The Spitfire Sisters Page 5

  ‘I never did much driving when we were out here,’ George admitted, as he sat beside Pips. ‘I’m not confident of driving on the right-hand side.’

  ‘Really?’ Pips teased. ‘And you a brave major in the British army?’

  They exchanged a fond glance. Whenever they came back to Belgium it revived all sorts of memories for them.

  In the back seat, Daisy was craning her neck to see out of the windows. ‘I can’t believe how flat it is. It’s just like home, isn’t it?’

  ‘Very similar,’ George agreed. They fell silent, each busy with their thoughts of previous occasions here. Only Daisy had happy memories of her first journey to see her cousins; for the others, who remembered earlier times, there were some very sad recollections.

  After the flurry of their arrival at the farm near Lijssenthoek, Pips drew Brigitta aside and said, ‘I’m so sorry that your grandparents are no longer here. They were a wonderful old couple.’

  Brigitta smiled through sudden tears. ‘They were both very ill last winter and died within a week of one another. It was a hard time for us, but I knew it was what they would both have wanted – to go almost together – and that was a comfort. They brought me up – I even used their surname – but they lived long enough to see their great-grandsons growing up to love the farm. It was their dearest wish to see it pass to them eventually. And, of course, it will.’

  ‘They’ll both inherit it, then?’

  Brigitta nodded. ‘It’s all set out in my grandfather’s will and there’ll be no falling out. Already, they work very well together.’

  Pips squeezed her arm. ‘I’m so glad. It must be a great comfort to both you and William, especially after—’ Pips broke off, not wanting to be tactless.

  Brigitta, however, only smiled and said, ‘How are the rest of William’s family? Alice writes regularly, of course, but I know he’d like to hear all about the others from you. Even’ – she smiled sadly – ‘his father.’

  The visit was a great success – a happy time for them all, though tinged with sadness at times. George and Pips went alone to visit his friend who lay at peace in a cemetery near Brandhoek and then all of them – even Pascal and Waldo – took a rare day off from the farm to travel to the Somme to visit the graves of William and Alice’s three brothers.

  ‘We wanted to bring Luke to see you again and to visit his dad’s grave,’ Daisy told William as they walked amongst the hundreds of white markers, ‘but your father wouldn’t let him come.’

  ‘I’m sorry to hear that. I’d like to have seen him again.’

  Daisy glanced up at him. ‘When he’s old enough to be able to do what he wants, he’ll come to see you again, Uncle William. I know he will.’

  ‘I wouldn’t want him to be in trouble with his grandfather though, Daisy. Not on my account.’ There was a pause before he asked, ‘Is Luke happy working for him?’

  ‘Oh yes. The business will be his one day. He’s happy about that, though I just wish Granddad would let him do other things.’ She went on to tell William about the proposed trip to Skegness to take both Luke and Harry flying. ‘He put a stop to that too and Luke’s just not quite old enough to go against him.’ Impishly, she added, ‘Not yet.’

  ‘Daisy, you should warn Luke not to push him too far. His granddad can be a very stubborn old man, as you know. I wouldn’t want Luke to lose his inheritance.’

  Daisy laughed. ‘You’re right – about Granddad, I mean – but he’s also not stupid. He’s only got Luke to leave his business to because, of course, Harry is not his grandson as he’s very fond of reminding him.’

  William smiled at the young girl’s confidence. ‘Well, just make sure he’s careful, Daisy. And now, here we are at Harold’s grave. You can lay the flowers you’ve brought on Luke’s behalf.’

  Daisy laid the posy carefully and then stood up, looking down at the name on the marker. ‘What was he like?’

  ‘Harold?’ William smiled. ‘A young rascal in many ways. Running away when he was underage to join up in Newark so that his family couldn’t stop him was just such an example. But you must always remind Luke that he would have come home and married Peggy if he could have done. I heard him say that when he was dying and I believed him. And now, let’s go and find your other two uncles. They’re buried a short distance from here. And then tomorrow we’ll go into Ypres. Pips wants to see how the rebuilding is progressing.’

  Pips, with George, William and Daisy beside her, stood looking up at Cloth Hall, which had once been a magnificent building in the heart of Ypres.

