Chapter Forty-One

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Penny demanded, as she launched herself into Tom’s arms.

After everyone had exited the two Ansons Jane had arranged to fly the party up to RAF Polebrook, Penny had been one of the first out, as she’d spotted her husband waiting for her at dispersal. Only as she got closer did she realize something was different, and his head was still bandaged, which was a little surprising, as she’d thought it would be off by now.

“I wanted it to be a surprise, love,” he told her.

“Wing Commander! I don’t care if you’ve been promoted. I’m still not calling you ‘sir’!”

By the time the two managed to prise their hands and mouths from each other, their friends had caught her up. Apart from Jane, no one else had seen Tom since he’d been wounded.

Keeping hold of one of his wife’s hands, Tom reached out to Jane and pulled her into a one-armed hug. Letting her go, he kissed her on a cheek. “Jane, I can’t thank you enough for all you did for Penny, for us. I’m in your debt.”

For once, Jane couldn’t think of anything to say and, blushing furiously, extricated herself from his embrace. This allowed everyone else to either hug him or, in the case of Walter and Lawrence, shake his hand. “Looking very dapper there, gentlemen!” Tom said, commenting on their new suits.

“Couldn’t have my Walter turning up in his ratty Home Guard get-up, could I?” Doris chipped in, hanging onto her fiancé’s arm. “Mind you, I’ve Betty to thank for that.”

“How are you feeling?” Walter asked as they headed toward the sound of music coming from the hangar.

Seemingly unconscious of the movement, Tom rubbed his head under the bandage, nearly dropping his hat he’d tucked under his free arm. “For the most part, I’m pretty much healed. I’m going to have a few scars, but Penny can tell you about those later.”

“Tom!” Penny swatted his bottom.

“I’ve still got this bloody thing on, though. Blooming quacks won’t let me take it off until I stop getting headaches.”

This was news to Penny. “You’ve never mentioned this to me when we’ve spoken.”

Tom shrugged. “I didn’t want to worry you. There’s nothing either of us can do about it anyway.”

“Listen to me, Thomas Alsop. You are to tell me when something like this happens. Understand?”

“I’d take her seriously, mate,” Lawrence advised, earning him a hefty nudge in the ribs from Mary. “I always do exactly as my lady says,” he hastily added.

“I wish you would,” Mary muttered out loud. “For instance, we still need to talk about your going back on duty in London.”

They were much nearer the hangar now, and the sound of Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood” was loud enough they had to raise their voices to be heard.

“We will,” Lawrence assured Mary, dropping a kiss on her cheek, “just not right now. Okay? Which reminds me.” He turned his head to speak to Betty, who was walking behind them, arms linked with Thelma, Ruth, and Jane. “We need to have a talk soon too, Betty. I’ve heard back from my friend about your key. It’s definitely for a safe deposit box.”

“Really? All right, when we get back,” Betty replied.

At hearing what had just been discussed, Mary and the other girls turned around, all very curious. “Something you forgot to tell us, Betty?”

“Didn’t Doris fill you in?” Betty asked, shooting the American a look.

Doris looked a little sheepish. “Sorry, girls. In all the excitement recently, I forgot to mention the new mystery we have. Betty wants to find out what the key her sister left her is for.”

Seeing she was about to be inundated with questions, Betty unhooked her hands and held them up to forestall her eager friends. “Later, all right? We’ll discuss this later. For now, let’s enjoy tonight.”

Shirley caught them up, slightly out of breath. She had obviously caught the end of their conversation. “I may need your detective skills too, Lawrence. My scarf’s missing.”

“I wondered what you were doing. Looking for it in the Anson?” Doris asked.

“Kind of. I didn’t think it could be there, only it’s just I’ve looked everywhere at home. Ruth hasn’t seen it, and I could swear I had it yesterday when I was trying on my dress again. Mind you, Bobby kept jumping onto my bed, looking for a fuss, so it wasn’t so much fun.”

“It’ll turn up, sweety,” Ruth assured her, inviting her to join the rear line following Penny, Mary, and Doris, and their beaus.

