It was late when Robert reached home. After leaving Kate he'd driven towards Birmingham, then, needing to walk off his emotions, he'd left his car in the driveway of his home and walked for miles through the Edgbaston and Harborne streets. At last, physically exhausted but knowing he would not sleep, he went back. He must at least rest before work tomorrow.
To his surprise there was still a light showing in the drawing room, and as he let himself in his mother appeared. 'Robert, come in here please.'
'Is Father worse?'
She didn't reply, but turned and went back inside the room. Robert followed her in. Then she turned and faced him.
'Shut the door please. I don't wish anyone else to hear this. Your father is the same, but if he learns what I have done today, especially as you gave him hope this morning that you might at last be about to ask Daphne to marry you, it will likely kill him.'
'What do you mean? I never said I was going to propose to Daphne Carstairs. How did he get that idea?'
Her voice rose. 'We've expected so much of you! Oh, if only I'd had more sons this might not have mattered so much! How could you, Robert? How could you disgrace us so? Consorting with a girl who's no better than a whore!'
He opened his mouth to reply, feeling the blood drain from his face. Remembering it was his mother, he suppressed the first hot words which came to him, gritted his teeth and tried to speak calmly. 'I think you had better explain what you mean.'
'I've heard, never mind how, that your pupil,' she almost spat out the word, 'this girl you are supposed to be teaching to fly, has a reputation as a whore and, what's more, a vicious liar! Yet you are proposing to disgrace the whole family and marry her!'
'In the first place, if we are speaking of Kate, she is no whore! In the second – '
His mother interrupted. 'How can you believe that when she's had a child, and she isn't wed?'
'Because I know her and you do not! Mother, who told you these lies? For lies they are! Who's been trying to cause mischief?'
'That needn't concern you. Someone reliable. It's enough that I believe the facts to be true.'
'No it is not enough!'
'Keep your voice down! Do you want your father to hear?'
Robert clenched his fists. 'Was it Daphne Carstairs?'
His mother smiled grimly. 'No, it was not. How could you think a well-brought up girl could even soil her thoughts with such filth?'
Robert kept his thoughts to himself. Maybe Daphne would not behave in such a fashion, but who else, he wondered, knew about him and Kate? And this rumour that she'd had a child? Could it have been Lionel? He knew something. He supposed the fellow might be jealous of him, for he seemed to love Kate too, but he was in Cambridge. The summer term had started. Angry as he was he believed his mother. She'd never lied to him, even when he was a child and had asked embarrassing questions. Deep down he respected her anxiety, if what she believed had been true, but she didn't know Kate, didn't know the facts.
Suddenly he realised that he did not know them fully either. His mother had calmed down somewhat and sat on the edge of a chair. She spoke more calmly, almost pleading with him.
'Robert, darling, you know we only want what's best for you. You can be important here in Birmingham, owner of a large factory, and you need a wife who can support you socially. Promise me you'll give up this girl?'
Consumed as he was with the distress he'd experienced with Kate's refusal, and his determination not to give in, but to besiege her until she was the one to give way, this attempt to coerce him made his brittle temper splinter.
'I have absolutely no intention of giving up Kate! She's the only girl I've ever wanted to marry, and I swear I'll have her! You have no right to try and dictate to me about my marriage, Mother, and I doubt if Father would agree with you.'
'Your father knows nothing of this! I forbid you to even mention it to him!'
'Please believe that I have more sense than to upset him, Mother.' He tried to calm himself and speak without his anger showing. 'I should have moved to my own flat years ago. I'll go to an hotel tomorrow, while I am looking for one.'
'Robert! You can't! What will your father say?'
'You must tell him whatever you choose, Mother. You have caused this decision. I could not remain under the same roof while we disagree so fundamentally about what is, after all, my life. Now I must go to bed. Goodnight.'
She collapsed onto a chair and burst into sobs. He hardened his heart and went from the room. If he were forced to choose, he'd have Kate any time. But would she have him?
*
'I heard yesterday that Robert has moved to a flat,' Mrs Carstairs told Daphne as they were eating lunch. It was a hot June day and they were eating in the garden, under the shade of an old apple tree.
Daphne's heart began to race. 'Why?'
'Mrs Manning was a little vague, but from what she said I gathered they suspected he was preparing to get married. It seems his father is much better, back at work, and very cheerful, so that is the inference to be drawn. I believe the threat from that wretched girl has passed, or Mr Manning would certainly not be in such a cheerful mood. Have you seen Robert lately?'
