The Darkest Hour. Barbara Erskine

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СКАЧАТЬ birds. Her first drawings had been of birds in flight, studied over the fields of the farm, over the woods and sea and over her beloved Downs. It was when she saw her first squadron of fighter planes wheeling in tight formation above the farm looking like so many swallows swooping after insects against the intense blue of the sky that she knew she had to paint them as well.

      She was tired after the five-mile bike ride home from the airfield but that was no excuse. There was farm work to do. She ran up to the studio and left her sketchbooks there on the table before coming back down to the kitchen. Her mother was stirring a pot of soup over the range. She looked up.

      ‘It sounded as though there was a bit of activity this afternoon,’ she said with a thin smile.

      Rachel Lucas was a tall strong-boned woman with a fierce loyalty and love of her husband and two children which she hid with a layer of gruff understatement and determination. She would never admit that she was worried about Ralph, or demand he somehow get her a message after a particularly fierce aerial battle or that she had any misgivings about Evie’s excursions down to an airfield in the thick of the operations.

      ‘Eddie phoned. He’s back from London for a few days and he’s coming to supper. Your dad has started the milking.’

      Evie went over and gave her mother a light kiss on the top of her head. ‘I’ll go and see if he would like me to take over.’ There were only two cows in milk now, much to her relief.

      ‘Would you, dear? I know he denies it but he is finding it hard without Ralph and the men to help.’

      ‘That’s why I’m here, Mummy.’ Evie reached for her overalls from the back of the door and whistled to the two dogs lying on the flags. ‘When will Eddie arrive?’

      Rachel gave a rueful smile at the casualness of the question. ‘You’ve got time to give your dad a hand.’

      Eddie Marston was tall and slightly stooped with the mannerisms of a man far older than his twenty-eight years. He had dark straight hair and grey-green eyes, magnified by wire-rimmed spectacles. His parents were neighbours of the Lucases, his father’s farm bordering theirs to the east. Eddie however had shown no interest in the farm, preferring to leave its running to his two sisters and a team of land girls. He had failed the medical to get into the forces after a childhood bout of measles had left him with poor eyesight and had been co-opted into the Ministry of Information. It was no secret that he had a soft spot for Evie, nearly ten years his junior. Her feelings for him were not so clear. She enjoyed his company and was flattered by his attention. She wasn’t sure yet whether she felt any more deeply for him but in the meantime she enjoyed flirting with him.

      Sitting next to her in the farmhouse kitchen he gazed round the table as they waited for Rachel to serve the soup, then he sprang his surprise. ‘You know I took some of your sketches into Chichester to show to that friend I mentioned?’

      Evie looked up quickly. She hadn’t wanted to part with them but Eddie could be very persuasive.

      ‘He likes them. He thinks he has a potential buyer. I have arranged to have them framed and the cost taken out of the proceeds.’

      Evie’s father narrowed his eyes slightly as he surveyed Eddie across the table. Their neighbour’s son was becoming all too frequent a visitor in the house and treating it – and them – with just too much familiarity for his taste. ‘I seem to recall Evie saying she would think about whether she wanted to sell those. Some of them were from her college portfolio if I remember right.’

      ‘Daddy, I can speak for myself!’ Evie retorted crossly.

      Eddie scooped a piece of bread from the plate on the table between them and nodded nonchalantly. ‘But remember, if you change your mind about selling them it will look bad. An introduction like this at this stage in your career is worth its weight in gold. She has talent, your daughter!’ He smiled at Dudley Lucas. ‘If she wants to go far in the world of art – and she could – she can’t start soon enough.’

      Rachel stood up, pushing her chair back on the flags with unnecessary force. ‘I’m sure she does. She has enough ambition does our Evie, but Dudley is right. It has to be up to her.’ The quick look she gave Eddie from under her lashes was less than friendly.

      ‘I wish you wouldn’t talk about me as though I wasn’t here!’ Evie said crossly. ‘I can make my own decisions! Yes, Eddie. Please sell them.’

      Eddie sat back in his chair with a smug smile. ‘You won’t regret it, sweetheart.’ There was a touch of triumph in his expression as he gave a sideways glance at Dudley.

      It was as he was leaving he took the chance to have a quiet word with Evie in the hall. ‘Have you got your paintings of the airfield ready yet?’

      She shook her head. ‘I’m working on them.’

      ‘When can I have them?’

      ‘I’m not sure.’ She hesitated. ‘The thing is, the squadron CO at Westhampnett said I ought to be careful. I’m not really authorised to do this even though I have his permission. It is not quite the same.’

      ‘Like when we kiss, eh?’ Eddie put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her to him.

      Evie submitted without demur. In fact she quite liked it when Eddie kissed her. It felt exciting and slightly risqué. He was quite a bit older than she was and no doubt a lot more experienced. Her inexpert fumblings as an art student, even going ‘all the way’ as one lad had put it, had been profoundly disappointing and she had not had enough relationships to realise that being in the arms of someone who, though enthusiastic and energetic, was profoundly unattractive to her, did not turn the right switches. Eddie was a solid, good-looking young man. He carried himself well and, with his even features, good skin and a small neat moustache he had a sophisticated air which radiated confidence. Sometimes she wondered how he squared this with his claims to have fragile health and poor eyesight – although he wore glasses most of the time he didn’t always and even without them he seemed to miss nothing – but presumably the medics knew what they were doing and he would no doubt be an asset to whatever department he worked for in the Ministry.

      ‘Evie!’ Her father’s peremptory call made her pull away from him.

      ’See you tomorrow,’ she whispered.

      Eddie grinned. Reaching across he gave her hair a little tug. ‘Cheerio, sweetheart.’

      She watched, a speculative look in her eye, as he climbed into his smart little Wolseley and drove out of the farmyard. She knew exactly what he was up to. He wanted her in bed and even more he wanted to lay his hands on more of her drawings. Both ideas had a certain appeal. She wasn’t sure yet what she was going to do about either proposition.

       4

      

      Sunday 30th June

      Lucy woke suddenly and lay staring up at the ceiling, her heart thudding with fright. The dream, if there had been a dream, had gone. She groped in the foggy emptiness of her memory and found nothing there. Reaching out for the clock on the bedside table she СКАЧАТЬ