As they made to stroll through the wide-open hangar doors, the music suddenly stopped. The silence lasted only for a second, and then the band struck up with a swing-time version of Mendelssohn’s Wedding March. Both Penny and Tom looked around the crowded hangar and then behind them for an unexpected happy couple. Amongst their friends, they were the only ones looking.

“What’s going on?” Penny asked, as suspicion began to dawn. “Why’s everyone looking at us?”

“Some bloody Miss Marple you are!” Doris laughed.

“Doris Winter!” Penny began, fixing her friend with a suspicious look. “What have you done?”

Mary stepped next to the American. “To be fair, it wasn’t just Doris.” Penny cocked an eyebrow. “We decided as the two of you hadn’t had a reception when you got married…”

“We still haven’t quite forgiven you, by the way,” Betty chipped in.

“So Jane made a few phone calls,” Mary told her.

Jane held up a pair of hands before her. “Don’t start on me, Penny, or I’ll have you flying nothing but Tiger Moths when the weather turns for the worst!”

Penny took Jane at her word and didn’t accuse Jane of anything.

“The result of which is…this!” Doris ended with a sweep of her hand.

Unseen by the group, whilst Mary and Doris had been giving their quick explanation, two American Army Air Force officers had come up to join them. Doris and Penny both recognized Major Jim Fredericks, the adjutant. Next to him, looking way too handsome to be allowed, stood Clark Gable. No one noticed his gaze lock on Betty, who, for her part, stood transfixed.

“Flight Captain Howell?” Major Fredericks asked, looking around with an obvious effort.

“Please, just call me Jane,” she said, stepping forward to shake the hand on offer.

“Very pleased to meet you, Jane,” Clark Gable greeted her, drawing a startled Jane into a quick hug, kissing her cheeks before letting her go. “You’ve a very fine group of pilots here.”

Jane grinned from ear to ear, pleased beyond words he hadn’t said, “a fine bunch of women.”

“Bet you’re glad Frank couldn’t make it, now, eh?” Thelma teased her friend.

The film star, after making a point of shaking each of their accompanying men’s hands and kissing all Penny’s friends’ cheeks, stood back to allow some semblance of military protocol to take over.

“Penny, Wing Commander Alsop, would you both accompany me? Jane? You too, Third Officer Doris Winter. You’re not getting away so easily,” Jim Fredericks said, gesturing with his hands toward the stage.

Penny held out a hand to Mary, but Mary gently patted it away. “Oh no, not this time. You two go and have fun, and leave me to enjoy your embarrassment.”

With little choice but to agree, the four of them followed the American officers through the sea of clapping and cheering servicemen who parted before them to allow them access to the stage set up in front of the orchestra. As they all faced the crowd, the music came to a natural halt.

Penny and Doris were delighted to see everyone present had also allowed their friends to follow them through, so they had a front row view. To Penny’s surprise, they were joined by Tom’s navigator and friend Stan Atkins. He raised a hand which, Penny noticed, was still quite heavily bandaged from the burns he’d suffered. Nevertheless, he looked as happy as anyone else there, for clinging to his other arm was none other than Sharon Coates, the girl Penny had met in Tom’s squadron canteen. She too was beaming with happiness, though looking a little in awe to be so close to Hollywood royalty.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” the major bellowed into the microphone. Rather unnecessary, Penny thought, glancing over at Doris, who thought the same thing and was looking back at her. For a military audience, things were as quiet as they were likely to get. “I’m afraid we’re about to hijack this dance for a short while. As most of you know, an incident at our last dance meant something of great personal value to Captain Gable here went missing. This was finally resolved to great satisfaction.” Before she’d left Polebrook on the day the mystery was solved, the three of them decided nothing would be gained by soiling the memory of First Lieutenant George Adair. It would serve no purpose. “Without further ado, I’ll turn you over to Captain Gable, who will explain much more eloquently than I could.”

