by Daisy Styles
‘Jesus Christ Almighty!’ screamed Ava, leaping from her bed.
‘Get out! Get out!’ yelled Bella.
Wearing only their cotton nighties, with their hair flying wildly about their faces, the four of them ran out of the back door, where, in the pitch dark, the sight that met their eyes made their blood run cold.
‘They planes are flying inland!’ Maudie gasped in horror.
‘The Germans are bombing the base!’ Bella cried.
Almost fainting in terror, Ruby fell against the wall, clinging to it for support.
‘Raf’s on the base! My Raf’s there!’ she shrieked.
Several figures dashed out of the west wing. As they ran towards their vehicles, Maudie, even in the dark, made out the tall, athletic shape of Kit Halliday. So did Ruby, who, barefoot and hysterical, ran across the yard towards him.
‘Take me with you! Please take me with you!’ she implored, flinging herself on Kit.
Maudie, right behind Ruby, grabbed hold of her friend, who was sobbing uncontrollably.
‘I’ll look after her,’ she told Kit, who was in the driver’s seat and trying to reverse out with his headlights and rear lights switched off.
He nodded tersely and roared away, leaving Maudie clutching Ruby. It was only after the sound of Kit’s MG had faded into the darkness that Maudie realized the top of her nightdress was wide open, revealing the soft curve of her small pert breasts.
‘I must look like the mad woman in the attic!’ she thought to herself, as she buttoned up her nightie. ‘Thank God he didn’t turn his lights on!’
It wasn’t just Ava, Bella, Ruby and Maudie who were outside in the dark, all the trainees were in the garden, along with the Brig and Miss Cox. If the trainees hadn’t guessed the Brig’s relationship with Bella, there was no doubting it that night. He tore across the lawn towards her and held her tightly against his warm chest as she shivered in her thin nightdress.
‘Those poor men on the base,’ she murmured.
As flickering orange flames licked the dark sky, the Brig answered grimly, ‘God help them all.’
As the bombs continued to rain down on their targets, Ava said grimly, ‘That’ll be the end of the Lancasters.’
‘And the base, too, by the looks of things,’ Maudie added grimly.
After what seemed like hours, the Messerschmitts suddenly stopped pounding the base.
‘What’s happening?’ Ruby cried, as they stood in the thick pall of smoke that had drifted over from the burning airbase.
With their ears still ringing from the thunder of continual bombing, they waited in a tense silence. The sound of roaring engines made them all look up into the sky, where they could see the low-flying Messerschmitts heading out over the North Sea.
‘It’s over,’ sighed Bella in relief.
‘They’re going!’ cried Ruby.
‘For now,’ added the Brig darkly.
As day dawned, soft and pearly pink, the birds seemed too stunned to sing. Slowly, one by one, as the sun rose, they picked up their dawn-chorus serenade. It was only then that Bella saw her brother and sister returning to the hall in the half-light.
‘They must have been watching the bombing raid, too,’ she thought to herself, as she led a sobbing Ruby indoors. None of them could even think of going back to bed.
‘If only you’d let me go to the airbase,’ Ruby begged. ‘I’d be fine if I could only see Raf.’
The Brig was adamant. ‘Nobody can leave this house until we get the all-clear,’ he said firmly. ‘The airbase isn’t safe right now – for all we know, the Germans could be reloading for another hit.’
‘God help us all,’ whispered Ava, crossing herself.
‘If a flying ember should go anywhere near the bomb store, it could blow half the county to kingdom come,’ the Brig said ominously.
Bella put a warning finger to her lips and pointed towards Ruby. Getting the message, the Brig nodded his head as he said, ‘I’d better get back to the trainees.’
‘We’ll bring up tea and toast for everybody right away,’ Bella called after him.
Having something to do centred the girls’ thoughts. As they toasted bread and boiled the huge kettle on the Aga, they heard the familiar pop-pop of Raf’s old jeep. Ruby dropped her empty tray and went flying out of the front door as if she had wings on her feet. With the engine still running, Raf leapt out of the driver’s seat and hurled himself into Ruby’s open arms. Weeping and kissing, they clung to each other, then they both began to gabble at the same time.
‘I thought you were dead!’
‘My Rubee, my love!’
‘The Lancasters?’