Daphne shook her head. 'I've been rather preoccupied with examinations.'
'I imagine he knows that, and did not wish to distract you.'
Daphne did not reply. Did this mean he and Kate were to marry? Surely not. How could she make sure?
'We might ask them here,' Mrs Carstairs went on. 'I've been planning to have a garden party. The last Sunday in June will be ideal, since Norman and Stella will both be here. Can you help me write the invitations this afternoon, dear?'
'I can spare an hour, but Brian and I were going to tea with some friends.'
'Are you fond of Brian? He seems to be here all the time, and you spend many evenings with him. Would you like to be married to another doctor? I would have thought Robert a better match.'
Daphne was grateful to her mother for having passed on to Mrs Manning the information about Kate, but at the same time she disliked this probing into her feelings. It was bad enough wondering what Robert and Kate were doing, whether he had proposed to her, whether she had lost her last hope, without her mother constantly speculating.
She escaped to her room soon afterwards, but she wrote very few invitations. Most of the time she sat staring out of the window, agonising about Robert and Kate. He might have moved to a flat for all sorts of reasons, but if he had any intention of forgetting Kate and returning to her, surely he would have made some effort to see her. She could not share her mother's belief that Kate was no longer a threat. But what could she do about it?
*
Kate looked at the two columns of figures and frowned. The one on the left was so very much longer than the other. It totalled the amount she owed to Robert for the time he'd spent teaching her to fly, and the other listed the pitifully small sums she had insisted on giving to him every week. At this rate it would take years to pay him back, even without any interest. She wondered whether she ought to add more for the hire of his Tiger since she had obtained her licence. He insisted that now he was no longer teaching her, just taking her up for company, but most of the time she was actually doing the flying, and learning new skills. She hadn't paid Peter when she went up with him the previous weekend, would not have dared to offer. But Robert was different.
For over a month he had not again referred to his proposal, to her relief. Then yesterday, after they had been for a short flight to deliver some of Robert's new prototype instruments to an RAF airfield in Bedfordshire, for the RAF pilots to evaluate, he'd proposed again.
'Kate, I love you so much,' he'd said, and she believed him. She had wanted to accept. She loved him too, and knew now that it was a far deeper emotion than she had ever felt for John Wilson. He, she had concluded after much thought, had taken advantage of her loneliness.
She didn't try to excuse herself. She'd been weak and foolish, wicked and rash. Knowing Maggie's history should have made her more careful. It did no good to recall that on the first occasion John had made love to her she had been half-comatose with the drink and the champagne. That had been foolish too. And she need not have let him continue, but she had, and she would never get rid of the shame and regret.
Walter was another matter. He'd rescued her when she was destitute, and she'd really believed at the time that she'd have been willing to marry him out of gratitude. That had been foolish too. She would have been miserable, and Walter would soon have regretted his kindness, for they would have come to detest one another. But she had treated him badly, made no effort to please him, or comfort him when he had been unable to make love to her. She shuddered at the recollection of his frantic efforts, at the same time feeling grateful that they had come to naught.
She could never tell anyone about these times in her life. Maggie might understand, but she'd lost Maggie. Robert would turn away from her in utter disgust if she confessed to him, and that she could not endure. Better to avoid the necessity of such a confession by being resolute and refusing his proposal. He'd said last night that he would keep on asking her until she accepted, but she could not. It would be better for them both if she went away and he was able to forget her.
There had been no time to make any plans, and the idea of leaving Phyllis and Frank, starting yet again in a place where she knew no one, was something she dreaded. This time, though, she could find a job flying. With so many men pilots joining the RAF women were being employed to fly civil aircraft, and she had already begun to look for something.
First, though, she was to achieve one of her dearest ambitions today. Her heroine, Amy Johnson, was coming to Walsall to take part in a display of sailplaning, and as she was going with Robert, who was taking part in some of the events, she might even meet Amy.
She glanced at the small clock on the mantlepiece in her room. Almost nine. Robert had insisted they make an early start.
'There will be thousands coming to watch Miss Johnson, we have to be sure to get there early.'
Ten minutes later they were in Robert's Lagonda, approaching the aerodrome, and already the police and RAC officials were preparing for crowds. There were many spectators settling down for the day, both inside the aerodrome and in the fields around.
'I suppose they'll get as good a view from there, without having to pay,' Robert said, laughing.
