Nightingales Under the Mistletoe (13 page)

Jess grabbed Effie's sleeve. ‘You promised you wouldn't try to fix me up!' she accused.

‘I didn't know there were only going to be two of them, did I?' Effie said. ‘Besides, we're having a drink with them, not getting engaged!'

‘Who's getting engaged?' Kit swung round.

‘No one, but Jess has a boyfriend and she doesn't want your friends to get the wrong idea.'

Jess glared at Effie, embarrassment washing over her. She could cheerfully have killed her.

‘Did you hear that, boys? Jess here is out of bounds.' She caught the wink Kit gave the other two men, and her unease grew.

Kit introduced the blond giant as Max, and the smaller man as Harry. ‘They're Canadians, but don't hold that against them,' he said.

Daisy made a beeline for Max, leaving Jess to squash herself on to the bench next to Harry. He was a bit too close for comfort, his wiry body pressed into her side.

‘Can I buy you a drink, Jess?' he offered.

She looked at him sharply. ‘A drink?'

‘Yeah. Like this.' He held up his glass of beer. ‘I'm told it's the custom to have them in these places.'

‘I'll have a lemonade, please,' Jess replied stiffly.

His dark brows rose. ‘Sure I can't get you anything stronger?'

‘No, thank you.'

‘You really are determined to hold on to your honour, aren't you?' Kit squinted mockingly at her through a plume of cigarette smoke. Effie was perched on his knee, her arms around him.

‘It's a free country,' Jess shot back.

‘Shut up, Kit. I'll get the lady whatever she wants.' Harry edged past her and headed for the bar. Jess watched him go, strutting on short, slightly bowed legs. He wasn't remotely her type, she was relieved to realise.

Daisy, on the other hand, was staring up at Max as if she wanted to eat him. ‘Are you a pilot?' she asked, wide-eyed.

Max nodded. ‘Kit and I fly together.' His voice was deep and so quiet Jess could hardly hear him across the table.

‘Does it take two of you to fly a plane?' Daisy asked.

‘Depends how much Kit's been drinking the night before,' Max joked.

Kit grinned and raised his glass in a mocking toast.

‘How about you, Harry?' Effie asked, as he returned with the drinks. ‘Do you fly planes, too?'

Kit laughed loudly. ‘I'd like to see that!'

‘I'm the rear gunner,' he said. ‘It's my job to keep the plane – and these two – safe.'

‘Otherwise known as Tail End Charlie!' Kit put in.

‘You may mock, my friend, but you won't be laughing when I'm all that's standing between you and a BF-
107
,' Harry said solemnly.

‘So you're all in the same crew?' Effie said.

‘That's right.' Kit threw his arms around his friends' shoulders. ‘You're looking at the crew of the good ship D-Dragon. Us and a couple of others, of course,' he added.

They were all so different, Jess noticed, as the conversation flowed around her. Max was the quietest, although between Kit's showing off and Harry's wise-cracking there wasn't much chance for him to speak.

Not that it seemed to put Daisy off. She was flirting like mad, laughing and touching his arm and batting her eyelashes at him like there was no tomorrow.

‘Looks like your friend's taken a real shine to my pal Max,' Harry commented next to Jess.

‘It looks like it.'

‘She'll have her work cut out for her. He's a real shy guy. Not like Kit over there. He's what you'd call a fast worker.'

Kit certainly seemed to be getting on well with Effie. They were talking and laughing, their heads close together, Kit's arm firmly encircling Effie's waist.

Jess felt Harry shift in his seat beside her. Thinking he was going to do the same, she edged away.

‘Calm down, I'm not going to ravish you!' he laughed. ‘If it makes you feel better, I've got a wife at home.'

Jess recoiled from him. ‘You're married?'

Across the table, Kit laughed. ‘Oh, dear, that's torn it!'

‘Relax.' Harry lowered his voice. ‘I'm not looking to play around or anything like that. To be honest, I didn't even want to come out tonight, but Kit talked me into it. He reckons I spend too long stuck in the billet, writing letters home.'

Jess smiled reluctantly. ‘That sounds like me.'

Harry took out his wallet and showed her a photograph of his wife and plump toddler son. Kit laughed.

‘You're never going to woo a girl by showing her photos of your wife and kid, old chap!' he mocked.