  ‘I’m so glad they’ve decided to rebuild everything exactly as it was,’ Pips said. ‘It’s going to be beautiful once again.’

  ‘It looks like they’re progressing very well with the tower and the western wing,’ William said. ‘They’ve done a lot more even since I was last here.’

  Pips’s glance roamed over the whole building. ‘It’ll take decades to complete it.’

  ‘Now let me show you St George’s church,’ William said. ‘It was completed a few years ago.’

  ‘Oh, the one that’s a memorial to the British and Commonwealth troops?’ George said. ‘Where is it?’

  ‘Just across the road from the cathedral.’

  They walked around the corner and, as they walked past the cathedral, William said, ‘This is finished now. The only change they made was that they rebuilt it with a pointed spire.’ They walked on and crossed the road to the small church built on the opposite corner. ‘Here we are. Now, as you know, there’s a school here at St George’s, but I think the children will be on holiday. The headmaster and teachers come from Britain and most of the pupils are the children of workers with the War Graves Commission, who live in the area. I’m told a lot of their school activities are rooted in British traditions.’

  As Pips stepped into the quiet interior, she gasped. The walls were lined with plaques dedicated to regiments, associations and even to individuals. There were memorials in the stained-glass windows and on almost every seat was a hassock embroidered in cross stitch depicting the various badges of the different regiments who had served in the area.

  Pips ran her fingers over the surface of one for the Sherwood Foresters and thought of Harold Dawson. ‘I wish Alice had come with us. I must remind her when we get home to make one for the Lincolnshire Regiment and send it out to you, William.’

  ‘That would be great. It’s so good to see the people rebuilding their lives and to see Ypres rising from the ashes. It’s – it’s uplifting.’

  Daisy was unusually quiet as she read the inscriptions on several of the plaques. ‘There are so many,’ she murmured.

  William put his arm about her. The more he saw of her, the fonder he became of his niece.

  ‘Tonight, we’ll go to the Menin Gate service. It’s very moving, but it’s a good thing to do.’

  ‘Yes,’ Daisy said. ‘I remember it. I’d like to go again. Oh, I do so wish Luke had been able to come with us.’

  William squeezed her shoulders, but could think of nothing to say.

  By the time they left, Daisy was firm friends with her Belgian cousins. The two boys had shown her all over the farm, had walked the fields with her, pointing out where crops were grown and which were left to pasture for grazing animals.

  ‘You can tell our grandmother all about us,’ Pascal said.

  ‘And tell her,’ Waldo added, ‘that Father talks about her often and that we hope to meet her one day.’

  ‘You will come and see us again, won’t you, Daisy, and next time, do bring Luke? We’d like to get to know him better,’ Pascal said. ‘He’s our cousin too.’

  ‘It won’t be for the lack of trying, I promise.’

  Eight

  ‘Aunty Alice, when is Daisy coming home?’

  Seeing Luke’s forlorn face, Alice said apologetically, ‘She’s staying with Pips for most of the summer holidays, Luke. Her father and I decided that, as she will have to buckle down and work extremely hard for h
er School Certificate this coming school year, she ought to be allowed some fun first. She loves to go flying with Pips – which we don’t mind.’ Alice smiled as she added, ‘Though we have banned Pips from taking her motor racing other than to watch. There’s no knowing what those two might get up to if we didn’t set some rules. They’re in Belgium at the moment, as you know, but they’re back in London on Monday.’ She touched his arm. ‘I’m so sorry that your granddad wouldn’t let you go with them. Daisy would have loved it and I know William and his family would’ve liked to have seen you again.’

  Luke shrugged. ‘Granddad doesn’t believe in holidays. He says the Devil makes work for idle hands.’

  Alice chuckled. She remembered her father’s sayings so well from her own childhood. ‘And he had another saying when any of us wanted to go to a party or the theatre in the city. “Always wanting pleasure,” he’d grumble, but the boys would take me anyway. We’d even sneak Harold out of the house when he was still quite young and take him with us, if we could. We were often in trouble when we got home, but it was worth it.’ Her face was pensive as she thought of happier times with the brothers she would never see again.