Peter was there, and Robert left Kate with him while he went to check his Tiger. Peter grinned at her and slid some sheets of paper from his pocket. 'Here you are, the advertisement pages. I've marked suitable ones. Let me know if you have any interviews, and if I can help you by flying you to them I will.'
'You're being so good to me, Peter. I'm tremendously grateful!' Kate said as she took the sheets and stuffed them into her pocket.
'Well, I suppose you know what you're doing, but why on earth you don't want Manning to know, when it's as clear as glass he's nuts about you, I can't imagine.'
Kate just smiled and shook her head. She couldn't explain.
Soon they were absorbed in watching the crowds, motor cars stretching back in all directions as they queued to get into the grounds.
'They're hardly moving,' Robert, who had rejoined them, said. 'I swear that Bentley has been stuck on top of the canal bridge for the past ten minutes.'
Robert had brought a picnic lunch, but Kate was puzzled. 'This is not the same as you've brought before,' she commented. 'It's a lot simpler.'
He laughed. 'Do you mind? I had to prepare it for myself.'
'Is your mother's cook ill?'
'No. I've rented a flat, I'm not living at home now.'
'You haven't quarrelled?' Kate said in alarm. She felt so guilty generally that she always imagined she had somehow caused every disaster. Had she been the cause of this?
'Of course not, but as my mother keeps reminding me, I am almost thirty, far too old to be still living with my parents. I lived away while I was at Cambridge, and working for other companies, of course, but when I came here to help Father, and had to spend so much time in Paris, it was too much bother to find a place of my own. You must come and see it.'
Kate shook her head, and was relieved that it seemed as though the demonstrations were about to start.
Without the wind upcurrents of aerodromes like Long Mynd, the gliders had to be towed aloft.
'That's a new one, a Kirby Kite,' Robert explained as Amy Johnson began the display. 'She must be at two thousand feet.'
Kate nodded. She was watching the glider circling the field, and gave a long, satisfied sigh as it swooped low over the crowd and made a perfect landing.
'A lot of people will have missed that,' Peter said, looking towards the entrance where there were still long queues.
The organisers had realised the same, and to everyone's delight Amy Johnson did a second flight.
'See that loop!' Kate exclaimed. 'I didn't know you could do that in a glider!'
'Is gliding as safe as she says?' she asked some time later after Amy had talked to the crowd, urging them to take up the sport, which was cheaper than powered flying and quite safe. 'I think I'd prefer having an engine.'
'Me too,' Peter agreed. 'I wonder what Mr Chambers will show us now?'
The rest of the afternoon passed with Kate in a glow of contentment. She insisted that Robert would have done as well as the Club Instructor in the aerobatics display, and was disappointed he did not win the handicap race, saying that the handicap had been too severe.
Robert laughed at her partisanship. 'I'm not invincible,' he said. 'Amy is going to do another flight now. Look, the tow's being fixed to the Gull.'
Kate watched, marvelling for twenty minutes as the glider found air currents to take it even higher than when the tow was slipped. She breathed a satisfied sigh as her heroine finally came in to land, but it turned into a gasp of horror as the glider seemed to drop coming over the trees by Aldridge Lodge, and the tip of one wing caught the top of the fence.
'Oh no, it's flipped over!'
'She'll be all right,' Robert reassured her, sitting back in his seat. 'Look, there are people around already, helping her out.'
'Safer than if there's fuel to set alight,' Peter agreed.
Kate watched, still horrified and apprehensive, but she was reassured as she saw Amy released from the straps which held her upside down, and taken away in a car rather than the ambulance which had appeared.
'Has that put you off flying?' Peter asked later, when they had managed to get away from the congested roads round the aerodrome and the three of them were dining at the George Hotel.
Kate shook her head. 'Of course not. I expect everyone has accidents, including the best flyers. I actually spoke to her before the demonstration started!' she marvelled. 'I never believed that could happen. It was like a dream come true.'
*
Robert had been devastated for weeks after Kate rejected him, but he was determined to persevere. What could he do to change her mind? After her second refusal, an idea struck him. She'd never directly mentioned her family, but she'd looked wistful when he'd talked about his parents. If he could find her mother for her, might she be so grateful she'd agree to his proposal? Then he realised she was probably refusing him because of what had happened to her. His spirits lifted slightly. He could have sworn it had been difficult for her to say no. And she was unlikely to tell him herself what had happened, if she were ashamed of it. He still had to find the man involved. When he'd found Kate he'd forgotten about his plans to trace the man was who'd hurt her, or about looking for her mother. There'd seemed no need. But if he found the man, found out the truth, and then told Kate he didn't care what she'd done in the past, might that change her mind?
