The Code Girls

by Daisy Styles

  ‘It’s taken me so long to find somebody like you, Kit,’ she sighed, as pressed her face against his warm neck, feeling his pulse quicken. ‘I really don’t want to lose you.’

  Taking her face into his hands, Kit held her gaze as he said, ‘Do you know the RAF motto, Per ardua ad astra?”

  Maudie shook her head.

  ‘I’ve never heard of it.’

  ‘It means “through adversity to the stars”,’ Kit continued, as he took hold of her right hand and slowly kissed her fingers one by one. ‘Whatever troubles may befall me, whatever difficulties may arise, I will always come back to you.’

  Maudie raised his hand to her lips. ‘I have my own motto for when you fly, darling,’ she whispered, as tears trembled in her green eyes. ‘To the stars … and back.’

  Kit nodded as he repeated her words,

  ‘To the stars … and back, my love.’

  Maudie woke to the sound of the Lancasters taking off. Reaching for her dressing gown, she slipped outside, where she stood in the dark, west-facing garden and watched the squadron fly low over the pine woods. Then, gathering height and speed, they flew out over the North Sea. With her pulse racing and her heart thudding, Maudie felt so frightened she could barely breathe.

  ‘Oh, my God,’ she whispered to herself. ‘Why didn’t he tell me it would be so soon?’ She wrapped her arms around her trembling body. ‘Why didn’t he warn me?’ She chided herself as she thought, ‘Don’t be stupid! As if he ever would blab! Loose lips sink ships,’ She murmured out loud, recalling his words of warning.

  She stayed out in the garden until the sound of the Lancasters’ engines faded away. As silence returned, she could hear owls hooting in the pinewoods and, somewhere in the garden, two foxes exchanged shrill barks as they vied for a mate. Maudie shivered, as if somebody had walked over her grave. Looking up, she blew a kiss into the starry sky.

  ‘Per ardua ad astra … God speed, my love.’

  Back in bed, Maudie didn’t sleep a wink. Three months ago, planes taking off from the airbase wouldn’t have kept her awake all night, but things were different now. She felt like her heart was in her mouth; she’d never know peace until she knew Kit was safely home again. Just before dawn, as the sky was turning light, Maudie heard the distant throb of the returning Lancasters; she knew immediately there weren’t as many planes coming back as there had been going out. Not stopping to think, she threw off her nightdress, pulled on her clothes and, slipping out of the hall by the back door, dashed across the yard to the bike shed. Jumping on to her bike, Maudie set off down the narrow country lanes, which were filling up with sunlight and birdsong.

  When she reached the airbase, Maudie stood by the locked metal gates. She grasped them hard and peered through them, hardly daring to breathe. She gasped in shock as she saw only three Lancasters standing on the runway. As the sun came up over the turnip fields in a blazing orange ball, Maudie could clearly see the ground crews doing their routine checks on the planes that had returned safely. She had no idea which, if any, of the three Lancasters was Kit’s plane. Her instinct was to rattle the fence until somebody let her into the base, but she suddenly thought that if every woman in Britain reacted to battle in the same way, the country would be in utter chaos. She had to stay brave and focused, even though she wanted scream.

  ‘Is he alive or dead?’ she murmured, over and over again.

  Fortunately, Raf caught sight of Maudie by the gates and, seeing her tense, white face, he hurried over to her.

  He knew exactly what she was going to ask him, so he said as he approached, ‘He came back. He’s OK.’

  Weak with relief, Maudie sagged against the metal fence. ‘Thank God …’

  ‘You want to see Captain Kit?’ Raf asked, gently patting her hand through the gates.

  ‘No!’ she exclaimed. ‘He’ll have enough to do. I just wanted to know he was safe.’

  She turned to pick up her bike, which, in her haste, she’d thrown to the ground. She leant against and stared at the planes on the runway. ‘They were lucky.’

  Raf nodded, but he couldn’t help but smile proudly. ‘It was big success, Maudie. We surprise bloody Jerry, eh?’

  Maudie nodded. She didn’t feel any thrill, just a huge sadness. There would be mothers, brothers, sisters, wives and lovers weeping in German towns and villages for loved ones who would never come back to them. Somebody would be knocking on a door in Essen or Munich, Cologne or Berlin, passing on a message that would break another’s heart. As Maudie cycled back through the beautiful morning, golden and shimmering in the low autumn sun, she wept. She knew she had to keep strong, it was her patriotic duty, but in her gut she detested this war and the millions of lives it was savaging all over the world.

