Flora pushed her way through the crowds to the hospital, which was bustling with anxious patients and families. This was not a time to be interrupting Maudie’s shift. She left a note and hung around the city streets, restless and angry. How dare Kit let her down again? How dare the world go to war, after all it had suffered in the last lot? She resented the blue sky, the sunshine, the swaying palm trees and the cooling fountains. There were smiling faces. Did they not know what a war might mean for them and their sons? She ought to be heading back to camp, but Flora needed her friend’s company.
Maudie came, hours later, to their favourite café. ‘Sorry, but it’s bedlam in there. No one can talk about anything else but the war. It reminds me of 1914 all over again. There’s been announcements all day and talk of curfews on the streets. As if anyone is going to bomb us down here.’
‘They did in Barcelona, not a million miles away from here,’ Flora reminded her.
‘How did the meeting with Kit go?’ Maudie paused, eyeing Flora with concern. ‘Not very well, by the look of you.’
‘He didn’t turn up.’ Flora pulled a cigarette out of her silver case and handed it to Maudie. ‘You’d think he’d have the decency, but that’s it. I’m finished with him. He’s not worth the bother. I tried.’
‘There must be a reason. Today has been worrying for all the volunteers.’
‘Why?’
‘Think about it. Most of us are aliens with foreign passports. Germans, Swiss, American, Irish as well as Brits. There’s bound to be panic and controls on our movements, in case some of us are spies. We’ve no idea who can stay and who must leave. I’m going to leave. I’ve had plenty of time to think about it. Someone will be able to use me back home.’ Maudie puffed on her cigarette. ‘Besides, I’m homesick for Bonnie Scotland, for Rosie and the “dear green place” we call Glasgow. How about you?’
‘I’ll be joining you, but I must help get this new maternity home open in time for winter. They’ve reached a critical stage. I can’t just desert my post yet and there are going to be so many more refugees trying to cross into Spain. How can it have come to this again? Did our brothers die in vain? I just don’t understand what’s gone wrong.’
‘Ours is not to reason why, Flo. I just want to see the Clyde, the great cranes in the shipyards, the trams rattling up Sauchiehall Street and hear the skirl of the bagpipes, sentimental fool that I am.’
‘You’re making me homesick, talking about home. I’ll write home to the family with my plans, when the time is right. I know you must go, but I’ll miss you like hell. Without you, I’d have gone mad with this Kit business. But that’s all over. Let’s not talk any more about him.’
‘Then let’s eat.’ Maudie shoved a menu in her hand. ‘My treat. You look as if you need a good meal inside you, you’re far too thin.’
‘It’s the heat and the trots, usual gippy tummy and the curse, it’s getting heavier each month.’
‘It’s our age, our bodies are changing.’
‘Oh, surely not yet,’ Flora sighed. She hated to think of being middle-aged. She still felt eighteen in her head, full of plans and energy, even if she had felt more than usually tired of late.
‘Let’s not depress ourselves even more.’ Maudie ordered a large bowl of potage, followed by fresh grilled sardines, with ice cream as dessert, plus a carafe of good Roussillon wine.
Arm in arm they strolled through the streets to the square, as the sun was setting.
Flora paused at the sight of it slipping down behind the buildings. ‘I always feel sad when I see the sun going down. Silly, I know, but it reminds me of darkness ahead and the end of another day of life.’
‘Plenty more days ahead for us yet, old girl. We’re still in our prime.’ Maudie ushered her away. ‘I’ll walk with you to the train and let you know when I’m leaving, just in case we can go together. Don’t stay if things get rough. I don’t want you trapped here, if borders are closed. You can always walk over the Pyrenees and out through Spain.’ She nudged her friend. ‘Now that would be some expedition.’
The platform was full of families holding carpet bags and valises, and troops in uniform, heading north. ‘You see what I mean, about getting out now. We all need family at a time like this. If we’re lucky, it will only take three or four days until we cross the Channel. Don’t leave it too late.’
‘I promise, but let’s meet again before you leave. I can’t bear to think of you not being down the road, as it were. I owe you so much.’ Flora felt tears welling up.
‘Steady the Buffs, Flo, you’ll have me greetin’, too. Cheery bye for now.’ They hugged each other tightly. Maudie strode back through the crowd and Flora felt a stab of fear that she might never see her friend again.