The Legacy: Trouble Comes Disguised As Family (Unspoken Book 2) T. Belshaw (management books to read .txt) 📖

August 1940

It became a regular event to look up from our labours to see squadrons of German bombers fly in from the coast on their way to bomb London and other industrial targets along the Medway and Thames. On the fifteenth I was having a strip wash in the kitchen after feeding the pigs, when Stephen came running in from the yard.

‘Auntie Alice,’ he cried. He pointed upwards; his eyes wide.

Quickly fastening my shirt, I followed him out to the yard where Harriet and Miriam were standing with a group of the lads, staring intently at the sky. I looked up and my heart sank. The sky was black with bombers. I had never seen so many at one time. Since July we had become used to seeing waves of them pass overhead, but nothing like on this scale.

Stephen began to cry. ‘There are so many, how can we stop them?’

I put my arm around his shoulders and tried to shush his fears away, although I was thinking the same thing myself.

Then, as though God had summoned his angels, our Hurricanes and Spitfires dropped out of the clouds and began to attack them, flying in and out of the German formations, forcing them to break up, buzzing around them like angry wasps.

After a time, they were joined by the enemy fighters and we watched impotently, as the Luftwaffe and the scarily smaller number of RAF planes, danced across the skies in a deadly aerial ballet.

All day long the enemy planes came in wave after seemingly endless, wave of attack, and each time they were met by our brave pilots from Biggin Hill, Gravesend and the other RAF stations around the South East. We cheered as each enemy plane either exploded in a ball of flames or spiralled down to the sea, a plume of smoke in its wake.

At dusk, as the last of our planes left the sky and returned to their bases around the estuary. We knew we had witnessed an historic day.

On the twentieth. Winston Churchill made a speech in the House of Commons, praising the brave young men who had fought like demons to protect us all. As he wound up his speech with the words, ‘Never in the field of human conflict, was so much owed by so many, to so few,’ the tears began to fall and we hugged each other and prayed to whichever deity might be listening, to keep our boys safe.

As Jess read the short, but emotional few paragraphs, her mood became darker. Although she knew that eventually, the war had ended and life had slowly returned to normal, she began to understand a little more of the circumstances that had moulded Alice into the strong-willed, determined, woman she had become. She doubted that she, herself would have had the resolve and strength of character to have survived those times.

She leaned on her elbows and stared across the table to where Alice would have sat after serving up dinner to her when she was a child, and thought about how her life had been turned upside down since her grandmother had died.

I wish I still had the magic wand you gave me for my seventh birthday, Nana, I’d wave it in the air and things would be back to how they were a few short months ago. Life was normal then. You were my rock, my inspiration. I had my job; my mum had her problems but nothing like the ones she has now. Dad was out of our lives, even Grandma was just her grumpy old self, not the greedy, self-serving creature your death seems to have turned her into. I even had a relationship, of sorts. All right, it wasn’t perfect, Calvin was Calvin after all, but at least he was there at the end of a long day. At least he pretended to listen before turning the conversation around to himself. I know what he did, I know what he was, but… I miss him, Nana. I’d give anything to go back to how things were. I don’t want this; I can’t handle the responsibility. I’m not as strong as you. I thought I could read people but the idea of money changes them, and I don’t know who they are anymore.

What did you think of Bradley, Nana? Did you see through him? I bet you did. Men, eh? We have always been attracted to the wrong type. Why is that? We’re both intelligent, independent women, yet we fall for the worst sorts of men. Are we really that easily fooled? Do we secretly want to be made to suffer, or is it just the element of danger we can smell in these people?

I’m dreading the next few days, Nana… please, if you have any influence at all, if you know Mum’s Guardian Angel, put in a word for her. None of this is her fault. I know you had your issues with her, but they were pretty much all caused by Dad. She could have had a much better life without his controlling influence, but she loved him so much. I hope she can get over this. It could quite easily destroy her.

Did you foresee any of this, Nana? I can’t believe you would have left me alone to face it all on my own. I feel so alone. Even your presence seems to have vanished. I can’t feel you around me anymore. Please come back and help me find a way through. I don’t think I can go on like this.

The room was dark by the time Jess got up from the table. Reaching for her crutch, she limped into the front room where she switched on the light and slumped down on the sofa. A few seconds later her phone rang. Without looking at the caller’s name, she hit the answer button and held the device to her ear.

‘Hello, Jess…