shore pass and see if we could jump on a train to get up here, even just for a day. But we didn’t have any travel papers so we got turned back before we’d even managed to get out of the port.’
They were proud to be crewing the Patrick Henry, one of the newly built Liberty ships, which the Americans were turning out in record time to replace vessels lost to enemy attacks.
‘She was launched by FDR himself,’ Hal told them.
‘It’s funny to call a ship “she” when it’s got a man’s name,’ Bridie said, picking a blade of grass and chewing on it thoughtfully. ‘Who is Patrick Henry, anyway?’
‘He was the guy who said, “Give me liberty or give me death.” These new-style ships are going to bring liberty to Europe.’ Hal reached over and handed her a sprig of sea thrift that he’d plucked from the machair that grew around the crescent of the beach. ‘For you, my lady.’
She laughed as she tucked the flower into her dark curls, the pink petals highlighting the rosiness of her cheeks, flushed by the wind and the sun.
She looks so pretty, Flora thought, because she’s so happy. We all are, today. But then she glanced down at Alec’s face. He lay sprawled beside her on the tartan rug, resting on his elbows as he watched the sunlight play on the water of the bay. Even at rest, there was a darkness in him, running like a deep current beneath the surface of his smile as he caught her watching him.
The destroyer he’d been on had just returned from patrolling the northern passage between the Orkneys and Shetland.
‘What was it like up there?’ Roy asked him.
Alec was silent for a few moments, reluctant to allow the reality of war to cast a shadow across their day. But then he described the otherworldly landscapes he’d seen: the scattered, low-lying Orkney Islands with their pale beaches and green fields; the rugged cliffs of the Shetlands that rose from the waves like a fortress, stark and forbidding; and of Iceland with its strange black sand beaches and ice-capped volcanoes. He spoke quietly of the last Arctic convoy that had sailed from Reykjavik in early summer. ‘It was huge, nearly forty ships, and the run was longer, too – all the way round to Archangel this time. We knew it was a risk, but we hoped the more northerly passage would make a difference.’ He fell silent for a moment, looking unseeingly at the waves washing gently on to the sand. ‘It was a disaster. The convoy was spotted and the Germans came at us in force. We were up for the fight, but then the command came through from the Admiralty in London, telling the naval escort to turn back. I still can’t fathom their reasoning. Every man out there was convinced it was the wrong decision. Abandoning those merchantmen was one of the worst moments of my life. We knew once we’d gone the U-Boats and the Luftwaffe would close in for the kill.’
His turned his head away from the others, but not before Flora noticed how his face contorted in pain, the memories too hard to bear. She reached for his hand and interwove her fingers with his, drawing him away from the darkness of his thoughts and back into the mellow autumn sunlight that bathed him with its healing glow.
With an effort, he pulled himself together, giving her hand a grateful squeeze. He shook his head, as though trying to rid it of images that had imprinted themselves in his mind’s eye. ‘We lost twenty-seven ships and hundreds of men to German planes and U-boats. In the end, only eleven made it to Archangel. That was when they decided to suspend the runs for the rest of the summer. So, instead, we’ve spent the last few months patrolling the westerly reaches of the Arctic Sea, trying to stop German vessels slipping through from the east to attack the Atlantic convoys. We know they have the Tirpitz hidden in one of the Norwegian fjords – she’s one of their biggest battleships – and we didn’t want to risk her getting through.’
‘Appreciate that, buddy,’ said Hal. ‘When we were out there on the crossing it was good to know you navy guys had got our backs.’
The others tactfully changed the subject, sensing Alec’s distress. But it seemed to Flora that the shadows around them had deepened and that if you listened carefully, the hush