Where the Heart Is (23 page)

‘I didn’t,’ he confessed. ‘I just hoped that one of you would be able to get him to come out of his shell, enough for him to recognise that there are far more decent girls around than there are girls like Odile. I must say, though,’ he added, smiling down into Katie’s eyes, ‘I am rather pleased that it is Gina with whom he’s hitting it off so well, and I hope that you agree with me that such a promising romance deserves all the help it can get.’

‘Well, yes, of course …’ Katie began, and then stopped as she saw the gleam in his eyes. ‘You’re up to something, I know.’

‘Not at all.’ Eddie was all injured innocence. ‘I simply meant that for Leonard and Gina’s sake
you and I might find ourselves in the position of having to double-date with them.’

It was impossible not to laugh and at the same time not to be just that little bit flattered by Eddie making it so plain that he was keen to see her again, Katie admitted as he led her back to their table.

The Savoy Orpheans was justifiably famous and, of course, through her father Katie was acquainted with several of the members of the band, but tonight she was enjoying their skill simply as a guest rather than studying it through her father’s professional eyes.

If Eddie was not as good a dancer as Luke, then she was glad of it. Her foolish heart could not allow anyone to be as good a dance partner for her as Luke had been, and her own natural caution would certainly not permit Eddie to hold her as closely as Luke had done.

Most of the couples on the dance floor quite obviously did want to hold one another close, especially those in uniform, several of whom, Katie suspected, would be newly married and snatching a few precious hours together before returning to their duties.

The sight of a tall dark-haired man, his back towards her as he held his partner close, brought a lump to her throat and pain to her heart.

When the time came for them to leave, Gina made no objection when Leonard insisted on the four of them sharing a taxi, so that he and Eddie could, as he put it, ‘see you girls safely home', before the cab took them on to their hotel.

Katie was dropped off first, much to her private relief. Eddie had been a good companion and fun to be with, nothing he had done had suggested that he might try to overstep the mark in the privacy of a taxi in any kind of way, and of course had he planned to do so, Leonard’s presence must have deterred him. Nevertheless, Katie was glad to share a communal ‘goodbye’ to the other three, having assured Leonard that she did not need an escort from the kerbside to her door when she thanked the men for her evening out.

It was only when she was finally alone in her room, the dim light throwing back to her the reflection in her silver gown, that she permitted herself a few silent self-indulgent tears for the love she had lost with Luke.

She was being silly really, she knew. There had, after all, been many times when Luke had hurt her with his jealousy and his inability to trust her. The Luke and the love she was mourning were her own creations, made ‘perfect’ by her loss and not really a true reflection of what their relationship had been, any more than the image in the mirror of her in her beautiful gown, softened and shadowed by the dim light, was a true reflection of her. Eddie had in fact been much easier to be with tonight than Luke had sometimes been. There had been none of the anxiety she had sometimes felt with Luke, none of that sinking feeling that she had somehow done something wrong, no worry cramping her insides in case things went wrong and they ended up quarrelling. She mustn’t fall into the trap of putting Luke on a pedestal, Katie
warned herself. But even though she knew that her advice to herself sensible, her vulnerable heart still ached for what was lost.

Lou was finally back on her course, and if her leg sometimes ached more than she had admitted to the MO, then she gritted her teeth and pretended that it didn’t, because the last thing she wanted was to be sent back to the sickbay.

On Seb’s advice, when she had first returned from her visit home she had asked if it was possible for her to have some technical books to read to keep her up to date with her course, even if she wasn’t able to do any of the practical work, and as a result she had received a visit from the tutor himself, armed not with books but with printed diagrams and technical data from the makers, relating to every aspect of the planes’ designs and working parts.

Lou hadn’t been sure whether her tutor had heaped this avalanche of information on her bed because he was impressed by her determination and wanted to encourage her, or because he dis-approved of it and wanted to dampen her enthusiasm. If Sasha had been with her she would have been able to point out to her that her resolution not to be discouraged but to prove herself instead showed that inside she hadn’t really changed at all, and was still that same determined rebel she had always been.

