Into The Unknown

by Lorna Peel

  “What I wouldn’t do to give her one.” He grinned. “I could teach her a thing or two if you’re not too inclined. I mean, Charlie, old chap… I think you’re just the tiniest bit frustrated, aren’t you?”

  Charlie didn’t answer. Billy was right.

  “I think,” Billy began again, as he put Kate’s photograph on top of the locker, “that you either become a bit more persuasive with her – charm her, Charlie, like you do with all the rest – or I’m sure Doris or Susan would be more than willing to help you. Because,” he stood in front of Charlie and looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, “we might be needed soon, and we can’t have our Flight Lieutenant concentrating more on his dick than on the Jerries. You do understand?”

  “Yes,” Charlie snapped and struggled free.

  “I’m sorry if I’ve upset you, Charlie.” Billy was sincere for once. “But it’s for your own good, and ours in the long run. When’s your next leave?”

  “Next week.”

  “Well then?” Billy replied with an encouraging wink.

  Charlie watched them leave. He’d never come even close to punching Billy before and he hated that it had been over a woman. But it wasn’t as easy as Billy made out. Kate was special. Charlie couldn’t even begin to imagine her back up against the wall of his room, but the idea of having sex – no, not sex – that sounded crude. The very idea of making love to her made beads of sweat break out on his forehead and upper lip and he went outside to cool down. He couldn’t do it, that was what was so bloody frustrating. He’d never not wanted to get a woman into bed before and that scared him.

  Crossing the parade yard after dinner the following day, Jack told him he was wanted in his room. Curious, he went inside and found a wooden box on his bed. Opening it, he found it almost full of condoms and a note was stuck to the underside of the lid. He groaned and opened the envelope. Was this someone’s idea of a birthday treat?

  Meet me at the main gates. Bring a condom or five.

  “Oh, Christ.” He swore out loud. It was from Doris.

  He took one all the same and went to the gates. He was alarmed to find no-one on sentry duty and Doris waving at him. What the hell had she done with Mike and Terry?

  “Happy birthday.” She kissed his cheek.

  “Where is everyone?” he asked as she pulled him into the trees just outside the perimeter fence.

  “Ah-ha.” She laughed mysteriously and opened a door to a small workman’s hut he didn’t remember seeing before.

  How did she find these places, he wondered, following her into the musty-smelling hut. A mattress with a rug thrown over it lay on the floor waiting for them.

  “Who told you it was my birthday?”

  She grinned. “Billy. He told me all about your little problem. Why didn’t you tell me before?” She wagged a finger in mock-anger at him before kicking the door shut. “Now, Billy’s covering for you, so…” Tailing off, she gave him a suggestive smile.

  Charlie wasn’t amused. Some friend Billy was. He’d kill him when he saw him next. Oh, God, Doris was already unbuttoning her shirt, and he watched with growing interest as she shrugged off the shirt, unhooked her bra and showed him her enormous breasts.

  “What’s her name?” she asked in a breathy voice.

  “Kate.”

  “And she won’t let you?”

  “No.” He swallowed as she took his hands and lowered her breasts into them. Christ, they were like rugby balls. “No, I won’t let me. She’s only nineteen.”

  “Then teach her, Charlie. You’ve plenty of experience to pass on.”

  “No, I can’t,” he moaned. His tunic was already on the floor and she was pulling at his braces before setting to work on his trousers and underpants. “Oh, God.” It was time for the condom already. He lowered her onto the mattress, freed her of her knickers, and himself of his underpants.

  “Gosh, Charlie, look at the size of you.” Doris giggled as he slid the condom on. “Now, get this Kate out of your system. No girl is worth all this frustration.”

  You’re wrong there, he thought but was past the point of stopping.

  “Kate. Kate. Kate.” He grunted with each thrust. “Oh, fuck, Kate.” He fell into Doris’ arms, his head resting between her breasts, fighting for breath.

  “Charlie?” Doris began. She sounded shocked and he raised his head. “God, Charlie, you’ve never been so… like that before.” She dissolved into giggles. “My hair’s come undone.”

