Her brothers had flown countless missions over Germany in the RAF. Her younger brother, Phillip, was the more daring of the two at twenty-four, maybe the best pilot, and willing to take more chances. Max was twenty-seven, and more cautious by nature. Both were superb pilots. They teased their sister for her work on the flying ambulances, and said she did it to pick up men. But both were well aware of the risks the crews of the air evac transports took, and were secretly very proud of her. She had also been a courageous young girl, who tried to compete with her brothers as a child, on foot or on horseback, racing her bicycle down a lane, or climbing a tree higher than they did. And no matter how badly battered she was, she never cried when she got hurt. It was something Max had always admired about her. He readily admitted now that he had cried more often than she did. Phillip was the terror of the threesome, a daredevil who would stop at nothing and seemed to have nine lives. He had used several of them since he started flying for the RAF. He was famous for the many times he had extricated himself from what looked like disaster.

When Pru came back from her mission that afternoon, she was told that there were American flight nurses arriving the next day. She was excited to hear it. She had worked with American flight nurses before, and she found them efficient, brave, well trained, and a pleasure to work with. They never complained, and adapted to every situation, no matter how hard. And she had fun spending time with them after hours. They enjoyed a good time as much as she and the other RAF nurses did.

Her brothers were legends in the RAF, and extremely popular with her women friends. It was no secret who her parents were, although no one made a fuss about it. The children of many aristocrats, in fact most of them, had enlisted in the RAF, the navy, and the army, and were defending their country valiantly. Pru was greatly respected as a nurse on the medical air evac transports. She was said to be fearless, which she insisted wasn’t true. But she was modest to the point of humble, unassuming, and tireless, and one of the best nurses in the squadron. She was well liked by every corpsman who ever worked with her, and good fun at the pub afterwards, they claimed. She could drink them under the table and show up fresh as a daisy the next day.

“I have brothers,” she said with a wink whenever they commented on her fearless behavior and ability to drink without showing any sign of it, and show up on time the next day in good humor.