I shook my head. “I don’t think there would be much point.”
He was between us still, always would be. She knew it and so did I.She started to walk away, hesitated and turned towards me.
“All right, I loved him a little, for whatever that’s worth, and I’m not ashamed of it. In spite of everything, he was the most courageous man I’ve ever known – a hero – and that’s how I’ll always remember him.”
It sounded like a line from a bad play and he was worth more than that.
‘He wasn’t any hero, Joanna,” I said. “He was a bastard, right from the beginning, only he was a brave bastard and probably the finest pilot I’m ever likely to meet. Let that be an end of it.”
She walked away, stiff and angry, but somehow it didn’t seem to matter any more. Hannah would have approved and that was the main thing.
I turned back to the rail beyond the trees, the sun slipped behind the final edge of things and night fell.
The End