They had no idea where they were by the time it was fully dark, and they hadn’t stopped to eat all day. They finally sat down and ate some of their meager supplies, then sipped some of the water. Pru figured they had a long walk ahead of them the next day. They weren’t far from a road, and heard a German patrol go by that night.
By then, everyone on the base knew what had happened, from the fighter pilots who had seen it all, and reported to the base immediately, to the commander of the evac unit. The nurses were worried about them. They hadn’t had a plane go down in months, but at least their fighter escort said there had been no sound of ground fire after everyone bailed out of the plane. It was a tense night while everyone waited for the two nurses and their crew to show up somewhere and make contact.
By midmorning the next day, the pilot, copilot, and corpsmen had made it to a safe house on the border. They had been picked up and were back safely by that night. But Emma and Pru still hadn’t turned up. Lizzie, Audrey, Alex, and Louise were worried sick about them, as were the other nurses in their squadron. Two days later, three since they’d bailed out of the plane, they were officially listed as missing in action by the War Office, and Pru’s parents were notified. Two more days, and their squadron leader was fairly sure they’d been picked up by a German patrol or there would have been some sign of them along the way. They used a reconnaissance plane, and the other C-47s were keeping an eye out for them. They were the first women who would have been picked up by the Germans. By six days after bailout, it seemed fairly certain that they were either dead or in a German prison camp by then, and had probably been moved deeper into Germany.
Lizzie felt sick every time she thought about it, and Ed was suffering from extreme guilt for having taken a day off. He and Lizzie had found a small inn near the base, where they could rent a room and spend a few hours together, enjoy the pleasures of the flesh, and give wings to their love.
A week after Pru and Emma had bailed, it seemed certain that they were either prisoners or dead. In either case, their whole squadron was deeply shocked and mourning two women who were so greatly appreciated and beloved by their colleagues.
Ed and Lizzie were coming back from the mess hall on the eighth day, looking ravaged, when a farmer’s truck drove onto the base carrying bales of hay, and two bedraggled figures hopped off the truck. Ed stared at them and gave a shout. He screamed to anyone who could hear him.
“They’re back!!! They’re back!!” People came running. Lizzie threw her arms around them, and within minutes, nurses poured out of the barracks. Emma and Pru reported to their commanding officer, looking as though they had been shipwrecked, and smelling of dead fish. They had walked across a good part of France and been smuggled across the channel in a small fishing boat by a boy and his father. The farmer had given them a ride to the base from the coast.
“What happened?” Everyone wanted to know.
“We had a few disagreements about the map,” Pru said with a grin, glancing at Emma, who looked sheepish. “Don’t ever bail out of a plane with a girl from the East End. She’s never been out of the city.”
“I’m a midwife, not a bloody explorer,” Emma said defensively, but they had made it back to the base safely, with no harm done. They were hungry, tired, and filthy, with scratches on their faces and hands from the bushes they had walked through and hidden under. Someone brought them each a plate of food, and they were ravenous. They went back to their barracks afterwards to shower, as the two women looked at each other and grinned, and their friends hovered around them.
“I thought we were as good as dead for a while there,” Pru admitted. “There were more German patrols out than taxis in Leicester Square, but the gods must have been with us, because they never saw us. We spent a lot of time lying under bushes and sitting in thickets, but we made it.” They hadn’t eaten in two days, but they knew enough not to overeat when they first got back. They both slept for fourteen hours after everyone left them in their room to recover from their ordeal. And Ed had cried in Lizzie’s arms, in relief that they’d made it back safely.
It was one of those experiences both women knew they would never forget. It had been terrifying, but Pru had never lost her head, nor had Emma. They just kept on plugging away and walking until they got to the coast, and then got on the fishing boat. Until then, they both expected to be shot at any moment.
They were as calm as though nothing had happened when they both reported for their missions the next day.