Page 23 of The Spitfire Girls
‘I’ll be there with bells on,’ Polly said with a big grin. ‘It sounds like heaven to me right now.’
They walked arm in arm towards the mess room, Ruby bursting with laughter as she told Polly all about Captain Montgomery and how he’d put Lizzie into a complete tailspin. And just like that, all the stress of flying and being the one to beat Lizzie drifted away as though it had never been there in the first place. It was so good to be with a friend.Thank God for Polly.
CHAPTER SIX
HAMBLEAIRFIELD,HAMPSHIRE,
JUNE1942
MAY
‘I thought I’d find you here.’
May looked up, smiling before she even saw him. Benjamin often sat with her in the early morning, tucked away behind the main hangar for a few stolen moments before the day began, or she’d do his rounds with him and watch as he checked over the engines. He was nursing a mug this morning and she was doing the same, the heat from her tea warming her palms and making it almost bearable to be outside so early.
‘Do you have time to sit?’ she asked.
‘You’re the boss, Commander,’ he said with a grin. ‘Do I?’
May took a sip, the hot tea warming a trail down her throat. ‘You need to stop calling meCommander, Ben. How many times have I asked you to call me May?’
He shrugged. ‘Obviously not enough. Now, how about you tell me why you’ve got dark circles under your eyes? Aren’t you sleeping?’
She absently touched her face, wondering how he’d noticed, but not really surprised. Somehow, her flight mechanic had been the only one to actually see her let her guard down. The women she managed were like family to her – she’d fight for their safety and better training and facilities until she was blue in the face, but she always had her wall up with them. Something about Ben made her relax, as if she didn’t have to pretend, at least for the few minutes every day when they sat in the frigid air, drinking tea. Perhaps it was because he checked her engines and those of her girls, promising her hand on heart each time she flew out that he’d been over every inch of her aircraft. In a world where she looked after everyone else, he was the only one who looked after her.
She glanced sideways at him, caught his smile as he sat back, ankles crossed, his overalls clean before the day’s work.
Or maybe it’s because something about his easy manner and quick smile, the way he just gets on with things and makes everyone around him happy, reminds me of Johnny.Her darling Johnny who’d been gone almost two long years.
A tear escaped from the corner of her eye and she saw a look pass over Benjamin’s face as she quickly brushed it away, but his smile didn’t falter. That was another thing she liked about him – no woman could see tears and not make a fuss or ask questions.
‘That Halifax, the one that crashed back at White Waltham?’ she said. ‘I keep seeing it. Now that we’re here and my girls are training in them, I keep dreaming about it, only it’s one of them being pulled out, all burnt and charred from the fire.’
Ben didn’t say anything and she was grateful, but he did reach out and touch her hand, his fingers curling over hers.
‘This happening every night?’
She nodded and gulped down more tears. ‘Yes. Every night.’
She didn’t tell him that some nights that pilot was her brother, or that sometimes she saw him before he crashed, staring at her, his face covered in blood, telling her that it was her fault. That if hadn’t been thinking about her, if he’d been able to concentrate, he wouldn’t have lost control and crashed in the first place. She knew it was worse because tomorrow would the anniversary of his death, but she wasn’t about to tell Ben that, either.
‘Did I ever tell you that I have a little sister?’ Ben asked as his fingers left hers.
May took a quick gulp of her tea. ‘No,’ she said, realising how little she actually knew about him. They often sat in silence, or talked about planes or flight conditions; never about his family.Or hers.But today he must have thought she needed distracting.
‘Look at this,’ he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a piece of paper folded into a small square.
May set her tea down on the concrete and took it, smiling as she carefully unfolded it. Inside was a picture drawn with pencil, of a big plane and a man standing next to it, and a small child standing beside a little house with her mouth drawn in a frown. It was as pretty as it was sad.
‘How old is she?’ May asked.
‘Six,’ he replied, grinning as he took it back from her. ‘There’s four of us. I’m the oldest, and Violet was a bit of a surprise for my parents. She’s the youngest by ten years.’
‘A nice surprise, then,’ May said, imagining Ben as a big-hearted brother. ‘She must miss you.’
‘There was a letter with that picture begging me to go home on leave. She’s not happy that I’ve been away so long, but I keep telling her that we’re fighting to make sure she has a future. So that she can be safe.’
May could see he was missing his sister as much as she was so obviously missing him.
