D for Daisy (The Blind Sleuth Mysteries 1)

D for Daisy Part 8: 1943

She had been in a "serious relationship" with Ralph for several months: nothing unsuitable, adhering faithfully to the rules of propriety. Ralph had stayed with the Hayes family in London a few times, she had been invited to Bottomleigh at Christmas, both families giving them their blessing, with the understanding that they would behave... This didn't mean they did not explore or try to expand the limits of what was allowed. Ralph had taken Daisy to his secret hideout in the basement of his childhood home.

They pretended to go for a walk into the countryside, hand in hand in the bracing winter afternoon, but as soon as they reached the hedge bordering the driveway to the main road they would melt away through an opening that Ralph had known since he was a child. Then they would turn back to the house by secret paths, stealing along the garages and edging close to the side façade of the house, where no one ever came. There they made use of a basement window—the forth from the corner—with a doctored latch that allowed them to open it from the outside and get in unnoticed. Right next to the boiler room there was a cosy, unused little cubicle, with an old mattress and some blankets on the cement floor. They would spend a few hours lying there in one another's arms, petting and kissing, but making sure not to overstep the letter of the law that had been laid down by their parents... Then, when they were more or less satiated, they would steal back to the driveway by the same path they had followed on the way in, and pretend to be coming back from a long bracing walk through the winter countryside, their flushed faces due to the cold. Even the old gang, the cousins, had been none the wiser as to where they had been and what they had been up to. And thus they had been quite happy.

Then, during the summer of 1940, Daisy was invited to Bottomleigh House for her second summer holiday. And suddenly the Battle of Britain had started right above their heads, there, in the West Sussex skies. They had heard the Spitfires and Messerschmitt dogfighting. The gang had enthusiastically described what they could see; on some days the fight had apparently left a spectacular tangle of white contrails in the blue summer sky. And suddenly Ralph's loyalties had become divided. When a battle was going on above them, he would almost forget her presence, Daisy recalled. In the evenings they listened to the reports on the wireless. Churchill, had already styled the events of the summer as the Battle of Britain ("The battle of Britain is about to begin") and the broadcasts were accordingly compelling. As a consequence, every lad in the country suddenly dreamed of becoming an RAF pilot, including Ralph, Cedric and William. They all sighed, "Oh! I can't wait to join in..."

Daisy had been appalled. In their secret hideout in the basement, she had asked, "What about me? Don't you even want to know what I have to say about this?"

"Actually, no, darling. I already know what you think of it. But you must understand: we're all going to be called up anyway, so I might as well volunteer for something I really want to do."

"Whatever happened to 'I do not know what I desire'?"

"Alas! What indeed?"

Then one day a fighter plane had crashed right outside the village of Bottomleigh, next to the road in front of the King's Arms. When they had heard the news that afternoon, they had taken their bicycles and gone down to the village at breakneck speed. And indeed, the burned-out remains of an aircraft were lying there, even though one could hardly see anything—the others had told Daisy—because of all the onlookers. Besides, the people were being kept at a distance by a policeman. Then they heard that there were some RAF officers having a beer in the pub, so they all went inside. And indeed, a little group of them were gathered at the bar, perched on stools, discussing the crash quietly among themselves. They, the gang from Bottomleigh house, had taken a table as close as possible, but without wanting to appear to be eavesdropping. Then suddenly a tweed-clad local farmer had made his entrance, visibly excited, and he had loudly addressed the officers. "I saw everything this morning! I was literally in the front row for the show!"