Stepping up to take his place before the microphone, Clark Gable paused, and as he glanced around the hangar, the few conversations still ongoing died down. “Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking,” he began, to loud roars of laughter. “First, before we get to the main event, I’m going to ask Third Officer Doris Winter, an American member of the wonderful British Air Transport Auxiliary, to come forward and join me.” Amidst much catcalling and clapping Doris, red to the tips of her ears, stepped forward. “Miss Winter, I wanted to apologize, in front of everyone here, for the distress I caused you. I think you and your fellow pilots are doing a marvelous job, and I would be proud, very proud, if you would shake my hand?”

“As if I’m going to say no to Clark Gable, or anyone, after such a speech,” Doris said directly into the microphone. “I will say to my so-called friends, if you ever do anything like this to me again, beware my wrath!” She was smiling when she said this, but her friends knew her well enough to know she was serious.

After he’d shaken her hand, Captain Gable had one more surprise before he let her escape back to her friends offstage. “I’ve also been informed about your recent engagement. So, everyone…three cheers for Doris and her fiancé!”

Safe once more in Walter’s arms, Doris watched as Penny was about to get her present.

“Now, this has all been done at rather short notice. I also admit this entailed my bribing our padre with a signed photograph of yours truly for his little sister.” He had to stop here to allow a much higher level of good-natured banter to die down. “Third Officer Penny Alsop was the sleuth responsible for finding my lost item. Miss Marple couldn’t have done any better, believe me! Now, it’s been brought to my attention Penny and Wing Commander—if you’ll join me too, sir—Tom Alsop were married a short while ago but were not able to have any kind of reception. So we’re having one right now for them, right here.”

Both Penny and Tom’s heads snapped around at hearing this.

“We’re turning this dance, which was going to be a kind of celebration of my imminent return to the States—perhaps not imminent, but this is the nearest date we could do this—into a celebration of a much happier happy event. Before anything else—and I’m sorry if this is going to embarrass the pair of you—here’s our padre to perform a blessing for the happy couple.”

After the padre had said words only audible to the very self-conscious couple, made the sign of the cross over them, and then had a personal word with the two, he nodded at Clark and left the stage, heading toward the bar.

“Right, I’m certain the happy couple would like nothing more than to leave the stage.” He raised an eyebrow at Penny and Tom, who were doing their best to edge their way toward the steps. “I see I’m right. Before they manage to escape, I’ll thank Penny once more and wish the happy couple my very best of luck in everything. To Penny and Tom!” he shouted.

****

An hour or so later, everyone was taking a breath of fresh air after dancing pretty much nonstop. Lawrence and Walter were especially glad of the break, as not only had they been dancing with their partners but had been in much demand amongst Doris and Mary’s friends whose other halves (if they had them), could not be there. Tom and Stan had both cried off from dancing with anyone other than Penny and Sharon, citing their wounds. They were mostly believed.

“It’s hard to believe.” Doris took a long pull from her bottle of Coke. “The last time I was here, a B-seventeen crashed, right over there,” she pointed toward the end of one of the runways.

Mary leant into Doris’s shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze. “We remember. Are you all right?”

The Benny Goodman song “Sing, Sing, Sing” was being played. No one said a thing, giving Doris time with her thoughts. Eventually, she seemed to come out of her reverie and opened her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she began. “I didn’t mean to bring the tone down. It’s been such a wonderful night. I couldn’t stop myself. I was seeing the plane explode all over again and thinking of all those poor men dying.”

Walter took her hand and gently pulled her away from the wall she’d been leaning against. “Come on. We all should go over and pay our respects. They were your fellow countrymen who came over and died because they believed in freedom.”

As everyone made their way toward the place Doris had indicated, a small pointed cairn of stone became clear. Reaching it, Doris knelt down before it and read from a small plaque:

These stones honor the memory of the men

who died in B17 California Girl

and all flying with the 351st Bomb Group.

We will remember you.

Penny and Mary came up and knelt down beside her, and Penny laid a hand gently upon the monument. “I know they didn’t want to die, no one does, but it’s up to us and everyone here to make certain we remember them.”

Doris threw her arms around her best friends.

In a field somewhere in Northamptonshire, surrounded by aircraft capable of dealing destruction in barely imaginable quantities, in a rare moment of happiness in the middle of a cruel war, she told them, “Couldn’t have put it better myself. I love you gals!”