An Army of Smiles by N/A

Author:N/A
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo Books
Published: 2016-09-02T04:00:00+00:00

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‘Thank you,’ Ethel said, as they jumped out of the car back in camp. She stretched over and kissed him, intending to touch his cheek with her lips, but he turned and their lips touched, embarrassing them both. He because he had gone too far too soon and she because she was afraid she had unintentionally encouraged him.

Rosie and Kate were curious to hear the result of Ethel’s visit home, but apart from explaining about her true mother being her sister, she expanded on it very little.

‘I’m tired,’ she excused, but Kate guessed that the brightness of her eyes and the glow on her cheeks meant Ethel had another story to tell. Kate mouthed the word ‘interesting’, with a wink at Rosie. She was amused at the thought of the serious Albert involved in a loving embrace. Rosie wondered whether Baba would be upset and whether he would need comforting.

The following evening Rosie had a date with the handsome Scottish flyer Connor, and she wished she could cancel it. Connor was a pilot and it was a point of honour never to let them down by not turning up for a date. Pilots needed all their wits about them when they went up to face the enemy. Girlfriend troubles had to be left on the ground. Their job was fearful enough and the girls had to do their best to make sure they were free of other worries and able to concentrate on the job of flying. It was an unwritten law that once a date was arranged, no one would let them down.

Rosie was no longer looking forward to meeting Connor for a visit to the cinema but Kate insisted on her dressing as smartly as she could, lending her a dress she had brought with her and using her make-up to ‘enhance your lovely blue eyes’.

Protesting all the way, Rosie set off to meet the young pilot feeling self-conscious with eye-shadow on her lids, eyebrows pencilled to a darker shade, and a soft lipstick touched with a faint smear of vaseline to add a shine.

‘If my Nan could see me now she’d disown me,’ she said as Kate walked with her towards the guard post.

Kate had a date with the son of a wealthy furniture shop proprietor called Rowan Fotheringay, a man who had promised her what he called a good night out. There was a nightclub in the place where he was taking her and as the car he owned spun out along the evening street, through town after town, she began to wonder how far away this nightclub was. She had never been to one before and like Rosie was a little apprehensive. They had been on the road for more than an hour and a half before she realized she was going to London. She began to panic. Unwritten law or not, she wanted to cancel this date and go back to camp.

Walking home from a date after having to run from a

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