He shrugged the distance off. ‘It will be good to walk after being cooped up for so long.’
On the way back to Julia’s house, they continued in their comfortable conversation as they crossed the river and walked along the South Bank to Vauxhall and then down towards Brixton. By the time they reached Julia’s street, the glorious pink light of morning was rolling in and the dawn chorus was in full voice. How odd, she thought, to go from a thunderous bombardment to the beauty and the sounds of nature in only a few hours.
On the doorstep, Jack seemed to be looking for the right words.
‘Lizzie, thank you for keeping me company this evening.’
‘And thank you for walking me home,’ responded Lizzie, politely. ‘I’m glad you tripped over me.’ She laughed.
‘I had such a good time.’ He paused and became almost coy, something she hadn’t seen in him all night. She waited for him to speak again. Finally, he looked up. ‘Would you mind if we saw one another again?’
‘I think that would be a terrible idea,’ she joked, keeping her face straight, then seeing the panic in his eyes shook her head, laughing. ‘I’d be delighted, I hardly know anyone in London.’
The relief was evident in his face.
‘There’s a dance at the RAF station at Biggin Hill next week. I was wondering if you’d want to come with me. I’m not sure what time I will be finished with work but I could meet you there?’
‘I would love to go,’ said Lizzie.
‘Next Friday, then,’ he said, offering her his hand again, and as she slipped hers into his, he covered it with his other hand. ‘Lovely to meet you, Lizzie from Scotland.’
She nodded. ‘You too, Jack from Essex.’
As she stood in the doorway, Lizzie watched him walking up the street. He moved with a comfortable stride, one hand in his pocket, his cap thrust back on his head, and she felt something, something odd, as though she was going to miss him even though she’d only just met him.
Once inside, Julia was relieved to see her. ‘Thank goodness. I’ve been worried about both of you. Diana’s still not back, she was going to stay here tonight. How are you, Lizzie?’
‘I was trapped in the theatre. They kept us for hours even after the bombing stopped.’
‘How awful for you.’
‘It wasn’t so terrible,’ said Lizzie, with a coy smile.
Julia frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, I met somebody. And I’m going to meet him at a dance next week.’
‘You’re incorrigible,’ said Julia, shaking her head.
‘Right now, I’m just tired,’ she said with a yawn. ‘I might try and get a couple of hours before I have to go back to work.’ Lizzie made her way upstairs. Her bed felt comfortable, and as she drifted off to sleep, her mind ran over the highlights of her conversation with Jack and she felt a glow. She really liked this new friend. And his warm smile was the last thing she thought about as she drifted off to sleep.
21
At six in the morning, Diana came off a long duty and made her way back to Julia’s house. She was exhausted. It took all of her strength to put one foot in front of the other. Nothing could have prepared her for the realities of a bombing. She knew it was going to be loud, but she hadn’t expected the physical impact on her body, not just from the concussion from the bombs, and the ack-ack guns, but also the sheer exhaustion of flying the balloon during the attack. At around 5.30 the previous day, an hour into the attack, a German plane had been hit by one of the ack-ack guns right over their heads. All the girls had screamed with the sheer terror of it as their commanding officer had shouted to them to stay on task.
It had been a horrific sight to see the plane burst into flames and plummet down into the city, landing on buildings and exploding. But with true female grit, they had carried on. As the night had gone on, the fires had become worse, and it had become so bright that by the end of the evening, the glow from the London docks alone had lit the whole sky, as if it were a raging orange sunrise, plumes of rolling fire reaching up into the air, filling it with ash and smoke that coated everything and everyone and choked the