tell you again! Get your silly clothes on, go and see that hearty C.O. of yours, and tell him what’s happened.’
‘But it hasn’t happened!’ he protested, as pitifully as a boy falsely accused of cheating, ‘it hasn’t happened, and it’s bloody well not going to happen! Do you think I could crawl out by the back door while this show is still going full blast? God Almighty, I’d sooner … sooner be grounded !You’ve got a damned nerve, old girl, going to these lengths behind my back and I’ll tell you something you’ve overlooked. Those letters are only so much bumph until I apply for a discharge back to industry. Nobody can hook me back to Civvy Street without my signature on a lot more bumph, and I can’t see me letting myself in for that!’
‘Letting yourself in for what? For doing a real job of work and doing it in comfort? For living a civilised life among civilised people, instead of holing-up in places like this where you never meet anyone but a knock-kneed old waiter, a Brylcreem Boy, or one of their synthetic little wives? There’s nothing disgraceful in making armaments instead of using them, is there? God knows what might result from you being a civilian today and in your line of business! Sit and think about it a moment if you have to, but it shouldn’t take you long to weigh the money and risks you’re taking now against what those two letters represent.’
Suddenly he remembered he was naked and at a disadvantage. He draped a towel round his middle and trailed after her into the bedroom. Outside, across the patch of sky seen between the oh-so-gay curtains, a trainer plane chugged slowly from east to west. His eye followed it and when it disappeared he sat down on a mock antique chair that was too low for him.
‘Let’s get this clear, Monica,’ he said, talking slowly and carefully, like a man anxious to give an impression of sobriety. ‘I’m in for the duration, and flying for as long as I can wangle it. At thirty-plus I had a hell of a job to get this far and I’m not putting on civvies again until it’s all over. You can pull what strings you like, you won’t get me budged! A trained pilot is worth a damned sight more than a trained civvy, no matter what you hear from the civvies you’ve been touting!’
‘You mean this kind of life is to go on indefinitely? For both of us?’
‘What’s wrong with it? What’s happened to you all of a sudden?’
‘You think it is all-of-a-sudden?’
He looked at her with a degree of patience, noting the set of her mouth, the hardness of her blue eyes, and deciding that they were a bit too blue, like the inner core of an oxyacetylene flame. It struck him then that she was and always had been a woman who would go her own way regardless of ties and loyalties and at the same time he made another disconcerting discovery. She had hated every minute of the time she had spent following him round from camp to camp and he must have been blind not to have realized it months ago, when he and Andy and Andy’s wife had been living it up in the local pubs and jaunting about on fiddled petrol between operations and courses. He said quietly, ‘Can’t you begin to look at it from my point of view?’
‘No,’ she said, ‘and I’m not trying anymore. Either you take advantage of this opportunity or I’m off!’
He was astonished in spite of himself. He was also incredulous. ‘You mean we split up? Just like that! For good?’
‘If necessary, yes. In your own silly language I’ve had it! Right up to here,’ and she raised a well-manicured forefinger level with her chin.
He said quietly, ‘Okay, Monica. Then that’s how it’ll have to be until you come to your senses.’
He seemed to have succeeded in surprising her for she turned pale and clenched her fists as though she would have liked to beat reason into him. Then, bracing herself, she returned to the attack. ‘ Senses! ’she screamed. ‘ Senses! Who’s talking about sense?
‘But it hasn’t happened!’ he protested, as pitifully as a boy falsely accused of cheating, ‘it hasn’t happened, and it’s bloody well not going to happen! Do you think I could crawl out by the back door while this show is still going full blast? God Almighty, I’d sooner … sooner be grounded !You’ve got a damned nerve, old girl, going to these lengths behind my back and I’ll tell you something you’ve overlooked. Those letters are only so much bumph until I apply for a discharge back to industry. Nobody can hook me back to Civvy Street without my signature on a lot more bumph, and I can’t see me letting myself in for that!’
‘Letting yourself in for what? For doing a real job of work and doing it in comfort? For living a civilised life among civilised people, instead of holing-up in places like this where you never meet anyone but a knock-kneed old waiter, a Brylcreem Boy, or one of their synthetic little wives? There’s nothing disgraceful in making armaments instead of using them, is there? God knows what might result from you being a civilian today and in your line of business! Sit and think about it a moment if you have to, but it shouldn’t take you long to weigh the money and risks you’re taking now against what those two letters represent.’
Suddenly he remembered he was naked and at a disadvantage. He draped a towel round his middle and trailed after her into the bedroom. Outside, across the patch of sky seen between the oh-so-gay curtains, a trainer plane chugged slowly from east to west. His eye followed it and when it disappeared he sat down on a mock antique chair that was too low for him.
‘Let’s get this clear, Monica,’ he said, talking slowly and carefully, like a man anxious to give an impression of sobriety. ‘I’m in for the duration, and flying for as long as I can wangle it. At thirty-plus I had a hell of a job to get this far and I’m not putting on civvies again until it’s all over. You can pull what strings you like, you won’t get me budged! A trained pilot is worth a damned sight more than a trained civvy, no matter what you hear from the civvies you’ve been touting!’
‘You mean this kind of life is to go on indefinitely? For both of us?’
‘What’s wrong with it? What’s happened to you all of a sudden?’
‘You think it is all-of-a-sudden?’
He looked at her with a degree of patience, noting the set of her mouth, the hardness of her blue eyes, and deciding that they were a bit too blue, like the inner core of an oxyacetylene flame. It struck him then that she was and always had been a woman who would go her own way regardless of ties and loyalties and at the same time he made another disconcerting discovery. She had hated every minute of the time she had spent following him round from camp to camp and he must have been blind not to have realized it months ago, when he and Andy and Andy’s wife had been living it up in the local pubs and jaunting about on fiddled petrol between operations and courses. He said quietly, ‘Can’t you begin to look at it from my point of view?’
‘No,’ she said, ‘and I’m not trying anymore. Either you take advantage of this opportunity or I’m off!’
He was astonished in spite of himself. He was also incredulous. ‘You mean we split up? Just like that! For good?’
‘If necessary, yes. In your own silly language I’ve had it! Right up to here,’ and she raised a well-manicured forefinger level with her chin.
He said quietly, ‘Okay, Monica. Then that’s how it’ll have to be until you come to your senses.’
He seemed to have succeeded in surprising her for she turned pale and clenched her fists as though she would have liked to beat reason into him. Then, bracing herself, she returned to the attack. ‘ Senses! ’she screamed. ‘ Senses! Who’s talking about sense?
Similar Books
