The Skylark's Secret(49)
‘Well, it’s time you were home now. No matter how upset she is, Mrs Carmichael will be worrying about you. Here, we’ll take you back.’
Reluctantly, the boys wound up their catapults and stuck them into their coat pockets as Flora shepherded them back to the roadside, where Bridie and Mairi waited. Catching her friends’ eyes, Flora pressed her lips together and shook her head, that single gesture telling them all they needed to know. Bridie’s breath caught in a sob and Mairi took her arm to steady her as they walked along the road, a ragged cluster of figures who dragged their feet, their sorrow a heavy load to bear.
Flora knocked on the Carmichaels’ front door. The blackout had already been closed, giving the windows the appearance of unseeing eyes that had turned inwards on a house frozen with grief. It was Archie Carmichael who opened the door. He seemed to have aged in a day; his cheeks were sunken and his normally brisk and capable manner was gone.
‘Ah, there you are, boys,’ he said, his voice wavering. ‘Come away in out of the cold. And you, too, Mairi, Flora, Bridie. How good of you to have brought them home.’
‘Thank you, but we won’t stop,’ said Mairi. ‘We just wanted to chum Stuart and Davy back safely and to say how very sorry we are for your loss.’
‘Och well, that’s very kind of you, lassies . . .’ His words petered out as his eyes glazed over. With an effort, he pulled himself together. ‘I’ll tell Moira you came by. She’ll be pleased that you did. I’m afraid she’s not herself just at the minute . . . Doctor Greig has been and he’s given her something to make her sleep.’
‘Of course. If there’s anything we can do, please just say.’ Mairi laid a gentle hand on his arm.
‘So very kind of you,’ he repeated, his words automatic. ‘Your mother’s been round and has been a great comfort to Moira, I’m sure.’
Flora cast an anxious glance at the boys who stood in the doorway, reluctant to enter the house. ‘Can we bring you something for your supper, maybe?’ she asked. ‘I’m sure you’ll be needing something to eat.’
‘Don’t you worry. We’ve some soup that Mrs Macleod brought with her. We’ll be grand now, won’t we, boys?’ He made an attempt to sound reassuring. ‘Will you come away in out of the cold?’ he asked, repeating himself again, his eyes far away.
It broke the girls’ hearts to turn away and walk down the path, the door closing quietly behind them on a house to which one of the young men who’d called it home would never return.
From the kitchen window at Keeper’s Cottage, Flora watched as day by day the merchant ships began to gather on the far side of the island. Some had sailed up from the south, hugging the safer shores of the east coast and then facing the unforgiving seas of the Pentland Firth to reach the haven of Loch Ewe. Others had braved the Atlantic, bringing supplies and equipment from America. These ships travelled in convoy and had already risked being hunted by the packs of U-Boats that roamed the ocean, looking for prey. At least out there the predators had had thousands of miles of water to cover and so the convoys had a better chance of slipping past undetected. But some of those ships would now join the Arctic convoys, running the gauntlet through a relatively narrow corridor of sea, hemmed in on one side by ice and on the other by German attack planes and battleships stationed on the northern cape of Norway. And Alec would be out there, too, as part of the small escort sent with a convoy to defend the merchant ships.
He’d told her about the destroyer he’d been assigned to, reassuring her that its defences were impressive even if its open bridge left the ship’s crew exposed to the bitter Arctic weather. But Flora had overheard two of the officers she’d been driving just the other day discussing how vulnerable the convoys would be without air cover.
‘Sitting ducks,’ one of the men had said.
‘I hear they’re putting guns on some of the merchantmen,’ replied the other. ‘Although that’s a bit like giving a child a popgun and telling him it’ll protect him against a Messerschmitt.’
‘Our boys are going to have their work cut out for them if Jerry gets wind of the flotilla.’
‘Not if, but when. They send out spotter planes from their airbases in Norway every darned day. They’re already keeping an eye on Spitsbergen and Iceland. So they’re going to be very interested when they see a dozen ships heading for Russia’s back door, accompanied by some of our finest.’
Flora’s fingers had gripped the steering wheel, her knuckles whitening as the full implications of the risks that Alec was about to face had sunk in. No matter how difficult it was for them to be together, she knew she loved him and believed him when he told her that he loved her.
She was still shaken when she returned to the base at the end of her shift. Mairi and Bridie were finishing up for the day, too, but Bridie was keen for her friends to come with her to the Jellyjar Tavern that evening. She’d been standing in front of a couple of Americans from one of the merchant ships in the post office queue and had got chatting.
‘They asked what there is to do about these parts, so I told them about the films and the dances. Then one of them asked if there was anywhere a sailor could buy a girl a drink! Can you imagine? Right there in the post office in front of Miss Cameron! Anyway, they’re going to be at the hotel tonight and I can only go if the two of you will come too. Mother would have a fit otherwise. Please will you?’