A Fragile Peace by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788633635
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2019-01-25T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Never as long as she lived did Allie forget that strange, nerve-racking night spent in a cellar with Pilot Officer Buzz Webster and a Richard who seemed to have withdrawn from her into some demon-haunted world of his own. Her brother sat on a creaking bunk, rigidly upright, his hands braced on either side of him on the wooden frame, staring into the flickering shadows, silent. Outside their refuge the raiders thundered and the night burned. Allie could sense the immense physical and mental effort that Richard was expending to prevent himself from breaking down again. She herself flinched from the dreadful sounds of destruction; Richard sat as if made from stone, fighting himself.

Their companion watched them both pensively for a while. Then, after brief introductions, which Richard scarcely acknowledged, suddenly cheerful, he talked about inconsequentials until Richard, with an odd, long breath, lay back on the rusted bunk, closed his eyes and immediately went to sleep. Allie looked worriedly at the other man. He smiled, reassuringly.

‘Best thing for him, don’t worry.’ He lifted the dead weight of Richard’s legs, settled them on the bunk. Richard did not move. ‘Too much whisky and too little sleep is Doc Webster’s diagnosis. Something of an epidemic at the moment. It catches the best of us from time to time.’

‘I – haven’t thanked you properly. I don’t know what I’d have done without you.’

‘Think nothing of it. Rescuing maidens in distress is a Webster speciality. At least – ’ he smiled engagingly and his eyes were warm ‘ – it could easily become one. Pure selfishness, really. Didn’t fancy spending the night all alone down here. I’ll let you into a secret – ’ he leaned forward confidentially – ‘I’m scared of spiders.’ In the light of the candle, his snub nose and bright eyes could have belonged to a schoolboy engaged in a midnight prank. Allie tried to laugh with him, achieved only a strange sound somewhere between a cough and a sob. Apparently unnoticing, he turned away from her to lean over Richard and turn the collar of his coat up around the bloodless face. Allie groped for a handkerchief and surreptitiously blew her nose, managing in the darkness to dab at her eyes as well. When she spoke again, her voice was close to normal.

‘You’re a pilot?’

‘Mm. Hurricanes. Best little fighters in the world, bless ’em.’ He wandered to the bottom of the steps, peered up into the garish night. ‘You?’

‘Fighter Command. Hawkinge.’

‘Lord above, fancy that. Good old Hawkinge. Saved my bacon many a time.’ Hawkinge, so close to the Channel, was often used as an emergency landing field for crippled or damaged aircraft. ‘What’s the name of that pub on the hill there?’

‘The Lion.’

‘Right.’ He laughed, a quick, infectious sound that drew an answering smile from her. ‘The last time I was in there, a mate of mine – name of Lofty Stanforth – damn near drank the place dry single-handed, then took off across the airfield on my Norton.

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