The Spitfire Girls(74)
When they finally came in to land, Lizzie was breathless and high on adrenaline. She leapt out of the cockpit and strode towards the captain as he climbed down from his Texan. She didn’t remember ever feeling so alive!
‘Truce?’ she said, extending her hand. ‘I think it’s easy to argue and forget that we’re firmly on the same side.’
‘Truce,’ he agreed, clasping her palm, his smile as wide as hers.
‘That was the most fun I’ve had in months,’ she declared. ‘I actually think we’re perfect sparring partners. We should do that again some time, if you’re up for it? We need to keep our own flying hours up.’
He nodded, running his fingers through his blond hair. ‘I’d actually forgotten what it was like to just fly like that,’ he admitted. ‘Whenever you want to take to the sky, I’ll be ready. No more barbs, Lizzie. Let’s just agree we’re both damn good at what we do and enjoy the flights we get.’
Lizzie grinned in response and strode over to find her trainees, ready to empower them, to tell them how exhilarating it was to take command like that and know in your heart that anything was possible. She couldn’t wait to fly for them that afternoon, to see their faces and understand how exciting it was to watch someone and believe that you could do it too. She’d felt the same when standing as a little girl with her father, hand up to block out the bright sun, her stomach leaping cartwheels with every trick in the air: the day she’d proudly told her daddy that she was going to be a pilot herself.
She looked over at Montgomery and his blue eyes twinkled back at her with what she hoped might be admiration. Maybe he wasn’t quite the villain that she’d thought. Maybe she’d been far too hard on him when he was only trying to do his job; maybe he was actually a teddy bear beneath his fierce, commanding exterior. She laughed. Maybe he wasn’t so different to her, after all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
COLERNE, WILTSHIRE,
OCTOBER 1942
MAY
May couldn’t help but smile as she followed Ruby in the air. Only hours earlier they’d been standing together in Yorkshire as Ruby and Tom were married, and now she was following her newly wedded friend in a Spitfire, watching her zigzag all over the place as they headed for Colerne. If only they had radios, May would frighten the life out of her by barking at her to fly straight. Ruby was notorious for powdering her face and putting on her lipstick before landing, and her beauty was probably half the reason she’d received so much press coverage as a pilot.
It was hard to believe they were ferrying Spitfires for the second time, and that the first shipment had been almost entirely obliterated. And to have to risk all her pilots again for the same mission . . . It was horrifying, especially given how tense she was feeling about their perfect fatality rate. Just the other day she’d heard two of the women laughing about the mechanics teasing them for being a statistical anomaly. She shuddered. The fact they hadn’t lost a pilot yet wasn’t a joking matter; their luck couldn’t keep holding forever. And it brought her mother’s words back to her as she sobbed that she didn’t want to lose another child, that she couldn’t be left with no one.
‘I miss him as much as you do,’ May said, holding on to the door jamb, her fingers digging into the wood. It took all her strength not to run, to force herself to stay and listen to her mother.
‘I’ve never held you back, May, I’ve never wanted to tell you that you couldn’t do something, but to think about losing you, as well as our Johnny . . .’
May wanted to go to her, to hold her and hug her tight, but since losing Johnny she’d been unable to do anything that involved letting her guard down. She didn’t want to cry, she didn’t want to feel.
‘I want to make sure every single plane that needs to be delivered can be,’ she said instead. ‘The faster we win this war, the faster everyone else’s sons, husbands and fathers get home safe.’
‘I’m so proud of you,’ her mother sobbed. ‘I want to keep you here, but I’m so proud of you, May. Johnny would be so proud, too.’
May nodded and left the room, collected her bag and walked out the door. She looked up at the window she’d been standing in when Johnny left. And part of her wondered if her mother would have been so proud if she’d known how cruel she’d been to him, how cutting her words had been when she should have been hugging him and telling him how much she’d miss him.
The plane in front of her straightened up, and May stayed focused, scanning the air for enemy planes, any incoming targets and of course the planes flying in formation with her. It was unheard of to have so many in the air together and she was nervous about how exposed they were. She’d talked to Ben before flying out, confessing her fears, and she had seen the look on his face, knew that she wasn’t overreacting because her fears were mirrored in his eyes. Ben. She shook her head just thinking about him. She’d been so determined to shield herself from any man, but somehow he’d taken her by surprise and slowly got under her skin. It wasn’t that she didn’t like it, because she did. The thought of seeing him each day, of being caught in his warm gaze or exchanging smiles with him – it was nice, but it didn’t stop her from worrying about how she’d manage to survive loss a second time.
It was time to prepare for landing; she double-checked the conditions and brought her plane in just after Ruby, taxiing down the runway and coming to a stop beside her. The Spitfires were going to look stunning all lined up together. And for once the weather hadn’t hindered their flight or their landing.