He had several days free the week after the exhibitions at Walsall, for his father had insisted he take some holiday now he himself was so much better, and Kate would be working. They couldn't go flying together. He'd spend the time in Coventry, stay at an hotel there so as to lose no time travelling back home. As Lionel had, he tried post offices, but they could not tell him much. Nor would the people who lived at the lodging house. Then, feeling it was a last hope, he went to ask at the police station late on the second afternoon.
'Martins? That name rings a bell.' The man at the desk poked his head into the room behind the desk. 'Hey, Stan, wasn't that old biddy who was creating a fuss in the market a while back called Martins?'
A large constable emerged, chewing a sandwich. 'Yes, why?'
'Young feller's asking if we know any.'
'Only this one.'
'Where does she live?' Robert asked eagerly. 'I've been to call on dozens of Martins, but none of them were the right one. This one has a daughter called Kate, and they used to live in Birmingham.'
'Daughter I saw was Maggie Pritchard. But they did come from Brum. What do you want with 'em, lad? Not a friend of Sam Pritchard, are yer?'
'I've never heard of him. No, a friend of mine went to school with Kate Martins, and they've lost touch. I thought they'd come here, and as I was staying here I said I'd ask around.'
To his relief they believed him, but he was puzzled by the references to Sam Pritchard. The tone of the man's voice had made it plain they did not like him. However, they gave him the address and directions. It was late in the evening, but he was too anxious to wait until the following day, when people would be at work in any case. He was soon knocking on the front door of a pleasant house in one of the suburbs. Rather better, he was thinking, that the lodgings where Kate had lived when he first met her.
A woman in her late thirties, hair bound up in a headscarf, but still pretty, opened it. 'Hello? What is it?'
'I'm looking for Kate Martins' family,' he said. 'Are you her mother?'
'Kate? Her mother?' There was a long pause. 'No, I'm her sister, Maggie Pritchard. Do you know Kate? Where is she?'
'In Walsall, working in a gloving factory. I'm Robert Manning, a friend of Daphne Carstairs. I met Kate again quite by chance a little while ago, but it's taken some time to track you down.'
Maggie was biting her fist, tears streaming down her face. 'Kate's all right? Oh, tell me where she is! I must go to her! Oh dear, this is such a shock! I thought I'd never know. But what am I thinking about? I'm sorry, me wits have gone begging. Do come in. This way.'
Another woman, slightly older, had appeared from the kitchen at the back of the house.
'Maggie, are you all right? Why are you crying? Who is this?'
'It's OK, Sheila. Mr – I'm sorry, I've forgotten, I'm that bemused. This is Sheila's house. I don't live here now. He knows where Kate is, Sheila! He's come to tell me!'
Sheila hugged Maggie. 'That's wonderful, Maggie! What you prayed for. Go into the parlour while I make a pot of tea.'
Maggie led the way into what was clearly a little-used parlour. 'Please sit down. Where is she? Do you know her address? Is she all right? How did you meet her?'
'She's well.' He wrote down Kate's address on a sheet torn from his diary and Maggie clutched the paper to her. 'I'll take you there if you want, on Saturday when she won't be working, but might it be best to write to her, explain how you lost touch?'
'Does she resent me for that? I never meant to, and I tried to find her. Why are you being so kind?'
'Because I liked her when we used to meet at Daphne Carstairs' house, but a little while ago I heard she – well, was in trouble, and I wanted to help.'
Maggie stared at him, frowning. 'In trouble?'
'That was what I heard. She'd been working for some people Mrs Carstairs knew, but I don't know who. Daphne told a mutual friend she was expecting a baby. I want to find the man responsible and make him help her.'
'I know.' Maggie's voice was no more than a whisper. 'I went there, but I just missed her. She'd been sacked, but they didn't say why. Oh, Kate, what happened to you? Does she have the baby?'
'Not with her. She's never mentioned it, and I've not told her I know about it. Do you know who the man was?' Robert held his breath. Was he at last going to find out the name of the man he both hated and was jealous of, the man who had enjoyed Kate's love?
'They dismissed her, and she vanished. Before that I used to write, but she never wrote back. That wasn't like Kate.'
'Who was the man, do you know?'
'He and his parents rejected her,' Maggie said bitterly.
'Of course. Now, let's sort out details. Tell me everything you know.'