‘All gone – boooom!’
Ruby stared into Raf’s pale blue eyes, which were ringed with soot and dirt. ‘You look exhausted,’ she whispered.
Laying his head against her soft shoulder, he sighed. ‘My God, Rubee, it was very bad.’
Ruby took him by the hand. ‘Come on, sweetheart, let’s get you a nice cup of tea.’
Below stairs, the girls fussed around Raf, feeding him fried eggs on toast, which he devoured, along with hot, sweet tea. Now that Raf was safe and sound, Ava confessed she was worried about her Tom.
‘I can’t get through on the phone ‒ the lines must be down. I just hope he was safely home in Wells and not driving near the base when the bombing started,’ she said fervently.
Maudie put an arm around her drooping shoulders. ‘Do you want to jump on the bike and cycle over there?’
With tears in her eyes, Ava nodded gratefully.
‘I’ll help start the lunch, then I’ll go,’ she replied.
After Raf had finished his food, he sat back in his chair and shook his head as he recalled the attack.
‘They came – no warning,’ he said. ‘How come bloody Jerry know exact location of base?’
‘Bang on bloody target,’ Ruby muttered angrily, topping up her husband’s mug with more hot tea.
Having seen the jeep on the drive, the Brig came rushing downstairs to talk to Raf as soon as he was free.
‘How bad is it?’ he asked urgently.
‘All bloody bad, Brig, sir,’ Raf replied. ‘Captain Hibbert, blown up, dead. Many others dead, too. Buildings burning all over place. Captain Kit, he ask how Jerry know to find Lancasters?’
‘My thoughts exactly! That was precision bombing, without a shadow of a doubt,’ the Brig said angrily. ‘It’s got to be an insider’s work, for sure.’
‘You mean, somebody’s feeding the enemy information?’ Bella gasped.
‘That – or bloody amazing radar technology,’ the Brig replied.
Raf dragged himself up on to his feet. ‘I go back to base now,’ he said.
‘But you’ve been up all night!’ Ruby cried.
‘Thank God, I still here, not dead. Need to help injured,’ Raf answered wearily.
Suddenly galvanized, Bella declared, ‘We could help, too! We could nurse the sick in the west wing.’
‘You’re right,’ Maudie cried. ‘This huge house could accommodate so many injured men!’
Bella put a hand over her mouth to suppress an inappropriate giggle. ‘Stay right away from my parents’ suites!’
‘With pleasure!’ Maudie laughed.
‘We can’t contact the base – the telephone lines are down,’ the Brig pointed out.
‘I tell Captain Kit right away,’ Raf said.
On the verge of tears, Ruby held on to Raf’s arm.
‘Sweetheart, you’re in no fit state to drive!’ she cried.
‘I’ll go!’
At the sound of a man’s voice ringing out, they all turned to see Tom Benson descending the kitchen stairs.
‘Tom!’ cried Ava.
Crossing the room in two quick strides, Tom took Ava in his arms. ‘Darling, I’ve been trying to get through to you all morning,’ he said, burying his face in her long, dark hair.
‘Thank God you’re safe,’ she whispered, as she clung to him.
>
Giving Ruby a passionate farewell kiss, Raf tore himself away from her grip. ‘Get ready for injured,’ he said, as he headed for the stairs.
Reluctantly releasing Ava, Tom dashed after him. ‘Wait, Raf! I’m coming with you.’
By the time the two men returned to the hall with two army trucks full of injured airmen, Ava, Bella, Maudie and Ruby had laid out mattresses, filched from all over the house, in the west wing.
‘The dead and the badly wounded have been taken to Wells and King’s Lynn hospitals,’ Tom told the Brig as they helped the injured out of the trucks. ‘These men need their wounds cleaned and bandaged. They’ll require painkillers, too.’
‘We can rip up sheets for bandages,’ Bella replied. ‘There are plenty in the sewing room.’
‘I can pick up painkillers from my surgery,’ Tom added, then his face dropped. ‘Bugger, my car’s at the base.’
‘Saddle up Lucas and ride him into town,’ Ava suggested. ‘Be as quick as you can, sweetheart.’
Grinning, Tom gave her a quick peck on the cheek. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t go for a gallop on Holkham beach on the way!’