  Maudie’s mood wasn’t much improved when, bone-tired and over-emotional, she got back to the hall and found Bella with a face like thunder.

  ‘Edward’s back!’ she seethed, as she made toast on the Aga hot plate. ‘He arrived last night, apparently, with a crony of his from Cambridge.’ She turned to drop hot toast on to a warm plate, and saw Maudie’s face, haggard from lack of sleep. ‘Heavens above!’ she exclaimed. ‘What’ve you been up to?’

  ‘Tell you later,’ Maudie replied, as she tied an apron over her dress, then, on automatic pilot, grabbed a loaded tray and headed upstairs.

  ‘Why’s the lecherous creep back again so soon?’ she called over her shoulder.

  Bella grimaced as she replied, ‘Who knows?’

  Maudie had carefully avoided mentioning her nasty encounter with Edward to Kit, and she intended to keep it that way. There was no point in stirring things up; Kit had enough on his plate.

  ‘The less Kit knows about Edward, the better,’ Maudie told her friends, as they cleared away breakfast.

  Bella, Ava and Ruby exchanged an awkward glance. None of them liked the idea of protecting Edward. Seeing their mutinous expressions, Maudie begged them to keep her secret. ‘Pleeease.’

  Ruby broke the silence. ‘Don’t go anywhere near his rooms,’ she said sharply. ‘Leave that to me.’

  Bella grabbed a long brush and started to furiously sweep the kitchen floor. ‘My brother’s an animal!’

  Ava, standing in her favourite spot, with her back to the Aga, blew out cigarette smoke as she said, ‘Calm down, missus. Dodds told me he’ll only be here a few days.’

  ‘The sooner he’s gone the better!’ Bella snarled.

  ‘We could always slip a drop of strychnine into his pea soup,’ Ruby said, with a wicked giggle.

  The girls might have made a pact to keep Maudie’s secret to themselves, but nobody had mentioned this to Raf, who thought it was his duty to inform his senior officer that the young lord was back.

  ‘This Edward lord no good for Maudie.’

  Riding along beside Rafal in the RAF jeep, Kit did a double-take. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  ‘You know, remember what he tried on last visit to hall?’

  Kit shook his head. ‘Spit it out, man,’ he snapped.

  ‘You don’t know?’

  ‘Know what?’

  Realizing he’d put his foot in it, Raf sighed and prevaricated. ‘Better for you to ask Maudie.’

  Grabbing the wheel, Kit shouted, ‘Tell me!’

  Raf slowed down and put the handbrake on. ‘He try to have Maudie, he try raping her.’

  Kit went deadly white, then bright red. ‘Drive me over there, right now!’ he commanded.

  When they reached the hall, Kit was out of his seat before Raf had even pulled up. ‘Wait for me,’ he called over his shoulder.

  Raf slumped back in his driver’s seat. ‘Oh, my God! Rubee, she will kill me!’

  Kit went in the back way, scaring the living daylights out of the four girls when he threw open the kitchen door.

  ‘Maudie!’

  Hearing his tone and thinking there’d be an accident at the base, Maudie dropped the pan of potatoes she was moving from the sink to the Aga.
/>   ‘I need to speak to you ‒ please.’ He added the word as an afterthought.

  Taking her by the hand, he led her outside, where they passed a white-faced Raf, who was on his way inside. Ignoring his crew man, Kit asked, ‘Where’s private?’

  Maudie pointed towards the stable block and said, ‘Kit, what is it? What’s happened?’

  When they were in the stable yard, Kit turned to Maudie. ‘Why didn’t you tell me about Edward Walsingham?’

  Maudie went white with shock. ‘Who told you?’ she gasped.

  ‘Raf. He thought I knew.’ Tilting her face so he could peer into her eyes, he said, ‘Why didn’t I know, Maudie?’

  She shrugged and tried to make light of it. ‘I didn’t want to worry you.’

  Kit grabbed her wrists and said angrily, ‘Anything that concerns you concerns me, Maudie ‒ especially an attempted rape!’

  Maudie burst into tears as she replied, ‘For God’s sake, stop yelling at me!’

  Seeing her crumple into tears, Kit caught her into his arms and smothered her tear-stained face with kisses. ‘Darling, darling, I’m sorry. Please don’t cry.’

