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chucked out without references, ages before the
birth – the usual story – and ended up waiting on tables in London. She married a no-good who walked out on her and she had to bring James up alone.
    ‘Now she works in a cinema in Mile End or somewhere. James won a scholarship to a good school and dragged himself up by his own bootstraps. Until he got his commission he didn’t have
two pennies to rub together. I really admire him.’
    Diana frowned. ‘But I thought he’d come here for a few days because his parents are in Canada. That’s what you told Mummy on the phone yesterday.’
    Her brother took her arm and began walking them back to the house. ‘That’s because James has discovered that telling the truth about his background – well, his real
father’s family, anyway – usually backfires. People think he’s making it all up and either laugh at him or steer well clear from then on. He still won’t reveal his
father’s identity to me and God knows, he knows he can trust me.’
    Diana looked up at her brother in the near-total dark as they reached the Dower House’s French windows, and prepared to slip inside the blackout curtains that she, Lucy and their mother
had hastily put up that morning. ‘Yes, but how do you
know
he’s not making it up? You seem to have taken an awful lot on trust, John. And why lie to Mummy about that Canada
business? Why not tell her, and Daddy, what you just told me?’
    John shook his head. ‘Because the rest of the chaps have been told the Canada version, that’s all. He just wants to keep things simple.’
    He turned to his sister. ‘Wait until you get to know him, Diana. You’ll see. I’m sure he’ll confide in you, and Oliver and Mum too, in the end. Trust me, sis, he’s
as straight as they come. James is probably the most upstanding chap I know.’ He opened the windows. ‘Ready?’
    They prepared to move quickly through the thick black curtains.
    ‘Ready.’
    A moment later they were inside and blinking in the sudden light. Voices drifted from the dining room across the hall.
    ‘And there’s something else you should know about him,’ John said, lowering his voice and adjusting the drapes so no chink of light escaped outside. ‘You asked why he
outranks me. Well, I’ll tell you. He’s the best damn flyer in the squadron – by a long chalk. He might have needed some help with his navigation, but my God, the man can fly.
He’s a total natural – first one of all of us to go solo, and he was sent to train on Spits while the rest of us were still lumbering around in bi-planes like Gladiators. Christ help
the German pilot who comes up against James Blackwell.’
    Arm-in-arm, they went in to join the others.

12
    Diana didn’t have the chance to get to know her brother’s friend any better on his first visit to the Dower House. Breakfast on Monday morning was interrupted by a
phone call from the men’s squadron leader. John came in from the hall, laughing.
    ‘What a muck-up, good people; what a muck-up. Word has come down from Mount Olympus that we’re not to be disbanded, after all: it was all a huge mistake in the big flap.’ He
turned to James, who was loading kedgeree from a silver server onto his plate. ‘We’re being transferred instead to another group, Jimmy – the best of the lot. Eleven Group, my
fine friend. We’re going to be a part of Eleven Group!’
    ‘What’s Eleven Group, darling?’ Gwen asked. ‘And why do you both look so pleased with yourselves?’
    ‘You tell them, Jimmy,’ said John. ‘I’ll ring for a taxi to the station.’ He hurried from the room.
    Gwen, Oliver and Diana stared expectantly at their guest as he joined them at the table, his plate piled high with rice, chopped egg and smoked haddock.
    ‘Eleven Group’s the collection of fighter squadrons assigned to defend the south-east corner of England – in other words, here,’ he explained, forking food into his
mouth. ‘It’s where pilots