As Maudie, Bella and the Brig helped the wounded men to their makeshift hospital beds, Ava and Ruby held the fort below stairs. Chopping a huge pile of peeled potatoes and root vegetables, which she dropped into a pan of water on top of the Aga, Ava said to Ruby, ‘With all the extra mouths to feed, we’d better keep a stew going night and day.’
‘What’re we going to put in it?’ Ruby asked, standing by the larder door, surveying the half-empty shelves.
‘Anything we can lay on hands on: barley, beans, lentils, more spuds, whatever Peter can dig up in his garden, Oxo cubes, Marmite, mince, marrow bones,’ she said breathlessly. ‘We’ve got to keep the injured warm and fed after what they went through last night.’ Unexpected tears stung the back of Ava’s eyes as she murmured, ‘Poor buggers.’
‘Do you think the Jerries will bomb every airbase where there are Lancasters?’ Ruby asked, wide-eyed, as she added Marmite and Lea and Perrins sauce to the stew pot.
Ava pressed a finger to her lips and said in a low voice, ‘Loose lips sink ships ‒ or, in our case, bombers.’ She dropped her voice even lower and added, ‘I’d say, the less we know the better.’
Kit arrived with the next truckload of wounded. Jumping out of the cab, he hurried round to the back to help his men out.
‘Take care now. Watch out, mate,’ he said tenderly, as he guided them into the west wing, where he found Maudie, with blood splattered on her face, bandaging an airmen’s gashed arm.
She caught her breath at the sight of him in his filthy, ripped uniform. His face was smeared with grease and dirt and he had a deep cut across his forehead. Her heart ached at the sorry sight of him and, after bandaging the arm of the injured man she was attending to, Maudie rose to her feet.
‘You need treatment,’ she said softly.
Kit shook his head.
‘It’s just a cut from a piece of flying metal,’ he said dismissively. ‘I must get back to the base to prepare in case there’s another attack.’
Maudie gazed at him incredulously. ‘But there can’t be anything left to bomb?’ she cried.
‘The enemy seem determined to blow Holkham right off the map, but it’ll be bloody well over my dead body!’ he said grimly.
Leaving Maudie, he dashed outside to bring in more wounded. When he returned, he was less terse. ‘Thank you for helping my men. It’s not as if you haven’t got anything else to do,’ he said with an understanding smile.
‘Everyone’s doing their bit. Even some of the trainees are washing up.’ She chuckled. ‘Please let me at least clean your wound?’ she begged, before he dashed off again. ‘If you leave it too long it could get infected,’ she warned.
‘OK, thanks,’ Kit said, slumping into a chair and closing his eyes.
When Maudie came back with hot water, antiseptic cream and cotton wool, she found Kit fast asleep in the chair. Smeared with dirt as he was, his face in repose looked beautiful; high, sculpted cheekbones, dark hair falling softly over his forehead, long, dark lashes that hid his penetrating blue eyes and a full, soft mouth, now slightly parted as he breathed heavily in his sleep.
‘Poor chap,’ Maudie muttered under her breath.
Knowing there was no time to spare, she squared her shoulders as she dipped cotton wool into the hot water and gently started to clean the gash on his forehead. Kit woke with a start and grabbed her wrist so tightly that Maudie squealed in pain.
‘No!’ he yelled, then, looking around, he blinked in confusion as he took in his surroundings. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he mumbled, wiping his head and in doing so smearing fresh new blood into his hair. ‘I … I …’ He broke off as his face convulsed in grief.
‘I was dreaming of Jimmy, my second-in-command, my friend.’ Tears streamed down Kit’s face and he sobbed helplessly. ‘He … he … he ran out – he burnt to death.’
With her compassionate heart aching, Maudie did the most instinctive thing any woman would do when standing before somebody in pain. Laying aside the bowl of water and the cotton wool, she put her arms around the heartbroken man and held him close. Wrapped in Maudie’s slender arms, with her wonderful hair pressed against his face, Kit slowly began to breathe more easily.
‘Your friend was doing his duty,’ she said, in a soft, soothing voice, as she rocked Kit gently back and forth. ‘God help him. May he rest in peace.’
Neither she nor Kit knew how many minutes passed before they pulled apart, but when they did there were tears in both their eyes. Still holding hands, they stared with undisguised emotion at each other. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Kit said, ‘Why have you been so angry with me?’