  He watched as she lifted it and let it spread over the mattress like a platinum blonde silk sheet.

  “I wasn’t… I wasn’t hurting you?”

  “Oh, God, no.” She squealed with laughter. “I don’t know what that Kate would have said, though. Only nineteen. Cradle-snatching, Billy said.”

  “Well, Billy can sod off.”

  “Is she an innocent, Charlie? Doesn’t she know what you want?”

  “No, she’s not an innocent. And she does know what I want. It’s just that it doesn’t help if I don’t know if it’s what I want.” He sighed. “She’s perfect.”

  Doris sniggered. “The WAAF will soon work all signs of perfection out of her, trust me. Where’s she based?”

  “I don’t know, she’s being trained at the moment.”

  “Well, I hope that she isn’t sent to a base where all the pilots are like you. I was perfect once, you know?”

  Charlie stared down at her, his stomach beginning to churn, picturing Kate flat on her back with a sexually frustrated pilot on top of her. He quickly squeezed his eyes shut.

  “I’m sorry.” He felt Doris’ hands on his cheeks and she lowered his face and kissed his forehead maternally. “You never know, they might think she’s unsuitable.”

  “I doubt it,” he replied.

  “Look, you’ve plenty of condoms now. The next leave you get, seduce her before someone else does. Make her feel that she needs no-one else but you.” He opened his eyes and Doris smiled encouragement at him. “I’m telling you, Charlie, if you don’t get her first, some other bugger will.”

  “She won’t let them,” he snapped, then remembered what Kate had told him about the man at the dance. “Oh, God.”

  “There’s a war on, Charlie, and from what I’ve heard, the sooner we all enjoy ourselves, the better.”

  His heart lurched uncomfortably and settled in his stomach. “What did you hear?”

  “The Jerries will be on the move soon. They want all of Europe. France will be next and then…”

  Britain, he replied silently.

  Chapter Five

  The man behind the counter in the ironmongers was astonished.

  “Five mouse traps? Are you sure?”

  If Kate hadn’t been in uniform, he probably wouldn’t have served her. She paid for them, picked up the package and went out onto the street. Only a mountain of cheese to find now.

  Kate and her flatmates had moved into the flats in Chelsea owned by the RAF the previous week and found the place crawling with mice. They were everywhere – in the wardrobes, drawers and cupboards – they even ran across the beds at night so it soon became time for drastic action.

  Kate had been in the WAAF for two months, and if she thought the mice-infested flats were bad, training camp and its collection of long, cold, dreary huts in the middle of nowhere had been worse. If it weren’t for Thelma, Angela and Sylvia – who she met on the train there and thought she was from Cornwall – she would have gone mad. Time after time she asked herself, I left Graham’s the Butchers and the bottom-pinching for this?

  They had been billeted together in a huge dormitory hut and chose the two bunk beds at the far end so they weren’t surrounded by strangers. Almost immediately they had been called for uniform measurements. A medical examination followed, and a rigorous inspection of their hair for nits. That done, they were called to a hall for an intelligence test to decide what skill they would be trained for. After hanging about in her dressing gown all day, waiting for the medical, Kate was
so cold she was amazed she could think straight.

  She finally felt she was getting somewhere when she was issued with her kit – three shirts with separate collars, two pairs of thick stockings, skirt and tunic, tie, peaked cap, overcoat, underwear and a gas mask. The black lace-up shoes were as heavy as wellingtons and just as ugly. The kit bag and her bedding, she was told, were going to be inspected every fortnight and heaven help her if she didn’t look after them. Kate was only half-listening by this stage; she had spotted Sylvia’s camera, and couldn’t wait to put the uniform on and pose for a photograph to send to Charlie.

  Kate was used to getting up early, but she hated the six o’clock wake-up call on the Tannoy. The rush to the lavatory – in a central hut away from the dormitories – on those cold early April mornings was a guaranteed way to be woken up if the Tannoy hadn’t quite worked. Square-bashing – the training in marching in a central area of the camp – followed breakfast, then it was straight to a large hut for lectures.

