The Hidden Women: An inspirational novel of sisterhood and strength

Miranda shrugged. ‘Probably something completely unrelated, knowing them,’ she said. ‘They were interested though. Dad especially. Do you think it is our Lil?’

‘No,’ I said, though I wasn’t as sure as I sounded.

‘Where did you see her name?’ Miranda asked. She pulled out the wooden bench that lived under the kitchen table and sat down with a sigh. ‘I’m exhausted. Freddie was up half the night.’

I didn’t want to talk about Freddie; I wanted to talk about Lil.

‘On a list of people approved to fly bombers,’ I said.

‘Did women fly planes in the war?’

I nodded. ‘I don’t know a whole lot about it, but it seems so. Not in combat, obviously.’

‘Obviously,’ said Miranda drily. ‘It’s funny that Lil’s never mentioned this because it sounds amazing. Flying bombers?’

‘Not just bombers,’ I said. ‘The records I found are from something called the Air Transport Auxiliary. They flew all the planes. Took them from the factories where they were built to wherever they were needed.’

‘And it was women doing this?’

‘Mostly,’ I said. ‘But men did it too. Jack Jones’s grandad did it because he was too short-sighted to join the regular RAF, which is faintly terrifying.’

Miranda chuckled.

‘But yes, mostly women. They called them the Attagirls.’

‘I like that,’ Miranda said. ‘It’s clever. And only a tiny bit patronising.’

It was my turn to laugh. ‘They were really impressive,’ I said.

‘What’s incredible,’ Miranda said, shaking her head, ‘is that I’ve never even heard of these women.’

‘I’ve not heard much about them either,’ I admitted. ‘And it’s literally my job.’

‘If it was our Lil, I can’t believe she’s never talked about it,’ said Miranda. ‘It strikes me as something you’d want to talk about. It sounds wonderful.’

‘She’s always been vague when I’ve asked her about the war. Never really told me what she did.’

‘She’d have only been about to turn sixteen when the war started,’ Miranda said. I was impressed; I’d been sneakily counting on my fingers trying to add it up. ‘And only twenty-one at the end.’

‘Old enough to be doing something,’ I pointed out. ‘I had an idea she did office work.’

Miranda screwed up her nose. ‘I can’t believe we’ve never been interested enough to ask her for the details,’ she said. ‘That’s terrible of us. You’re a historian, Nell. You should be ashamed of yourself.’

I stuck my tongue out at her. ‘I’ve asked her lots of times,’ I said. ‘She’s always told me how boring it was and how she couldn’t wait for the war to finish so she could travel.’

‘Sounds like she was trying to make it sound dull enough so you wouldn’t keep asking,’ Miranda said.

I blinked at her. ‘Oh God, it actually does sound like that,’ I said. ‘Do you think she saw some awful stuff? Or did some really brave things?’

‘Lil?’ Miranda said with a glint in her eye. ‘Brave? I’d say so, wouldn’t you?’

I thought about our great-aunt, who’d been the only person to step in when things were really tough for us back in the Nineties. Lil, who hated being in one place for long, but who’d stayed in London until she knew Miranda and I were okay and that our family wasn’t about to fall apart. Lil, who regularly phoned Dad throughout our childhood and reminded him about parents’ evenings, and exams, and even birthdays. I smiled.

‘Definitely,’ I said.

I perched on the table next to where Miranda was sitting on the bench, and put my feet up next to her. She frowned at me and I ignored her.

‘The ATA girls flew every kind of aircraft,’ I said. ‘Massive bombers, and tiny fighter planes, and everything in between.’

‘Do you think they got a hard time from people who didn’t think they were capable?’ Miranda asked, well aware of what it was like to be a woman in a man’s world. ‘I have lost count of the times someone’s asked me to take minutes in a meeting, or fetch coffee.’

‘Because you’re the only woman?’ I said, shocked but not entirely surprised. ‘What do you say when that happens? Do you go?’

‘It doesn’t happen now because I’m in charge.’ Miranda allowed herself a small, self-satisfied smile. ‘But when I was starting out, I used to just do it – go and get the drinks, or hand round the biscuits.’

I winced. ‘And when you weren’t just starting out?’

‘Once,’ said Miranda coolly, ‘I asked if I was expected to take the minutes with my vagina.’

‘No, you didn’t.’

‘I did,’ she said, laughing. ‘That was one chief exec who never asked me to do that again.’

I was amazed by her bolshiness and said so. ‘You definitely share that with Lil,’ I pointed out. ‘I expect she had to be bolshie if she was flying planes all over the place, just like you had to be a bit gobby to make it in your job.’

‘She’s definitely bolshie, our Lil. But I suppose we don’t even know for sure the Lilian Miles on this list of yours is her,’ Miranda said. ‘It actually could be a coincidence, like you said.’

We both stayed quiet for a second, then Miranda spoke again.

‘We should ask her,’ she said.

‘Ask her?’

Miranda nodded. ‘Ask her.’

Chapter 5 (#ulink_7912707c-0401-5796-9e22-a58a477f8c7f)

Lilian

June 1944

It was late when I finally landed back at base. The sunny skies that had made flying such a joy were now chilly and as I slid out of the back of the Anson, I scanned the horizon. It was a clear night, which meant a good view for German bombers, and I wondered if there would be a raid later.

Once I’d signed the plane in and reported to the officer on duty, I picked up my bag and headed off towards the entrance of the airfield. I was tired and I wanted to get back to the digs that I shared with Annie and Flora. We needed to go over all the details of April’s case, and I wanted to check if anything else had come up today.

‘What’s in your bag?’

The voice made me jump. I squinted into the lengthening shadows round the side of the mess hut.