  ‘Do you think that’s what I should do? Just – go?’

  ‘Oh now, don’t involve me, Luke. But you are coming up for eighteen and although you’re not legally of age until you’re twenty-one, you are a working man; a very hardworking man. And you’ve – er – got a motorcycle now, haven’t you? You don’t have to ride Uncle Robert’s any more, do you?’

  Luke grinned at his aunt, then his smile faded. ‘It’s Grandma I worry about. I wouldn’t want him to take it out on her.’

  Alice wrinkled her forehead thoughtfully. Slowly, she said, ‘I wouldn’t just go off without saying anything. That would worry both of them. Be up front with him. Tell him you’re going away for the weekend. Try it, Luke. You might be surprised.’

  On the Friday evening, just before Daisy was due back to London from Belgium, as he helped Len and Sam close up the workshop for the night, Luke said, ‘Granddad, I’d like to take next Saturday morning off. I want to go away for the weekend.’

  Sam glanced up but said nothing. Luke had already discussed with his mother what he planned to do but, deliberately, he had not spoken to Sam about it.

  ‘Oh aye,’ Len growled. ‘And what makes you think you can just take time off when you want? We’ve got that cartwheel to finish for Charlie.’ Charlie Cooper was Luke’s other grandfather and worked on the estate as Henrietta Maitland’s farm manager.

  Stubbornly, Luke met his grandfather’s gaze. ‘I’ll work extra hard this week to get it done before I go.’

  Luke was far too polite to turn up at Pips’s home in London unannounced and uninvited. So he wrote to Daisy and asked if he might come down to see her over the August Bank Holiday weekend. The letter arrived on the Tuesday, the day after they returned from Belgium. Daisy rang her father at once.

  ‘Daddy, can you get an urgent message to Luke for me? But don’t let Granddad Dawson know.’

  Robert chuckled. ‘Devious schemes afoot, Daisy?’

  ‘Something like that. I’ve had a letter from Luke. He wants to come down here on Friday night for the weekend. Pips says that’s fine, so we need to let him know. He might not get the letter in time if I write. You could tell Peggy. She knows about it.’

  ‘I’ll ask Jake to go to their cottage and leave a message for Luke. Will that do?’

  ‘Perfect. Thanks, Daddy. Oh, and can you tell Luke to ask if he can stay until Thursday or Friday of next week. We want to take him to the race meeting on August Bank Holiday Monday and then there’s a motorcycle race meeting on Wednesday. Uncle Paul’s arranged some motorcycle trials on Test Hill that day. Luke would love to see that and I’m sure it’s high time he took a bit of holiday. I don’t think he’s had any since he started working for Granddad. He’s only had Saturday afternoons to go riding – and Sundays, of course.’

  ‘Of course I will.’ There was a slight pause before Robert asked, ‘How was Belgium?’

  ‘Wonderful. Sad, of course, seeing all those graves, but Aunty Pips said it was lovely to see how they’re being so well cared for. William and his boys still look after those near where they live. And Ypres is being rebuilt just as it was before the war. It’s going to be magnificent again. And we saw St George’s church. Pips is going to ask Mummy to embroider a hassock to send out there. And, d’you know, they hold a service at eight o’clock every night at the Menin Gate when they sound the “Last Post”? Would you believe that?’

  ‘Actually, I would. I wonder how long they’ll go on doing that for?’

  ‘I don’t know, but it’s a lovely thing to do, isn’t it? Anyway, I’d better ring off. Love to everyone. Bye, Daddy.’

  ‘Where’s Luke?’ Len greeted Sam harshly on the Saturday morning.

  ‘He asked me to tell you that he’s taking a few days off, probably until Thursday or Friday. He did ask you last week, Mr Dawson.’

  ‘Aye, he did, but only for the Saturday and I said “no”.’ Len paused and then groused, ‘Has he gone to Skegness with them? Because I forbade it and if he has—’

  ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘Then where has he gone?’

  Luckily, Sam didn’t know the full story. Jake had delivered the message faithfully to Peggy, but she had been shrewd enough to censor it a little and had told Sam only the bare essentials.

