The Spitfire Girls(79)

‘I can do this,’ she whispered. ‘I can do this.’ She’d pulled herself together when she’d stepped up as commander, and she was going to darn well pull herself together again this time. No one had been lost. They’d survived. But the long night of waiting had rattled every emotion inside her.

She pushed herself up to her feet and folded the blanket she was still clutching, holding it tight against her for a moment. She breathed deeply, ready to go into the mess room and deal with the flights for the day.

‘May?’ Ruby’s voice echoed out from the other side of the door.

‘Coming,’ she called

She hurried out to find Ruby standing there, ashen, as if she’d seen a ghost.

‘What is it?’ she asked, her heart starting to race.

‘I’m so sorry, May, but Evangeline just arrived in on the first flight back from those other airfields, and she said there was a plane behaving erratically, and then she saw it drop suddenly, far too low.’

‘And you think it was one of ours?’

‘We don’t know, but we’re sending out an ambulance responder now, even though it must be at least an hour’s drive away, if not further.’

May thought quickly. ‘I’m sure it’s not one of ours,’ she said. ‘I don’t even think anyone was cleared to fly out yet.’ She walked to collect her chits from her desk, trying to stop her hands from trembling. ‘I need to put these out. We have plenty of planes to ferry today and we’re already behind schedule.’

Ruby followed her. ‘Should I go with the ambulance, in case they need assistance?’

May frowned. ‘Why would you go?’

Ruby looked uncomfortable. ‘I have a bad feeling that it might have been . . .’

May stared at her. ‘Might have been who? Who flew out?’

Who could have been given clearance to leave so early, before the chits were even put out? Her friend shook her head, as though trying to convince herself she’d got something wrong.

‘Polly,’ May suddenly gasped. ‘Oh my gosh, it’s Polly, isn’t it? She left for Colerne to bring the other pilots back here. I cleared her last night to leave early!’ May felt herself break into a cold sweat. ‘Find Ben for me!’ she said. ‘Tell him to stop whatever he’s doing and to come and find me.’

Then she stepped forward from around her desk to address the girls in the mess room. ‘We’ve had a rough night,’ she said in a low voice, ‘but the show must go on, and we need to thank our lucky stars that someone up there was looking down on us all. Now, here are your cards – please take your ferry notebooks as required.’

May’s bottom lip started to quiver. She dug her fingernails deep into her palms, and quickly left the room. Ruby was waiting in a car when she emerged back out into the brisk morning air, and she saw Ben in the driver’s seat.

‘Do you have clearance to take this?’ May asked, climbing in.

Ben didn’t respond. He simply put his foot down and they sped off after the ambulance, which May could just make out in the distance.

May went back in her mind. She could remember the rumble of the departing plane now: she’d known Polly was leaving and she hadn’t thought anything of it. But that didn’t mean this was her. It could be a male pilot, or someone from another airfield.

‘It doesn’t have to be Polly,’ she muttered.

‘No. But something keeps telling me it’s her,’ Ruby said.

May didn’t question her; she just nodded and stared straight ahead. If Polly was injured or worse . . . She swallowed and chewed the inside of her lip, refusing to think about that yet.

They drove for well over an hour before the ambulance ahead of them slowed. May was surprised at the pockets of fog that still lingered, and hadn’t been present back at Hamble. She knew first-hand how tough it was to navigate through conditions like this without instruments, and without clearance to fly higher. May’s mouth ran dry as she stared into the field at the base of a hill. She saw the plane – or what was left of it. The entire aircraft was smouldering, and the moment Ben stopped she pushed her door open and started to run.

‘Here, over here!’ a woman yelled, waving her hands frantically.

May forgot her fatigue and ran as fast as she could, arms pumping as she saw something on the ground, a farmer bent over a body while the woman beside him cried.

As she neared, everything seemed to go in slow motion. She saw the legs, saw the burn marks, the skin black, charred, like food cooked on an open burner. She saw one arm, unmistakably a woman’s slender arm, and then she saw the desperate look on the farmer’s face. His mouth opened but she couldn’t hear the noise; all she could see were tears dripping past his lips.

May stopped moving as medics pushed past her. She stumbled and then righted herself, watching as they dropped to their knees, as they shouted and then stopped. No one did anything. Ruby moved past her, saying something, her mouth opening and closing, eyes wide, hands moving fast.

But May still couldn’t hear, she could only see, and when Ben’s arms closed around her she fought against him, silently fighting to get closer, to do something. To do anything.

The farmer’s hands now covered his face, his wife standing over him. The medics were shaking their heads. May looked at the plane and started to walk towards it, but Ben grabbed her hand, tugging her hard, refusing to let her take another step.