Risking It All by Lucy Oliver Read Free Book Online

experience. I’ve got more chance.”
    “But you haven’t! There are no chances in Malta, there’s no way back from Malta.”
    “It’s my job, Lynne. You wouldn’t stop your work because you were afraid.”
    “I don’t want to lose you,” she whispered. “I love you, I have for years.”
    He reached for her hands and pulled her close. “I can’t do this to you. I broke it off because I wanted to protect you. My job is so dangerous.”
    “It won’t make any difference, my heart will still be broken. My mother mourned for years, but at least she had happy times to remember. I want that, Billy, I want us both to have that, so if the worst does happen, we’ll live on in each other’s minds. The only thing that frightens me is not being with you, and that won’t change even if the damn war kills one of us. I would rather live a week with you than a lifetime without.”
    Billy pressed his mouth to hers, tasting the salt from her tears. No more games, no more arguments. Taking the piece of grass he’d looped around his finger, he lifted her hand and, looking into her eyes for permission, he slid it over her ring finger.
    “If I return, will you marry me?”
    She kissed him, pressing her body close and he glanced into the sky; it was dark enough to conceal them. Drawing her into his arms, he reached to unfasten her jacket as from the sky came the roar of Spitfire engines.

Epilogue
    Heels clanking on the hospital floor, Lynne hurried across the ward. Billy lay in bed, dark hair tangled on the pillow, face matching the white bed sheets. His eyes were closed and she stared at the burn twisting his left cheek like a red crumpled hanky. Not too bad, about the size of a coaster.
    His hand, though—with three missing fingers, he would never fly again. And his cheekbones were sharp, eyes ringed in black. What had Malta done to him?
    “Billy.”
    His eyes twitched open and he looked at her with his familiar blue stare, lips twisting up in a smile.
    “Not too afraid to come?” he said.
    “Of course not.” She leaned down to kiss the patch of clear skin on his damaged face. “You’re going to be fine, they’re transferring you to Grinstead Hospital. I met the specialist who is going to treat you. He’s not bothered about your face, says it will heal, but he wants to do grafts on your hand so you can use it again.”
    Billy glanced at the twisted claw on the blanket. “They won’t take me back. I’m out.”
    “Yes.” She kissed him again. “We survived, Billy, we’ve reached the end. The tide has turned, the Malta blockage has been broken, ships are getting through. We’ve won back the Mediterranean.”
    “It was worth it, then.”
    “And the consultant told me you’ll be able to do everything you did before, except fly fighters.”
    “I can live with that.” He smiled.
    “I was so glad to receive the telegram saying you were injured.”
    Billy laughed. “I wasn’t sorry myself, compared to what could have happened. At least I was out of Malta. We were eating rat, cooked with curry powder.”
    Lynne winced and sat down on the edge of the bed. He looked down at her bare left hand and lifted it up.
    “What happened to my grass ring?”
    “It’s in my jewelry box, a little dried, but in perfect shape.”
    “I’m going to buy you a proper one as soon as I get out of this bed, if you still want to marry me.”
    How could he think she would not? His face, his hand, none of it mattered. For Billy, the war was over; he’d done more than his part. Now it was time for them to be together, to marry and plan the future that had seemed so impossible such a short time ago.
    At her airfield the planes continued to rise into the air, bullets to streak across the sky and bombs to fall, but each day more planes returned intact and the calls to scramble were fewer. Soon, the dark days of war would end; she and Billy would stand again in a sunny English field, with only the sound of bird song in the sky above and