Chapter Four

“That’s the guardroom,” Betty said, her voice sounding hollow, even to her ears. “They want to know if it’s all right to let Ruth and Walter on station?” When Jane didn’t reply straight away, Betty went and stood by her friend, who stood staring into space in the open door. “Jane? Did you hear me?”

Slowly, as if her feet were stuck in treacle, Jane turned and nodded. Betty told the person at the other end, then simply went and sat down, letting her face fall into her hands until Ruth, Walter, and an obviously unhappy Bobby turned up a few minutes later, joining them through the still-open door, Jane having taken a seat next to Betty.

Seeing the distressed state of the pair, Ruth quickly shut the door behind them so Bobby wouldn’t be tempted to run off. The dog, however, gave them nothing to worry about by mooching into Jane’s office and flopping down on the small rug under her desk. Shortly after, the sound of contented snoring emanated from the room.

“What’s wrong?” Ruth asked immediately. “That’s the first time in a while I’ve had to get permission to come on station.”

Walter opened his mouth, but before he could get any words out, they heard a cacophony outside, and the door burst open, admitting Penny, Mary, and Doris.

“What the hell’s happening?” Doris asked without preamble. “Penny said the two of you were on the other side of the gate, but by the time we’d made up our minds to go there, you were through. We weren’t expecting you to run here, though.”

Leaving Ruth’s side, Walter stepped over to Doris’s side and, ignoring protocol, gave his fiancée a quick kiss on the cheek. “You looked like you needed that.”

“Thanks, hun,” she said, reaching up and briefly caressing his cheek.

Meanwhile, Ruth had made her way to kneel down beside Jane. Laying a hand on her friend’s shoulder, she gave her a gentle shake. “Jane? You’re starting to worry me.”

When Jane looked up, Ruth was so shocked at her appearance, she lost her balance. Regaining her feet, Ruth cupped Jane’s tear-strewn face between her hands. “My God! I knew something was wrong! Talk to me, please!”

Pulling back from Ruth’s well-meant ministrations, Jane pulled out a handkerchief and wiped at her eyes, a fruitless gesture, as fresh tears instantly replaced those shed and mopped up.

Equally alarmed as Ruth now, Penny and Mary hurried to where Betty was still face down on the desk. Only when their heads were at her level could they tell she was silently sobbing as well.

“For Christ’s sake!” Mary surprised everyone by nearly yelling. “Will someone please tell us what’s happened?”

“Where’s Thelma?” Penny now asked, having become aware of the one member of their normal entourage who wasn’t present.

“Dead!”

The single word had the same effect as if someone had fired a gun. Indeed, the only sound to be heard was the not-so-gentle snoring coming from Bobby in Jane’s office.

“Would…would someone mind explaining that?” Ruth asked, her face now white as a ghost.

Getting to her feet, Jane ignored the request and went to Betty’s side, where she pulled her distraught friend to her feet and drew her into a hug. The two stood like that for a good couple of minutes whilst everyone else in the room could only stand around in confusion. It seemed that the tension in the room had got through to Bobby, as the cocker spaniel trotted in from Jane’s office, as wide awake as he ever could be. Going up to Jane, he stood up onto his rear legs and nudged his way, with a little whine, between the pair.

Jane reached down and picked him up, cuddling him to her breast before planting a kiss upon the top of his furry little head and putting him back onto the floor. Contrary to his normal behavior after being fussed over—finding a nice comfy place to go to sleep—he sat back on his haunches and, with eyes wide open, stared up at the two humans.

“Jane…” Ruth asked once more.

Whether it was the unconditional love of the dog, or the need to finally tell her friends what had happened, Jane made a supreme effort and, her voice barely audible, told them, “Thelma’s dead.”

****

At Jane’s announcement, the room dissolved into chaos, everyone talking at once and nobody listening to anything anyone was saying. Even Bobby added a few howls. Then the questions started. “Are you sure?” “What happened?” “Why was she flying?” “Are you sure she’s dead?” Only when Betty stood up and banged both palms down on a desk, making everyone jump, did order prevail.

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”

“Betty…” Penny began to talk, reaching out with a hand, but Betty shrugged her friend’s good intentions aside. Instead, and despite the tears which still streaked her face, fire danced from her eyes. “Enough! All of you! You want to know what happened? I’ll tell you what happened. Thelma’s plane was shot down. We heard it over the radio. Satisfied?”

You could have cut the silence with a butter knife. Nearly everyone’s mouth had fallen open in shock, and there didn’t appear to be a drop of blood left in anyone’s face. For her part, Betty strode over to Jane’s office and slammed the door shut behind her, nearly catching Bobby on the nose as he made to follow her.

Finally, Ruth found her voice and asked, never taking her eyes from the closed office door, “Is that true, Jane? You heard everything over the radio?”

Slowly, as if each movement cost her immense pain, Jane nodded her head, her eyes too on her office. “Yes, it’s true.”

Taking her by the arm, Ruth led Jane to a seat and gently, yet forcefully, sat her down. She perched on the edge of the desk. “I…we’re sorry to ask, but we need to know what happened. If you can tell us?”

Looking up, all Jane could see was the concern and support in the eyes of her friends. It gave her the strength to get through what she knew they needed to hear, her voice a monotone edged in pain. “We needed to get our pilots back from Leeming,” she began as her eyes glazed over. Whether she felt or was aware of Ruth’s hand in hers was debatable. “I said I’d take an Anson up, to go and get them, but Thelma convinced me my job was here, and she’d take the flight.”

