Some Lucky Day (2 page)

Marion closed the folders and rapped them forcefully on the desk to get the papers aligned with the cardboard covers. ‘Perhaps you should have thought of that before you risked life, limb and Mosquito in an attempt to show off to the Americans,’ she said briskly. ‘These reports will be sent to your Commanding Officer, Margot Gore, at Hamble Pool, and entered into your service records. Rest assured, you are both treading a very fine line, and one more incident like this will mean instant dismissal.’

Kitty swallowed the lump in her throat as she heard the gasp of horror from Charlotte. Flying was their passion, and the chance to be a part of this elite, pioneering unit was something they’d both dreamed of since hearing about its formation in 1939. To lose their hard-won places now would be to lose everything.

Marion stood and tugged at the hem of her Savile Row tailored Air Force blue uniform jacket, making the gold braid epaulettes gleam in the lamplight. ‘You’re both good, naturally instinctive flyers, and despite your youth and woeful lack of restraint, you have the ability to become great pilots. Don’t risk everything with your madcap tomboy ways. It would be a tragedy to lose either of you.’

Kitty felt the blush deepen, not with humiliation now, but with pleasure at such high praise coming from this most respected of women. ‘Thank you,’ she replied. ‘And I’m sorry I keep letting the side down.’

‘Then buck up your ideas, Pargeter. Rules are made for a reason, not on a whim, and it’s time you knuckled down and accepted that they apply to you as well as everyone else.’

Kitty nodded and, daring to look the other woman in the eye, felt a modicum of relief. The stern expression had softened a little, and there was the hint of a smile tweaking her lips. It had been a narrow squeak, but it was going to be all right.

‘Go and find some supper and then get an early night,’ said Marion. ‘The weather forecast is good for tomorrow, and I’m sure Central Ferry Control will have plenty of work to keep you out of mischief before you return to your pool at Hamble.’

‘And the letters to our parents?’ asked Charlotte fearfully.

‘I hope they won’t be necessary and that you can prove yourselves worthy of my trust by doing your job efficiently within the guidelines of the ATA from now on. Dismissed.’

They both snapped off a smart salute and quickly left the office, but they didn’t speak until they were safely outside the building. The night was warm and they could hear music drifting across the airfield from the accommodation block, but the only light came from the twinkling stars and bright moon, for the blackout was strictly enforced.

‘Whew,’ breathed Charlotte as she swept off her neat cap, loosened her tie and undid the button on her shirt collar. ‘I thought we were really in for it this time.’

‘So did I,’ admitted Kitty as she unfastened her uniform jacket, stuffed her cap in the pocket and ruffled her short blonde hair before lighting their cigarettes. She blew smoke, watching it curl away on the light evening breeze. ‘And the thought of a letter being sent home is just too awful.’

‘I know,’ Charlotte agreed. ‘Daddy probably wouldn’t say much, but poor Mother would be frightfully upset. She’s always despaired at my complete lack of respect for stuffy rules and regulations.’

Kitty smiled in sympathy at Charlotte, who’d been her friend and co-conspirator in some kind of mischief or other since the day Kitty had arrived as a scholarship student at the Sussex boarding school. Thirteen years old and fresh off the ship from Argentina where her father managed a polo pony stud, Kitty had been bewildered and already homesick when she’d arrived at this daunting place, but Charlotte had somehow recognised a kindred spirit and had immediately taken her under her wing.

Kitty had survived the ignominy of being a scholarship student, which was on a par with being a poor relation, the minefield of unspoken rules and the incomprehensible importance of family ties and social links, all thanks to Charlotte. And although she’d never perfected the plummy accent or adopted the superior attitude of so many of the other girls, her sunny personality and sporting prowess had made her popular, and she and Charlotte had become inseparable.

‘Charlotte,’ Kitty murmured, ‘I’m really sorry for getting you into trouble. I shouldn’t have started messing about like that.’

Charlotte shrugged almost nonchalantly as she tucked a few wayward strands of her dark hair back into the neat bun at her nape. ‘I didn’t have to follow you into that barrel roll or loop the loop, but I did, and I’m old enough to take full responsibility for my actions.’

‘That’s as maybe, but now you’ll have a black mark on your records, and it’s all down to me.’

