China Blue (The Dudley Sisters Saga Book 3) by Madalyn Morgan (top 100 novels of all time TXT) 📕

‘It’s good to have you home, love. Your sisters will be pleased to see you. Ena’s up at Foxden Hall helping Bess,’ he said, adding a log to the fire. ‘She’ll be back for her tea, I expect. If not we’ll go up there, see Bess at the same time. But first I want to hear about you. From your letters you seem to be enjoying the WAAF. Are you still learning French?’

‘Yes, German too.’ A frown replaced the look of interest on her father’s face. ‘They need German speakers to translate what Luftwaffe pilots say to each other, and what they say to their control room in Germany.’

Smiling again, her father shook his head and lit a cigarette. ‘Who’d have thought when you were teaching young Franek English and he was teaching you Polish that you’d end up being able to speak foreign languages well enough to translate them.’

‘I haven’t got the posting yet. I might not be good enough.’ Claire didn’t want to lie to her father, which she would have to do if she didn’t change the subject. ‘Do you see anything of the Polish lads that were billeted in the village?’

‘No, they’re on the aerodrome now. There’s all sorts up there; Australians, New Zealanders, Jamaicans, Canadians--’

‘Tea’s ready,’ Claire’s mum called, bringing in a tray. She put the teapot, milk jug, cups and saucers and a plate of tinned salmon sandwiches on the table. ‘We’ll start without Ena, she won’t mind. She often has her tea up at the Hall with Bess and the land girls,’ she said. ‘Tuck in, Claire. You look as if you need feeding up, girl.’

‘It’s all the training we do, Mam.’

While they ate their tea, Claire’s mother told her how hard her sister Bess was working. ‘It’s a big job, turning the estate into arable land.’

‘She’s not doing it single-handed,’ her father said, laughing.

Claire’s mother tutted. ‘Course not. There’s a lot of land girls work with her. Bess is in charge, of course. We thought she’d miss teaching, regret coming back, didn’t we Thomas?’ Claire’s father nodded. ‘But we needn’t have worried.’

‘With the farm work and turning a wing of Foxden Hall into rooms for recuperating servicemen, she’s too busy to miss her old life in London,’ Thomas Dudley said.

‘Bess wrote to me, told me Tom came home after Dunkirk.’

‘He wasn’t well,’ her father said, ‘but Bess had him helping up at the Hall and it did him a power of good. He’s gone back now.’

‘Probably to France.’ Lily Dudley drained her cup and stood up. ‘I’ll make more tea,’ she said, reaching into the middle of the table and snatching the teapot as if it offended her.

‘With Tom overseas and Margaret in London, you’re just the tonic your mum needs,’ Claire’s father said, when her mother was safely out of earshot. ‘How long can you stay?’

‘Forty-eight hours.’ Claire saw the disappointment in her father’s eyes. ‘Sorry it isn’t longer, Dad.’

‘Oh well… Forty-eight hours is better than nothing.’

‘What’s better than nothing?’ Ena shouted from the hall.

‘Come in and see,’ her father called back to her.

Ena opened the living room door and squealed. Leaping up, Claire met her youngest sister in the middle of the room. They hugged each other and danced round in a circle. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I’ve come home to see you, skinny,’ Claire said, tickling her sister.

That evening, Claire told Ena about RAF Morecambe and Coltishall, her best friend Eddie, and about training with the Canadian captain. She told her how she had hated him when they first met, but liked him better after he’d given her a good report.

Ena told Claire that she was doing work for the government. ‘What I do is called sensitive work,’ she whispered. ‘I had to sign to say I wouldn’t talk about it.’

Claire laughed. ‘I thought you worked in the factory?’

‘I do!’ Ena said, indignantly. ‘But what I do is secret!’ Red-faced, Ena stormed out of the room and ran upstairs. Claire heard the bedroom door slam.

Claire ran up after her. ‘I’m sorry, Ena. I wasn’t laughing at you, or at your job. It was the way you said it. I thought you were joking.’ She tried the doorknob, but the door didn’t open. ‘Let me in, Ena!’ Damn, she had only been home a few hours and already she and her sister had fallen out. ‘Ena?’ She tapped on the door. ‘Please let me in, so I can say I’m sorry.’ She put her ear to the door and heard Ena blow her nose. ‘I might not be able to get home for a long time. Please don’t let’s fall out.’

She heard the key turn in the lock. ‘I’m sorry,’ Claire said, as she entered, ‘I really am.’

Ena sniffed and pushed her hanky up her sleeve. ‘What do you mean you might not get home for a long time?’

‘I’ve got an interview coming up and if I get through it, I’ll be doing sensitive work too. I understand why you can’t talk about what you’re doing, because I can’t either.’ Ena rolled her eyes. ‘I know what you think – that I’m only saying it – but it’s true. I’m going to be listening to what German pilots say to each other and translating it to English,’ which wasn’t far from the truth – and was what she’d told her father.

‘Mine isn’t that important. I just make thin wires. I solder the ends into a tiny box that fits into a big machine. The boss and his assistant take my box of wires down south to where the machine is – and fit them on site. None of the other girls can