Page 89 of The London Girls
‘You’re the family of the young dispatch rider brought in earlier?’
Florence was about to explain that they were friends, but Jack stood and spoke for them before she had the chance.
‘Yes, we are,’ Jack said. ‘You have news?’
‘There’s no easy way to say this, but unfortunately the young lady succumbed to her injuries. She made it through the initial surgery, but we had to operate a second time and in the end her injuries were too severe, and she just lost too much blood to survive.’
Florence felt as if the ground were opening up to swallow her whole. Even though she’d known, when they’d found Olivia, that saving her would be impossible, she’d started to hope when they’d made it to the hospital and she’d still been alive. When Jack had told her there was always a chance. When they’d taken her into surgery.
She turned to Ava, who had her eyes shut, her body shuddering as she sobbed.
Florence could hear Jack thanking the doctor, but all she could see was Ava as her friend slowly opened her eyes.
‘She’s gone?’ Ava cried. ‘Our beautiful Liv is gone?’
‘She’s gone.’ Florence cried with her, hugging her tightly until they couldn’t hold each other any longer.
When they finally parted, Florence reached into her jacket and pulled out the letter she’d tucked there earlier, the letter she’d forced herself to stop reading. But now she wanted to read it, to keep Olivia’s memory alive – to keep Leo’s love for her alive.
‘I found this, when I picked up her jacket,’ Florence said. ‘It’s the letter she told us about, the letter Leo sent her that arrived after his death.’
Ava took it, whispering the words aloud as she held it, making Florence remember the way Leo had looked at Olivia, remembering how much hope their union had given her for the future when she’d stood in the church and watched as they’d recited their vows.
My dream is to come home and find a big house in the country somewhere, to fill it with children and let their laughter drown out the memories of war. I know you want that too, Liv. I know you can’t wait to hold our firstborn in your arms, and to have daughters racing around and climbing trees with their brothers, just as you did as a girl. But if I don’t make it home, if something should happen to me, don’t let my death stop you from living your dreams.
Remember you always used to tell me that you wanted to open a little school of your own one day? And I teased that we’d have enough children for you to open a school just for them? Keep hold of that dream for me, because when I’m away that’s how I want to imagine our future. My beautiful wife surrounded by children, laughing, smiling and singing.
You’re all I ever wanted from this life, Olivia. Should I die, at least I’ll die a happy man, but I hope that instead we can grow old together.
With all my love, your faithful husband, Leo.
Neither of them had dry eyes when Ava finished reading.
‘Did she ever speak of this to you? This school she wanted to start?’ Ava asked quietly. ‘I knew she wanted to be a mother, but it sounds like she wanted to be a teacher, too.’
Florence nodded. ‘She did. But only a few days ago. It seems that her desire to become a teacher, or to look after displaced children, was the one thing keeping her going after she lost him.’ She would tell Ava more, when the time was right.
‘Should we ask to see her?’ Ava murmured.
‘I don’t think you want to see her,’ Florence said. ‘I can’tstopseeing her, the way I found her, how broken she was ...’
Ava nodded, her breath a gasp as she clutched Florence’s hand.
It was Jack who gathered them up and ushered them out, steering them outside. It was Jack who kept an arm around each of them as they stood on the street, staring at one another in disbelief. And it was Jack who held Florence’s hand when it was time to part ways with Ava.
‘I wish we could go together now,’ Florence said.
‘I’ll come home as soon as I’ve taken my motorcycle back,’ Ava said.
If she noticed the blackened state of Petal she never said, and Florence watched as Ava started her motorcycle and rode away, standing on the street until she couldn’t see her any longer. When Jack tucked her protectively under his arm, she let him lead her away, as memories of Olivia swirled in her mind and threatened to engulf her.
‘You did everything you could today, Flo,’ Jack said when they reached the ambulance. ‘I want you to know that there’s nothing you could have done to change this.’
She looked up at Jack, reaching for him, pressing against his chest as everything she’d held in earlier came bubbling up inside her, as her tears flowed and her breath hiccupped in her chest.
Olivia was gone. She’d never see her bright smile again, never hear her laugh, never look back on what they’d done during the war with her. Never work side by side with her with the children at the special house.
Jack guided her into the ambulance and she curled up in the passenger seat, her eyes dry as she stared out of the window at the city she loved, the city that had been bombed to oblivion yet was somehow still standing. And she thought about Olivia and the dreams she’d had – dreams that Florence would never let be forgotten, for as long as she lived.
