Page 41 of The London Girls
‘Liv, no, of course not.’ He moved closer, looking down at her with a look that was somehow half sad, half happy. ‘I just, well, I want to know if you’ll marry me, before I leave. I don’t want to wait any more.’
She blinked up at him, barely believing what she was hearing.
‘I know we’d only have a couple of days to organise it, and it won’t be the wedding we’d planned, but after—’
‘Yes!’ she gasped, jumping up and throwing her arms around him, almost knocking him over with her enthusiasm. ‘Oh Leo, of course I’ll marry you!’
Her eyes filled with tears all over again, overwhelmed from the day and everything that had happened, but also because she wanted to be Leo’s wife. It was all she’d ever wanted, and after what had happened and the lengths he’d gone to to come home, nothing had ever felt so right.
She pressed her cheek to his chest, tired beyond words as she wrapped her arms around him and listened to the steady thud of his heart.
‘I’m so proud of you, Liv,’ he murmured. ‘The work you’re doing, the way you’ve coped with everything while I’ve been away. I just want you to know that, whatever happens, I couldn’t be prouder of you.’ His lips touched her hair. ‘Even if you do have to wear trousers.’
She pulled back and looked up at him, loving his smile. ‘Don’t you dare tease me about the trousers!’
He laughed. ‘I wasn’t kidding when I said you looked fetching in them.’
Leo dipped his head then, his eyes flickering from her eyes to her mouth, and she lifted her chin as he brought his lips to hers, nervous in a way she hadn’t been since they’d first started courting. The kiss was tender, lips softly brushing lips, and when he finally pulled back, she couldn’t help but smile up at him. She had nothing to be nervous about.
‘How did I ever get so lucky?’ he whispered.
Olivia let Leo pull her back down to the seat, nestling her body into his again, his warm arms circling her as she leaned against his chest.
How was it that today was one of the happiest of her life, as well as the saddest? She heard a noise inside and knew it was her mother crying, and as much as she wanted to go to her, she just needed a moment with Leo, to have him comforting her, his fingers gently rubbing up and down her arm. Leo would be gone in days, whereas her mother would have her care forever.
And there was something comforting about mourning her brother with Leo, because she and Leo knew the same Pete, not the restrained version he had so often presented to their parents, but the fun-loving, quick-to-laugh, daredevil Pete. The Pete who was always so much fun to be around, who’d welcome anyone no matter who they were. It was because of that, that she knew Leo would understand her grief in a way no one else possibly could.
‘He’ll be there with us, in spirit,’ Leo whispered into her ear as he drew her even closer. ‘We have to believe that he’s looking down on us from somewhere.’
‘I know,’ she whispered back.
‘We can just have your parents and mine there to see us say our vows,’ he said, keeping his voice low. ‘Perhaps we’ll be able to have dinner somewhere, and a night away, just the two of us?’
Olivia could barely imagine a wedding, however intimate, that didn’t involve Pete standing by her side, but she nodded, pushing the thought away. If she wanted to marry Leo, this was the only way. ‘I’d like to invite two friends, if I can,’ she said. ‘Two girls that have come to mean a lot to me in a short time. It wouldn’t feel right not having them there.’
‘Of course.’ He kissed the top of her head. ‘I’ll leave it all up to you.’
She shut her eyes as Leo continued to thrum his fingers across her arm, suddenly close to sleep she was so exhausted.
‘One day we’ll have our own home, filled with our own children,’ he said, holding her close. ‘Can’t you just imagine?’
She sighed. ‘All I have to do is close my eyes,’ she said. ‘When you’re gone, and I can’t sleep, I just lie there and see us with our children around us, visualising the kind of home we’ll live in.’
‘Do you still think about teaching?’ he asked. ‘I know how much you were looking forward to being a teacher before you become a mother yourself.’
Olivia smiled. He was the one person in her life she’d always confided all her hopes and dreams in, and she loved how seriously he took her aspirations. ‘I don’t often think about it now, there’s just so much other work to be done and so little time.’
‘Leo, Olivia!’ Her father’s call made her jump to her feet, ending their conversation, and Leo was right behind her as she ran inside.
Her mother was still slumped at the table, but the wireless was on and her father was sitting close to it, waving for them to join him. Winston Churchill’s clear, steady voice drew her closer, and she sat beside her father on an armchair as they listened.
‘The gratitude of every home in our island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day, but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, withdeliberate, careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power.’
Olivia took a deep breath as she continued listening, looking over at the blackout curtains so tightly sealed, thinking about the children upstairs, about her brother who could be alive but was most likely gone, about the pilots so bravely protecting their skies. And then she glanced over at Leo.
Marrying him is the only thing that feels right in a world that feels so very, very wrong.
CHAPTER TEN
