by I'll Get By
‘I’m third officer Judith Scott. I think I saw you at a couple of the officer training sessions. Is this your first posting? It is mine.’
‘Yes it is.’
‘Perhaps we could get together later and swap notes. And if you hear of a room going begging let me know. I’m crammed in an attic with several other girls. It’s the size of a dog kennel and we’re sleeping head to tail, like sardines.’
The door opened and Meggie’s glance travelled up a long pair of legs, picked up speed and tangled with a pair of eyes that had stolen their colour from the silvery grey of unfurling bracken. There was something familiar about him that was instant recognition, but totally elusive.
‘Margaret Elliot?’ he said, his smile shadowed by charm.
Meggie stood. Lor, but he was handsome, and in a well-bred sort of way that could only be enhanced by his uniform – especially one so obviously made to measure.
‘Yes, sir.’
In a voice like smoked silk, he said, ‘I’m Lord Cowan. I believe you might belong to me.’
He had an intimate, possessive way of introducing himself and claiming her – too intimate. He was also too sure of himself, and the hairs on her arms were beginning to prickle with an instinctive unease. ‘How would you prefer to be addressed, my lord?’
‘Just sir will do.’ He then looked at Judith who was gazing at him through wide eyes. With looks like his, he probably got a lot of that, Meggie thought, tearing her gaze away from him with difficulty. ‘You must be third officer Judith Scott. I’ll take you on a tour with us before I introduce you to James Bethuen, who runs the department. He’s busy at a meeting at the moment. You’ll be working as his private secretary.’
‘Won’t he need me at the meeting then?’
He gave a lazy sort of smile. ‘Probably, but he won’t be expecting you because I told him you wouldn’t be here until ten.’
Meggie’s attempt to stifle a giggle, earned her an assessing look and a faint grin. ‘Miss Elliot, I’ll leave you with my second-in-charge Gordon Frapp. He’s not as amusing as I am, but he’s very thorough. He’ll give you something to do, though we’re still waiting for your desk to arrive. The office closes for lunch between one and two p.m. The tea trolley comes round three times a day, with sandwiches at lunchtime. I’ve ordered a round of egg and cress for you both for today, but you must put in an advance order for next week. Gordon will walk you through it.’
One delicate female shaped eyebrow arched. ‘I think I’m capable of ordering a week’s supply of sandwiches.’
‘I’m sure you are. Look on it as an intelligence test.’
An exasperated intake of breath was a just reward for his remark.
They walked after him as he pointed out the various features, such as the supplies room, where everything had to be signed for. Then there was the files room, and a common room, where they could eat their lunch if they wished, and the washrooms.
Handing her over to Gordon Frapp, Lord Cowan disappeared with Judith in tow. They didn’t see him for the rest of the morning.
‘Sometimes he goes off for days,’ Gordon said with a smile.
‘What is my actual job description?’ she asked.
‘It’s hard to say, really. We do anything that comes in. You can describe yourself as a writer or a secretary if you want a label and anybody thinks to ask, but generally we don’t talk about the department, or what we do outside these four walls. If you find anything that seems suspicious tell me and I’ll phone it through to the correct department who will follow it up.’
She was handed some cryptic crosswords, obviously doctored to contain a message, though she enjoyed doing them anyway. Then a magnifying glass was placed in her hand and some photographs taken from the air over the continent that came in pairs and had different dates on them.
‘Familiarize yourself with any features, and see if you can find anything that looks strange and out of place,’ Gordon said. ‘We inform the air force if we see anything that resembles guns, or any sudden density of foliage that might conceal a build up of weapons or troops.’
Meggie began to feel as though she was a tangible part of the war effort.
‘Is this what I’ll be doing all day?’
‘We do all sorts of things, usually what we’re asked to do. You might be given files to collate. Just remember that everything we do is top secret, even if it seems trivial. At the moment I’m trying to find out your strengths and weaknesses. We don’t ask questions.’
By that he meant she shouldn’t ask any either.