*
Robert had decided to go to Lincolnshire that evening, and confront John Wilson first thing in the morning. He'd rung Mr Wilson the previous day, when he got back from Coventry, and asked for John's address, saying that he had news for him. He and Maggie had compared what they knew, and decided that she must have had the wrong address when she wrote to Kate, and she had moved so that Kate's letters had not followed her. She had been writing to Oscott, and there was also New Oscott. And she'd already discovered there were lots of houses called The Laurels, which was the only address she had.
He'd promised Maggie that if Kate wished, he'd bring her to Coventry on Saturday. Maggie had explained that she was actually living in Spons End, but Sheila insisted Kate be brought to her house. That would be easier than taking Maggie to Walsall. Meanwhile he had to deal with John Wilson.
He found him at nine the following morning, in a small office.
'Remember me?' he asked, walking in without knocking.
The other man looked startled, then smiled. 'Robert Manning! How could I forget you! One of the best wing halves we ever had. Remember that game against Rugby? We thrashed them, mostly due to you.'
'Perhaps, but I didn't come here to talk about rugger matches. I want an explanation from you, about Kate Martins.'
John, who had leaned back in his chair, balancing on the back legs, sat forward and the front chair legs crashed to the floor. 'Who?' he asked.
Robert held back his temper. He had to remain cool until he found out the facts. 'I think you know who. Kate, who used to work for your parents in their shop. Who was seduced by you, and then abandoned when she became pregnant.'
John laughed. 'Oh, come, Robert! Surely you don't believe the tales a little shop girl tells you? Why on earth should I even notice someone like that, let alone make her pregnant?'
'Because she was pretty, lonely, had no friends and trusted you? Easy game. I remember at school you always preferred the soft option. If you could crib someone else's prep, you did, rather than do it yourself.'
John stood up and turned his back on Robert, looking out of the window across the flat fields. 'Robert, you're being offensive. Whatever you may do with the women your father employs, don't judge me by the same standards. I don't remember anyone called Kate, and I never had anything to do with the shop girls. They're all good time girls anyway, like bitches on heat. I'm surprised you should accuse me of even looking at them. As for marrying one of them, it's laughable. But if those are your standards, old man,' he said, turning and smiling at Robert, 'good luck to you!'
'I don't believe you. You made Kate pregnant, and then abandoned her. Do you intend to support your bastard?'
'If the silly drab claims her bastard's mine, she lies! No doubt she went with any man who could pay! But she picked on me because I'm the one with the money. You won't get any of it out of me.'
'So you're a coward as well as a liar!' Robert said contemptuously.
He'd kept his temper with great difficulty, hands clenched into fists, but he saw with rising anticipation that this taunt had found its mark. Even now, though, John Wilson was not prepared to make an honest move.
'Get out of here,' he said, and as Robert, with an ironic bow, turned to leave, swung a fist at him.
Robert was ready. He swerved sideways, and as John was caught off balance, smashed his own fist into a paunch which was becoming flabby.
John gasped and doubled up in pain, then flailed his fists at Robert again. 'Damn you!' he gasped. 'What's the bitch mean to you?'
Robert didn't deign to reply. He stepped away from John's unco-ordinated attack, and then drove in a punishing left hook to the chin, followed by a right which caught John as he was staggering backwards. He fell heavily, moaning, and lay there.
Robert stood over him. 'Do you want more of the same?' he asked quietly.
'OK, OK. Does she want money? How much? Not that I have a lot, this job doesn't pay well.'
Robert turned from him in disgust. 'A couple of hundred?' he suggested. 'I'll take a cheque, and since Kate isn't likely to have a bank account, you can make it payable to me.'
John groaned, complained, and threatened Robert with an accusation of blackmail, but he dragged out his cheque book and made it out.
'Here, and I hope the pair of you are satisfied! She wasn't worth it anyway. Meek little virgins never are. But you can tell her I wouldn't mind seeing her again if she's had a little more experience. She knows where I am.'
He cowered away from Robert's raised fist, but Robert stepped back.
'I think it's you that isn't worth fighting, Wilson. Just keep away from Kate in future, or you'll be thrashed worse than today. Much worse.'
*
Kate glanced at Robert when, instead of taking the normal route to the aerodrome on the following Saturday, he took the road to Birmingham.
'Have you moved the Tiger somewhere else?' she asked.
'No, I want to do something else today.'
She stiffened. Was he taking her to his flat, in another attempt to persuade her to marry him? 'No. Robert, stop!'
'In a minute, when we're on a quieter road. You don't know what it is, yet. Look, if you don't want to when I've explained, that's fine, but I think you will.'
