Page 89 of The Spitfire Girls
‘Gina, what is it?’ Lizzie asked.
But when the other woman just handed the envelope to her, her face ashen, Lizzie felt all colour drain from her own.
She unfolded the page quickly, scanning the words fast. It only took her a few seconds before she was reading the words again. And again. And again. Until Jackson took the paper from her and wrapped her in his arms, holding her as her legs gave way beneath her.
ELIZABETH. YOUR FATHER HAS HAD ANOTHER HEART ATTACK. NOT EXPECTED TO MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT. PLEASE COME HOME.
‘No,’ she whispered. ‘No, Daddy, you can’t die on me.’
Jackson swung her up into his arms, carrying her as she clung to him like a child. ‘Gina, report to base and get a telegram to General Arnold. Tell him I will be taking over duties for Elizabeth for the next few days,’ she heard him say.
Stay alive for me, Daddy. Please, just hold on.
‘I’m taking you home, Lizzie,’ Jackson murmured into her ear, striding across the road and somehow getting her into the passenger seat as she numbly let him move her, incapable of saying a word.
I still have so much to prove to you, Daddy, she thought as she stared out of the window, her forehead pressed to the glass.
The past few hours had felt like a blur. Lizzie knew she’d sat in the car with Jackson, pointed out her parents’ home to him, held her mother in her arms and then let Jackson hold her, kissing her forehead. But the only moment that felt real was right now, lowering herself to the chair beside her father and staring at him lying there, his eyes shut, his breathing raspy.
‘Hey, Daddy,’ she said, trying to sound bright even though every part of her was cracking apart. ‘Daddy, it’s me, I’m here.’
She wanted to scream at someone to call an ambulance and get him to hospital, to dosomething, anything to help him. But she knew it was too late. Her mother had made the decision to keep him at home, where he wanted to be, rather than spend his last days or hours or minutes hooked up to machines in a hospital, surrounded by strangers.
The nurse had told her it was a miracle he was still alive, and she wanted to believe that he’d waited for her, that he wanted to be with her one last time before he passed.
‘Daddy?’ she whispered.
His eyes opened, and she smiled at him, blinking through her tears. Her father was a big, strong man, but now he looked a shell of his former self.
‘Lizzie,’ he rasped, barely audible.
‘I’m here,’ she said. ‘Don’t think you can leave without saying goodbye to me.’
Then Jackson leaned forward. ‘Sir, I just want to say what an honour it is to meet you,’ he said, as her father’s eyes seemed to search his. ‘I want you to know that I’ll always look after your Elizabeth. She’s a wonderful woman and I willalwaysbe there for her.’
Lizzie sobbed as her father slowly blinked, as if acknowledging Jackson’s words.
‘I’ll be sure to tell my own father, Lieutenant David Montgomery, that I had the great fortune to meet you, sir. I know he holds you in very high regard.’ He cleared his throat and dropped a kiss onto Lizzie’s hair before moving quietly away.
Her mother came forward then and placed something in her father’s hands, and Lizzie watched as he slowly pushed it towards her.
‘For,’ he murmured, ‘you.’
Lizzie glanced at her mother.
‘He wanted you to have it. He made me promise to give it to you, and tell you he was so proud of you,’ her mother said, coming to sit with her and placing an arm around her shoulders. ‘We’re both so proud of what you’ve achieved.’
Lizzie reached for his hand, opening his palm and sobbing when she saw his Distinguished Service Cross. She traced her fingertips over it, touching the eagle in the centre and then the two words.
‘For Valour,’ she whispered.
‘He was in the middle of writing to you when the pain started in his chest,’ her mother continued, handing her a letter. ‘I’ll leave you both for a moment so you can read it.’
Lizzie put the medal on the bed beside her father and unfolded the paper, glancing at her daddy, seeing that his eyes were still open, searching for her still.
She cleared her throat and quietly started to read aloud.
‘To my darling Elizabeth,