Time went quickly, and her boss came back. ‘Still no desk, Gordon?’
Gordon shook his head, then rose and went into the filing room.
Lord Cowan went into his office, shut the door and dialled a number. Meggie could still hear his voice. ‘Where’s that desk and chair I requisitioned for my department. You promised we could have it today. Where d’you expect my new assistant to sit . . . on my lap? And don’t forget the typewriter. A new one would be appreciated. I don’t want some worn out old banger with half the letters missing that clatters, and keeps me awake when I’m supposed to be asleep at my desk.’
Meggie giggled when he laughed and purred silkily into the receiver, ‘Who am I? I’m Viscount Cowan. You may address me as My Lord. Who are you? No . . . don’t tell me. You’re that cute young lady with baby blue eyes and dark hair that I pass every day in the lobby. Of course I noticed you, my dear. Now, about that desk . . .’
On the way home Meggie wondered if Leo and her aunt would have room for Judith. She shook her head. They’d been wonderful making room for her, but she couldn’t expect them to accommodate a complete stranger. All the same, it was a big house.
The basement came into her mind, as it had on a couple of occasions before when she’d gone to bed early because she knew that her aunt and uncle needed privacy. If the rubbish was thrown away and the other stuff down there stored in one of the spare upstairs rooms she could live there and not be a bother to anyone. There was enough furniture for their needs in the house, too.
The old-fashioned cooking range in the basement would heat the place as well. There was no bathroom, but a small laundry by the back door that could be screened off, and the housekeeper’s room used as a bedroom. They could wash in a tin bath there, and there was a necessary at the end of the garden that she could clean the cobwebs from so they wouldn’t disturb the upstairs occupants. It would be fun to have her own flat, and she could invite friends to visit if she ever made any.
She raised the subject with her aunt and uncle over dinner.
‘Are you sure, Meggie? The basement will take a lot of cleaning.’
‘Not once I’ve got rid of the rubbish. There’s a girl I met who’s looking for somewhere to live, and we could both pay rent. Also, we’d have our own street entrance to the house. You and I can visit each other for a chat via the inside stairs if we get lonely.’
Leo huffed with laughter. ‘With the navy living downstairs, we’d better have a periscope and intercom installed. What’s the girl like?’
‘I’ve only just met her, but I like her, and I think you’ll both like her too. Her father’s a greengrocer in Bury St Edmunds.’
‘And the job? Will you enjoy it as much as your legal office?’
‘I expect so. To be honest, it was such a scramble there, and fun, but I’d rather be using my own brain than type up the results of another’s reasonings. The silks were such prima donnas. Sometimes I got the impression that they didn’t really approve of me. I don’t know exactly what I’m doing at the moment, but at least I’m doing my bit. I’ll get into some sort of routine eventually, I expect.’
‘And your commanding officer?’
‘My immediate boss is quite nice, from what I’ve seen of him. He’s on operations at the moment.’
‘It’s not common knowledge, but rumour, so let’s keep this inside these four walls. I heard it from one of the other doctors. The ground troops are trapped, and b
eing evacuated through Dunkirk. Apparently we’re using every boat that can float to bring them home, including civilian pleasure craft. What’s your boss’s name?’
‘He’s an aristocrat called Viscount Cowan, and is quite suave and handsome, a bit like the film star Stewart Granger. We get free sandwiches for lunch, and tea. That’s a bonus.’
Aunt Es smiled. ‘I would have thought having a boss who resembled Stewart Granger would have been the bonus.’
Leo snorted. ‘I’ll deal with you later for that remark, woman.’
‘And the basement?’
‘Get it cleaned up first and then we’ll see what we can make of it. You need to mix with people of your own age. And at least I can still keep an eye on you for your mother.’
Meggie rolled her eyes and gave an exaggerated sigh.
Leo ignored it. ‘We can have a bonfire with the rubbish, as long as it’s during the day. We’ll start on it tomorrow. If you still want to ask that girl, and she wants to come here, tell her she can come and help clean the place. We won’t charge you any rent, but you can pay half the utility bills between you.’