Maudie blushed. She was embarrassed, but she was determined to spit it out. ‘I didn’t like you flirting with me when you were courting Lady Diana!’ she blurted out.
Kit’s blue eyes opened wide in disbelief.
‘Lady Diana?’
Maudie nodded. As a big grin spread across Kit’s face, she asked nervously, ‘Aren’t you?’
In answer, he drew her face close to his and kissed her gently on the mouth. For Maudie, the universe she had previously known fell away; she floated on air, every nerve in her body tingled, her pulse raced, her heart pounded: she felt like she’d left her world and found a new one. As Kit pulled away, she made strange, whimpering noises, ‘Aaaah … no …’
Maudie wanted to grab him and kiss him till she fainted away. At this point, she really didn’t care about Lady Diana, or any other woman, for that matter.
‘Never!’ He laughed. ‘You silly, adorable, beautiful, green-eyed witch!’
‘Kit …’ When she spoke his name for the first time it felt almost like an act of love.
‘Maudie …’
Ridiculously, she giggled. She was in a room full of wounded man who needed her attention. She pulled herself together. ‘I have to dress your wound, or attend to another patient.’
Not wanting her to go to another man, not right at this moment, Kit picked up some cotton wool, which he dunked in the now-cool water, then laid it against his gashed brow.
‘Jesus, that hurt!’ he cried, grinning. ‘Come on, sweet nurse, attend to me!’
By the time Kit drove back to the airbase, Maudie was reeling. She hadn’t slept for twenty-four hours and had hardly eaten, but the truth was she was on an emotional tidal wave. When would she see Kit again, touch him, kiss him? she wondered, as she tended one injured airman after another. A terrifying thought almost immobilized her: could the Holkham base be hit again tonight? Kit had survived one bombing raid. Could he survive another, or would he burn in the flames, like his poor friend Jimmy? Seeing Maudie looking white and pale, Tom, who was assisting the duty doctor, suggested she took a break.
Once out of the west wing, Maudie stood on the driveway, staring blankly at the park, over which a pall of smoke still hung. She jumped when she heard somebody calling her
name.
‘Maudie! Come inside and get something to eat,’ Ruby cried from one of the open dining-room windows.
Below stairs, Maudie couldn’t face the stew she was offered, but she was grateful for the strong tea and Marmite on toast Ruby made for her. Ava and Ruby raised their eyebrows at their unusually quiet friend.
‘Do you need to rest, lovie?’ Ava asked.
Maudie gazed up at her. Her green eyes were wide and sparkling with happiness. ‘I’ve just kissed Kit Halliday!’
Ava and Ruby burst out laughing.
‘That’s been a long time coming!’ Ruby giggled.
Ava smiled at the love-struck Maudie. ‘What made you finally drop your guard?’
‘He was asleep … he looked so lovely,’ Maudie confessed. ‘I couldn’t be angry with him any more.’
‘I don’t know why you were angry with him in the first place,’ Ruby teased.
Laughing with happiness, Maudie cried, ‘He’s not going out with Diana!’
‘Told you so!’ laughed Ruby.
Ava lit up a Woodbine and leant against the warm range.
‘Well, that’s one mystery cleared up at last!’ she chuckled.
The Germans didn’t come back for a second raid. They didn’t have to, they’d successfully destroyed every Lancaster on the airbase, and most of the official buildings, too.
As Raf stood beside his senior officer, tears filled his eyes. ‘God Almighty,’ he murmured, as he stared at the once-mighty planes that now lay smouldering on the runway like shattered metallic dinosaurs.
Kit took a deep breath. ‘We did it once, we’ll do it again.’
Raf nodded. ‘Start all over, eh?’
Kit nodded back. ‘It’s our bloody duty, Raf. We have to beat the enemy.’
‘How we do this, sir?’ a bemused Raf cried.
Kit replied through gritted teeth, ‘We rebuild the base … and bring back the Lancasters.’
19. Lord Edward
Early summer found all four women below stairs in love, or in the process of falling in love. The mood in the kitchen was light-hearted, giggly and romantic.
‘Do you think we’re going the same way as the swallows, coupling up and nest-building?’ Ruby joked.