Page 29 of The London Girls
He gave her a quick nod, and after she’d poured herself a small cup of tea and eaten half her sandwich, she said goodbye and fired up the engine again, heading straight back to the road and prayingshe remembered the way. The motorcycle that had been so fun and easy to ride on the speedway was quite a different beast on the road for hours at a time, and after another fifteen minutes or so she felt like her teeth were rattling in her jaw, her fatigue building from having to navigate the roads in the fading light. When her eyes started to fail her, she was forced to slow down and then eventually she turned on her headlamp. Ava stayed focused, listening hard for the sound of approaching vehicles or planes overhead. George had made it very clear to them that the most dangerous moments were when they were stationary or riding in the dark, because it would be so easy for a lorry or even a car to hit them. Thanks to the blackout, they were encouraged to use their lights as little as possible, which made their job even more dangerous.
Ava was terrified of keeping the headlamp on for too long, but when she turned it off, she found it almost impossible to see and quickly turned it back on again. Her heart was racing as she accelerated, going nowhere near the seventy miles per hour the bike was capable of.
You can do this. You know this road, you’ve already travelled down it. You just need to make it home.
But within seconds of her turning her light back on, a boom sounded out like the loudest crack of thunder she’d ever heard. Ava glanced over her shoulder, fighting against the bike when it wobbled, and her breath caught in her throat as she saw what looked like a white cloud lifting towards the sky. She’d never been so terrified in her life.
We’re being bombed. And I’m out in the open!
Ava knew then that she couldn’t use the light at all; it would make her a target and put not only her but anything around her in danger. She jumped as there was another boom, but she didn’t dare turn and look again. All she needed to focus on was getting back in one piece.
It was over eight hours later when Ava finally pulled back into the yard and parked her motorcycle in the workshop, and it was everything she could do to keep her composure when she saw George. The emotion of being safe and seeing a familiar face almost made her fall to pieces, despite how proud she was of what she’d achieved.
‘I was expecting you back hours ago,’ George said. ‘What happened out there?’
She got off the motorcycle and her legs almost collapsed beneath her. If it hadn’t been for George grabbing hold of her arm, she was certain she would have ended up on the ground, but she quickly righted herself and pulled away from him anyway.
‘I’m fine, sorry,’ she muttered. ‘It was a long ride, that’s all.’
‘It’s been one hell of a night,’ George said, looking her up and down as if to convince himself she was actually still in one piece. ‘I hate having riders out there when bombs are falling.’
‘I’m fine,’ she repeated, as much for herself as for him, gritting her teeth, not wanting him to see that she was anything other than fine. She glanced up at the light bulb hanging inside the building, trying to stop herself from crying as she stared at it. The last thing she wanted was for him to see how rattled she was, and she hadn’t even expected him to still be there. Did the man never go home?
‘The first time’s always the hardest,’ he said. ‘How about I pour us a drink? It might help your nerves. Plymouth is a long ride for even our most experienced riders, so I’m sorry that had to be your first one.’
She nodded, following him on legs that felt ridiculously unsteady, her heart still pounding from the sheer adrenaline of her ride back.
‘How many bombs?’ she asked as they stood in George’s office. He poured two nips of brandy into a glass and passed it to her, and she gratefully lifted it to her lips and took a small sip. It burned herthroat and made her eyes water, but he was right, it did help her nerves. Or at least it seemed to numb them.
‘A few,’ he said, pouring another nip for each of them and drinking his down fast. ‘We haven’t had one for a bit though, so you’ll be safe to head home soon. Once you’ve checked your tyres, oil and fuel.’
‘I might wait until tomorrow,’ she said with a yawn. ‘It’s been a long night.’
‘No, you’ll do it now,’ he insisted. ‘It’s protocol. If an urgent memo comes in at the start of your shift tomorrow, you won’t have time to go through your checks, and it’s also a good way to decompress.’
Ava nodded, not having the strength to argue with him. She was only thankful she hadn’t made plans to visit the general; she was exhausted and no doubt looked a mess.
‘Would you like me to take you home, since it’s still dark? Your parents must be quite worried about the hours you have to keep.’
Ava took another sip of her drink as she stood. ‘I’ll be fine, but thank you for your concern.’ She cleared her throat. ‘Actually, my father doesn’t know; he didn’t approve when I told him I’d be applying, so it’s a matter of my sneaking back in tonight.’
‘Well, perhaps I underestimated you,’ George said with a chuckle. ‘Good luck in keeping the secret.’
‘Thanks.’
The truth was, she was terrified of making her way home alone, but she wasn’t about to accept George’s help. She studied him a moment while he shuffled some papers on his desk. She supposed he wasn’t entirely unattractive, and when he wasn’t yelling at her or telling them why women shouldn’t be riding, he wasn’t half bad.
She made her way over to her motorcycle, reluctantly crouching to run her hands over the tyres, her fingers brushing against the grooved rubber as she methodically inspected them. It wassurprisingly therapeutic doing so, she’d give George that, and she found her heart rate decreasing as she worked, the tightness in her shoulders slowly disappearing.
‘Oh, and Ava?’ She looked up at George. ‘You can keep the ribbon. I wouldn’t want to give you bad luck after such a successful first night on the job.’
If she hadn’t been so shaken up, she’d have laughed. But instead, she finished what she was doing, before beginning the long walk home as the sun slowly rose in the sky.
‘What are you still doing up?’
Ava walked into the kitchen an hour later, surprised to see a lamp on and even more surprised to see her mother sitting at the table. She had a book beside her, the spine splayed from being left open on a page, but her head drooped like she’d fallen asleep. She didn’t remember her mother ever waiting up for her before, not even when she’d been out late at a party.
The moment she heard her daughter’s voice though, her eyes opened and her head jolted back. ‘Ava! I was sitting up waiting for you and then—’