Kate subsided. She looked round suspiciously when Robert drove onto the Beacon. What was he planning up here? It was isolated apart from a few people riding horses, and so high it felt like being in an aeroplane, she could see for such a long distance.
'Well, what is it?'
'Kate, did you ever try to find your mother and sister?'
Kate blinked. This was the last thing she'd expected. 'Yes,' she said, wishing her voice didn't tremble so. The sudden memory of them had shaken her. 'I went to Coventry. That was where they were going. I never had any replies to my letters, so I tried to find them, and discovered they'd moved. I couldn't find out where they'd gone.'
'They moved several times, from what Maggie told me.'
'Maggie? You've seen Maggie? Robert, how?'
Kate could hardly take it in. It was more than a year and a half since she had seen Hattie, or heard from Maggie, and she had given up all hope of finding them.
He explained, and Kate had to blink away her tears. 'If you want, I'll take you there now, to Coventry. Maggie's expecting you.'
Kate had no hesitation. 'Yes please! Oh, Robert, how can I thank you for doing this for me? Why did you?'
'Because I love you.'
'No, Robert, not now, please!'
He was silent, but Kate scarcely noticed, she was wondering how Maggie was, whether Hattie was more content, whether they were managing. The children would be so much bigger. Would she recognise them?
When Robert drew up in front of Sheila's house he spoke again. 'Maggie doesn't live here, it belongs to a friend, but she'll explain. I'll leave you with her, come back later to drive you back to Walsall.'
Kate hardly listened. The door of the house had opened, and Maggie stood on the step. She was out of the car and running up the path before Robert had time to come round to help her.
Maggie opened her arms and Kate, bursting into tears, fell into them, hugging her tightly. She heard the car driven away, but it barely registered.
'Maggie, oh Maggie, I thought I'd lost you for ever!'
'Never mind, love, we're together again now. It's all right, Kate. Come inside, meet my best friend Sheila, who's been so good to me.'
It was some time before Kate was calm enough to ask questions. It was enough to sit with Maggie's arms round her. After Sheila had brought tea and some cakes she'd baked that morning, Kate pulled herself together.
'Robert told me how the letters got mixed up,' she said. 'But if you gave them to Hattie to post she probably forgot. Where is she?'
'Living here, but she's gone out with George and the kids to the park. He and Sheila thought it was best if we met by ourselves to begin with.'
Kate nodded. 'I want to see the children. But if Hattie's living here with Sheila, where do you live?'
'Lodgings nearer the town centre,' Maggie said. 'All except poor little Sid.'
'Sid? What's happened to him? Maggie – ?'
Maggie, who had been wiping her eyes, took a deep breath. 'I don't know where he is, what's happened to him,' she said, choking back sobs. 'Look, I'd better explain from the beginning.'
She did so, and Kate was horrified, wanting to go at once to the police. 'That's criminal, keeping a child, and forcing you to live with those dreadful men!'
Maggie shook her head. 'I know, but you haven't met the devils who have Sid. Ronnie didn't tell us much, he had no idea where he'd been taken, but he said they'd threatened him and Sid if they didn't do what they was told, and he believed them. Sid was defiant, and one of the men knocked him down and then beat him with a strap. They'd kill him without a second thought.'
Kate's instinct was to beg Robert to do something, but from what Maggie said it might be more dangerous than leaving things alone, and hoping Sid was being treated reasonably. Besides, she was getting more and more into Robert's debt. The more favours she asked, the more he did for her, the less would be her determination to resist his proposals.
'Now, what about you?' Maggie asked. 'I went to find you, saw Mrs Wilson. She said you were pregnant. My poor Kate, how did you manage?'
Kate bit her lip, but she couldn't keep secrets from Maggie. She told her everything, and they wept together.
'But I'm fine now,' Kate said, wiping away more tears. 'I've learnt to fly an aeroplane, and I mean to find a job flying one. What about Sam? Is he still working, keeping his job?'
'He's working at the moment,' Maggie said, and explained how good Sheila and George had been to her. By the time she'd finished Hattie and the children were back, and Kate had to endure some tart comments from Hattie about ingratitude, it was all very fine for some to swan off and leave the people who'd looked after them all their lives in poverty, and she needn't expect to come back here and live.
'She gets worse,' Kate said after Hattie, with a final glare towards Maggie and Kate, swept upstairs. 'Sheila, you're a saint to put up with her, when she isn't any relation to you.'
