Where the Heart Is (42 page)

‘I’ve thought of this moment more than you can
know, thought of it, dreamed of it and longed for it. You and loving you are what has brought me here, Bella, my heart. It was for you, to be with you, that I was so determined to escape from our prison camp so that I could tell you how much I love you and how wrong I was to say what I did the last time …

‘No,’ Bella stopped him, shaking her head. ‘I am glad you spoke as you did. Those words, your love, the letter you gave Bettina to give me have sustained me, helped me, been my food and drink and the air that I have breathed these last months. They, you, gave me the will to go on. Because of you I was able to be strong. Have you seen Bettina and your mother yet?’

‘Not yet. I wanted to see you first.’

‘Tell me what happened, Jan.’

‘Oh, well, I told Hitler that I was missing you and he said, well, why don’t you go and see her?’ Jan teased her, relenting when she shook her head, then telling her quietly, ‘I got the opportunity to join an escape group. The group had been planning the escape for months. Then one of the chaps who should have been going to escape fell ill and the rest of us drew straws to take his place. I was the lucky one. We used a tunnel that went right under the perimeter fence. We went at night, as soon as it got dark, a couple of the guards were in a card school run by some of our chaps; they let them win–cigarettes–so we waited for a night when they were on duty. That gave us a head start, but we knew they’d come after us once they realised we’d gone. We split up to give ourselves a better chance. The plan was to head for Switzerland, but when I was waiting on the station
for my train I saw some SS officers arrive, so I switched platforms and ended up in France instead.

Luckily as it happened I fell into the hands of the Resistance. They thought I was a German at first, of course, but eventually I managed to convince them that I wasn’t. From there it was relatively easy. There’s an established organised system in place to return aircrew to England and they simply got me on to that. Of course, there were several hairy moments, but I was lucky. I tell you, Bella, swimming out to get on board the boat waiting to bring us back–there were three of us by this stage, the other two the only survivors of a Lancaster that had seen shot down on its way back home–I prayed as I have never prayed before. To be so near to you and yet still so far away … Of course, once we did get back officialdom took over and it was all debriefings and medicals and the like, but finally, yesterday, they told me I was officially on leave.’

‘On leave?’

‘They’ve given me a month.’

‘Could we be married by special licence, do you think?’

Jan reached into his pocket and produced an official-looking document, smiling at her as he did so.

‘I already have it, just in case I could persuade you to say yes.’

She should perhaps take him to task for taking her acceptance for granted, Bella acknowledged, but then in order to do that she would have to tell him to stop kissing her, and really that was the last thing she wanted to do.

‘Well, I know that June’s the month for weddings, but I never expected both Bella and Francine to say that they were going to get married at such short notice,’ Jean told Grace, as they sat together companionably on the back step, the door to Jean’s kitchen behind them open to the fresh air whilst they hulled the first of the strawberries from Sam’s allotment.

‘It’s the war, Mum,’ Grace responded. ‘People don’t want to waste a minute when they might not have much time together.’

Both pairs of busy hands stilled as they looked at one another, both of them thinking of all those men who might not come home and all the women who loved them.

It was the end of the beginning, Churchill had said.

Everyone knew that the tide had turned, that the risk of invasion was over, but there was still a long way to go to victory and many lives to be lost, and everyone in the country knew it.

I would like to thank the following for their invaluable help:

Teresa Chris, my agent.

Susan Opie, my editor at HarperCollins.

Yvonne Holland, whose expertise enables me ‘not to have nightmares’ about getting things wrong.

Everyone at HarperCollins who contributed to the publication of this book.

My friends in the RNA, who always have been so generous with their time and help on matters ‘writerly’.

Tony, who as always has done wonders researching the facts I needed.

Ellie Pride
Connie’s Courage
Hettie of Hope Street
Goodnight Sweetheart
Some Sunny Day
The Grafton Girls
As Time Goes By
Across the Mersey
Daughters of Liverpool
The Heart of the Family

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Published by HarperCollins
Publishers
2009
1

Copyright © Annie Groves 2009

Annie Groves asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-00-726593-0

This novel is entirely a work of fiction.
The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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EPub Edition © OCTOBER 2010 ISBN: 978-0-00735-321-7

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