  ‘You can tell Mr Dawson that Luke’s taking a few days off to try out his new motorcycle.’

  ‘Where’s he gone?’ Sam had asked innocently.

  ‘Best you don’t know, love. It could put you in an awkward position. But, trust me, he’ll be fine.’

  So now Sam was able to say, quite truthfully, ‘I really have no idea. From what Peg said, just riding around the countryside enjoying a bit of freedom on his motorcycle.’

  Len glowered at him, grunted morosely and turned away. He didn’t speak to Sam for the rest of the morning.

  When Luke rang the bell of the apartment where Pips and George lived, the door was flung open and Daisy launched herself against him. ‘I’m so glad you’ve come. We’ll have such fun.’

  She dragged him inside where both Pips and George greeted him.

  ‘I’ll come down and show you where to put your motorcycle,’ George said.

  A little later, when Luke had settled in, they all sat down to dinner. ‘We’re going into the city tomorrow and then on Sunday to Kew Gardens and then on Monday we’re going to Brooklands,’ Daisy told him. ‘You’ll love it.’

  ‘Can you stay until after Wednesday?’ Pips asked.

  ‘Well, I’m going to. I’ll just have to face Granddad when I get back.’

  ‘Don’t jeopardize your future, Luke,’ George said solemnly.

  Luke shook his head. ‘I don’t think I will, Major Allender, but even if Granddad sacks me, I’m a good carpenter now. I’d be able to get another job.’

  ‘He won’t sack you,’ Daisy said confidently. ‘Who else would he leave his business to?’

  ‘Sam or even Harry.’

  ‘But they’re not related to him.’

  ‘But William is,’ Luke said quietly. ‘And look how he treats him.’

  There was silence round the table; no one could argue with him.

  The weekend was an eye opener for the young man. Tied to the family business, working long days with no holidays and little free time except on Saturday afternoons and Sundays, when he was obliged to attend church with his family, Luke experienced a freedom and enjoyment he hadn’t known existed. The sights of London astounded him; he couldn’t believe his eyes at the magnificence of Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s and Westminster Abbey – and standing in front of the Cenotaph moved him immensely.

  On Sunday they visited Kew Gardens, but Bank Holiday Monday was the highlight of Luke’s visit so far.

  ‘Oh, isn’t it hot!’ Milly exclaimed, fanning her face vigorously as the friends met up at the track. �
��Hello, Luke, how lovely to see you.’ She giggled deliciously. ‘Are you racing?’

  He grinned at her. ‘I wish. Aunty Pips is bringing me again on Wednesday to see the motorcycle racing. Cars are great, but . . .’

  Milly linked her arm through his. ‘But you just love motorcycles. Now, let’s go and find something to drink, although I bet the bars will be crowded in this heat. Then we must watch the next race.’ As she led the way, she called back over her shoulder. ‘Pips, John Cobb has entered his new car. It promises to be absolutely thrilling.’

  ‘Wow!’ was all Luke could say as he stood on Members’ Hill a little later and took in the sight around him.

  The Byfleet Lightning Short Handicap race was almost too thrilling and could have ended in tragedy when Cobb, driving close to the top of the banking, passed another car. The crowd oohed and aahed as a near-disaster was only just averted. Although he almost touched wheels with the other car, he managed to remain on the track. He won the race, but in a second race he was heavily handicapped and could only manage fifth place.

  ‘I thought he was going over the top,’ Luke said to Pips.

  ‘He would probably have been killed if he had,’ she told him solemnly. ‘I’m glad George wasn’t here to see it today. It would only have confirmed his desire not to see me race again. Now, let’s go to the bar. I need a drink after that.’

  ‘You’ll be lucky.’ Luke grinned. ‘Milly says that the bars in the public enclosures have run dry.’

  ‘Oh phooey!’

  As they met up in the clubhouse with the Brooklands Girls and other friends, Luke could not fail to feel the warmth of their welcome. Soon he was talking about motorcycles to Paul and Jeff.

  ‘How about bringing your motorcycle here on Wednesday?’ Paul suggested. ‘I’ll get you a pass to try it out on Test Hill.’