Whisper on the Wind. Elizabeth Elgin

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СКАЧАТЬ a noise, too. Then her face broke into one of her rare, wide smiles.

      ‘Oh, but you’ve got a lot to learn, Kath Allen,’ she whispered; ‘an awful lot.’

      But it was as Aunt Min had said. The countryside wasn’t all romps in the hay and collecting eggs.

      She laughed out loud. ‘Oh, get yourself undressed and into bed, you silly woman!’ In pain, indeed!

      Jonty opened the cow-shed door and called softly to the heifer in the stall nearby.

      ‘Cush, pet. Cush, lass …’

      Gently he stroked her flank and she turned her head, regarding him with wide, bewildered eyes.

      ‘All right, girl. All right …’

      She was coming along fine, he nodded. She’d have her calf with ease, though the unaccustomed pain was making her restless.

      ‘Cush, cush,’ he soothed.

      Oh, yes. She would drop her calf instinctively and with more dignity than ever the human animal could muster. Her pain, though, her real pain, would start tomorrow when they took her first-born calf away from her.

      ‘Sorry,’ he murmured. ‘Sorry, lass …’

      They sank into the hay on the sheltered side of the stack, pressing deep into it, shoulders touching, hands clasped.

      For a long time they were content to be so, taking in the calm after a storm of fear and outrage.

      ‘I love you, Paul Rennie.’ Roz lifted his hand, touching the palm with her lips. ‘Where ever you are, whatever you are doing; never forget it, not even for a minute.’

      ‘I’m sorry, my darling.’ His voice was still rough with emotion and remembered terror. ‘I shouldn’t have told you. It was wrong of me.’

      ‘It wasn’t, and you should have. From now on, you must always tell me.’

      ‘So where’s your shining-bright hero, now?’ The despair in his voice thrust into her like a knife.

      ‘You were never my shining-bright hero, Paul; just the man I loved – love – will always love. And I wish you could be an erk again. I wish they’d take you off flying and send you to some place where they’d never even seen a bomber.

      ‘I wouldn’t care. Not if I didn’t see you again till it was all over, I wouldn’t. It’s you I want, not some cracked-up hero. I want you with me always. And they could stamp LMF right in the middle of your forehead if I thought there could be a future for us together.’

      She reached up and pulled his head to her own, closing her eyes, parting her lips for his kiss. As he kissed her, she lifted the hand she had touched with her lips and placed it beneath her blouse to rest on her warm, wanting breast.

      ‘Love me?’ she murmured, drawing him closer. ‘Please love me?’ Her body strained nearer and she felt the first stirrings of his need, heard the sharp indrawing of his breath. ‘Remember this morning, Paul? Remember Jock, who’d never lived? I haven’t lived either, and I want you …’

      He said no, that they shouldn’t. They’d be sorry, he said, after. But his protests held no substance against the force of her need and she kissed away the last of his doubts.

      ‘I’ll never be sorry.’ She slipped open the buttons of her blouse, closing her eyes as his lips touched the hollow at her throat then slid, searching, to her breasts. ‘Never in a million years …’

      Their first loving was a sweet, surprised discovering, a setting free, a soaring delight. It was tender and caring; a coupling without pain or passion. They lay side by side afterwards, breathing unevenly, glad of the darkness.

      ‘There are a lot of stars up there.’ She was the first to speak. ‘And a moon.’

      ‘It’s a new one; a wishing moon.’

      Presently she said, ‘Was it the first time, Paul?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘For me, too. I love you.’

      Her love would keep him safe. Now it would always be a part of him. It would wrap him round and keep him from harm, where ever he was, however far.

      ‘Roz – I shouldn’t have said what I did. Everybody’s afraid, some time or other. It was Jock, you see …’

      ‘I know, my love. Nothing will hurt you again.’

      ‘God, but I love you so.’ He gathered her to him, his cheek on her hair. ‘I’ll always love you.’

      The hay smelled sweet of a summer past and a summer yet to come.

      She had given him back the courage he had feared lost, and he was a man again.

      And he was hers, now, for all time.

       4

      It was not until the last of the milk had been delivered, the last empty bottle collected, that Roz said:

      ‘He’s flying again.’ The words came reluctantly, angrily. ‘After what happened two nights ago, Paul was on ops again last night.’

      ‘But I thought – didn’t you say their plane was a write-off? And surely they can’t fly without a gunner?’

      ‘They didn’t need to. Jock’s replacement arrived yesterday morning. As soon as Paul told me, I got a nasty feeling inside.’ And cold, frightening fingers tracing the length of her backbone. ‘Oh, K-King isn’t airworthy; they’ve already removed the engines and wings to make it easier to move. Then they’ll put the whole lot on a transporter and send it back to the factory that made it. It’ll be like a new plane when they’ve finished with it and nobody will ever know that Jock –’

      ‘Hush, now.’ Kath pulled on the reins, calling the pony to a stop. ‘You mustn’t get upset again. You said yourself that Paul is over his thirteenth op; the unlucky one’s behind him. He’ll be back, all right. Bet everything’s gone just fine. It’s nearly light; we’ll be hearing them soon.’

      ‘No. They didn’t leave till midnight. It’ll be an hour yet, at least. Unless it’s been France or the Low Countries, which I doubt.’ She shivered then dug her hands into her pockets, hunching into the upturned collar of her coat, holding herself tight against her anger. ‘I thought he’d be all right; when they came back all shot-up I thought at least they’d be given some kind of a break from flying. But no. A crew goes on leave so Paul’s lot take over their plane. Hell, but I’d like a few of those desk-wallahs to have a go. Just one sticky op so they’d know what it’s like. It was inhuman, sending them out again so soon after what happened.’

      ‘Steady on, Roz. Maybe they had a reason. You know what they say about falling off a horse – that you should get straight back up again? Perhaps that’s why they did it – so they won’t lose their nerve.’

      ‘Ha!’ СКАЧАТЬ