He gave a loud yawn and looked down mournfully at his arm. ‘Bah, I feel rotten, Poppy, I don’t mind telling you, not doing my bit. The chaps are all carrying on without me and I’m …’ He cast around for the right words. ‘I’m next to useless. I need to be back up there, in the air.’

Maggie’s stomach flipped at the thought of him in the sky, fighting the Luftwaffe. ‘Aren’t you ever scared?’ she asked.

Jack drained his cup in three large gulps and then stared down into it, at the tea leaves on the bottom. ‘Can you read my fortune, Pops? Tell me my fate? No, best not, eh? Best not to know. What did you say? Am I scared?’ He thought for a moment. ‘Not scared for myself. But for my pals, I am.’

He twisted the tea cup on the saucer and a cloud crossed his face. ‘Lost a few, since this whole business started. Not only because they bought it, you understand. Sometimes really good chums get transferred, posted overseas. My mate Mike, for instance.’ He smiled in a resigned kind of way. ‘He’s A1, is Mike. A jolly decent sort, a good chap. I miss him.’ He rubbed his face and looked thoughtful for a moment. Then he picked up his cup. ‘Say, any chance of another?’

Maggie set the strainer on the cup and poured the tea. It wasn’t the first time Jack had mentioned this Mike. She sat down opposite him. ‘Does he have a sweetheart, this pal of yours, Mike?’ she asked. ‘Someone special, waiting for him?’

She hoped Jack didn’t have a sweetheart. He didn’t give her that impression; he’d certainly never mentioned anyone.

Jack nodded slowly. ‘Mike? Yes, he does have someone special.’

‘Poor thing. She must worry terribly.’

‘Say, come for a drink sometime, will you, Poppy?’ Jack said suddenly, leaning towards her across the table. ‘I’m heading off again tomorrow and hopefully I’ll be getting shot of this—’ He held up his arm in the sling. ‘But I’ll be back, next week. Come over to my place one evening, won’t you?’

Maggie frowned. ‘Your place?’

He laughed. ‘It’s not grand, I’ll warn you. They’ve put me up in the gatehouse. There’s no room in the inn here, of course but the gatehouse suits me fine. Bring a pal along, if you like.’ He gazed into Maggie’s eyes.

She could feel his warm breath on her face. She looked at his lips and thought for one terrifying moment, that he was going to lean right over and kiss her. She wanted it and she didn’t, all at the same time.

‘But I’d prefer it,’ he added softly, ‘if it were just the two of us.’

Chapter 35