‘Who says I want to? There's only one girl for me. Unlike you,' he muttered under his breath.

Jess looked at the photo, feeling comforted. Harry obviously adored his family, and she could relax knowing he wasn't going to expect anything of her except friendship.

‘You must miss them?' she said, handing him back the photograph.

‘I do,' he sighed. ‘Especially at this time of year. Do you know, I haven't spent a single Christmas with my little boy? He'll be three next month, and I haven't seen him since he was a baby.' He stared mournfully into his glass.

‘You will do soon, I'm sure,' she tried to comfort him.

Harry shook his head. ‘Not the way this war's going.' He gave her a twisted smile. ‘Listen to me, feeling sorry for myself! How long is it since you saw your boyfriend?'

Now it was Jess's turn to stare into her glass. ‘Two years,' she said quietly.

‘It doesn't get any easier, does it?'

She shook her head. ‘No, it doesn't.'

‘Stop feeling sorry for yourselves, you two!' Kit's voice rose. ‘I refuse to allow anyone to wallow in self-pity. Life's too bloody short!'

‘Especially if
you're
flying the plane,' Max said.

Kit roared with laughter. ‘It speaks! I bet you never expected that, did you, Daisy?'

Daisy smiled up at him. ‘I like the strong, silent type.'

‘I reckon you've found the man of your dreams, in that case,' Kit said.

Harry and Jess glanced at each other. ‘Your friend really has got it bad, hasn't she?' he said.

An hour later they left the pub and spilled out on to the deserted village green.

‘Brr, it's cold!' Daisy shivered extravagantly and huddled against Max.

‘Here, take this.' He took off his jacket and put it around her shoulders.

‘Thank you.' Daisy gave him a tight-lipped smile, but Jess could tell that wasn't quite what she'd had in mind.

‘That's not how you keep a lady warm, old chap!' Kit laughed, and immediately wrapped Effie in his arms for a long, passionate kiss.

‘Are you cold?' Harry asked Jess. ‘I mean, I'm only offering you my jacket, nothing else,' he added hastily.

Jess smiled. ‘I'm warm enough, thanks.'

‘Are you glad you came in the end?'

She nodded. ‘Are you?'

‘Very. Maybe we can do it again sometime? Just as pals?'

Jess smiled. ‘I'd like that.'

A distant roar filled the sky above them. Max and Harry looked at each other, and Kit dropped Effie like a stone and rushed into the middle of the green to look up at the sky.

‘Can you see them?' Harry asked, following him.

‘Not from here …' Kit craned his neck. ‘Oh, wait …yes, I can see the first of the stream heading in now … over there, at two o'clock.'

They all went to join him, their faces tilted up to the inky sky. Jess could just about make out the shifting shapes of planes against the blackness of the sky. A number were approaching, the rumble of their engines growing louder as they came in to land.

She glanced at the three men. Only a few minutes earlier they had been laughing and joking, but now they were all concentrating, their faces upturned, eyes fixed on the aircraft. Jess saw Harry's lips moving, and realised he was counting them as they passed overhead.

They passed over until there was nothing left but a distant drone.

The three men seemed to relax. ‘All present and correct,' Kit said, relief in his voice.

The girls said goodnight to the young men, and Effie and Jess headed back to the Nurses' Home. Max gallantly offered to walk Daisy back to her cottage.

‘I wish Kit had offered to walk me home!' Effie was disgruntled as they made their way down the lane, their arms linked so they wouldn't lose each other in the blackout.

‘It's a four-mile round trip,' Jess reasoned. ‘Max only walked Daisy home because she practically lives on their doorstep.'

‘That's true, I suppose.' Effie sighed. ‘I wish we lived closer to the village. It's miserable having to walk all this way. And I'm so cold!' She pulled her coat tighter round her.

‘We won't get there any faster if you keep complaining!' Jess said.

‘Your Harry seemed nice,' Effie remarked as they trudged along.

Jess sighed. ‘He's not my Harry!'

‘You seemed to be getting on like a house on fire.'

‘So did you and Kit.'

‘Do you think so?' Effie sounded pleased. ‘He is grand, isn't he?'