'It's easier when she's no relation,' Sheila said comfortably. 'It doesn't hurt like it would from your own flesh and blood. Besides, there's no room for her at Maggie's place.'
They were still talking when Robert came back. George met him at the door and insisted that he came in for a drink.
'You brought about this reunion, you should join the celebrations. I've fetched some beer from the pub on the corner, have some before you set off home.'
With promises to write, to tell all the news there had not been time for, Kate and Maggie eventually said goodbye.
'I'll come again next week,' Kate called as Robert escorted her down the path.
She was silent on the way home. Maggie clearly had problems, and it was wicked how Sid had been taken from her. She'd get a job here. There were lots of factories, making aeroplanes, motor cars, weapons and hundreds of other things. She could work for George, perhaps. She had to help Maggie.
*
Two letters Kate received the following Saturday gave her much to think about. Two letters on the same day was unheard of, for she had never before received any, and Mrs Breen was clearly full of curiosity when she gave them to her at breakfast time.
'I wonder what those are?' she asked, despising subterfuge.
'This one's from my sister in Coventry,' Kate replied. She was amused rather than irritated by her landlady's open inquisitiveness. 'Excuse me, I'll have to take them to work to read. I haven't time now.'
She arrived at work early, and slit open Maggie's letter, quickly skimming it. Her shoulders slumped. She'd written to Maggie straight after she'd returned to Walsall the previous Saturday, asking if George would help her find a job so that she could be with them. Maggie replied that while she'd love to have Kate with her, there was no room where she lived, and Sheila had no spare room because she'd taken in more lodgers. 'Besides,' Maggie went on, 'Sam found out you'd been to Coventry, and he was put out. He said you'd make things difficult for him with his friends, for you'd no doubt be prying and causing trouble. So please don't come yet, Kate love. Just visit us on Saturdays if you can. Much better if you find yourself a job flying those aeroplanes. Though how you have the nerve to trust one of them beats me.'
So that was that. Kate had to believe Maggie, though she did wonder if her sister was doing it deliberately, thinking she was doing Kate a favour if she could persuade her to look for a flying job. But she'd see her occasionally, and they'd sworn never to lose touch again.
She opened the second letter, and let out a gasp of joy. It was a reply to an application she written for a job air taxiing the owner of a large engineering firm in Lincoln. 'I have spoken to Mr Rushton at Walsall, and although he did not himself instruct you to fly, he tells me you are an excellent pilot, accustomed to Tiger Moths. In the circumstances, and since I need someone who can start immediately, I am offering you the job if you can start in a week's time. I will arrange lodgings for you. Please telegraph or telephone your acceptance at once.'
The letter went on to detail the pay she could expect, and say she would be expected to fly several of the firm's senior employees to meetings, and as they were considering purchasing a larger aeroplane shortly, she would be expected to learn to fly this too.
When Frank arrived she went straight to his office.
'Can I leave next week?' she demanded. 'I've been offered a job flying.'
He wanted to know all the details, but Kate was vague. This would be an excellent way of vanishing so that Robert would never find her. Maggie she could swear to secrecy, but Phyllis and Frank might give her away. Robert was becoming more insistent, determined to keep on proposing, and Kate was fearful that her own longing for him would weaken her. She couldn't do that to him. She dared not destroy his opinion of her by confessing to her affair with John, the baby, and the time with Walter. It was too shaming. Yet she could not marry him without. It would be a disaster for him if her past ever became public knowledge.
'I have to send a telegram,' she said hurriedly. 'May I go now? I'll make up the time in the week.'
Frank waved her off. 'Don't worry about that. But we'll be sorry to lose you.'
Robert was coming to take her to Coventry again, and Sunday would be the last chance she would have to fly with him. Kate was silent, and once more he left her and Maggie alone. Kate confided in Maggie as they walked in the nearby park, and made her promise not to tell Robert where she was.
'But Kate, he obviously adores you. If he hasn't already asked you to wed him he will, mark my words.'
'He has,' Kate said, feeling wretched. 'But how can I tell him what's happened? He's from a wealthy family, and from what he's said they're sticklers. They'd be horrified enough to have him marry a girl who used to work in the Bull Ring market, but if they knew about me and the other things, they'd probably never speak to him again.'
'They needn't find out.'
'Maggie, I couldn't marry him without him knowing, and they live in Edgbaston, the families all know one another. If Mrs Wilson told Mrs Carstairs about me, and I'm sure she would have done, she'd soon tell Robert's family.'
