Tears of Autumn, The Read Online Free

their forties and fifties with families of their own, but they knew each other from schooldays.
    ‘Oh, you naughty boy you.’
    Biff did his best to suppress a wince. God almighty, what was it about getting old that everyone had to patronize you? Then he relented. She was trying to be convivial, and quite honestly was probably finding it hard going sitting beside an old man. Theyhad nothing in common – how could they have? She was no older than his daughter. He was a bit of a dinosaur now, having grown up, experienced a terrible war and been a mature man, all in an age that had radically different values from today.
    He smiled, and started to say something, but was dimly aware of the woman frowning.
     
    He was strapped into the cockpit of the Hart, the powerful Rolls Royce Kestrel engine at a fast tick-over to prevent the plugs oiling, the whole airframe throbbing and rumbling. Everywhere he looked were the now familiar wires, gauges, copper pipes and brass fittings, but they didn’t offer any comfort today. He was on his final check ride. For a brief moment his eyes dropped to the spade-shaped joystick, and the gun-firing button that said ‘Safe’ and ‘Fire’.
    How this flight went could well decide which way his career went in the service. He dragged his mind back to the job in hand. The engine sounded throaty and harsh. The vibration was now considerable and the reduction gear of the hefty twin-bladed airscrew clanked and rattled.
    Biff brought his goggles down over his eyes, took a deep breath, and waved the chocks away to taxi out.
    When he gently eased the throttle open it felt as if the engine was going to tear itself out of the frame. The biplane was solid, fast and powerful, with a long nose with a pointed spinner – a different animal from the other training aircraft he had flown. In fact, it wasn’t just a training aircraft, it was also in service with front-line squadrons, of which only a few had been equipped with the new Hurricanes, even fewer with the Spitfire.
    On the grass runway, marked out with lights, he opened the throttle wide and released the brakes.
    His shoulders were forced hard back against the metal bucket seat, and he felt as if his cheeks were being dragged back towards his ears. The slipstream blasted the open cockpit as the wheels thumped and thudded over the grass until suddenly it ceased.
    He was airborne.
    He went through his routine, knowing he was being observed not only from the ground, but by Squadron Leader Forster, aloft and patrolling the skies to one side of the field where he was not permitted to fly.
    He’d been at it for twenty minutes when the engine started to miss. Only seconds later it failed completely.
    Automatically he went through the forced landing routine that had been drummed into him, and brought the Hart in over a hedge and landed, bouncing somewhat roughly in a field of cows – who stampeded away to the other end.
    Biff undid his harness and climbed out on to the wing, tearing his goggles and helmet off in disgust as the squadron leader’s aircraft swooped low overhead.

Chapter Two
    ‘How did it go?’
    It was Rosemary, running out to him as he drove the Singer into her drive and up to the house.
    He smiled bleakly, and told her what had happened.
    She frowned. ‘Well, that wasn’t your fault, was it – and you did everything correctly, is that right? The aeroplane is not damaged is it?’
    Glumly he agreed.
    ‘Come on.’ She put her arm through his. ‘Come and have a drink.’
    He’d been going with Rosemary now for several months. She had come to their open day; but unfortunately he hadn’t flown that day, but he had since then buzzed the house a couple of times, risking censure, and she had been present when he had at last taken part in a formation flypast on a visit to a famous air show. He knew they were getting closer when she drove all the way to Hendon in London, where he had landed and was able to meet her in the enclosure for tea.