“I wasn’t aware she was current,” Penny muttered, though Jane didn’t give any indications she heard.

“So I let her talk me into her taking the job. At first, she was only late checking in on the r/t…I insisted she break radio silence. No one else was going to be up in that weather, let alone any enemy.”

“But…” Mary gently prompted.

“I was wrong,” Jane stated. “When we did hear from her, we couldn’t talk back. There must have been something wrong with the radio in her plane. Then, it got worse, much worse. She put out a mayday call, and we had to sit there and listen. That’s all we could do, bloody well listen. When she broadcast again, we heard what can only have been machine-gun fire. She said she was going down, northeast of Oxford, I think she said.” Jane paused to wipe her sleeve roughly across her face. “And then came the worst moment.”

“What could be worse…” Doris began to say before Walter shushed her, knowing Jane wasn’t really telling them what happened—she was reliving each moment again, and if she didn’t finish talking, the episode would haunt her for the rest of her life.

“Somehow, her radio must have started receiving again, as she then said my name. I barely heard it, and then…nothing.”

Nobody said anything for a few minutes until Doris had to ask, “But that doesn’t prove she’s…dead.” She had to swallow twice to force the word out. “Does it?”

Betty’s voice made them all jump, as no one had heard the door open, or her footsteps as she came into the room. “I don’t think there’s much doubt. She’d told us one of the engines was on fire, and that she’d pretty much lost control, and that she was going down.”

Doris was unwilling to let go of her hope just yet. “I’ll take a Magister. I’ll go and see if I can find her. I’ll…” She ran out of words before anyone had to tell her not to grasp at straws, allowing Walter to gather her into his arms.

Perhaps Doris’s forlorn hope prompted Jane to recover her wits, as many as she could. Either way, she took out her handkerchief and did her best to clean up her face. Looking around, she focused upon Betty and held out a hand. Betty strode over, took it, and standing next to her friend, they fed upon each other’s strength, each helping the other hold things together.

“Now will you lot go home? Please!” Jane urged.

Doris looked up from where she sat, placing a hand over the telephone mouthpiece she was holding, “No,” was all she said before she turned her back on the room and began talking, though so quietly no one could hear what she was saying.

Despite the tragic situation, Jane had to smile. At least Doris was still Doris. “In that case, will someone please take Betty home? I need to make some…telephone calls.”

As she’d expected, Betty immediately protested. “I’m not going anywhere. You need me here!” she pleaded.

Jane turned to face her friend, taking and squeezing her hands. “Yes you are. I know you want to stay. I would say yes, but this is something only one person can do, and it has to be me. I’m in charge, though heaven knows, at this moment, I wish I wasn’t. Now, before you protest again, hear me out. You know what has to be done, who has to be called, and yes, Doris, that does include getting search teams out to look in the area Thelma reported before…uh, Thelma reported. Believe me, I’m praying with all I have that a miracle will occur, but I have to act now, so we’ll know the truth.” Jane tore her attention away from Doris and back to Betty. “So I’m going to need you as well rested as you can be tomorrow. I’m going to need at least one of us who’ll be a little rested and able to think a little clearer than the other. Do you understand me?”

Sighing, Betty looked up and held Jane’s concerned and earnest gaze as best she could. “I do. I don’t like it, but I do.”

Jane pursed her lips. “Thank you. Now…” She turned to face her other friends. “Who’s going to take Betty home and stay with her?”

To her surprise, no one immediately volunteered, and though she was pretty certain she knew why, she was also annoyed. “Look, you lot, I know how you feel. But honestly, there’s nothing you can do to help. I need one of you at least to go home with Betty and stay with her. Believe me, as soon as I know anything, I’ll telephone.”

“Does that mean you’re going to stay here all night?” Penny asked.

“Because, if you are, then I’m staying too,” Mary declared.

She was rapidly followed by Penny, Doris, and Walter. Betty too opened her mouth, but the door to the operations hut opened at that moment.

“You called, and I came as you asked.” Nurse Grace Baxter entered the room and shook her cape. “Now, what’s so urgent, Doris?” Grace wasn’t a nurse only by profession. She proved she was also a student of human physiology as she took in the tension in the room in an instant. The tear-strewn faces of everyone present were also a big clue. “Okay, something’s happened…”

To give both Jane and Betty some time to gather themselves as much as they could, Penny gave their friend a brief outline of what had happened. To her credit, she only had to pause twice, and though Grace’s face lost some color, she merely nodded before going over to Betty, taking her by the arm, and gently but firmly saying, “Show me where your coat is, and let’s get you home.”

It may have been the nurse voice Grace used, but Betty allowed herself to be led over to the coat hooks by the door and then out and, presumably, back home.

“I’ll go with them!” Ruth announced and took off before anyone could say anything.

Once the door had closed, Jane turned to survey the room full of her friends. Hands on hips, she surveyed them. “I’m not getting rid of you lot, am I.”

Doris let go her hold on Walter and retrieved her flight bag. A moment later, she held up a small bottle of whiskey. “Of course not. Now, you start making what telephone calls you need to, Jane. Walter and I will make some tea. It’s not coffee,” she said, causing her friends to smile, as Doris had a long-standing and well-vocalized distaste for the British staple drink, “but with its help, we’ll keep warm better.”