Author Note: The is a first draft and is yet to be edited.

Marxby Beach- Present Day

Lavinia fumbled for her phone, she hated mobile phones and only had one at Anna and George's insistence , this was the first moments she was truly glad to have it on her person. She quickly called an ambulance "999 what's your emergency?"

"Ambulance I need an ambulance, it's my friend I think, I think he's drowned,"

Lavinia gave them their location but before she could get any further instruction she dropped the blasted phone in the shallow waves the thrashed back and forth at her feet.

"No!" she cried.

She picked up the phone hopeful but the damn thing was useless, crippled by the water.

"Charlie, Charlie, can you hear me?" Lavinia shook Charlie, but nothing, he was lifeless and pale.

She knew what she must do, but the thought of it filled her with fear, but not enough fear to stop her, she began compressions. Lavinia pressed his chest, hard, again, again, again.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

She carried on pumping hard and determined on his chest trying to will life back into his body.

"Come on Charlie, you don't want to die trust me,"

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Something.

Charlie suddenly rolled over onto his side and began to cough half of the ocean onto the sand.

Lavinia could hear the ambulance sirens in the distance and let out a huge sigh of relief.

She wanted to hug him squeeze him tight, tell him never to leave her again but instead she just rubbed his back, while he coughed up the rest of the ocean that swan in his lungs.

Charlie looked at Lavinia, and through breathy tones he managed to speak. "Lavinia, I had a dream while I was in the water, there was woman, I couldn't see her face,"

"It doesn't matter Charlie, you're safe now, and the ambulance is coming," Lavinia tried to dismiss his ramblings but Charlie sat up and with all the energy he could muster held onto Lavinia's wrist in an attempt to get her attention.

"Listen to me Lavinia, when I was drowning, when I thought it was all over, and I was going to be taken by those waves to die she spoke to me,"

Lavinia leant into his hunched breathy frame.

"What did she say?" She asked dubiously.

"She said follow the sunflowers, Charlie."

Lavinia gaped at him astonished but didn't have time to say anything more as the paramedics were running towards them as they lay almost motionless on the sanding beach.

1915- Hospital France

The hospital was swarming with injured soldiers there had been a huge battle and we were drowning in them, the wounded, the dying, the sick. The doctors the nurses, myself included would go from man to man to man, trying to see everyone, sometimes people not getting seen because they were too ill or there just wasn't time, they were too far gone, no hope, nothing we could do, the hospital it could be a brutal place. But that's war after all, brutal, savage and full of woe.

"Nurse Marxby, Nurse Marxby," a young soldier who wasn't so badly wounded had come to find me when he heard a badly wounded soldier who had recently arrived at the hospital was looking for me.

"Who?" I cried while my hands were still tending to another man, my mind and heart went straight to Jimmy.

"He said his name was Neville,"

"Oh my goodness, Neville, that's my brother-in-law, take me to him," I cried.

When I found Neville he was sleeping and clearly in a bad way, his large round face had thinned greatly, it was battered and cut and bruised, all superficial wounds.

I moved closer to Neville and pulled up a chair next to him and then I noticed it the large white bandage, recently dressed that crossed his entire stomach. Neville appeared to be sleeping deeply so I pulled back his blanket and peered beneath to take a look at his wound.

I didn't know what had happened to the soft, gentle Neville but since he had left Marxby Manor and Lady Sarah the world had not been so kind to Neville. Half his stomach was gone, as I peeled back the bandages his insides were exposed showing his intestines.

A dark wave fell over me, I knew Neville would die and it would be soon, he would never see my sister Sarah again. I ran my hand gently over Neville's and almost in the same way you would a child "shh, Neville, it's all going to be alright," Neville's big brown eyes opened slowly they had a heaviness to them which I had never seen in Neville before he was always so bright and peachy and alive now he looked so heavy and grey.

Neville's dark brown eyes smiled when they saw me "my lady,"

"Oh Neville," I said.

"There's no time for any of that Dolly," he croaked.

"You must listen to me, you must tell Sarah, you must tell her that I loved her, you hear me, Dolly? You tell her that she was my world from the moment I laid eyes on her," Neville was doing everything he could to keep his voice calm and level. 

Tears started to run down my face.

"I know you never approved of me, Dolly,"

I stared at him, dumbfounded, it was true I had never approved of Lord Neville, rich and young he may be but I never thought he was good enough for Sarah. Forced into marriage to that great fat lump.

"But I will tell you because this is the last chance I will ever have," said Neville.

I sat next to Neville and listened, worried as the moments passed he looked all the more grey.

"You hate Sarah's arranged marriage, just like you loath yours to Lord Niall and Jimmy his to Lady Poppy but you never stopped to consider, I love Sarah, I worship her and more than that she loves me. I am not the reason Sarah stopped coming to Marxby before the war, I willed her to go, be with her family, she wouldn't have it. You are the reason, you Jimmy and Fay, think about the way you have treated Sarah, with your little club of three."

Tears ran down my face like a runaway stream.

"You know Jimmy, Fay and I it's more than that, "

Neville reached out and squeezed my hand "I know it Dolly, but Sarah, she's not hard like Percy you made her feel so alone, and on top of it all you ridiculed me whenever I came to the manor."

I could hear myself and Fay saying 'Fat Neville' over and over again and bile rose in my throat.

"I don't mind, I'm not soft of heart but Sarah she hates to have her husband call names, to be teased, you, the three of you make her very unhappy," said Neville with said greying eyes.

I could barely see him through my tears "I'm so sorry, Neville,"

"Dolly, I'm going to die," said Neville.

I said nothing but held his hand with all the strength I could muster.

"I need you to tell me my wife is going to be alright, that you are going to look after her, that you and yours will love her,"

"I do, I do Neville, I love her she's my sister, my big sister and if I knew what I was doing... I promise you, Neville she is safe and loved and she will never be alone not so long as I live,"

Neville smiled and I thought I heard the words thank you on his lips but could never be sure, I watched my brother in law take his last breath and his hand go loose and floppy in my own. Whenever I think about Neville I imagine he was hanging on, hanging on to life to make sure Sarah would be okay and once he knew that he could leave, move on to whatever came next.

After I watched Neville die I ran outside to get some air with thoughts of Sarah whirling round my mind. I felt my legs give way underneath me and cried and cried and cried on the muddy floor outside the tented hospital.

"Dolly?"

Will was walking past and found me crumpled in a sobbing ball.

"Dolly, what is?" His eyes worried.

We had scarcely spoken to each other since I had arrived at the hospital, frightened, angry and afraid, but when Will found me sitting in the mud covered in my own tears it all seemed to wash away.

Will crouched down in the mud with me and tried to give me an embrace but I wouldn't let him, I didn't think I deserved affection.

"I'm a terrible person Will," I sniffed.

"You are not a terrible person; you're a beautiful person, the most beautiful person I know," said Will shyly.

"Neville died hating me," I said.

"Och," said Will the Scottish sound soothing somehow.

"Neville didn't hate you,"

I looked up at Will through the tears.

"He loved Sarah and those are two very different things, trust me." Will brushed one of my tears away gently with his thumb.

I fell into his arms and cried, I let it all out, the death of Neville, my sorrow for Sarah, and my own guilt. Had my special relationship with Jimmy and Fay really caused her this much pain?

"I've made a terrible, terrible mess of things," I said clutching at his shirt in muffled sobs.

"That's right let it all out," Said Will stroking my hair as I cried into the night.

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