Charlotte’s brown eyes gleamed with humour as she placed a reassuring hand on Kitty’s arm. ‘Honestly, Kitts, we’re both at fault, so don’t blame yourself.’ Her smile broadened into a mischievous grin. ‘It was fun though, wasn’t it? Quite like old times when we first got our wings and used to fly low over the school playing fields and interrupt the hockey matches.’

Kitty grinned back. ‘We ended up in the headmistress’s office then as well, I remember. Gosh,’ she sighed. ‘We thought she was a dragon, but she’s certainly no match for Marion Wilberforce. I’ve never seen anyone quite so furious before.’

Charlotte nodded. ‘I suppose we deserved it, but I bet those American fly boys were impressed when we flew upside down over their baseball game.’

Kitty laughed. ‘Their commanding officer clearly wasn’t. He must have been straight on the blower to Marion the moment he saw us.’ She took a last puff of the cigarette and ground it out beneath the heel of her black laced-up shoe. ‘Come on, let’s see what they’ve left for us to eat. I’m starving.’

Charlotte finished her cigarette and linked arms with Kitty, who was a good three inches shorter and as wiry and slender as a young boy. ‘You’re always starving,’ she said without rancour as they strolled towards the canteen building, ‘and I don’t know where you put all that food you manage to stuff down. There’s nothing of you.’

‘You’re not exactly fat yourself,’ Kitty replied mildly, taking in her friend’s neat figure. ‘I just happen to have a very good appetite. Mother always reckoned I stayed short and skinny because I use it all up in nervous energy.’ She giggled. ‘All the best things come in small packages, Charley. I can’t help it if I’m little, but you have to admit, I
am
perfectly made.’

Charlotte made a rude noise in her throat. ‘No one could accuse you of modesty, that’s for certain, Katherine Pargeter – but then you’ve had your head turned by all those drooling chaps trying to flatter you into going out with them.’

Kitty playfully dug her elbow into her friend’s ribs. ‘Jealousy will get you nowhere, Miss Bingham – and besides, you’ve only ever had eyes for my brother, so you can’t really complain.’

‘I got a letter from Freddy the other day,’ she replied dreamily. ‘He’s been posted somewhere further along the coast. The censor blacked out the name of the airfield, so I don’t know exactly where, but he’s promised to try and get to the Hamble pool before the end of the month so we can have a few hours together.’

‘He’s at Cliffe,’ said Kitty. Seeing Charlotte’s frown, she hurried on. ‘I was going to tell you, really I was. But what with one thing and another it completely slipped my mind. I met Roger Makepeace in the canteen at Croydon this morning when I dropped that Magister off. He was waiting for a lift down in one of the Anson air taxis and we had lunch together, which was terrific fun as always. If I hadn’t had to ferry that Spitfire up to Ringway and bring the Mosquito back here, I could have gone with him and spent a little time with Freddy.’

Charlotte sighed. ‘It’s been ages since we’ve seen one another. Freddy’s flying ops night and day and I’m working thirteen days out of every fourteen. Even if we do get a day off, we can rarely co-ordinate them.’

‘That’s why I’ve decided to have lots of fun and not get bogged down in a hopeless romance,’ said Kitty lightly. ‘Freddy is living on the edge every day – as are we – and that’s quite enough to cope with without having to fret over some boyfriend.’

They crossed the cobbled quadrangle arm in arm and then pushed through the door into the dimly lit canteen. It was late and the large room was echoing and deserted, so they helped themselves to the rather dried-out food left in the chafing dishes and sat down at one of the tables.

Kitty dug her fork into the almost meatless shepherd’s pie and had a sudden longing for the tender steaks, crisp salads and heaped bowls of lovely fruit that were served regularly back home in Argentina. Her family had moved there from England before her second birthday, so life on the pampas was all that she’d known before she’d been sent back to England to finish her education. It was an outdoor existence except in the rainy season, with meals taken at a long table beneath a vine-covered trellis that ran the length of the sprawling wooden bungalow and overlooked the enormous swimming pool and the dusty red clearing that led to the numerous stables and lush, tree-shaded paddocks.

The talk of Freddy and the thought of those long, lazy meals and sun-drenched days brought back memories of the life she’d left so far behind. Sitting here in the deserted, silent canteen she could almost hear the melodic Spanish voices of the gauchos, the calls of the exotic birds in the drowsy heat and the sawing of the cicadas as dusk fell and the fireflies began to glow in the shrubbery.

