Page 91 of The Spitfire Girls
‘For being here when I needed someone. For everything.’
She looked over her shoulder at the letter on the floor. They had a few more months before they were discarded like dirty laundry, that’s what he’d said. Those still training could finish up and graduate, but they’d all be home by Christmas. Everything she’d worked so hard for was going to be gone like a puff of smoke, as if it had never existed.
‘Want me to come with you when you announce the news?’ he asked.
Lizzie shook her head. ‘No. I need to do this on my own.’
She’d been the one to tell them all when they’d been accepted into the programme, and she’d be the one to tell them it was over.
Jackson dropped a kiss on to her hair and turned to go. As she watched him, she knew that letting him walk away from her once the programme was disbanded was something she couldn’t bear to think of. She might lose her job, but she had Jackson, and that was worth more than she could have imagined.One step at a time, she told herself. First she’d deal with this, and then she’d make sure she didn’t lose Jacksonandthe WASPs. She’d had enough loss these past few months to last her a lifetime.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
ENGLAND,1944
MAY
‘I can’t believe it’s been more than a year since we lost her,’ Ben said, as May placed flowers on the grass.
May straightened up. ‘It feels like a lifetime,’ she agreed, reliving the day she’d seen Polly lying there and wishing the memory had faded more. ‘And it was for nothing – we’re still flying blind.’
Ben’s arm slipped around her shoulders. ‘You’ve done everything you can do, May. It’s not your fault if no one will listen.’
She knew that, but it still drove her mad that there was nothing more she could do to keep her girls safe. The only consolation was that things were finally turning in favour of the Allies, which meant that everything they’d done, every sacrifice they’d made, had been worth it.
‘Have you heard from Violet this week?’ she asked, as they headed back to their borrowed car.
‘Yes, actually, I have,’ Ben said. ‘In fact, she wanted to know when I was going to ask you to marry me.’
May’s heart started to race. ‘And what did you say to that?’ she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.
Ben took both of her hands in his and dropped to one knee, kissing her knuckles as he looked up at her. ‘I said I’d ask you and see what you said.’
May’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. ‘What?’ she whispered.
‘May, when this war is over, will you marry me?’
She dropped to her knees with him and kissed him, her hands planted on his cheeks. ‘Yes!’ she gasped. ‘Yes, Ben, I’ll marry you.’
He took her hand then and held something out, and she smiled when she saw it was a piece of metal welded into a small circle.
‘I promise I’ll give you a proper ring when the war is over,’ he said, pushing it onto her finger. ‘But for now, this is from the damaged engine of a Spitfire. I pulled that engine apart and rebuilt it to keep your pilots safe, so I thought it was the perfect keepsake for you. I made it myself.’
She looked down at her finger. ‘It’s perfect, Ben. Honestly, it is.’
Ben pulled her to her feet and swung her up into his arms, then carried her to the car. She nestled into his neck, nuzzling against him, wondering how on earth a girl so determined not to get close to anyone had somehow ended up head over heels in love.
‘Can this be our little secret?’ she whispered.
‘Yeah,’ he said, kissing her forehead. ‘It can. For now.’
‘Did you hear from Lizzie again?’ May asked the next day, pleased to be catching up with Ruby. They were sitting outside the large hangar at Hamble, after flying back from delivering bombers to Yorkshire, catching the late morning sun. When May had found out that Ruby would have a few hours off before her next flight, she’d cleared her schedule so that she could spend some time with her before she flew out again. Part of her wanted to tell her about Ben, but the other part of her was almost too scared to admit to her happiness. They were both always so busy that they didn’t often get time to sit and talk together, just the two of them.
‘She’s heartbroken about the whole thing,’ Ruby said. ‘Honestly, I can’t believe she lost support for the WASPs. Surely they still need them? She’s had a rough year, hasn’t she?’
May nodded, fingering the ring Ben had given her. She’d put it on her necklace to keep it close. ‘You know how men get when they think women are stealing their jobs,’ she said dryly. ‘It’s easy to discard us when they’re no longer desperate for our help.’
‘Do you think the same will happen here?’ Ruby asked. ‘After everything we’ve done? After everyone we’ve lost and ...’ Her voice trailed off.
