The Light Over London(89)

“What happened to Louise after that last entry?” Cara asked.

Kate studied her. “You want a happy ending, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do.” Cara knew that life didn’t always have happy endings, but she wanted it so badly for Louise. She wanted it so badly for herself.

“Louise stayed with her battery for almost the entire war. One of the girls, Mary, married her childhood sweetheart while he was on leave and became pregnant almost immediately. She was discharged—it was called going ‘para eleven’ because paragraph eleven was the part of the ATS handbook that dealt with pregnancy—but most of them stayed together. It was unusual, and I think that unit held Louise together in those early years after Paul’s death.”

“Do you know what happened to the other girls after the war?” Cara asked.

“I do, actually,” said Kate. “Vera, the posh one, refused to move home and do the charitable work her mother expected of her. Instead, she got a job as the assistant to an architect and enrolled in the engineering program at Imperial College London.”

“Good for her,” murmured Cara.

“I always liked Louise’s letters about Charlie the most,” said Kate. “Charlie talked her way into a job at an advertising agency, and she’d write Lou with stories about martini lunches and the men who took her out dancing in London. It was all very glamorous.

“The quiet one, Nigella, married an American GI and moved to Illinois.”

“A GI bride,” said Cara. Just like her gran, except Granddad had stayed in England.

“What about Lizzie?” Liam asked.

“Well, Lizzie caused a bit of a scandal,” said Kate. “She and one of Lou’s section had a wartime fling. His name was Walker or Warner or . . .”

“Williams?” Liam asked.

“That’s the one. When his captain found out, they all thought Lizzie would be reassigned, but it was Williams who was transferred. The gunner girls were too valuable to lose. She went back to Newcastle after the war and took over her mother’s boardinghouse,” said Kate.

“And what about Louise?” Cara asked. “She mentioned a man named Cartruse a lot.”

“What a romantic notion, and one I had myself at the time,” said Kate with a laugh. “She was always coy about Cartruse, and I think he would’ve been happy if she’d paid him any attention, but Louise wasn’t interested in any man for a long time. It took her years to rebuild that trust.

“After the war ended, she stayed on as long as she could before the ATS demobbed her. Then she stayed with me for a spell in forty-six to help when I was pregnant with Laurel.”

“Do you know why Lenora Robinson had Louise’s diary?” Cara asked.

“Just before Laurel was born, I caught Louise on the way to the village post office where her father worked. She had a box all packaged up, and when I asked her about it, she said it was just some unfinished business from the war. I always wondered what was in it,” said Kate.

“And you think she sent Lenora the things in the tin?” she asked.

“I think it’s entirely possible. Lou wanted a clean break, but I could see why it would be almost too difficult to just throw those things away. Plus, one of them belonged to Lenora,” said Kate.

“What was that?” Liam asked.

“A compass. Lenora’s brother was a soldier, and he’d been carrying it on him when he was killed. I guess Lenora gave it to Paul, and Paul gave it to Louise.”

Jock had been right about the compass then.

Laurel bustled through the door with a tray for tea. “You haven’t told them all the good bits while I was gone, have you, Mum? It took ages to order tea.”

“I wouldn’t dare, sweetie. I was just catching them up on what happened to Louise before the end of the diary they found. Now they’re asking about after the war,” said Kate.

“Ah, my aunt’s great escape to America,” said Laurel, pouring out cups and handing them around.

“She went to America?” Cara asked, her spirits lifting.

Kate’s thin, birdlike shoulders drew back proudly. “Louise Keene became the first member of my family to graduate from university. She attended the University of California, Los Angeles, class of fifty-one.”

“California,” Cara and Liam said at the same time.

“Yes. She wanted to start over. All of us did, I think—Louise just went farther than most,” said Kate. “She received her degree in maths—or math, I suppose they call it there. She went on to teach undergraduates at one of the local colleges.”

“I remember she would call every Christmas and on Margaret’s and my birthdays,” said Laurel. “Long distance. It was so exciting having an aunt in the States, even if we didn’t really know her.”

“Did she ever come back to Haybourne?” Liam asked.

“Only for her parents’ funerals in fifty-four and sixty-three. Her father passed first,” said Kate.

“Do you think she was happy?” Cara asked.

Kate tilted her head as though considering this. “I don’t really know. Louise changed after the war. She held her cards close to her chest, and we never talked like we used to, but I’d like to think she found something in California.