Beauty Chorus, The by Brown Kate Lord

Author:Brown, Kate Lord [Brown, Kate Lord]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857894250
Publisher: Atlantic Books Ltd

27

That night, she cried herself to sleep on the sofa. Evie had never felt so alone. Even Stalin wanted nothing to do with her, staring balefully at her from the doorway.

At daybreak she stumbled to the bathroom, ran the bath, and crouched naked on the floor of the tub, weeping as it filled. She replayed again and again every moment she had had with him. The first time she had seen him, his dazzling smile as he helped her from the plane. She remembered his laugh, how it felt when they danced together in each other’s arms. He was so alive – how could he possibly be gone? His loss was a physical pain for her; it felt as if her body was turning in on itself.

A few hours later, Stella came home to find her still in her dressing gown, curled up in a foetal position in her narrow single bed. ‘Evie?’ she said gently. ‘I am so sorry. I got stuck out. I’ve been on the train all night. I just heard …’

‘He’s gone,’ Evie managed to say, before more tears came. Stella held her for hours, rocking her like a baby in her arms, soothing her as each fresh wave of grief engulfed her. Megan arrived back in the afternoon, and ran straight upstairs.

‘How is she?’ she asked as she caught her breath in the doorway. Stella shook her head. ‘Has she eaten? Are you hungry, Evie?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘I never want to eat again.’

‘Right, I’m going to make some soup.’ Megan said firmly. Moments later they could hear her clattering around in the kitchen.

Evie pushed herself up in bed. ‘It can’t be true,’ she said. ‘Perhaps he’s just hurt somewhere. Missing presumed killed can mean just missing …’

Stella shook her head. ‘Beau made some calls this morning. He has friends out at Jack’s base.’

‘What did he find out?’

‘They saw his plane go down, Evie. There was a dogfight, a Messerschmidt. They had orders to recce a convoy that was having some trouble.’ She paused. ‘It took out two planes over the sea. They managed to get a boat to the first pilot, but by the time they got to Jack …’

‘What? Tell me everything.’

‘His plane was completely burnt out. By the time they reached him, there was nothing left. The wreck sank.’

Evie felt sick as she thought of the flames. ‘I hope he was dead by the time he went down. The thought of him trapped in there …’

‘Beau was pretty cut up about it. You see, it’s exactly what happened to him.’

‘But he managed to get back and Jack didn’t.’

She stroked her hair away from her face. ‘We both know this could happen to any of us at anytime,’ Stella said. ‘This world is full of “what ifs” and “maybes”. Every time we get in a plane, it could be our number is up.’

‘What, so it was just Jack’s turn? His luck ran out?’ Her face twisted.

Stella took her hand. ‘Evie, you gave Jack the happiest days of his life in the last few months.

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