Page 38 of The London Girls
‘I know it sounds silly because we haven’t known each other very long, but I kind of miss Florence,’ Ava said. ‘How do you think she’s getting on?’
‘I don’t think it’s silly, I miss her too. I so wish we’d all been able to stay together.’
‘What do you say if, when you’re back, we organise a get-together? Even just a picnic lunch in the park would be nice, or maybe we could come over to your flat?’
‘Sounds great. How about you find out when she’s available?’
‘You girls all right out here?’
Olivia opened her eyes to see George watching them from a few paces away. At the beginning of the week, she’d have jumped to her feet for fear he might think she was slacking off, but now she simply didn’t have the energy. And surely by now he knew how hard she was prepared to work.
‘Just two girls taking a rest,’ Ava answered for both of them. ‘You’ve worked us to the bone.’
‘Enjoy your day of leave, Olivia,’ he said. ‘See you back on deck for your night shift.’
‘Thanks.’ She smiled and eventually pulled her legs in, groaning as she hauled herself up and then reached down a hand for Ava. ‘I really need to get going. If I don’t go now, they’ll think I’m not coming, and I don’t think my mother is coping very well with the children she’s taken in. It sounds like her little evacuees are quite the handful, so I promised I’d help since it’s her birthday!’
Ava took the mug from her, downing the dregs at the bottom. ‘Have fun. I hope you have a fast trip back home and a gloriously long sleep tonight.’
So did she. Ava blew her a kiss and disappeared, and as Olivia started looking over her motorcycle, checking the wheels and the fuel, she noticed that someone else was looking over Ava’s for her.Typical. The rest of us are up to our elbows in grease and she manages to find a man to do it for her.
‘Make her do it herself!’ she called over to the young mechanic, who gave her a guilty look in response.
Olivia shook her head and finished what she was doing, before mounting her bike again. If she didn’t hurry, she’d never be able to keep her eyes open long enough to make the journey.
‘I’m home!’
Olivia called out from the hallway, taking off her hat. She put it down and ran her fingers over her scalp, fluffing her hair so that her mother didn’t despair the moment she saw her. She glanced down at her trousers and waterproof jacket and suddenly wondered if perhaps she should have changed before walking in, but it was too late now. Dowdy trousers weren’t exactly clothing that her mother would approve of; she’d never come to terms with the fact her daughter was a tomboy, and her current occupation wasn’t of any help.
‘Dad?’ she called. ‘Mum?’
She took off her boots, not wanting to trample mud through the house, and slowly padded across the floorboards towards the kitchen. She was about to call out again to announce her presence, but as she walked into the room she found her mother bent low over the table, quietly sobbing, and her father with his head in his hands. He looked up when she walked in, his eyes glassy, reaching out a hand to her and beckoning her to join them.
‘What’s happened?’ she whispered, looking between them and wondering what on earth was going on. ‘Please tell me it’s not—’
‘Pete,’ her father choked out her brother’s name, tears starting to roll silently down his cheeks as her mother let out a loud sob beside him. ‘It’s our Pete.’
‘No.’No!It couldn’t be Pete. Not her darling eldest brother.Not Petey.
Her body started to shake as she stared at her father.
‘Are you certain? How do you know? When did you find out?’ She gasped out the words, falling into the seat beside her mother and immediately opening her arms to her.
She followed her father’s gaze to a discarded letter on the table. Olivia let go of her mother temporarily to reach for it, hand shaking as she held it and traced her eyes over the words, taking a moment to focus her gaze. Surely there’d been some kind of mistake!
I very much regret to inform you that your son is reported missing as a result of an air operation last night, and I wish to convey to you the sympathy of all members of this Squadron, and myself, in your anxiety while awaiting news. Whilst the classification ‘missing in action’ means exactly that, that your son’s whereabouts are currently unknown, it is unfortunately likely that he has perished.
Olivia dropped the letter, pushing it away, not wanting to read any more. Her brother was missing, presumed dead? Her brave, strong, capable,funbrother was gone? She could barely comprehend the news, the contents of the letter so unbelievable – something she simply hadn’t prepared for even though she knew she should have.
‘When did it arrive?’ she asked, her voice raspy.And on my poor mother’s birthday, of all days.‘How long has he been ...’ She couldn’t say the word.Gone.
Her father glanced up at her, his eyes red-rimmed, looking like he was about to say something. Then he reached for her mother, who had also, finally, lifted her gaze. It was like looking at a house without the lights on; her mother’s usual lively nature that could fill a room, extinguished as if it had never existed in the first place.
Olivia was about to repeat her question when a voice from behind her made her freeze.
‘Hello, Olivia.’
It couldn’t be.
