Read Online A Different World by Mary Nichols - Free Book Online Page A

stick up for yourself?’
    He smiled. ‘It would make no difference. They believe what they want to believe. I have heard it all before.’
    ‘I’m very sorry. I am sure not everyone agrees with them.’
    ‘You are very kind.’
    ‘Kind be blowed! I hate injustice.’ She opened a packet of tomato sandwiches Jenny had made up for her and offered him one.
    ‘I cannot take food meant for you,’ he said.
    ‘Goodness, I’m not starving. There’s more here than I need. Do have one.’
    He thanked her and took one and the women in the feathered hat snorted. ‘Jezebel,’ she said.
    Louise took a deep breath. The woman was not worth fighting. She smiled. ‘Takes one to know one.’
    A laugh from a soldier sitting in the corner defused the situationand the rest of the journey was completed in silence.
    When they all gathered up their belongings and left the train at Liverpool Street, the Polish airman, his kitbag slung over his shoulder, walked alongside Louise towards the barrier. ‘Are you in a hurry, Miss?’ he asked. ‘I would like to buy you a cup of coffee. To say thank you, you understand.’
    She turned to look at him. He was tall and good-looking and his blue eyes appealed. ‘You do not have to thank me, but yes, I’d love to have a cup of coffee.’
    They went to the station canteen. ‘I am Jan Grabowski,’ he told her, when he came back to the table after queuing for two cups of coffee. Neither had wanted anything to eat. ‘In my own country I am a captain, here I am just a flying officer.’
    She was aware that he was trying to make a joke of what must have seemed a humiliation, and smiled. ‘I am pleased to meet you
Captain
Grabowski. My name is Louise Fairhurst.’ She held out her right hand but instead of shaking it, he took it in his and kissed the back of it.
    ‘I am very pleased to meet you, Miss Fairhurst.’
    She suppressed the impulse to giggle at this extravagance of chivalry and sipped her drink. It was hot but didn’t taste a bit like coffee.
    ‘Do you live in London?’ he asked, sitting down opposite her.
    ‘No, my parents do. I lived with them until war broke out and then I took my class of children to Norfolk to be safe.’
    ‘You are a teacher?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Then that is why you keep yourself better informed than some of your compatriots.’
    His English, she noted, although heavily accented, was very good. ‘I don’t think of myself as well informed, but I do read thenewspapers. We all know what Poland had to go through, or we ought to. It must have been terrible. Were you in the Polish Air Force at the time?’
    ‘Yes. And you are right, it was terrible. We were heavily outnumbered and our aircraft were no match for the Messerschmitt. The worst was when we realised we could not win and that to have any chance of continuing the fight we had to leave the country. When I came away Warsaw was in ruins but still fighting, still hoping the Allies would come. The people believed the promise made to them by your Mr Chamberlain, but it was not to be.’
    ‘I am sorry,’ she said softly. ‘I don’t think people should make promises they can’t keep, but perhaps he didn’t know he wouldn’t be able to honour it.’
    ‘Perhaps.’ It was said with a resigned sigh. ‘We had to leave our loved ones behind to live under the German occupation.’
    ‘You are married?’
    ‘Yes, we had been married a year. Rulka is a nurse. She could not leave with me. I have written to her many, many times, but I have heard nothing from her.’
    It was evident he wanted to talk to someone and she was prepared to listen. ‘I imagine it must be almost impossible to get news in or out.’
    ‘Yes, that’s what I tell myself all the time. I say, “Jan Grabowski, be sensible. The Germans are beasts, but not even they would harm doctors and nurses needed to tend the wounded.”’
    ‘There you are, then. You must not give up hope.’
    ‘No, it is hope that keeps me going, that keeps all my