‘What about the landlord . . . will he mind?’
‘The rental agent said the owner is overseas, and has no intention of turning the place into bed-sitters. Anyway, I don’t see why he should mind, since you’re already living here. It’s not as though the place is going to be altered. We’re just using the space we already rent.’
‘I’m going to miss your cooking.’
‘We can leave that arrangement as it is. I can cook for both of us, and deliver it via the dumb waiter if need be.’
The cleaning of the place didn’t take as long as Meggie had expected, and they found enough oddments of kitchenware, china, cutlery and bed linen to keep them going. Judith set to work with a will. When they finished dragging a pair of beds down the stairs between them, they gazed at their domain with pride.
Leo came down to fix the blackout curtains in place later.
‘What do you think of the place now, Leo?’
‘I especially like those white tiles on the wall, it reminds me of an operating theatre. The pair of you have excellent design skills. The copper pot looks pretty, it would hold a gallon of stew.’
‘Except it’s got a hole in it and the handle is loose. But other than that . . . how does it look?’
‘I don’t know what effect you were trying to achieve, but it looks exactly like a cleaned-up kitchen. You’ll be able to sleep on top of the stove in the winter to keep warm. Don’t the Nepalese do that? And they bring their donkeys, sheep and oxen inside so they don’t freeze to death. I’ll keep a look out for a couple of oxen as a house-warming gift.’
Meggie exchanged a glance with Judith and grinned. She’d warned her new friend to expect only honesty from Leo, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t tell a small, white lie. ‘Wonderful, because that’s the effect we were aiming for. By the way, the couch has only got three legs. Can you fix it for us?’
‘I’m a doctor not a carpenter. I suppose I can find a brick to prop it up with from somewhere.’ And he did.
Gradually they got used to their odd accommodation, and added a few small comforts, such as a rug, a plant in a pot, and a ginger kitten that someone left at the door in the middle of the night. They called him Jack Frost because he was frozen half to death.
When the kitten recovered from his ordeal, Leo announced his intention to fix him. ‘We don’t want him to spray everywhere, or wander off and add to the stray cat population. He’ll feel sorry for himself for a couple of days, but if you make a fuss over him he’ll soon get over it.’
And so it was done, and Jack Frost became a lap cat, though his hunting instincts remained.
Judith came home with bits and pieces of greenery and planted them in pots. Soon they had a flourishing herb garden on the window sill. Meggie got on well with Judith. She was quiet and thoughtful, and had a sense of humour, so was pleasant company.
One morning Leo sought Meggie out and said casually to her, ‘I’ve joined the RAF.’
‘As a pilot?’
He nodded.
‘I can’t say I’m surprised. How does Esmé feel about it?’
‘I haven’t told her yet. I’m going to tonight, before dinner. I wanted to see you first though, because I won’t be home much from now on. Could you be there when I tell her? She might get upset.’
Meggie nodded, thinking that it might be an understatement. She gave him a hug.
It turned out not to be as bad as Leo had been expecting, though Esmé gave a little cry. ‘Why you, Leo? The hospitals need doctors as well, and you’re one of the best.’
‘Why me? Because I’m a pilot as well, and because the kids I train only get the minimum of flying hours before they go off to defend the country; to defend us . . . you . . . me . . . Meggie, and all the people we love. You should see them, Es . . . young men who’ve just got their wings and are full of spit and vigour and heroic deeds. They’re just babies. Many of them don’t make it back, and those who do are quickly disillusioned. For every one of those brave boys who don’t return, I’ve died a thousand deaths for them when I check the lists.’
‘You got that little speech from that film we saw the other evening.’ It seemed to Meggie that her aunt mentally stamped her foot, but the heat had gone from her voice when she said, ‘And don’t you dare talk patriotic sense to me when I’m trying to be angry with you.’
