He took the handkerchief back. “What do I do now?”
“How did you learn to fly?”
“Why, I studied books and found out everything I could about flyin’ and then went up on flights.”
“That’s what you do. You study the Bible. You pray. You talk with me and other believers. Oh, how happy Kat will be to hear about this tonight!” she exclaimed, and her eyes danced.
The two got up and started down the street toward the Thompsons’ place, and Meredith reached out and took his hand. She squeezed it and said, “I’m so proud of you, Brodie! So happy.”
“Me too.”
They hadn’t gone far when suddenly Brodie stopped dead-still and pulled her to a halt. “There’s an air-raid siren,” he said. “We’ve gotta find shelter.”
“There’s a shelter two blocks down. Come on.”
The two started running, but it was Brodie who heard the scream of the Stuka bomber. He had never heard one before, but when he looked up, he saw the airplane coming straight down, and the siren was screaming like a banshee. “We won’t make it!” he cried.
“We’ve got to try!”
But there was no time. The bomb from the Stuka exploded somewhere to their right with a tremendous explosion. The Stuka carried only one bomb, but it could be accurately placed.
Brodie looked up and saw another plane, this time on their left. “Run!” he yelled. “We gotta get away from him!”
But they did not get away. The bomb exploded, and suddenly broken glass filled the air. The windows had blown out of all the businesses over to their left, and the force of the explosion threw both Brodie and Meredith down. The air was filled with flying bricks, one of which struck Brodie on the shoulder as he tried to get up.
“Meredith!” he cried and blinked his eyes against the swirl of dust. He turned her over and saw that she had been struck by the flying glass. Her chest was covered with blood, but it appeared the wound was in her upper arm. He tore the fabric from her sleeve and exposed a deep cut. Quickly he yanked his necktie off and tied it above the wound. As he leaned forward to secure the tie, he realized she had another cut on her scalp, which was also bleeding freely.
He picked her up and staggered down the street, looking for an ambulance or anyone who could help. There were screams all around him, and the echoes of walls falling seemed very near.
He stopped when he heard Meredith call his name.
He looked down and saw blood on her lips, and he was horrified that she might have some internal injuries. “What is it?” he cried out.
She whispered something, and he could not hear. He put his ear to her lips. “What is it, sweetheart?”
“If I die . . . I want you to know . . . that I love you.”
Brodie uttered a short cry and then held her tight. He ran down the street and flagged down an ambulance that was driving slowly down the street. When a man dressed in white jumped out, Brodie said, “She’s hurt bad!”
“Here. Put her in the back. Let me check those wounds.”
Brodie helped put Meredith in the back, and her eyes were closed. “I’m going with you,” he said.
“All right, Lieutenant. Let’s go, Harry, and make it fast!”
****
She seemed to be in a deep, dark pit, for everything was black and there was only muffled sound. From time to time, she would recognize faraway voices. One of them sounded vaguely familiar.
There was a faint light in the distance, and she tried desperately to find her way to it. It was as if she were trying to climb out of a deep well. Gradually the light became brighter, and the voices clearer. She began to feel pain in her arm and in her leg and then in her head. It was not terribly bad, but she moaned slightly and as soon as she did, she heard a voice.
“Meredith—can you hear me?”
Meredith opened her eyes and everything swam for a moment, and then the features of Brodie Lee settled into place. “Brodie.”
“Thank God you’re all right!”
Meredith was trying to understand what was happening. She was lying on a bed between sheets. She tried to raise her right arm and found that it was bound, somehow, so that she could not lift it.
“Don’t try to move,” he said.
He put his hand on her forehead very lightly. “Do you remember what happened?”
“No—yes! It was a bomb. I remember the bombs falling.”
“That’s right, but you’re gonna be all right.”
“How long have I been here?”
“The bombing was yesterday. They had to do some patchin’ up on you.” She saw Brodie’s face loom over her and felt his kiss on her cheek. She lifted her free hand, and he caught it and held it. “You had me scared,” he said, shaking his head.
Meredith was remembering things clearly now, and she smiled. “I remember you asked God to save you.”
“That’s right, I did. I don’t guess I’ll ever have any trouble rememberin’ where I got saved.”
“I won’t forget it either.”
“Do you remember what you said to me after the bomb went off?”
“No, not really. It’s all sort of mixed up.”
“You told me you loved me. I’ll never forget that either. Look, Meredith, we talked about this once. Do you remember?”
“Yes, I do.”
“You said you’d never marry a man who wasn’t a Christian. Well, I’ll never be as good a Christian as you are, but I intend to serve God the rest of my life. And one of these days, I’m gonna talk to you about marriage some more. I don’t think we’ve exhausted the subject. It’s different now.”
Meredith reached up and put her hand on his cheek, and he covered it with his own. “Yes,” she whispered, “it is different now!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Skirmish Over France
“Come in, Brodie.” Parker stood up from where he had been working at his desk. “I’ve been hearing some good things about you.” The squadron had been out on a sortie when Parker had returned to take up his duties early that morning. He motioned toward the chair. “Have a seat. I want to hear all about it.”