Lou had been so concerned about the accus-ations her twin had levelled at her, and for Sasha herself, that she had taken Grace on one side before leaving Liverpool to confide her anxiety.

‘I don’t want to worry Mum,’ she had told Grace, adding ruefully, ‘although I dare say she would say that she’s used to me worrying her. But I am worried about Sash. We used to be so close and now it’s almost as though she doesn’t even like me any more.’

Grace had hugged her and assured her that she would keep an eye on Sasha for her.

In an effort to make things right between them Lou had written to her twin telling her how much she loved her, and how she had always thought that Sasha was the ‘wiser’ of the two of them, and that she had looked up to her for that.

Now that she was back on her course and determined to catch up with everything she had missed, there was almost no time to brood on the change in Sasha’s attitude towards her. The WAAF kept them all busy, what with twice daily flag parades, weekly kit and ‘housekeeping’ inspections, obligatory PT training, in addition to their chosen course work. There was hardly time to breathe, never mind anything else, especially now that they were nearing the end of their eighteen-week course and about to sit their exams. Somehow, though, they did manage to make time for some fun. Halton had some excellent recreational facilities, and the girls did their best to take advantage of them.

The regular onsite dances were particularly popular, although there was no opportunity for any discreet ‘smooching’ for a Waaf being walked ‘home’ to her hut by a man. A white line painted on the ground a few feet off the huts and all the way around them denoted the limit beyond which
no escort was allowed to step, and woe betide any Waaf who allowed him to do so. Not that Lou was in any way interested in getting involved in a romance; she had decided she had far more important things to do, like passing her flight engineer’s exams.

Although she would never have admitted it, even to herself, Lou had been badly hurt by what had happened with Kieran Mallory. Of course, she derided herself that her feelings for him had been nothing more than kid’s stuff, a silly girlish pash, which she was far too grown up and sensible to allow to affect her. But underneath this commonsense approach she had determinedly developed, a part of her still felt raw and humiliated by her own knowledge of now naïve and silly she had been. Her own common sense should have told her what Kieran was, and that he was playing her and Sasha off against one another. And she should have been able to work out for herself that a young man of nineteen, as good-looking as Kieran was, was hardly likely to be genuinely romantically interested in girls as young and immature as she and Sasha had both been. He had flattered and fooled them for his own purposes and they had fallen for it.

Now, because she couldn’t forgive herself for her own silliness, Lou just wasn’t prepared to get involved with any young man. Not like some of the other girls who were already coupling up with young airmen they had met since coming to Halton. Lou didn’t envy them their romances, not one little bit.

They had finished their lessons for the day, and Betty, who was now on a different course from Lou, was waiting for her when Lou emerged from the hangar where she’d spent the afternoon taking her turn at changing the spark plugs on a Lancaster engine, recovered from a written-off plane that was now used for their practice.

Lou’s slender fingers had soon adapted to the task and it had given her a quiet sense of satisfaction when she had completed it more speedily than the others.

As Betty came hurrying over to her she was mentally repeating the order in which the first service check on Lancaster had to be done.

‘Do you fancy a game of tennis after tea?’ Betty asked. ‘It seems a shame to waste such a glorious evening.’

‘I’d love to, but I’ve got my written exam tomorrow morning and then my practical in the afternoon, and with missing so much time I want to do some reading-up tonight.’

‘Of course you’ll pass,’ Betty assured her loyally. ‘You’re far and away the best of all of us.’

Her praise pleased Lou but she didn’t want to make a thing about it–that wasn’t the service way, as the girls had now learned. However, the pleasure Betty’s praise had given her disappeared when she reached the hut, Betty having left to go and find someone else to partner her, to find their corporal waiting.

‘Good. I’m glad you came straight back here after your lesson. You’re to report to the office on the double. The CO wants to see you.’

