‘Say, Poppy,’ Jack said smoothly, tilting his head in the direction of the distant hills. ‘I’m about to take a stroll around the grounds. There are a couple of pretty pools on the far side that are worth a look. Would you care to keep me company?’

Chapter 15

That evening after dinner, the girls sat in the drawing room, listening to the wireless and flicking through magazines.

Maggie was knitting, although she could hardly concentrate on the stitches. She sat quietly in a dimly lit corner, her legs tucked up on the armchair, minding her own business.

She’d been given the wool and needles as she was taking cover in a department store basement in town a couple of weeks earlier.

‘Care to knit for the troops?’ the shop assistant had asked cheerfully, holding out a basket of wool and then, as Maggie hesitated, she’d added, ‘There’s no charge.’

Maggie had thanked her and taken a ball of blue twine and two needles. The RAF was doing a sterling job, after all; she’d knit for those boys. The girl tried to press a pattern on her too but she didn’t need it. She’d make a scarf. That’d be warm and easy, too.

At that point, she’d never met anyone serving in the RAF, or in any of the forces, for that matter. And now, she’d met an airman! A dashing, handsome airman who seemed to have taken a shine to her.

She let the other girls’ conversation drift around her, lost in another world and hugging to herself the time she’d spent that afternoon with Jack.

She’d worried, at first, that he had only asked her to walk with him so that he could grill her on why she spoke such good German. She waited for the conversation to turn in that direction, but it never did and after a few minutes, she started to relax.

He walked rather fast. She’d had to ask him if he wouldn’t mind please slowing down, and then they’d strolled as far as a large stretch of water, which Jack told her was called the Mirror Pool. There were tall reeds around the edges and a rowing boat tied up to a wooden pontoon. The sun was shining on the water, and insects – even a dragonfly – were swirling around. If only Jack wasn’t injured, they might have gone out in the boat. She imagined gliding across the water, trailing her hands, as he rowed them across to the other side.

‘It’s beautiful,’ Maggie said, looking at the pool.

‘Yes, well my uncle’s about to have it drained. Jolly good idea. That way it can’t be used as a marker.’

‘A marker?’

‘By enemy planes.’