  For the first two weeks, she wasn’t allowed to have letters coming in, but could send them. She wrote to her parents and Granny Norah and also to Bob, Helen and Granny Barbara. Charlie, she saved for last, until she had been able to escape to the nearest village to buy a photograph frame.

  Kate, Angela and Sylvia learned they were to receive training as teleprinter operators while Thelma was dismayed when she was told she was to be trained as a plotter on map-tables. Luckily, their training was to take place in London and they were allocated a flat together. Poor Thelma didn’t know whether to be relieved or not; she was going to be able to share a flat with them, but it was a flat infested with mice.

  Armed with the five mouse traps and cheese, the young women got to work setting them before going to bed. Two snapped in the middle of the night because they hadn’t been set properly and the pieces of cheese had shot across the bedrooms. By morning, two mice had been caught and disposed of.

  Returning home that evening, Kate found a redirected parcel waiting for her. It was flat and had been shoved through the letterbox by a careless postman. Thankfully, it was well wrapped and she pulled out a letter and a framed picture of Charlie standing in front of a Hurricane aeroplane. She hadn’t seen his face for nearly six months and her heart thumped. He was so handsome.

  “Who is that?” Angela exclaimed, peering over Kate’s shoulder. “Good grief, he’s good-looking.”

  Kate soon had all three of them crowding around her to see the photograph and, for the first time, felt very protective of Charlie. “His name is Charlie Butler. Flight Lieutenant.”

  “My Jack knows a Charlie Butler. I wonder if it’s him? Anyway, you never said you had a boyfriend?”

  Kate blushed. “No, well…”

  “Oh, couldn’t you just eat him all up?” Sylvia squealed. “How did you meet him? Does he have any brothers?”

  She laughed. “One, but he’s only sixteen. Charlie lives opposite my aunt, uncle and grandmother. We met on Christmas Day and listened to the King’s message together.”

  “Very romantic,” commented Thelma dryly.

  Eager for some privacy so she could read Charlie’s letter, Kate went to the bedroom she shared with Angela and closed the door. The letter wasn’t long but it was better than nothing.

  Dear Kate,

  I’m not a great letter writer, but for you, I’ll persevere.

  Again her heart pounded.

  Many thanks for your letter and the beautiful photograph.

  My Squadron Leader wanted to know if he could use it as a recruitment poster but, of course, I wouldn’t let him. I’d never have got it back and that would have been catastrophic.

  Kate rolled her eyes in embarrassment.

  What do you think about old Winston becoming Prime Minister? I think it’s great, but not just because I won a five-pound bet, the rest of my squadron all had money on Halifax. I feel sorry for poor old Chamberlain all the same, but let’s see what Winston can do.

  Kate’s lip curled. She didn’t really think anything about it. Thanks to her father, she knew more about Franklin Delano Roosevelt than Winston Spencer Churchill. Mr Chamberlain was old and frail, and Mr Churchill was no spring chicken either, but he seemed to have more ‘go’ in him.

  The Jerries are on the move, too. Holland, Belgium, and Luxemburg will be next. Neutrality doesn’t seem to mean anything to old Adolf.

  She felt a sharp pang in the pit of her stomach. Ireland was neutral.

  Enough about that. How is the WAAF treating you? Have they decided on training for you yet? I can’t wait to see you again, in person. I have leave unless it’s cancelled because of all the latest hoo-ha, in a couple of weeks. I’ll get your address from your aunt and uncle and I’ll call for you and we’ll go for a night out on the town.

  Oh, and, yes, there just might be another kiss in the darkness to look forward to!

  Charlie

  X

  Kate grinned and bit her lips. He couldn’t wait to see her again. There might be another kiss. Her heart was pounding, but her smile faded. She couldn’t afford to take him out to dinner. Would it be awful if she cooked for him herself? She didn’t have much choice and, hopefully, all the mice would be caught by then.

  Over the next few days, the Low Countries fell to the Germans and they moved on into France. On May 12th, three more Hurricane squadrons were ordered to France to join the six already there. The French and British attacked forward positions seized by German advancing troops from the air, but many of their planes were shot down.

