A Sister’s Courage. Molly Green

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СКАЧАТЬ course not, darling. She just loves being outside and you can’t protect her forever.’

      ‘I need to know she is back,’ Simone said, her eyes beseeching him. ‘You will have to go and find her.’

      ‘I’ll go,’ Raine said, leaping up.

      ‘Stay here.’ Simone’s tone was harsh. ‘You will not leave the house.’

      Taking no notice of her mother, Raine made towards the door. At the same moment Ronnie breezed in, soaked from head to foot, her face glowing from her cycle ride.

      ‘What’s the matter? Why are you all looking so serious?’ She looked from one member of the family to another.

      ‘Only that Mr Chamberlain has declared war on Germany,’ her mother said in a tight voice. ‘And we were worried about you, Véronique, naturellement.’

      ‘I’m all right.’ Ronnie shrugged off her light jacket and threw it on the back of a chair. ‘Well, at least there’ll be some excitement going on around here for a change.’

      ‘How can you talk like that?’ Simone snapped. She turned to her husband. ‘Can’t they understand anything, Robert?’ she said, her voice imploring him. ‘All those lives lost only twenty years ago. How many more will be erased before they all come to their senses?’

      ‘We’re not talking about anyone with common sense as far as the Nazis are concerned,’ Robert answered. He got up to offer his wife a handkerchief which she practically snatched and held to her eyes.

      ‘I can’t bear this to ’appen again.’ Simone’s voice was muffled.

      ‘Don’t take on, darling. You must keep strong for all our sakes.’

      Taking her handkerchief from her face, she looked up at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘I’m only thankful I’ve got girls. All the poor mothers who have sons. It will be terrible for them.’

      ‘We all have to play a part,’ Raine said, gazing across at her mother. ‘Just like Mr Chamberlain said. All of us means exactly that – girls and women as well as boys and men. And I intend to do my bit.’

      ‘And just what do you intend to do, Lorraine?’ her mother challenged.

      This was the opportunity Raine had been waiting for. It was such a shock to hear they really were at war, that telling her mother she was now a qualified pilot would get everything over with in one go. But her answer to her mother’s question was swallowed up in a wailing sound, which sent shivers across her shoulders. An air-raid siren.

      Simone screamed and rushed to the window. ‘They’re bombing us already!’ She began to sob. ‘Oh, why did we have to leave our lovely house with the basement to keep us safe?’

      Raine saw her father flinch at Maman’s accusatory tone.

      ‘It will only be a practice,’ he said, ‘though I’m afraid we’ll have to get used to the sound. But it won’t happen for a while, I’m sure, until the Germans decide how to respond now we’ve told them it’s war. And the village shelters aren’t far.’

      Simone rounded on her husband. ‘How do you know what that creature is thinking?’ she demanded. ‘And what is the use of a shelter in the village if we are trapped here and killed?’

      ‘Calm down, my love. I imagine it was quite a surprise to the Germans. Hitler was always so sure that Britain would be persuaded to become one of his allies. How little does he know the British mind.’

      Peace in our time. Would anyone ever forget the Prime Minister’s triumphant words? Raine thought grimly. Neville Chamberlain and Herr Hitler had signed an agreement to say the two countries would never go to war with one another again, when now, almost exactly a year later, Chamberlain had told the nation that war had been declared on Germany. It was too terrible to imagine. And yet she understood how Ronnie was feeling. At least we know for sure, she told herself, aware of a frisson of excitement. Surely now she’d be able to put her pilot’s licence to good use.

      Raine quietly left the room. She needed to get some air and think what to do next.

      Mr Gray, the village air-raid warden, came to the house a few days later to announce that gas masks were being sent to the village hall, and families should come to be fitted and collect theirs the following week.

      ‘I will not wear anything so ugly,’ Simone declared when she saw the masks lined up on the trestle tables in the village hall next to a pile of cardboard boxes for each one to be carried in.

      ‘It might save your life, Maman,’ Raine said grimly, trying hers on.

      Ugh. The rubber stank and there was a strong smell of disinfectant.

      Simone wasn’t the only one muttering. Most of the men seemed to accept that they were a sensible precaution, but several of their wives decided they didn’t like the look of them at all.

      ‘Keep it on for a few minutes, dear,’ one of the ladies who was helping people with their size said to Raine. ‘It’ll get you used to it.’

      Raine didn’t think she could last that long. It was difficult to breathe and the smell was making her feel queasy. After a long minute, she pulled it off and went to the door, drawing in deep gulps of air.

      Simone refused even to try it on. She simply took the size the woman recommended her and put it in its cardboard box.

      ‘I will look at it when I am home,’ she said, but Raine knew she would do nothing of the kind.

      ‘How are you two getting on?’ Raine asked her sisters.

      There were muffled replies and both of them removed theirs.

      ‘They’re hateful,’ Ronnie said. ‘It’d take a catastrophe for me to wear mine.’

      ‘That’s the idea,’ Raine said.

      Suzanne promptly rushed to the cloakroom and came back white-faced.

      ‘That was horrible,’ she said. ‘I felt I was suffocating.’

      ‘Let’s just hope we never have to use them,’ Raine said.

      When several weeks went by and still nothing happened, people began to call it a phoney war. They became more casual about keeping their gas masks with them at all times. But as far as Raine was concerned, there was one big difference. There were no more civilian pilots, no more flying clubs. Anyone who was a pilot was serving their country – and that, of course, didn’t include female pilots. She gritted her teeth. Maybe she should join the WAAFs, after all. At least she’d be amongst people she respected and admired. But still something held her back.

      She’d finally heard from Doug. He sent her a private letter care of Biggin Hill aerodrome.

       28th October 1939

       Dear Raine,

       I’m so sorry I left so abruptly. You must have wondered what had happened to me. I had a crisis at home and then when I’d got myself СКАЧАТЬ