Brodie grinned broadly as he sat down. “Well, I guess you heard. I hit the Glory Road.”
Parker laughed. “Well, I didn’t hear it put exactly like that, but some of the men told me you’d become a Christian. I think that’s wonderful, Brodie.”
“I’ve got a long way to go, Skipper. I don’t want to make a pest of myself, but to tell you the truth, I feel like catchin’ guys who are just walkin’ around and tellin’ ’em what it’s like to be saved. I never knew it could be like this.”
“Tell me all about it,” Parker said. He sat down and listened as Brodie spoke of his experience. When he had finished, Parker said, “So Meredith is all right?”
“Just has to do a little healin’ up.”
Parker looked at the American with a question in his eyes. “You know, I always thought that you might have wound up marrying Katherine.”
“I tried hard enough, as you well remember, but she had the good sense to send me packin’. But Meredith is different. She’s gonna marry me one of these days, even if I have to hog-tie her.”
Parker laughed. “I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”
“How are you feelin’? Your eyes okay?”
“They’re fine. That rest did me a lot of good.” He hesitated, then said, “We’ve got an unusual mission coming up, Brodie.”
“You mean somethin’ besides shootin’ down Germans?”
“No, we’ll be doing that but in a different way. We’ll be flying cover for a bomber group that’ll be going to hit the Luftwaffe airfield in France.”
“That’ll be different.”
“That’s right. Always before we’ve had the advantage in range. When the 109s come over here, they only have ten or fifteen minutes’ fighting time before they have to scoot back. This time we’ll be doing about the same. I want to talk to every man in the squadron about conserving fuel. I
don’t want anybody running out over Germany or over the Channel coming back.”
“I’ve been wonderin’ when we’re gonna get equipped with auxiliary gas tanks. That way we could go deep into Germany as escorts.”
“They’re not perfected yet, but they will be someday.”
The two men sat talking quietly, and finally Brodie got up and said, “Well, I’m goin’ back to see if I can get a bunch up to go to church Sunday mornin’. They’re already startin’ to run when they see me comin’. I heard Al Tobin say, ‘Look out! Here comes that religious nut!’”
“You just live the life and they’ll respect you, Brodie.”
****
The mission turned out to be more difficult than any of the pilots had imagined. They joined a group of thirty Lan- caster bombers and did some maneuvering to confuse the Germans. When they were over the target, Parker called, “Look out! Here they come dead ahead!” Enemy planes were rising to meet them. “We’ve got to keep ’em off of the bomber boys until they drop their loads, so heads up!”
The fight that ensued was as fierce as anything Parker had ever seen. The 109s kept coming into the fight, their engines snarling and guns firing, and Parker and the others had to continually keep an eye on their fuel gauges.
Brodie found himself on the tail of a 109 and gave it three short bursts. It caught fire at once, but just as Brodie broke away, he ran into three 109s that had made him their target. It took all of his skills and acrobatic flying to get away from them. I’m lucky these Spits have a much shorter turning radius than the 109, he thought. He glanced over and saw that Sailor Darley and David Deere were fighting for their lives against a swarm of 109s. We’d better get out of here quick! He joined in the fray, conserving ammunition as much as possible, but finally he saw that they were overwhelmed.
“Red Leader, Red Leader, I’m about out of ammo, and fuel too!”
No reply came over the radio, which was unusual. Parker was always quick to answer when he was called.
“Has anybody seen Red One?” Brodie demanded.
Archie Kent-Wilkins spoke up. “He got hit, I think.”
“Did you see him go down? Where is he?” Brodie demanded.
“I don’t know. I think he might’ve been hit, but I was in a fight and I couldn’t keep my eye on him. But you know Parker. He’d call back if he could.”
There was no time to delay. No one except Kent-Wilkins had seen anything of Parker, and Brodie had a sinking sensation as the Spitfires started herding the bombers back over the Channel.
“Didn’t anyone see anything?” Brodie asked on the radio.
“I didn’t see any parachutes,” Sailor said. “We’d best go back to the base before we get bounced by some more 109s.”
Brodie was half tempted to go back and look, but he knew that was hopeless. He would be instantly gobbled up by the 109s.
****
The hospital was busy, and when Brodie went to Meredith’s room, he found her sitting up in bed, with Kat in the chair beside the bed.
“Brodie, it’s good to see you,” Kat said.
“Hello, Kat.” Brodie went over and took Meredith’s hand. “How do you feel?” he asked stiffly.
“Oh, I’m fine.” She could sense immediately that something had happened. “What’s wrong, Brodie?”
He pulled off his hat and twisted it around in his hands. “I’ve got some news that’s not good.”
Kat straightened up. “What is it?” she asked quietly.
“It’s . . . it’s Parker. He didn’t make it back from a sortie over France.” He stumbled as he gave them the bad news and finally said almost angrily, “None of us really saw anything. We were outnumbered about five to one, so we were all pretty busy.”
“No one saw him go down?”
“Archie did, but he didn’t see the plane crash,” he said quickly. “And none of us saw any parachutes.”
