Wish Me Luck (48 page)

The ward was quiet and peaceful in the middle of the afternoon. The morning flurry of doctors’ visits had passed and the daily routine of work finished.

‘It’s not really visiting time,’ the sister greeted them, ‘but you, I take it, are Meg?’

Meg, still looking anxious as if she didn’t feel she had the right to be there, nodded.

The sister turned to Fleur. ‘There’s no change, I’m afraid, since this morning. But maybe now . . .’ She did not finish her sentence, but glanced hopefully back at Meg. ‘Come this way.’

They followed the sister and, as she led them towards Jake’s bed, Fleur heard Meg pull in a sharp breath at the sight of him, but she controlled her feelings and sat down in the chair beside him.

His hands and arms were bandaged and most of his face was covered with dressings. There was nothing she could touch. She couldn’t hold his hand, couldn’t kiss his face. All she could do was say, ‘Jake, it’s me. It’s Meg. I’m here.’

Fleur and Robbie stood at the end of the bed, their arms around one another. They all saw Jake’s eyes flicker open and he tried to turn his head towards the sound of her voice. Meg stood up and leant over him.

His eyes focused slowly and he saw her face as he remembered her. Her red flying hair, her smooth skin, her smile. Oh, her smile! That heartbreaking smile of hers. To him she was still the young girl he had met all those years ago. The girl whose strong spirit had lifted him out of the workhouse. The girl he’d loved and lost and who, despite his contented life with Betsy and his children, he’d never been able to forget.

‘Meg, oh, Meggie. You came.’ The words were faint and slightly slurred but understandable.

At the end of the bed, Fleur buried her face into Robbie’s jacket and wept tears of thankfulness. He was going to be all right. Her dad was going to be all right.

‘Yes, Jake,’ Meg was saying simply. ‘I came. I’m here to stay and I shan’t leave you. Not unless you tell me to.’

He tried to lift his hand to touch her face, but winced with the pain. ‘I won’t do that, Meggie. Not ever.’

‘Then just rest, Jake, and get well. I’ll be right here. Always . . .’

If the past was not entirely forgotten, at least now it was all forgiven.

Born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, Margaret Dickinson moved to the coast at the age of seven and so began her love for the sea and the Lincolnshire landscape.

Her ambition to be a writer began early and she had her first novel published at the age of twenty-five. This was followed by twenty further titles including
Plough the Furrow, Sow the Seed
and
Reap the Harvest,
which make up her Lincolnshire Fleethaven trilogy. Many of her novels are set in the heart of her home county, but in
Tangled Threads
and
Twisted Strands
the stories included not only Lincolnshire but also the framework knitting and lace industries of Nottingham. The Workhouse Museum at Southwell in Nottinghamshire inspired
Without Sin,
and the beautiful countryside of Derbyshire and the fascinating town of Macclesfield in Cheshire formed the backdrop for the story of
Pauper’s Gold.
For
Wish Me Luck,
Margaret returns once more to her native Lincolnshire – known in the Second World War as Bomber County.

A
LSO BY
M
ARGARET
D
ICKINSON

Plough the Furrow

Sow the Seed

Reap the Harvest

The Miller’s Daughter

Chaff upon the Wind

The Fisher Lass

The Tulip Girl

The River Folk

Tangled Threads

Twisted Strands

Red Sky in the Morning

Without Sin

Pauper’s Gold

This book is a work of fiction and is entirely a product of the author’s imagination. All the characters are fictitious and any similarity to real persons is purely coincidental.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many people have helped me in my research for this novel. I am especially grateful to Mick Richardson for his generosity in lending me the private papers and flying log book of his father, Sergeant W. J. Proffitt, the wireless operator of a Lancaster bomber, who was killed whilst on a bombing mission in March 1944.

My thanks also for his help to my brother-in-law Peter Harrison, who flew thirty missions as a wireless operator during the Second World War; to Mrs Lillian Streets and Mrs Barbara Brooke-Taylor for sharing with me their memories of their time in the WAAF; to Mike Smith, Curator of the Newark Air Museum, for answering my questions; to Fred and Harold Panton at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre at East Kirkby for all the marvellous displays and wealth of information that have helped me so much, and to Michael Simpson, head of exhibitions at the Imperial War Museum North, Trafford Park, Manchester, for his advice and help.

I have also consulted numerous books in the course of my research, but special mention should be made of
A WAAF in Bomber Command
by Pip Beck (Goodall, 1989) and
Square-Bashing by the Sea (RAF Skegness, 1941–1944)
by Jack Loveday (J. Loveday, 2003).

Very special thanks to the members of my family who read and commented on the script: Robena and Fred Hill, and David and Alan Dickinson. As always, my love and thanks to all my family and friends whose support and encouragement means more than I can say. And not forgetting Darley and his Angels at the Darley Anderson Literary Agency and Imogen Taylor, my editor at Macmillan. To all of you – you’re always there when I need you – thank you!

First published 2007 by Pan Books

This electronic edition published 2010 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-0-330-52686-9 PDF
ISBN 978-0-330-52685-2 EPUB

Copyright © Margaret Dickinson 2007

The right of Margaret Dickinson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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