She ran up the road to see if she could see her anywhere and raced back down the other way, but she had disappeared. As she made her way back into the foyer, Jack came over to her.
‘Is everything all right, Lizzie?’
‘I just thought I saw someone I knew. I really need to find her.’
Jack furrowed his brow with concern. ‘Are you sure you’re all right? You look so pale.’
She nodded. ‘This person’s just very important to me.’
He smiled and put his arm around her shoulder. ‘Then let’s look again together. We’ll find her.’
She looked in tea shops and up and down the streets for a while but it was evident that the woman had gone. As she strode briskly alongside Jack, hot tears stung Lizzie’s cheeks and she felt the wretchedness of her loss all over again.
Jack noticed and took hold of her shoulders and turned her to face him. ‘Lizzie, what is it?’
She shook her head and buried it into his shoulder and started to sob.
He enveloped her in a hug and held her tightly, gently rocking her and whispering words of assurance into her ear. But she just knew she couldn’t risk telling him. He was starting to mean so much to her and she didn’t want to risk losing him. When she finally managed to pull herself together, he gently wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumb, the concern obvious in his eyes.
‘Do you want to talk about this, Lizzie?’
She shook her head. ‘Maybe one day, but not now.’
29
Len and Diana started seeing one another regularly. As they were living on the same base it was easy to arrange. He would drop by for a walk with her if they were both off duty or she would invite him to eat with her and the other girls in the canteen. He was very popular as he would chat easily with them and make them all laugh. But then the other WAAFs would politely excuse themselves after a while with a knowing nod and smile in Diana’s direction.
He was sat finishing a plate of scrambled egg one afternoon as she was on washing up duty when he mentioned casually he would love to take Diana home to meet his mother who lived in Bow.
‘She’s quite a character, my mum,’ he added with a smile. ‘I think the two of you would get on great.’
Diana stopped drying the cup she had in her hand as a thousand thoughts flew through her mind. Did this mean something? Was this Len’s way of saying he wanted to take this relationship further? She thought about Lizzie and Jack and how fast that relationship seemed to be moving. And she and Len hadn’t even kissed yet. But Diana wasn’t like Lizzie, she didn’t let her heart rule her head and she just wasn’t sure that she wanted to get too serious too quickly. She adored Len, he was funny and friendly and great company. But he didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve as Jack so obviously did with his love for Lizzie; Len was quieter, more controlled emotionally, hard to read sometimes. All at once, the picture of her father sat in his chair the day she left swam into her mind, so sad, so lost that his daughter was leaving, imploring her to settle down with someone close by, someone from Birmingham. What if this was no more than a fling for Len? Something to pass the time during the dark days of war. And if this was more than that, how could she bridge her two worlds: this new world she was living in, and the world she had left behind? Len must have taken her contemplative pause as reluctance.
‘We don’t have to go this evening if you would rather stay here. We could go another time.’
Diana turned and smiled; maybe she was just thinking too much about it all. ‘No, tonight is perfect, give me a chance to powder my nose and I’ll meet you outside in a little while.’
When they arrived at the tiny, tidy house an hour later, the front door was already open and, in the kitchen, a petite, buoyant woman with a mass of dark brown curls and lively hazel eyes greeted her, telling Diana not to stand on ceremony and to call her Amy. She didn’t seem a bit put out with Len turning up with his new friend unannounced. In fact, within minutes she had handed a tea towel to