'I don't think Robert would mind, he'd understand,' Maggie said slowly.
Kate shook her head. 'I'm not what he thinks I am. And his family would mind dreadfully. I can't do it to him.'
*
When no one answered his knock the following Saturday afternoon, Robert walked along to Frank's house a few doors away. Kate was probably with her friends and had forgotten the time.
Phyllis came to the door and looked surprised. 'Mr Manning? I didn't expect you today.'
'Is Kate here?' he asked, smiling.
Phyllis clapped her hand to her mouth. 'Kate? You want Kate? But didn't she tell you?'
'Tell me what? Is something the matter?'
Phyllis shook her head and then shrugged. 'I don't know! Oh, goodness, perhaps she wrote and the letter was lost. Surely she wouldn't have just gone after you've been so good to her?'
Robert followed her into their small parlour where Frank was relaxing with a newspaper. He was beginning to feel distinctly uneasy. 'Gone? Where? To Coventry?'
'Please sit down, Mr Manning.'
'Where has Kate gone?' he repeated, numbly taking the seat indicated.
'She didn't say where, exactly,' Frank said. 'Just somewhere in Lincolnshire.'
'Lincolnshire?' Robert went cold suddenly. That was where John Wilson lived. Surely she would not have gone to him? He'd tried to deny knowing her, but had at last admitted it. Had his own visit, and the punishment he'd inflicted, spurred John on to some bizarre act of revenge? Had he, perhaps, persuaded Kate that he loved her, enticed her away? Maybe she loved the wretch after all, and could have wanted to believe him.
'And she told you no more?'
'She left by train as soon as she finished work this morning,' Frank said. 'It's not like Kate to treat anyone badly, but she was acting strangely all week. Excited like, but at the same time apprehensive, if you know what I mean. A new job, flying, was all she told me. I did wonder, she didn't have an interview, and for that sort of job you'd have thought a man would want to see how well she could fly, test her a bit. But I'd no cause to disbelieve her.'
'I – yes, I suppose you're right, if it was so sudden. She'll have written to me and the letter's been delayed.'
'Last Saturday, she heard. She was that excited.'
Saturday, and he'd seen her then and Sunday. Perhaps she hadn't been certain then, hadn't wanted to tell him until the job was certain, he thought, and knew he was clutching at straws.
Phyllis looked at him sympathetically. 'At least she hasn't gone back to her husband.'
'Her what?'
'Oh, Lord, didn't you know?' Phyllis looked close to tears, and Frank was shaking his head at her. 'I thought that was why – well – I mean, you seemed so fond of her, and any other couple, I'd have sworn they'd be walking up the aisle soon.'
'She never told me.'
Robert felt humiliated. So this was the reason Kate kept refusing his proposals and yet seemed so unhappy when she did so. She wasn't free to marry him.
'Please tell me,' he said to Phyllis. 'Could she have gone back to him?' Though he admitted that if she had there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't try to drag her away from a lawful husband.
She glanced anxiously at Frank. 'Well, I only met her a couple of times, I never met her husband, but I knew who he was. He worked in the Bull Ring market, a butcher. Big family, they were, a couple of other sons and a vicious old Gran who made Kate work like a slave. I don't think she'd have gone back there willingly.'
'But, she called herself Martins.'
'I suppose she wanted to forget them. She went a bit odd, I think, after she lost the baby.'
Frank groaned. 'I suppose you didn't know about the child, either?'
'Kate never told me, but I did know,' Robert managed. 'I never knew what had happened to it. I was relying on Kate telling me herself, when she trusted me. But she clearly didn't. Thank you. I'd better go.'
'I'm sure you'll find a letter at home,' Phyllis said as she went to the door with him.
Somehow Robert drove back to his flat without causing an accident. Afterwards he could not recall a single yard of that journey. As he opened the door he saw an envelope on the mat, and with a sudden lifting of his spirits he pounced on it and carried it into his drawing room. She had written after all.
The letter, when he tore it open, was from his mother. It was brief.
'Robert, your father collapsed at work this morning, another heart attack. Please come home as soon as you can. He's fretting, wants to speak to you. The doctor is very worried.'
Robert sat down, his head in his hands, thoughts churning round in his brain. He was very fond of his father, and dreaded the day when his frail health gave way altogether. He'd lost Kate irrevocably, she could never marry him. Rather than tell him the truth she had vanished, in all probability to her former lover.
Well, his parents had been urging him for years to marry Daphne. If he couldn't have Kate, he could at least make his father happy.
***