  Maudie swiped away her tears and tried to explain. ‘He jumped on me while I was tidying his room. He threw me on the bed and was pulling at my underwear. Thank God Ruby heard me struggling. She rushed to my rescue and he backed off.’

  ‘Bastard!’ Kit raged. ‘Total bloody bastard!’

  ‘He seemed to think it was his God-given right to maul any maid under his roof,’ Maudie added. ‘I did give him an almighty thump in the balls!’ she said, managing to break into a laugh at the memory of his anguished face. ‘He looked like a fat, pink pig with his eyeballs popping out!’

  ‘I’m glad you can laugh at it,’ Kit said, with the trace of a smile. ‘I’d seriously like to shoot him.’ He lit a cigarette, and drew on it deeply. ‘And now he’s back, right here under the same bloody roof – he might try again.’

  Maudie shook her head vehemently. ‘I’m banned from even going upstairs to the Walsingham suites,’ she answered quickly. ‘Ruby’s covering for me while he’s home.’

  Kit ground his cigarette out with the heel of his boot. ‘They’re all the same!’ Kit cried furiously. ‘Bloody snobs and aristocrats demanding their droit de seigneur – it makes me sick!’

  ‘Hey, be fair ‒ Bella’s not like that. She’s given up her position and title in order to break away from her ghastly family.’

  Kit nodded in agreement with her. ‘Yes, you’re right.’

  ‘Apart from that, your words are music to my ears,’ Maudie chuckled. ‘Bring on the revolution, brother.’

  Kit grinned. ‘Not sure I want heads to roll ‒ just his!’

  Taking Maudie in his arms, he kissed her long and tenderly. ‘You’re so precious to me, the thought of any man’s hands on you, apart from mine, totally incenses me. Promise you’ll take care of yourself?’

  Maudie nodded. ‘Of course,’ she assured him.

  ‘Especially at night, lock your door and keep a hammer under the bed.’

  ‘I’ll certainly lock my door, but I might not go as far as the hammer.’ She giggled. ‘Anyway, he won’t be here long, thank God! He’ll be going back to his safe desk job at the War Office,’ she added contemptuously.

  Kit stared thoughtfully at the last of the climbing roses that grew in profusion up the red-brick wall, warmed by the late autumn sun.

  ‘Why isn’t he out there, fighting in the army? It’s what his sort do. Why’s he shuffling piles of paper around a desk while the Germans and Italians are invading Vichy France? How does he get away with it?’

  ‘He’s probably a coward as well as a bully,’ Maudie replied. ‘Come on, let’s stop talking about him. It spoils the loveliness of the day.’

  Taking his hand, she kissed it softly, then they walked back to the jeep, which was standing empty in the drive at the back of the house. When Raf saw his boss approaching, he ran out to join him.

  ‘Thank God you’re back. Rubee go up the wall for me spilling beans!’

  Dodds was right; Edward’s stay was short. After he’d driven away in his noisy, expensive sports car, life quickly returned to normal. Ruby had apologized to Maudie on Raf’s behalf.

  ‘He shouldn’t have blabbed to Captain Kit,’ she said, then added fondly, ‘The boy can’t lie ‒ he’s got “true” and “honest” running through him like a stick of Great Yarmouth rock.’

  ‘Don’t worry, Ruby, it’s good Kit knows.’ She burst out laughing and added, ‘Though thank God Walsingham’s gone – Kit was itching to shoot him!’

  23. Farewell Code Girls

  As November turned into a frosty December and the code girls approached the end of their training, they each received information about their official placements. There was a buzz in the dining room as excited young women swapped notes on their next move.

  ‘I feel envious when I hear them talking about their postings,’ Ava admitted after they’d cleared supper and were having a tea break before they launched into the mountain of washing-up piled up in the scullery sink.

  ‘Me, too,’ said Maudie. ‘I overheard one girl saying she was being sent to the filter room of Fighter Command.’

  ‘Wow!’ giggled Ruby. ‘She’ll be one of those smart-suited woman like you see in the war films, waving a stick at a massive wall map while other smart girls push toy tanks and guns across a big table.’

  Bella laughed out loud. ‘It’s not quite like that, Ruby,’ she cried. ‘Fighter Command is more about getting a range on incoming bombing raids.’

  ‘God! I’d love to have worked in RDF,’ Ava said wistfully.

