Page 85 of The Spitfire Girls
She nodded. ‘This is something I need to do alone.’ All this time, pushing away her feelings, ignoring her mother and trying to stay in her own cocoon and protect herself from hurt and love, meant it was something she needed to find her own way through. All the same, without Ben’s strength, she’d have been lost. She leaned over and kissed his cheek. ‘Thank you.’
They travelled in silence for the hour-long drive. When they pulled up outside, her house looked the same but different; and as she stepped out and stared at their wooden house and the little garden out front, a flutter of snow touched her cheek.
She turned to see Ben standing behind her and she opened her arms, standing on tiptoe to kiss him.
‘Go home before the snow settles,’ she said. ‘I’ll see you back at base in a few days’ time.’
Ben held her and kissed her one more time before finally letting her go. May turned to face the house, taking a deep breath and starting to walk, then run.
‘Mama!’ she called, as she pushed the front door open. ‘Mama!’ she sobbed, suddenly needing her mother like she hadn’t since she was a child. ‘Mama!’
‘May?’ came a voice, and her mother appeared in the hallway, a tea towel in her hand as she stood, open mouthed, staring at her daughter.
‘Mama!’ May ran, colliding with her, wrapping her arms around her mother. The smell of her perfume, the food that had been cooked already, the fire crackling ... She was home. She was finally home.
‘Gerald!’ her mother yelled. ‘Gerald, our May is home!’
May stood back and held her mother’s hand, gazing at her face, seeing the lines etched into her skin; the years since the war had started had aged her more than she could have imagined.
Her father appeared, his glasses perched on his nose. He opened his arms and May buried herself in his chest, crying as she held him, wishing she could stay hidden against him forever.
‘I’m sorry,’ she cried. ‘I’m so sorry I never came home, that I never wrote, I ...’
‘You’re home now,’ her mother said. ‘That’s all that matters. Now let me get you something to eat. How did you get here?’
‘Ben,’ she said, squeezing her mother’s hand. ‘My Ben brought me home.’
‘Well, how about you come and tell me all about this Ben,’ she said with a chuckle. ‘I think I like him already.’
And so do I, very much so. ‘I need a minute, Mama. Can I go upstairs?’
Her mother nodded, and May walked past them both, needing to go up, to stand in the room where she’d said goodbye to Johnny. She climbed the staircase slowly, inhaling the familiar smell of home as she bravely nudged open her bedroom door. May hesitated for a moment in the doorway before crossing to the window and looking down.
‘Goodbye, Johnny,’ she whispered, touching the glass with her fingertips. ‘I love you.’ But as she said the words to Johnny, it was Ben she saw. He hadn’t left; he was still standing by the car in the lightly falling snow. She waved to him and he waved back, and she watched as he finally climbed back into the car, no doubt almost frozen to the bone, and drove away.
Ben had saved her. Ben had brought her home and made her face her demons. Ben had made her remember. And no amount ofthank youscould ever tell him how truly grateful she was that he’d somehow stumbled into her life.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
ENGLAND,EARLY1943
RUBY
‘You were right,’ Ruby said, waving the letter at May as they sat in the mess room. ‘I can’t believe it.’
With their ferry chits allocated and their day mapped out, they were all waiting for the milk run plane to collect them. May had come to sit with them, and it was a nice mixture of women sprawled out, reading books and knitting mostly.
‘What does she have to say for herself?’ May asked.
Ruby was still worried about her friend after they’d lost Polly. They had both struggled, but as Ruby had slowly managed to push away the awful images, May had seemed no better; although her time away with Ben had seemed to help. She hoped this news from Lizzie might at least make her smile. ‘It seems she’s developing a soft spot for a certain captain.’
‘I had a funny feeling about the two of them,’ May said, and Ruby was relieved to see her lips twitch.
She sat back and held the letter up, reading aloud.
‘Dear May & Ruby,
Well, it turns out that Captain Montgomery isn’t the ogre I thought he was. Would you believe he’s taken me out for two romantic picnics now? I still can’t believe it, but the man absolutely took me by surprise and charmed the socks off me! Well, don’t go thinking he charmed anything OFF me so to speak, because I’m certainly not going to be ending my career with a baby on the way!’