Kat went numb. She started to stand up, but her knees felt too weak to hold her. She wanted to ask Brodie so many questions, but she instinctively understood that he had no solid answers to give. Finally she found the strength to collect her thoughts and get to her feet. “I’ll leave you two alone. I have to get back to the mission. I’m glad you’re all right, Brodie. And it’s wonderful news about your becoming a Christian.”
“Don’t give up, Kat,” he said. “He most likely crash-landed the Spit. He’s probably been taken prisoner by this time. It’ll take a while to find out where he is.”
Kat tried to smile, but it was with an effort. “I wonder if they’ll send someone to tell his family.”
“I suppose they will. They always do.”
Kat turned to leave, but Brodie stopped her. “You know, I haven’t read much of the Bible, but I remember hearin’ that somewhere in there it says if two or three people agree on somethin’, it’ll be done.”
“That’s right,” Meredith said quickly. “It’s in the Gospel of Matthew, the eighteenth chapter. Let me see.” She took her Bible off her bedside table and opened it. “Here it is in verse nineteen. ‘Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.’”
When she had finished reading, he said, “Well, I reckon we’d better do just that. Come on. Let’s get to prayin’. God can do anythin’.”
The three joined hands and prayed for Parker, each one of them in turn, and when they said amen, Kat’s eyes were moist. “It’s times like these when you need faith. When the sun is shining it’s easy, but doubt comes when things don’t look too good.”
“Well, I’m believin’ God’s gonna take care of our boy,” Brodie said.
Meredith reached up and took his hand. “We’ll all remember that.”
Kat turned to leave, but Brodie stopped her once more. “Oh, I guess you’d better hear this too.” He took Meredith’s hand and held it. “Meredith and I are kind of tentatively engaged.”
“Tentatively engaged? What kind of engagement is that?” Kat asked as she smiled at the two.
“It means we’re goin’ until we get a red light, but for me right now it’s green as grass.”
“Congratulations. I know you two will be very happy.” She went over and kissed Meredith and then Brodie on the cheek. “You see? If you’d had your own way, you would’ve married me long ago and I would’ve nagged you to death by this time. I’m happy for you both. I’ll see you later. I’ve got to go.”
****
Kat had not known whether to go talk to Parker’s parents or not. She thought perhaps it would be better to wait for the official news. But finally she called the station and an officer there told her that someone had gone out in person to give the news.
She could think of nothing but Parker, and finally she felt strongly that she needed to be with the family. She left the mission and hired a cab to take her to Benleigh. It was expensive, but she felt it was the right thing to do.
She paid the driver and walked up the front steps. She rang the doorbell, and Parker’s mother answered it.
“Come in, my dear,” Grace said, her face frozen in misery.
Kat stepped inside and put her arms around the older woman. “It’s going to be all right,” she said. “God’s going to watch over him.”
Grace began to tremble, but she got control of herself. “Gregory’s in the parlor with the twins.”
“You haven’t told them anything, have you?”
“No.”
“That’s good. They don’t need to be in on this.”
The two of them walked back into the parlor, and the twins ran to her, their faces happy and their eyes dancing. “Story! Give us a story!”
“I will before I leave, but right now I need to talk to your grandparents.”
“You two go play in the playroom, and Miss Katherine will tell you a story pretty soon,” Gregory said.
As soon as the children were gone, Gregory said, “I’m glad you came, Katherine.”
“I didn’t want to intrude.”
“How could you do that?” Lord Braden got to his feet and came over and embraced her. The gesture touched Kat, and she squeezed him and whispered, “It’s going to be all right. God’s going to take care of us. I just know He is.”
The three sat down before the fire, and there was little to say. They all knew the details that were available, and it was Grace who said, “I’m so glad you came, Katherine. We’ve missed you.”
A lump came to Kat’s throat. She was shocked to find out how much she had come to care for these two. Clearing her throat, she said, “Would you like for me to stay for a day or two?”
“Oh, that would be wonderful! Can you get the time off?”
“I’m not scheduled at the hospital until Thursday. I think this is something I really need to do. Let me go call my supervisor at the mission.”
Five minutes later Kat came back and said, “It’s all right. I can stay.”
Relief washed across Grace’s face. “You are so good with the children,” she said.
“Well, I’ll go tell them that story I promised them.”
When Kat had left the room, Gregory said, “There’s a young woman with a very compassionate heart.”
“She’s in love with Parker, of course.”
“Do you think so? After all this time? I knew he was attracted to her, but I didn’t know how she felt.”
“It’s written all over her face.” She glanced toward the door and whispered, “I’m so glad she’s come.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Eject!
As soon as the engine stopped, Parker knew he was not going to make it. The big Merlin engine had taken a short burst from a 109. At first Parker thought it would be all right, but then the engine coughed and the propeller began to windmill.
“Got to get away from this fight.” He had little control over the plane, but as it descended, he held on to the stick and managed to keep the plane in a controlled glide. He glanced in his mirror and saw that the squadron was engaged in a fierce fight, but apparently none of the enemy saw him slip away. He searched the earth below, trying to find a grassy field where he could land.
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