The Spitfire Girls(53)

The captain let out a hearty laugh just as Tom burst through the door, running his hands through hair that looked more haphazard than she’d ever seen it before.

‘I see you’ve met my fiancée, sir,’ Tom said as he crossed the room, mug in hand, and passed her the steaming brew of tea. She instantly regretted asking for it, given that she hadn’t found a toilet yet.

‘She’s quite the woman, I have to say.’

‘My Ruby is most definitely one of a kind,’ Tom said with a wink in her direction.

‘Well, let’s get your wonderful fiancée to the mess room and see if we can’t rustle her up a nice dinner. What do you say?’ the captain asked.

‘Sounds brilliant,’ she said honestly, clasping her fingers around the mug.

‘You can use the unoccupied quarters of the group captain in his absence. It’ll be basic, but it’ll suffice, and you’ll have your privacy,’ he continued. ‘Tom, see that First Officer Sanders is well looked after for as long as she needs to be here.’

Tom placed a hand on the small of her back and Ruby leaned into him, her arm snaking around his waist.

‘Anything I can get you?’ he asked.

Ruby looked up into his eyes. She’d braced herself for arguments; she’d even been prepared to tell him that it was over between them if he wouldn’t support her. But this . . . this was nice. This was everything she’d been hoping for.

‘A toilet,’ she told him honestly. ‘I think I’m actually in danger of bursting.’

Tom’s laugh was deep as he took her hand and hurried her towards the next building. ‘I’m going to apologise now for all the pictures of scantily clad women on the walls,’ he said. ‘And the picture of you.’

Ruby might have cared before, but given that they had only hours together, that she hadn’t seen him in so long, and now she knew what it was like to be part of a squadron . . . She grinned, and shrugged. Scantily clad women were the least of her problems, so long as they were only in pictures and he hadn’t touched any in real life. But the pictures of her? She doubted she’d ever get used to that.



Hours later, Ruby waited in her room for Tom. She wondered if he would come, if he’d be able to sneak away without being seen or reprimanded; maybe she was hoping for the impossible. She shivered as she waited, more from anticipation than from cold.

She went to the small window and rubbed away the condensation that had clouded the glass. Rain was falling hard on the concrete now. She doubted she’d be stuck for long, but if she was going to be marooned anywhere, it couldn’t get any better than being on base with Tom. In fact, if it had been any of the other airfields, she’d probably have just insisted on flying back. But she was exhausted. Her eyelids were drooping and her body was lethargic, probably because she’d hardly slept the night before, tossing and turning as she’d worried about her big day. She leaned into the window with a blanket around her shoulders, listening to the pitter-patter on the tin roof. She shut her eyes.

Tap, tap, tap.

Her eyes popped open.

A loud knock echoed through the room and Ruby ran to the door. Tom’s hair was wet – droplets of rain were even caught in his eyelashes – and she grinned back at him as he gave her a big, wide smile.

‘Tom!’ she said, hauling him in and quickly pushing the door shut. ‘Get in here.’

He stood there, his grin slowly fading. ‘I can’t believe you’re actually here,’ he said, shaking his head and sending water flying. ‘I can’t believe, after everything, that we’re standing here together.’

Ruby lifted one hand and touched his jaw, tracing along it as she stared up at him. She suddenly didn’t feel tired anymore. And she didn’t want to talk anymore, either.

He slipped his arms around her, circling her waist. ‘The guys are still talking about you. You’d think they’d just seen an elephant land a plane.’

‘You’re comparing me to an elephant?’

Tom chuckled. ‘Oh, I just mean they’re acting like, well, as if it’s so unusual . . .’

‘Stop talking and kiss me,’ she muttered, standing on tiptoe and wrapping her arms around his neck.

Tom’s lips met hers, softly at first, brushing like silk back and forth. Ruby shut her eyes and bathed in the warmth of him, his embrace, the way he deepened their kiss and left her gasping.

‘We only have one night,’ he said. ‘All this time I’ve been imagining our first night together, wondering when I was ever going to see you again, and then you just drop from the sky like an angel.’

She touched her forehead to his chest and listened to his steady heartbeat, loving the feel of his body against hers. ‘I still can’t believe I was the first one.’

‘To fly a four-engine bomber?’ he asked, tucking his fingers beneath her chin to raise her head.

‘Yes,’ she said softly. ‘Lizzie thought it was going to be her, but they chose me. Imagine what your poor mother would say. I mean, how unladylike!’

Tom kissed her forehead before pulling her tight to him again. ‘I thought we weren’t talking about my mother tonight.’

‘No. You’re right.’

‘Although I will tell you that in her last letter she said you were small enough to be mistaken for a child, and she was going to demand to know how a woman of such petite stature was able to rise through the ATA ranks so fast.’