Lou felt her stomach plunge, anxiety coiling through her as she set off to the admin block, trying to work out what she had done wrong and what her punishment was likely to be.

A grim-faced duty sergeant took her name when she presented herself at the admin block, ordering her curtly to ‘Wait here’ and leaving her standing stiffly, not daring to relax a muscle whilst the sergeant disappeared through a door at the back of her office.

When the duty sergeant returned a few minutes later she had Lou’s captain with her, and when Captain Hart and the duty sergeant stood either side of her and marched her towards the door Lou felt as though her knees were knocking together so loudly with fear that they must be able to hear them. What on earth had she done? No matter how hard she searched her conscience she couldn’t think of anything, but she must have done something, and something extremely serious if she was being hauled up in front of the CO–marched into her office, in fact, by a pair of gaolers.

It was the captain who knocked on the CO’s door, obeying the order immediately: ‘Come.’ The three of them saluted and had their salute returned when the CO stood up to greet them.

‘You are due to sit your flight engineer’s examination tomorrow, I believe, Campion?’ was the CO’s first question.

Lou nodded, her mouth too dry to speak, and then managed a strangled, ‘Yes, ma’am.’

Was her crime so serious that she was going to be sent away before she had had a chance to prove herself? Despair filled her.

‘Hmm …’ The CO looked down at some papers on her desk.

‘Well, it seems that the War Office is determined to give you at least one reason to celebrate. At ease.’ She commanded them all, although poor Lou was in so much dread that she simply couldn’t relax her tense ribcage and stomach.

‘With regard to Wellington the matter of the incident in May with the Lancaster and its pilot, it has been decided that you should be awarded the George Cross for bravery. I may tell you that the Prime Minister recommended that you be put forward for this award.’

There was a funny buzzing in Lou’s ears and she was beginning to feel decidedly odd. A hand, the duty sergeant’s, she thought, was somehow or other on her back keeping her upright, giving her time to get over her disbelief and her shock and to salute her CO. And then a thought struck her.

Before she could stop herself Lou heard herself asking recklessly, ‘I am honoured, of course, ma’am, but …’

The CO was frowning. ‘But what, Campion?’

Lou took a deep breath. ‘But if it could be arranged, ma’am … that is to say, I wonder if it would be possible instead of me having the award for my Hut to be given back the points I lost them?’

The silence that followed her request seemed to go on for ever. Now she had gone and done it and if she hadn’t been in trouble before then, she certainly was about to be now, Lou decided, her realisation
that she shouldn’t have spoken confirmed by the CO’s crisp reply.

‘The awarding of an honour is not a matter for discussion or barter with its recipient, Campion. Therefore I intend to forget that such a discussion took place and I advise you to do the same.

‘Now, you will be informed in writing in due course of the formal award to you of this honour, with instructions as to when you must present yourself before King George in order to receive it. In the meantime, until official notice of the award is posted, it is not to be mentioned to anyone. You may inform your family once you receive official notice but not until then. They may join you for the investiture ceremony if they wish and are able to do so. You have a brother serving overseas, I understand?’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘If you wish him to be advised then this can be arranged via official channels in order to avoid any conflict with the censorship rules.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘Good. Dismissed.’

She was in such a state of shock about the award, and dread about what she had said, that Lou almost changed step on the wrong foot, and she was glad of the sergeant and the captain on either side of her to force her into the right march.

Once they were back in the main office Lou braced herself for the telling-off she was sure she was about to receive, but instead the captain merely dismissed her with a, ‘Jolly good show, Campion,’ and an unexpected, ‘Good luck with your exam
tomorrow,’ before she was being dismissed with a further warning not to discuss what she had been told with anyone.

She was certainly lucky to have got away so lightly with saying what she had, Lou admitted, but the truth was that she would far rather have had her Hut’s points returned than receive the George Cross. After all, she had done nothing that any other Waaf wouldn’t have done in the same circumstances.