  ‘What’s that when it’s at home?’ Ruby asked.

  ‘Radio Detection and Ranging,’ Maudie explained. ‘Radar signals can pick up information on enemy activity even when they’re flying over France on their way here; they give advance warning of what’s coming our way.’

  Ruby smiled as she took in the information. ‘That’s clever,’ she remarked. ‘Give us time to organize a bloody big welcoming party for the Luftwaffe as they come sweeping in across the Channel!’

  ‘It’s code-breaking I love,’ Bella enthused. ‘It’s so devious and complicated but, once you get the crib, it’s fantastic. Everything just clicks into place ‒ like that,’ she said, as she snapped her fingers with a loud click.

  ‘You’re wasted here, sweetheart,’ Ava said, lighting a Woodbine.

  ‘We’re all wasted here!’ Bella exclaimed.

  ‘Not me. This is my home and I love it – especially now that you’re here to keep me company,’ Ruby replied staunchly.

  ‘And that’s the heart of it, isn’t it?’ Ava said, exhaling cigarette smoke. ‘We’re all happy here. I never imagined I’d ever hear myself say that,’ she said, with an amused sigh.

  Gathered around the table, the girls exchanged secret smiles.

  ‘We’ve met wonderful men ‒ even Fussy Drawers Maudie has finally dropped her guard and has fallen for her handsome bomber boy,’ Ava teased.

  ‘And you’ve got your Tom and his sweet little boy,’ Maudie pointed out.

  ‘Bella’s got the Brig, and I’m a married woman,’ Ruby added, with a bright smile.

  ‘But it’s not just about men, is it?’ Maudie continued thoughtfully. ‘I love the camaraderie we have below stairs, we look after each other and share the load. I know it’s our war work but I wonder, in the future, if we’ll ever find such intense friendship again?’

  Ruby quickly wiped a tell-tale tear from her brimming eyes. ‘I’ve never known friendship like this – and I’ve never laughed as much, either!’

  ‘We’re the girls that feed the code girls!’ Ava declared. ‘Without food in their bellies, they wouldn’t be much good to anybody – we should be proud of what we do.’

  ‘Who knows, if this wretched war goes on, maybe we’ll be offered the opportunity to become code girls, too,’ Maudie said.

  ‘Bella’s really the only one of
us who could move on,’ Ava remarked.

  ‘You could be doing finer things for your country than plucking pheasants and disembowelling hares, missis!’ Ruby teased.

  Bella shook her head, as she answered with real passion, ‘I want to get much better. I really want to be able to send and break complicated codes – maybe even work undercover,’ she added, flushed with excitement.

  ‘You won’t be able to take the Brig with you when you go,’ Maudie said with a smile.

  Bella groaned. ‘I’ve spent my whole life longing to get away from this place, and now I dread leaving.’ She winked and went on, ‘Imagine leaving the Brig with twenty-five young women – and Miss Cox!’

  ‘I’m glad you’re not in a rush, lovie,’ Ava joked. ‘God knows, there’d be hardly any meat on offer if you left. No bloody way am I skinning ferrets and funny fluffy things!’

  Maudie, Bella and Ruby howled with laughter as squeamish Ava shuddered at the thought.

  ‘They’re not ferrets, you silly bugger!’ Ruby chuckled.

  As their laughter faded away, Bella added solemnly, ‘If a placement comes up with my name on it, I’d have to go immediately.’

  ‘We could always lock you in the wine cellar and throw away the key,’ Ruby joked.

  Bella grimaced and shook her head. ‘No, thanks, Ruby. I’d bump into my rotten sister, who spends more time down there than anybody I know!’

  The below stairs staff held their breath as Christmas approached: were they going to get put upon again? Would they have to work round the clock, providing a Christmas feast for the Walsingham table, when rationing was getting harsher by the day? Bella broke the tension by rushing down the back stairs one evening, her cheeks flushed bright pink as she announced to her friends, ‘The parents are going to Northumberland for Christmas!’

  Whooping with joy, she skipped around the kitchen table, where her friends joined her in a happy, triumphant dance.

  ‘Yeah!!’ they cheered.

  When they stopped, out of breath and smiling, Maudie cried, ‘Christmas to ourselves! I can go home.’

  ‘Me, too,’ Ava added.

  ‘Imagine having the freedom of the hall, with no grumpy parents in it,’ Bella sighed.