She could see once again the glorious wide stretches of empty, shimmering pampas that she and Freddy used to explore on horseback; and the parties that had been held around the pool when all their friends would come and stay for the weekend. She could see the mares with their foals in the paddocks, tails swishing as they cropped the grass, their beautiful coats gleaming richly in the sun, and could remember the rush of excitement as she competed against the skilled and determined Freddy and his friends in fast and furious games of polo. It all seemed so far away suddenly, and tears pricked as the homesickness weighed heavy around her heart.

‘Kitty? Whatever’s the matter?’

She blinked back the tears and tried to quell the awful yearning for her mother and home. ‘I was thinking about how long it’s been since I saw my parents,’ she admitted. ‘There are times when I wish I hadn’t come back to start university. We all knew there would be a war, and once it was declared my parents refused to let me risk the journey home, so I was stuck here.’

‘But surely you don’t regret joining the ATA? You couldn’t have done that if you were in Argentina.’

Kitty shook her head as she put down her fork and abandoned the barely touched food. ‘Not for a single minute,’ she replied firmly. ‘But I miss my home and family, Charlotte, and if anything should happen to Freddy, then I don’t know what I’d do.’

‘You mustn’t talk like that, Kitts. It’s defeatist.’ Charlotte also abandoned the tasteless food and pushed her plate aside before reaching across the table for Kitty’s hand. ‘I do understand how homesick you must be, and I share your concern over Freddy – of course I do, I love him too. But we have to stay positive and believe we’ll all come through this. If we don’t, then Hitler will have won.’

Kitty shot her a watery smile and squeezed her fingers. ‘Of course we do, and I’m sorry I’m being such a drip.’

‘Think nothing of it,’ replied Charlotte with a warm smile. ‘We’re all entitled to feel a bit sorry for ourselves after the stresses and strains of trying to fly planes we’ve never flown before, or battling to land in a force nine gale.’

She pushed back from the table. ‘Come on, I’ve got a quarter bottle of brandy in my overnight bag, and I think we’ve earned it.’

Kitty cleared the table and they swiftly washed the plates and left them to dry on the wooden draining board before venturing back out into the night. It was cooler now, the breeze still holding a reminder of winter despite the fact it was the end of May, and they hurried across the quad, eager to reach the relative warmth of the very basic barracks accommodation.

The lines of parked planes glimmered beneath the swaying silver blobs of the giant barrage balloons and all was still. Yet it was an ominous stillness, as if the land itself was holding its breath, waiting for the enemy raid that would surely come with the bright bomber’s moon.

Kitty felt the cold slither of dread trace her spine and determinedly ignored it. She and Freddy, Roger and Charlotte might be tiny cogs in the vast war machine that was fighting to defend this country from Hitler’s tyranny, but as long as they held their nerve and stayed strong, then homesickness was a small price to pay for freedom.

There had been no enemy raid after all, and with the aid of Charlotte’s brandy, Kitty’s sleep was undisturbed. She woke before dawn, and like the other women who’d stayed at the ferry pool overnight, she was washed, dressed, breakfasted and ready for duty by first light. The promise of clear skies two days running after being grounded for weeks of rain and low cloud was enough to enthuse all of them.

Dressed in regulation shirt, tie, uniform jacket and trousers, she’d dragged on the blue overalls known as a Sidcot suit over everything and added the fleece-lined leather jacket for extra warmth. Fur-lined boots, leather flying helmet, goggles, gloves and a cumbersome parachute and harness completed her outfit, and with her overnight bag at her feet, she stood in the cool pearly dawn with the others outside the Ops room smoking a cigarette, waiting to find out what jobs they’d been allocated.

Depending on their qualifications and experience, the day’s work could involve several flights in different types of plane, not all of them familiar to the pilots, which meant they had to use the thin volume of Ferry Pilots’ Notes. This was a pocket-sized flip pad of instructions that covered the basics for every aircraft in service. The Avro Anson or the Fairchild Argus would provide an air taxi service to get them to their first job, and if possible, collect them at the end of the day. If not, they would stay overnight at an airfield or in a hotel, or even take a night train back to base if that was feasible, which was why each of them had packed a small overnight bag.