The Iron Storm by CW Browning (best fiction novels to read .txt) 📗

been severed. Setting the receiver back in the cradle, she turned away from the table with a shrug. Hopefully Bill had heard her confirmation before the line cut out.

Moving across the hall towards the drawing room where she knew Robbie and the others would be having drinks before dinner, her brow creased into a frown. Bill was in Paris? And he wanted to see her as soon as he returned? That could only mean one thing.

She was going to France.

“Oh, must you go so soon?” Mrs. Ainsworth cried as Rob set down his cup of coffee and stood up. “You’ve just finished your coffee!”

After dinner, instead of moving into the drawing room for after-dinner drinks, they had all come outside onto the terrace to enjoy the mild evening. While the rest of them had an evening cocktail or wine, Rob had insisted on coffee before he continued his drive north.

“I really do, Mum. I have to get up to Catterick and collect Slippy before he starts a revolt.” Rob smiled down at his mother. “I’ll get a weekend off soon and I’ll motor up and spend some time with you.”

“It really was lovely to see you again,” she said as she set down her glass and stood up. “Such a nice surprise. Having both you and Evie here was almost like Christmas again.”

“You would think the RAF would let you both come home more often,” Aunt Agatha said as Rob hugged his mother goodbye. “It’s downright disgraceful how little time off you get. Why, Evelyn was at death’s door after being overworked!”

Evelyn set down her wine glass and brushed a stray lock of blonde hair out of her eyes.

“Oh Auntie, I was nowhere near death’s door,” she protested with a short laugh. “I was ill for a few days, that’s all.”

Agatha snorted and stood to accept a hug and a kiss from Rob.

“You’re a bag of bones, child,” she retorted. “You need to come home more often where we can make sure you’re fed properly. Obviously the RAF isn’t doing a good enough job.”

“Auntie, there is a war on, you know,” Rob said with a grin. “We’re not idle persons of leisure anymore. We have to do our bit.”

“Yes, but do you have to kill yourself doing it?” she demanded.

Evelyn swallowed and an awkward silence suddenly fell over the group. Realizing her poor choice of words, Agatha cleared her throat and patted Rob’s cheek.

“Do try and get back again soon,” she said. “It’s lovely having you both here.”

“I will, Auntie. You just keep Mum out of trouble.”

“Me?” Mrs. Ainsworth made a sound as close to a snort as her delicate manners would allow. “You’ve got it backwards, Robbie. I’m the one keeping her out of trouble!”

Rob winked at Agatha. “No upsetting the Vicar this time, Auntie.”

Agatha harrumphed but a twinkle came to her dark eyes. “Madeleine told you about that, did she? It was all a misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding or not, Robert had to smooth things over,” Mrs. Ainsworth said with a reluctant laugh. “He never laughed so hard, though.”

“My brother knew me well enough,” Agatha said easily, taking her seat again and picking up her glass. “I do miss him.”

Evelyn stood up and tucked her arm through Rob’s. “I’ll walk out to the car with you.”

“All right.” He looked at the two older women sitting at the table. “I’ll see you both soon.”

He and Evelyn went through the opening in the terrace wall and followed the path to the corner of the house. Once they were out of sight of the terrace, Rob blew out his cheeks and exhaled.

“God I hate saying goodbye to Mum,” he confessed. “She always makes me feel as if I’ll never see her again.”

Evelyn looked up at him. “You may not,” she pointed out. “It’s something we’ve all had to come to accept.”

“Bollocks,” he muttered crudely. “I’m no more likely to pop up my clogs than you are. Does she make you feel this way when you leave?”

“No, but our situations are a little different. I’m not up there flying against the enemy.” I’m only facing him on the ground, in person, where if I make the wrong move, I’ll be shot.

“Neither am I, yet. It’s getting rather old, to be honest. Every day we go up, and every day we come back down without ever having sighted so much as a wing tip.”

Evelyn thought of the hordes of Luftwaffe planes that had taken complete control of the skies over Norway, bombing the cities and villages with abandon.

“You will,” she said quietly, her voice even. “Don’t be in such a hurry to face them, Robbie. It’s not going to be pretty when Hitler turns his attention west. Right now, he’s distracted with Norway, but that won’t last long. The weather’s improved and he’ll move towards France soon.”

“I know.” Rob was quiet for a moment. “I think we all just want to get the first scrap over with, then we’ll settle down. Right now we’re just waiting, but we don’t know what we’re waiting for. Once we have our first fight, we’ll have a better idea of what’s coming.”

They rounded the front corner of the house and stepped onto the crushed gravel driveway. Ahead of them, the chauffer was just closing the hood of the Lagonda and, as their feet crunched on the gravel, he turned around, wiping his hands with a rag.

“How is she, Wallace?” Rob called. “Will she get me back to the war?”

“She’s right as rain, Master Robbie,” Wallace replied, nodding. “A clamp had worked loose. It’s all fixed now.”

“Wonderful! Evie was going to have my head if I’d broken her.”

Wallace looked at Evelyn, a grin on his face. “No need for that, miss. She’ll run all right now.”

“The next time I visit, I’ll bring her back and leave her for you,” Rob said, looking down at Evelyn. “Are you sure you don’t need it?”

“Positive. If I have to leave Northolt, the train will take me anywhere I need to go. And