Epilogue

EPILOGUE

POOLE HARBOUR – 1948

Peggy snapped her suitcase shut, and checked her handbag one last time. She looked around the bedroom where she'd spent most of her life to date, and through the window, out across the harbour towards Brownsea Island. In the three years since the war had ended, so much had changed.

She still technically worked for BOAC, but most of their operations were being handled out of the Solent again now. The dozens of flying boats that had moored in the harbour during the war had reduced to just one or two. The RAF base was all but closed down and returned to the marines at Hamworthy, and the Royal Navy had handed back the use of the Royal Motor Yacht Squadron at Sandbanks to the yacht club members.

The barbed wire had gone from the beaches, but there were still some enormous concrete blocks that had been put in place to stop the advance of tanks that might have landed during the invasion that was always feared and never came.

Over the last couple of years, Peggy had spent lots of time in London, as there was less work on the launches and no work with the agency, but plenty of diplomatic paperwork to be dealt with by those already sworn to secrecy. But when her family had begun to suggest she should really think about finding a husband and settling down, Peggy realised that she could never be happy with that kind of life.

The excitement she'd known, and the places she had been, left aching holes in her soul that demanded to be filled by more adventure. Nothing, she knew, would ever equal the adrenaline rush of running across a dark field at night in Normandy, racing to meet the incoming Lysander that would take her and her missives back to England from France. Perhaps, if Darrell had stayed… But no. Would the routine of married life with Darrell have satisfied her?

So why, now, she asked herself wryly, was she heading to Brisbane – the very place where Darrell was likely to be if he had even survived the war? Was she leaving herself wide open for the greatest rejection of her life? He might well have moved on, and found someone much better than she, anyway. But Australia was vast, and beautiful, and ripe for discovery, so why not go there, as much as anywhere else?

When her term of service with the agency had come to an end, they had offered her a rehousing arrangement for just about anywhere in the world. They would pay for first-class flights, and help her get set up in a home, all as thanks for the way she had served her country so self-sacrificially throughout the war. Her beginning with the agency in Poole had been just the tip of the iceberg, she thought now as she remembered some of the places she'd been and people she'd met. And all because of Charlie.

Major Carter himself brought a car to the front door, and collected Peggy, after she'd said a tearful goodbye to her mum, dad, Samuel and his new wife – Peggy's work-mate, Nora, Molly and Bill and all their children. He dropped her at Saltern's Marina where Eileen was waiting with the launch to take her and the other passengers out to the waiting flying boat.

Peggy delighted over the smell of the sea water and the feel of crusty salt on the railings as she stood near Eileen at the helm, feeling the wind rush through her hair as they made their way out of the marina.

‘Go on, Peggy, take her from here,' said Eileen with a wink. ‘Just one last trip?'

Peggy needed no persuading to take the helm and her mind ran with memories of all she'd been through since starting with BOAC, and thoughts of all the places she might go next.

As they approached the waiting vessel, Eileen took over again, and Peggy was soon stepping aboard, being shown to a window seat by the hostess, ready for the first leg on this two-week trip, bound for Sydney.

As they taxied around and readied for take-off, she could barely hold in her excitement as she had a good view of the quay, with Hamworthy beyond, and as the engines picked up speed, she felt the thrill she had always known she would, as she watched Brownsea Island speed by. Soon, they left the glistening harbour beneath them, and Peggy saw the whole of the beautiful Isle of Purbeck, laid out like a patchwork quilt of fields, with the Purbeck stone of Corfe Castle gleaming in the morning sunshine.

She leant back into the comfort of the seat, closed her eyes, and allowed herself to dream of the adventures she knew would be hers when she made it to Australia. The lucky country.