Free The Iron Stallions by Max Hennessy

he suggested seeing her to her mother’s hotel before heading for the station to catch the train back to barracks.
    ‘I’ve got a better idea,’ she said. ‘I’ll see you to the station. Stations are places for goodbyes, not hotel foyers.’
    On the platform, Ailsa stood very close to him. As the guard went along the train slamming doors, he touched Josh’s arm. ‘We’re going now, sir,’ he said.
    ‘Right.’ Josh looked down at Ailsa. She was gazing up at him in a way he’d never noticed before and, abruptly, he bent down and kissed her. She kissed him back eagerly, then stepped back, her eyes shining. ‘Don’t forget to write, Josh,’ she said.
    As the train drew out, he saw her standing on the platform waving a handkerchief, small and forlorn, and he found himself wondering what he’d started.
     
    Back at barracks he found the place in ferment. Rumour had it that the regiment was to amalgamate with the 23rd Lancers.
    ‘Good God,’ Reeves said. ‘They’re only a half-baked lot who were formed at the end of the last century! They don’t know one end of a horse from the other.’
    ‘19th/23rd Lancers,’ Josh murmured. ‘It sounds like a chemical formula.’
    ‘They wear blue,’ Ellesmere pointed out. ‘We wear green. What the devil will we wear now?’
    ‘Blue and green stripes, I expect,’ Reeves said.
    ‘What’s their motto?’
    ‘A star.’
    ‘What a bloody unimaginative lot! How about the title? Anybody know?’
    ‘First at everything. In Latin, of course. Ubique primus . Something like that.’
    ‘How the hell do you marry Aut Primus Aut Nullus with Ubique Primus ?’
    ‘Since cavalrymen are supposed to be as good at love as they are at riding,’ Ellesmere said, ‘how about “Our arms are our defence”?’
    ‘My girl friend,’ Morby-Smith smiled, ‘would probably prefer “Our arms their recompense.’
    ‘How about a new one,’ Josh offered. ‘Love and ride away?’
    ‘If we’re going to be mechanised,’ Reeves said, ‘it ought to be “Screw and bolt.”’
    Leduc’s saturnine face was smiling. ‘I think,’ he said, ‘that we’d better stick to the conventional and make sure we keep ours . After all, the 23rd were only an East India Company Regiment. Bengal Light Cavalry, weren’t they? Came into the British Army in 1860.’
    For the next three weeks, the Colonel, the adjutant and the squadron commanders seemed to have vanished without trace as they held urgent and acrimonious discussions with the colonel and senior officers of the 23rd as to what they were to wear and what their motto and title should be. The Colonel of the 19th proved to be either the tougher bargainer or the more seasoned campaigner, because he brought a few powerful names into the argument at War Office level and they ended up with the information that, though the 19th were to give up their green jackets for the blue of the 23rd, they were to retain the red plastron as it was common to both regiments, while overalls would remain the gold-striped green of the 19th.
    ‘Well, that’s something,’ Leduc observed. ‘We’ll still be able to borrow a pair from the Inniskillings if things go wrong.’
    Compromise on the motto was to be achieved by placing the 19th’s clutching eagle on the background of a star, while the motto was to remain Aut Primus Aut Nullus . The 19th decided that if they had not won a major victory, at least they had come off best. But, as they settled back to enjoy their success, information arrived that the amalgamation had fallen through and instead they were to prepare themselves for mechanisation.
    ‘Can you imagine it?’ Josh said. ‘Cavalry barracks without a horse, the stables changed to garages, and instead of the smell of dung the stink of oil, petrol and exhausts.’
    ‘At least,’ Reeves pointed out, ‘we’ll have workshops and be able to get our cars repaired more cheaply. My brother says the RAF encourages officers to use workshop facilities for their