‘Is he married?’

‘Oh Mavis, really. I just drive him about – I don’t get to know his life history. It’s – all very official,’ she added, hesitating over the lie.

‘I’ll find out,’ Mavis said confidently and Kate knew she would.

In the seclusion of the staff car, the CO’s attitude towards his driver was anything but ‘official’.

‘Is everything okay in the WAAF quarters? Are you quite comfortable? You can tell me, you know, Kate, quite unofficially. I could try to find you a room in my office block, if you would prefer it.’

She was surprised to hear herself saying. ‘Oh no, thank you. I like being with the other girls.’ Who would have believed it, she thought, that I could ever come to terms with sleeping in a dormitory of sorts again? ‘The only thing is, when you don’t need me – there’s not much for me to do.’ She smiled. ‘I can only polish and tinker with this car for so many hours in a day.’

‘Well, my demands on your time will no doubt get heavier when we get fully operational, which should be by next week. We shall have two squadrons of bombers here by then. But the station will be very stretched for staff and you may well find yourself being detailed to do other jobs, such as driving the crewbus taking the chaps out to the aircraft when there’s an op on. I shall be around myself then anyway.’ There was an expression of regret on his face as he met her glance in the rear-view mirror. ‘It’s the nearest I shall be able to get to flying with them.’

Kate was not surprised; she had known instinctively that Philip would be a fully committed and caring Commanding Officer, nor was she surprised to hear he lamented the fact that his senior post had virtually grounded him.

As she pulled up outside the Control Tower, and was about to jump out of the car to open the rear door for him, he leaned forward and touched her shoulder. ‘Are you sure there’s nothing you want?’

‘Well . . .’ she hesitated.

‘Go on,’ he prompted.

‘I – I don’t suppose it would be possible to get Danny posted to this station, would it?’

She thought she heard him sigh softly. ‘Are you sure it’s what you really want, Kate? Wouldn’t it be worse for you knowing when he was flying, waiting for his plane to come back?’

She gripped the steering-wheel, her knuckles showing white. ‘I – don’t know. All I know is that not knowing where he is, or what he’s doing, or if he’s safe, is unbearable.’

There was a flatness to his voice as he said, ‘I’ll see what I can do, Kate. But I can’t promise anything.’