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Excerpt
In
the following extract, Air Transport Auxiliary pilot Third Officer Penny Alsop,
has to deliver devastating news to her new husband, a Squadron Leader in the
RAF and a Mosquito pilot. Newly married, they are a typical wartime couple who
fell in love fast and hard, so do not really know that much about each other,
and she’s wary of how he will react:
Steeling her nerves, Penny had knocked once on the door of her husband’s office and went straight in without waiting for an answer.
“Penny!” Tom sprang to his feet, an expression of absolute delight on his face. “What are you doing here?” Waving a hand at nothing in particular, he crossed the floor of the small office, closing the gap between them to wrap his arms around her waist. “Never mind. I don’t care. You’re here!”
Penny allowed herself a few moments to enjoy her husband’s strong arms before reality snapped in and she recalled the deed she had to do. From his reaction, she deduced he hadn’t heard about his brother. Reluctantly, ever so reluctantly, Penny reached around and took his hands from around her waist before leading him by the hand to the corner of the room where she lowered him into a well-worn brown, wingback armchair, taking the one opposite.
The expression of happiness slid off his face as he settled into his seat and noticed the serious one on Penny’s. He reached out and took one of her hands “Honey, you’re scaring me. What’s wrong?”
In response, she took the telegram from an inside pocket, unsure of how she should begin. What should she say? Looking at his face, the so very handsome face she loved so much, the last thing she wanted to do was to make him unhappy. Yet the news she had to impart was going to devastate him. Though she’d never met Sam, he was a constant subject her husband brought up
in
conversation or in his letters. He was so proud of his brother, always saying
he couldn’t do what he did, putting himself in harm’s way on the dangerous
convoy routes. Penny could never make him see he did exactly the same every
time he went aloft.
“It’s Sam,” she replied, and held out the telegram.
His face, the face which didn’t have enough color in it for her taste at the best of times, lost all remaining color as he took the paper from her hands. Slowly he held it up and read. She watched his eyes widen in disbelief as they scanned each word. He reread it twice before letting his hands fall back onto his lap. Those big brown eyes, strangely reminiscent of Bobby’s, looked deep into her soul. Penny saw tears building up in them, surely matched by her own. “When did this arrive?” His voice was no more than a croak, nowhere close to his normal strong, confident timbre, and Penny felt her heart break a little bit more.
Author Bio
–
Mick is a hopeless romantic who was born in
England and spent fifteen years roaming around the world in the pay of HM Queen
Elizabeth II in the Royal Air Force before putting down roots and realizing how
much he missed the travel. He’s replaced it somewhat with his writing,
including reviewing books and supporting fellow saga and romance authors in
promoting their novels.
Social
media links –
https://www.facebook.com/MWArnoldAuthor
Twitter – Mick859
Instagram
– Mick859
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