  The scale of the fighting was overwhelming the RAF, as Britain also needed to be defended. If more reinforcements were sent to France, Fighter Command would have been ruined by the end of July, so a limit was introduced. Units were withdrawn to continue fighting from southern England, but in eleven days the RAF had lost a quarter of its total fighter strength. On the 16th May 1940, French and British forces began the retreat to Dunkirk and three Hurricane squadrons were left with them.

  Kate scanned the newspapers as day after day passed with no letter from Charlie, so she was convinced his squadron must be in France. She went to and from training with a horrible tight feeling in her stomach. He hadn’t been killed, had he? It had been weeks since his parcel had arrived and she’d heard nothing since.

  Should she have had sex with him, she wondered, and flushed. The possibility of him dying would greatly increase now, and what had she done – she’d advised him to have sex with someone else! But having sex with him after only their second date would have been wrong. Or would it? She grimaced. There was a war on. Angela had married well before the war started, but both Sylvia and Thelma had spent nights with their soldier boyfriends.

  Women were doing things simply unheard of only a year ago and here she was, still a virgin. And what if she did spend a night with Charlie, she asked herself, and he simply carried on with other women? It was a dilemma and she just didn’t know what to do.

  By late May she was reaching the end of her tether, cursing herself for not having spent a night with him, and the girls were hiding the newspapers from her.

  Then, a letter arrived.

  Dear Kate,

  I bet you thought I’d emigrated. Sorry for the delay, but I’ll explain why and what and when I see you. I’ve been granted forty-eight hours delayed leave, starting the day after tomorrow. I’ll call for you at eight. I’m looking forward to my belated birthday treat.

  Charlie

  X

  “Oh, thank God.” She leant back against the front door. “It’s from Charlie,” she told the three girls who appeared at the kitchen door. “He’s all right, he’s got leave at last. He’ll be here tomorrow evening.”

  “And is coming to take you away from all this, I hope?” Angela asked and Kate shrugged before bursting into tears of relief.

  After the following day’s training, she went shopping and trudged back to the flat with sausages and cooking apples. She groaned as she put them down on the kitchen table. Instea
d of a slap-up meal that evening, Charlie would be getting a fry up and stewed apple with a blob of jam. The only highlight was the bottle of red wine she had managed to find and afford.

  “What did you get?” Angela followed her into the kitchen. “Oh, good Lord.”

  “I know, it’s awful. Maybe I should have gone on letting old Mr Graham pinch my behind.”

  “At least you found some wine.”

  “Yes, but to go with sausages?”

  “Well, nobody can expect champagne and caviar these days,” Angela told her. “Unless you were going to give him those in other ways?”

  “What do you mean?” Kate asked, despite the blood rushing to her face.

  “I think you know, Kate. We should enjoy ourselves while we can. Who knows where we’ll be this time next week – next month? You do love him, don’t you? He’s a very handsome fellow. He’s also a pilot, and I don’t think you would have nearly gone out of your mind with worry if you didn’t.”

  “Oh, Angela…” Kate faltered, suddenly feeling very out of her depth. “I don’t know.”

  “You’re a virgin, aren’t you?”

  She flushed. “Sort of.”

  “Sort of?” Angela repeated. “That’s like being ‘a bit pregnant’. Has he tried before?”

  “No.”

  “Look, Kate, do it only if you want to. Don’t let me or him force you into anything you don’t want to do, but when will you see him again? Think about it. Now, just in case you do, Thelma, Sylvia and I are sleeping upstairs. Good luck.” Angela patted her arm and went out, leaving Kate staring after her in consternation.

  She leant heavily on the table, her fingers touching the cold sausages and jumped. Sausages. Bloody hell.

  She fried the sausages before changing her clothes so she wouldn’t smell of fat, put the sausages in the oven to keep warm, then left the potatoes and carrots simmering on the hob. She had just slipped her feet into her black high-heeled shoes when she heard a knock at the front door. She smoothed her hands down over her blue dress, quickly checked her hair and makeup in the mirror, then went to the door and opened it.