘Well nothing’s impossible. Anything could happen.’

‘For Heaven’s sake, spare a thought for the Royal Family, Jeremy, my grandfather’s getting pretty old. If he passed on, and something then happened to my father, Prince Carl XVI Gustav would become the king.’

‘But he’s a baby... not even a year old yet!’

‘They’d appoint a Regent. Probably Prince Bertil. He’s the next in line.’

‘Maybe not,’ cut in the ex-Captain sharply. ‘I’ve been keeping a close eye on Swedish affairs lately. Bertil intends to marry Mrs. Lillian Craig, the divorced wife of a Scottish actor. He’s been courting her for three years. If that happens, he’ll have to renounce his right to the throne. The same goes for Prince Sigvard and Prince Carl Johan... while Ingrid doesn’t stand a chance. They won’t allow a woman to control the country. In my opinion, you’re far nearer the Crown than you might think.’

‘Rubbish!’ exclaimed Gus filled with amusement. ‘You can muse on the idea all you like, Jeremy, but it will make no difference. I’m so distant from the throne of Sweden, I may as well be in Mongolia.’

‘Well let me say that every cloud has a silver lining. I’m willing to wage ten pounds that you’ll benefit from all this.’

‘I wouldn’t take your money,’ returned his guest. ‘It wouldn’t be fair.’

Banks shrugged his shoulder disconsolately and left the room. He still believed firmly that his partner would one day sit on the throne of Sweden, but then it was fun to dream; it cost nothing at all!

After he had gone, Gus picked up the manila folder and set out for his old haunts in the East End of London. The assignment was not without some advantage. It allowed him the opportunity to enjoy a few moments of nostalgia and visit Mr. Wood... the old lady who looked after him in his schooldays, shared meals, and spent most of the time with him during the Second World War. He felt cheered at the prospect of seeing her again. The dear old soul would be so delighted to see him march into her front room wearing his army uniform. However the timing of his visit could not have been worse. As he arrived at his old home in Vallance Road, he halted with concern showing on his face. Outside the house, two funeral directors were loading a coffin on to a hearse.

‘What’s going on?’ he asked solemnly. In his heart he knew the answer long before it was given.

‘Old lady died of a heart attack,’ came the answer from one of the men dressed smartly in black. ‘Dear old soul!’

‘Not Mrs. Wood!’ advanced Gus, his heart thumping like a drum.

‘That’s the one. Mrs. Wood. Are you a member of the family?’

‘She didn’t have a family.’

‘Ah!’ declared the other man thoughtfully, also dressed entirely in black. ‘That’s why all the instructions came from a solicitor Grimes & Soulby in Mile End. The funeral’s tomorrow. If you want further details they’ll let you have them. Shame... but we all have to go in the end.’ He slammed shut the rear end of the vehicle and moved to climb into the driving seat.

Gus watched the hearse drive off with dismay. He stood outside his old lodgings for a while and then began to walk up the road Mile End, pausing at the corner of the top of the road to allow the number six-five-three bus to turn in the direction of Bethnal Green and Stoke Newington. When he reached the premises of Grimes & Soulby, he entered the reception area to be faced by a bald-headed man who was far overweight, dressed in an ill-fitting suit.

‘Grimes or Soulby,’ enquired Gus curtly.

‘The former,’ came the reply. The solicitor’s eyes scanned his uniform. ‘What can I do for you, Sergeant?’

‘Mrs. Wood... deceased from Vallance Road,’ he uttered tersely. ‘I understand you have all the details.’

‘Vallance Road,’ he mused. ‘Did you know that a block of flats there was demolished by the last V2 rocket of the war! The very last V2 sent by Hitler to Britain.’ There was a long pause as Gus stared at him coldly causing the other man to cough lightly before answering the question’ ‘You’re asking about Mrs. Wood,’ continued Grimes with a sad expression on his face. ‘A lovely old lady, one of our nicer clients and who might you be, sir?’

‘Ekland... Gus Ekland. I used to live in the same house with her until I joined the army. Can you tell me the time and place where she’s to be buried?’

‘Ekland,’ muttered the solicitor as if he should know the name.’ Gus Ekland, of course, I’m so glad you called. Just take a seat while I get the file.’ He went into an inner room and Gus sat down on a round-backed chair. The man returned shortly and opened a manila folder peering at the documents inside. ‘Gus Ekland,’ he said eventually. ‘Is that your real name?’

The ex-Sergeant stared at him quizzically. ‘It was my original name but for some years I was known as Brand. Gus Brand. Now I’ve reverted to Ekland... my family name.’

‘Do you have any proof of your identity?’

‘Of course, I’m in the army... at least I was. I can prove who I am but what has that got to do with the funeral?’

‘Mrs. Wood didn’t have a family. There was a son who died of diphtheria in his infancy and there was a daughter who went into hospital for a minor operation at the age of sixteen who passed away in a coma having failed to survive the anaesthetic. Her elder brother was killed in the First World War, having never married, while her other brother married but had no children. He died ten years ago. In effect, the poor lady had no family and so, in her Will, she left the whole of her estate to you. She made you her beneficiary. Our problem was to find you but providence brought you here today.’

‘The whole of her estate to me,’ repeated Gus slowly with a smile touching his lips. ‘You make it sound very grand. Mrs. Wood was practically a pauper. She rented the next room to me and we used to share the cost of food. You make it sound as though she was worth a fortune.’

‘Well you may be surprised to learn that she saved every penny that she could throughout her life. Her estate amounts to two thousand-five hundred pounds, and she left it all to you. I knew that I remembered your name from somewhere. It’ll give