And so it began. Jess listened patiently as Effie went through the evening in fine detail, repeating every single word Kit had uttered, and analysing what it all meant. Did he like her? Was she being too forward? Should she have pushed him away, instead of letting him kiss her like that?

Jess knew better than to join in, or to try to give her advice. Effie wouldn't listen, anyway.

What with the cold, the dark, and Effie droning on and on, the journey seemed to take even longer than usual. It was a relief when they reached the rutted farm track that led to the Nurses' Home. It was almost midnight and the place was locked up and in darkness. Luckily Effie had become an expert in finding her way back in after lights out.

‘I asked Freeman to leave the bathroom window open round the back,' she whispered. ‘If we climb onto the dustbin we should be able to squeeze in.'

‘What bin?' Jess asked. ‘There's no bin here.'

‘Isn't there? Oh, dear, it must be round the side. Let's go and look.'

They tiptoed around to the side of the building. Jess turned on her torch and slanted the beam downwards, shielding it carefully with her hand so the light could barely be seen. Finally they found the bin, just under their own window.

‘Right, let's carry it back round,' Effie instructed in a whisper. ‘But careful, mind. We don't want to drop it and make a racket.' She put her arms around it. ‘It's too heavy for me. Give me a hand, will you, Jago? Jago …'

But Jess's attention had been caught by something else. The stray beam of her torch had picked out something in the dirt. Something lying white and crumpled, underneath their window.

It was Effie's letter, the one Miss Carrington had given her earlier that evening. And it hadn't been opened.

MILLIE'S IN-LAWS THE
Duke and Duchess of Claremont lived at Lyford, a breathtakingly beautiful Georgian house thirty miles to the south-west of Billinghurst, just over the county border.

‘No gun turrets, I see,' her grandmother commented, craning her neck to look out of the car window as they entered by the gateway to the estate. ‘Claremont is such a wily old fox, I expect he's found a way to avoid this beastly requisitioning business.'

Her meaning was plain, even though she didn't say it out loud. Millie had failed to protect Billinghurst.

But for once she didn't even try to argue. Her grandmother was right, she
had
failed. Thank God Granny didn't know about the damage the RAF had caused. Millie would never hear the last of it if so.

She jammed her foot down on the accelerator pedal in a sudden burst of anger, making the car lurch forward. Lady Rettingham grabbed the edge of her seat dramatically.

‘Gracious, Amelia, you're not at Brooklands!' she cried. ‘It's bad enough we don't have a chauffeur to drive us any more, without you trying to kill us all.'

‘Sorry, Granny.'

They drove up the long avenue of beeches and parked on the broad sweep of gravel in front of the house. Immediately, the door opened and a butler came out, flanked by a pair of footmen.

‘I see they still have staff at Lyford,' her grandmother observed stiffly.

‘Only because they're too old to be called up.' Millie peered out of the car window. The ancient butler looked decidedly unsteady on his legs, and the footmen weren't much better.

Lady Rettingham sent her a withering look. ‘Nevertheless, they are still staff.'

The Duke and Duchess were waiting for them with tea in the library. Their daughter, Millie's old friend Sophia, was with them, heavily pregnant and radiant.

‘I watched you coming up the drive,' she said, moving forward to embrace Millie. She smelled divinely of Guerlain perfume. ‘My dear, how thrilling that you drove yourself. What an adventure! Don't you think, Mama?'

‘Very modern, I'm sure,' the Duchess replied with a tight smile. She was a brittle beauty in her fifties, elegant in a cashmere twinset and tweed skirt.

‘And here's little Henry! Goodness, hasn't he grown? And he looks so like …' Sophia stopped, biting her lip to hold back Seb's name.

Millie caught her friend's sorrowful look and quickly said, ‘Say hello to your aunt, darling.'

Henry shook his head and buried his face in the folds of Millie's dress. ‘He's very shy, I'm afraid,' she said apologetically, ruffling her son's hair.

‘I expect he'll come out of his shell with his cousins. Billy and Eliza are simply dying to see him.' Sophia turned to Nanny Perks, who was waiting by the door. ‘Take Henry up to the nursery, would you? Wright will show you the way.'

Millie watched Henry go, his hand trustingly in Nanny Perks's. He had forgiven his mother for her outburst of temper that morning, but she still hadn't forgiven herself.