Leo spread his hands and offered her a little grin. ‘It was because you cried throughout the speech. Don’t be angry my love. We all have to do our bit in the best way we can. I need to set them an example. First I’ve got to do a couple of weeks training at Uxbridge.’
The fight went out of her and tears filled her eyes. ‘Why didn’t you tell me what you intended to do before?’
‘Because I knew you’d try and stop me, and besides, I couldn’t bear to see you cry, my darling girl, which is why I’ve brought Meggie up to mop up after you. The bombing raids are only going to get worse and I want you to go to Dorset and stay with Livia till the war is over.’
When Leo took her in his arms, Esmé scolded, ‘Absolutely not! If you think you can butter me up, think again, because you haven’t got a cockroach’s chance in a lava flow of succeeding. I’m going to stay right here in this house so you’ve got someone to come home to when you can make it. Besides, I promised Livia I’d look after Meggie.’ A pale smile came her way, but Esmé’s cheeks were flagged with patches of colour that told Meggie her aunt was gathering her resources together. ‘Not that you need babysitting, but we’ll look after each other, won’t we, Meggie?’
Her nod brought a dirty look from Leo, who was still stating his case. ‘You know this is the right thing for me to do, Es.’
Esmé’s voice softened. ‘Leo, darling . . . right or wrong I know your heart’s in the right place, and it’s typical to your way of thinking. So go and do it. There’s nothing I can do to prevent it, now.’ She reached up and touched his face. ‘Listen now . . . I’ve got something damned important to tell you, and I’d planned to have a candlelit dinner to go with it.’
‘I haven’t forgotten our anniversary, have I?’
‘No, and I’d still love you even if you had, since you’ve forgotten the previous ones. We’re going to have a baby in a few months and I want it to grow up with a father and mother in Australia, like you promised. So you’d damned well better be careful.’
‘A baby . . .? Jeez, Es. You certainly know when to hang an anchor on a man! Did anyone ever tell you that your timing is total crap? No wonder you’ve been looking a bit fragile lately. I had suspected.’
‘My timing? What a cheek. I didn’t create the situation all by myself, you know.’
A smile edged across his mouth. ‘No, you didn’t. When was the last time I told you how much I adored you?’
‘I told you not to butter me up, Leo Thornton . . . I think it was this morning . . .’ She gave up trying to dodge a
swarm of small kisses with a sigh of defeat.
Meggie grinned. ‘I think I’ll go and start on the dinner. It’s rabbit casserole.’
Her aunt had stars in her eyes, and as she didn’t think that either of them had heard her Meggie turned and left them to it, thinking that Leo could charm the warts off a dog’s tail if he felt like it, and without even trying.
Eleven
The Atlantic convoys were being increasingly harried by German U-boats and the loss of life was heartbreaking. It seemed as though Meggie and Judith were being called on to attend memorial services at Westminster Abbey every other Sunday. The whole of England knew that something was in the offing and there was a general uneasiness in the air.
Early in June, the prime minister, Winston Churchill, inspired everyone with his speech to the nation. Afterwards, every man, woman and child in the street felt like a hero who could stand against the foe.
The amount of suspicious messages coming through the office increased, hidden in newspaper articles, crosswords and radio broadcasts . . . even music. Once solved, they were sent for further analysis to Bletchley Park, the central code-breaking unit. Photographs were minutely examined. Meggie was especially vigilant now Leo had taken to the air as a fighter pilot.
Her boss spent less time in his office and more time in helping to decipher messages. Meggie was very aware of him, and it was a relief when another assistant was taken on, a rather taciturn man called Joseph Bruch, who spoke with an accent and was endearing, but in an old-fashioned scholarly way. He arrived and left on the dot, shuffling off towards his one-room flat.
One day he didn’t turn up, and Judith told her he’d been killed in a raid. He wasn’t replaced.
By July the sky was so full of aircraft they resembled a swarm of flies, so if that hadn’t alerted them before, everyone now knew something was going on. The fat barrage balloons, designed to prevent enemy aircraft coming in low were a comforting sight.
