‘I’ve never had the chance to find out before.’ She paused. ‘Except… the day my mam died. I didn’t keep such a cool head then.’
‘You were a little girl, weren’t you?’
‘I was fourteen.’ She laughed bleakly. ‘Fourteen, and soon to be the woman of the house – me and Lil together. I completely lost control. Smashed the big mirror in my mam’s room, raged and kicked like a spoiled child. And then… I pulled myself together. I had to, for my brothers. They were only bairns. Dad had gone into a world of his own, and Lil needed me. After that, I felt like I could deal with anything. Not that I was actually tested until today.’
He squeezed her arm. ‘I was very proud of you, Bobby. All those men looking lost and helpless, and there’s my girl ordering them about like she was born to lead. You could have been a general in another life. In fact, if you ever decide to stand as our first woman prime minister, you’ll have my vote.’
She laughed. ‘Lady Astor would never allow it. Save your breath now, Charlie. There’s a long way to go.’
‘When I promised to take you to the summit, this wasn’t at all what I had in mind,’ Charlie observed grimly, grasping at a patch of heather to steady himself as he slipped in mud. ‘What do you think we’ll find at the top?’
‘I don’t know.’ She shuddered. ‘Nothing that’s going to give us very sweet dreams.’
It was nearly three hours before they reached the site where the plane had come down. Once they got near, they were able to follow the pungent, oily smell of smoke. The crash had been only just shy of the summit: if the plane had been flying a little higher, even by a few feet, it would have cleared the crest and the airmen might even now be safe back at their base. Bobby could feel a blister coming up on one red-raw heel, but she did her best to hide her limp from Charlie so he wouldn’t try to persuade her to slow her pace as they drew nearer.
Only a wispy silver mist now remained of the fog, and the drizzle had started to ease. When they drew close enough, they were able to make out what was happening at the site. There were the remains of the once-mighty Wellington, one wing half-shattered and the fuselage smashed open like an egg. Smoke billowed from a huge crack in the centre. A little way away was a smaller hunk of metal and glass, another part of the plane that looked to have come free from the rest of the wreckage – the rear gunner’s turret, perhaps? Bobby couldn’t make out if there were any men – bodies – in the wreckage from this distance, but she could see one man leaning against what she’d assumed was the gunner’s turret, and another stretched out flat at his feet. The man leaning against the turret appeared to be alive, at least. She could see his head swaying slightly. Just off to one side were the three men who’d come up from the village, their heads together as if in conference.
‘What the hell are they doing standing around?’ she whispered to Charlie. ‘That man’s hurt! Why aren’t they giving first aid, or getting him on to the stretcher? He’ll catch hypothermia if they don’t at least put a blanket over him.’
‘Perhaps they’re not sure how to move him. From the angle of his legs, I’d say they’re both broken.’
‘Let’s hurry then.’
They practically ran the rest of the way. The scene became clearer as they drew closer. Bobby noticed Charlie’s eyes open wide when he caught sight of something, then his expression set. She felt his arm firm around her waist, guiding her in the other direction.
‘Bobby, don’t look,’ he said in a grim voice.
‘What?’
‘Don’t look at the fuselage. Just keep your eyes fixed on Gil, Stan and Norman.’
‘But why—’ She stopped when her gaze was inexorably drawn to the carcass of the Wellington, and she closed her eyes in horror. There was something black, shrivelled and smoking hanging out of the crack in the fuselage… something the same shape as a man…
Charlie squeezed her tightly around the waist. ‘Keep being brave, old girl. We’re here to save lives. It’s too late for that one.’
Bobby nodded and forced her eyes open again, focusing her attention on the rescue party.
Gil gave a low whistle of relief as they approached. ‘Now, here’s our Miss Bancroft. She’ll know what to do.’
‘Huh,’ Stanley Henderson muttered. ‘Wouldn’t have bothered getting up out of my chair if I’d known. Damned waste of time.’
‘What is it?’ Bobby asked. ‘Why are you all standing around? Why don’t you help those men?’ Close up, she could see that both the airman leaning against the gun turret and the other one stretched at his feet were alive, although only the man sitting up was conscious. He was muttering to himself in a state of delirium, while his comrade-in-arms lay almost as if dead. However, his chest rose and fell in a shallow pant. The man lying prone had been bleeding heavily from the stomach, although it had now started to clot. One side of his face was burned so badly that it was hard for Bobby to look at it.
‘Listen for thissen,’ Arthur Egerton said bitterly. ‘Listen to him muttering there. They’re lucky we didn’t finish ’em off when we got here.’
Bobby bent down by the man to listen to what he was murmuring in his delirium.
‘Boze ocal nas,’ he was whispering to himself, his eyes rolling to the whites as his head lolled from side to side. ‘Boze, prosze. Jolka, Jolka!’
She stared up at the rescue party in disbelief. ‘German? They’reGermanairmen?’
‘Aye, they’re German all right,’ Stanley said, spitting the word. ‘Them as killed young Billy Wilcox. Them as killed my brother Georgie in t’ last lot. We ought to leave ’em here to rot.’
Gil shook his head. ‘We can’t do that, Stan. They’re people, aren’t they?’
‘Thou’re too young to remember t’ trenches,’ Arthur said. ‘Murdering hun bastards is what they are. The enemy is what they are. Nowt more, nowt less.’
‘Well, now they’ve crashed, they’re prisoners of war,’ Charlie said firmly, collecting his wits enough after the shock to join the debate. ‘That means they have rights under the Geneva Convention. And I for one am not going to leave men on a mountainside to die, German or not.’ He threw his bag of medical supplies over his shoulder and started to approach the wounded men.
